In the spirit of the upcoming Berlin Film Festival, Bruce gives us his take on an interesting discovery into the German acting scene.
You don’t hear a lot about German actors on the international film scene. There is the occasional „Breakthrough“ performance á la Christoph Waltz (who’s actually Austrian) in Django, which puts the German „Schauspielerei“ in the international spotlight for about 4 minutes. This window of opportunity closes very quickly for about 7 years until the next „German Gem“ comes along. It’s a well known fact that many films are now produced with „German money“ and yet so few actors and even fewer actresses from there break through. So 9 months ago when I got the assignment to write about acting in Germany, I really looked forward to finding out what was behind this phenomenon.
After watching more than 30 films and talking to a lot of actors, directors, producers, film journalists, etc. in Berlin, I realized that there was no clear answer.
So, after a couple of sleepless nights trying to figure out how to start this article, something started working in the memory lobe of my brain. There was something I noticed about most of the female roles that I looked at and most of the German actresses I talked to. Sounds shallow, but it must be said: There were no hot and sexy German actresses. Allow me to elaborate. There were some beautiful ladies, in some very intense and convincing roles. But nothing like what you see in Hollywood, French, Italian or even Asian films. Sexuality was almost nonexistent……
This was my angle! Where were the beautiful, sexy girls that you see when you walk on any German street or go into any of the German cafés and bars..
I talked with three beautiful, sexy and talented young actresses. And I found out why this strange „absence in films“ exists and what they are willing to do to try to change it.
Bruce for ETVAS Magazine
