Scouted to play the girl Oda in THE POLL DIARIES (at TIFF 2010) while walking down the corridor of her high school at age 14, Paula Beer's only performance experience at that point had been dancing in the youth ensemble of Berlin’s famous Friedrichstadtpalast. By 2017, the
21-year-old Berliner was looking back on a seven-year career spanning eight lauded films, two TV movies and two upcoming arthouse films in production, directed by Christian Petzold and Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck no less.
The daughter of artist-parents never went to acting school, other than a short stint in London, but was trained on the job by POLL director Chris Kraus and an acting coach in that first influential lead role of a girl trying to keep control as the world around her crumbles in World War I.
Her last director, François Ozon, again casting her in a WWI film, likened her to Romy Schneider. Theresa von Eltz wrote the part of Alex in FOUR KINGS especially for Paula Beer, before being sure she would be able to cast her.
If she wasn't a huge star before, 2016 was her breakout year. Alongside Pierre Niney, she reigned the screen in Ozon's FRANTZ, nominated for 11 Cesars including Most Promising Actress.
In Venice, she won the Marcello Mastroianni Award Best Young Actress Award for her portrayal of the bereft Anna. ScreenDaily called her "magnetic as a woman at once recovering from loss and looking forward to the future," and one could just watch her walk around the small town of Quedlinburg, lost but not resigned, fragile but purposeful. That constant dichotomy is the main magic of Paula Beer, between girl and woman, soft and strong, innocent and resilient, always searching for emotional truth, however challenging and painful.
Marketing body German Films quickly caught on to the new combined female power in German film by shining a "spotlight on
six of the most influential and dynamic German actresses” ready for the international stage — Beer, Julia Jentsch (24 WEEKS), Lilith Stangenberg (WILD), Liv Lisa Fries (BABYLON BERLIN), Sandra Hüller (TONI ERDMANN), Saskia Rosendahl (LORE).
Just before the theatrical launch of FRANTZ at the Toronto TIFF Lightbox in the fall 2017, we spoke with Paula Beer about her film choices and the truthfulness of feelings:
Jutta Brendemühl: What makes you accept a project -- a theme, a director, a feeling …?
Paula Beer: Most of all, I listen to my gut feeling. Do I want to work with this director on this role? Do I like the story? Do I get along with the rest of the cast? You have to spend a number of weeks or even months together for a shoot, so the interpersonal aspect is very important to me.
JB: You have appeared in several historical roles as well as two contemporary financial thrillers. Coincidence, creative opportunity or personal interest?
PB: Coincidence.
If, at that time, I had been asked to play in a romantic comedy I liked, I would have done that. As an actor, you rely on the projects you’re offered. Then you have to see what you like and what you don’t like.
JB: You once said in an interview that you are not concerned with presenting yourself but “the truthfulness of feelings, why someone makes the decisions they make.” If one looks at the characters you have portrayed so far, all of them were morally complex, ambiguous, open personalities, often entangled in lies (FRANTZ) or secrecy (POLL DIARIES; THE DARK VALLEY). How do you make sure those enigmatic qualities in your characters appear truthful on screen, without being entirely revealed or revealing?
PB: I think that’s the great magic of the acting profession. It’s a mixture of conscious and unconscious. I can’t tell you exactly how it works. That’s the wonderful thing about it!
JB: Let’s talk about language for a moment. THE DARK VALLEY is set in an alpine dialect that is not your own. In Ozon’s FRANTZ you acted in your native German as well as perfect French. How does shifting languages influence your acting or your process?
PB: The dialect was actually very helpful for me in THE DARK VALLEY. Tyrolean has a very different melody or quality than the standard German that I speak. So
I was able to discover my character to a great extent via the dialect.
It was more of a challenge in FRANTZ. To act in a connected way in a foreign language – by that I mean so that the emotions and language interweave on the same level so that you no longer need to think about the language but can concentrate on acting – that was a lot of work.
JB: Over an 8-year film career, you have already worked with some of the best German directors — Kraus, Schwochow, Eltz, now Donnersmarck. From the perspective of an actor who can now pick and choose, what is attractive about German films by German directors right now?
PB: Since I first worked on a non-German production, I can’t really say what is unique about German filmmaking or German directors.
And even in Germany no film shoot is the same as the next. Sometimes the mood is quite focussed, sometimes there’s a lot of laughter on set. I have a different relationship to every film.
JB: Filmmakers (German or not) you feel you need to work with, and why:
PB: People I get along with. What’s the use of working with a great filmmaker if we simply aren’t on the same wavelength because we have different visions?
I believe people find one another at the right time.
interview by
@JuttaBrendemuhl
ímage: Paula Beer at Austrian Film Award 2015, photo by Manfred Werner - Tsui, CC BY SA 3.0
