Biography

[on working with Sandra Hüller on Toni Erdmann (2016)] For me, it's like this: if you asked a musician, a serious musician playing in an orchestra, like in the Philharmonic orchestra - I know some who are wonderful musicians and they live their lives with their cello - and then a young one comes along. You can't tell by looking at him; everyone does what he tells them to do. Because he is an unusual talent. When you look at music, it can be observed more often because the criteria are more objective. For me, meeting Sandra Hüller was like that. I don't know any other actress who has their head and diaphragm in such close proximity. Put simply, she has no issues with credibility, never, no matter what she does.

[on Toni Erdmann (2016)] When I first read the script, I didn't realise what sort of film it was going to be. I was fascinated. It was, how do you say, "dancing out of the row". I called my friend, because I knew some others had this script, and I asked, did you read it? "Yes, incredible!" So we went along to the casting. After all, we knew Maren Ade because she had already made two wonderful feature films by this stage, especially her first, The Forest for the Trees (2003). Just wonderful. Not a lot of people know it but it's about a teacher who comes to a school for her first job, but she is so alone. When I saw it for the first time I needed half a day afterwards to adjust, to come out of it. Dark feelings.