The
Princess and the Warrior
Interview
with Tom Tykwer and Franka Potente
interview by Cynthia
Fuchs, 13 July 2001
The coolest couple in movies, Tom Tykwer and FrankaPotente, have ordered iced coffees from room service.After talking to interviewers all day, they need aboost. When the drinks arrive in tall glasses, toppedwith whipped cream, we all three ooh and ahh. Theystill take delight in small pleasures.
Both filmmaker and actress grew up in small Germantowns, the thirty-six-year-old Tykwer in Wuppertal, thetwenty-seven-year-old Potente in Münster (so small that therewere no movie theaters). She became interested inacting on stage from an early age, and she attendedNew York's Lee Strasberg Theater Institute, before shebecame a professional actress in 1996. Since thattime, she has made thirteen German films and TVmovies, and then, in 1997-98, Lola changed her life-- not only did she meet Tykwer, but she also becamesuddenly recognized around the globe and opened thedoor to big US-made movies. Earlier this year, Potenteappeared in Blow, as Johnny Depp's dead girlfriend,and will be seen this fall in The Bourne Identityopposite Matt Damon. But she's not interested inmoving completely into the Hollywood mainstream, andit's clear why: mainstream: Potente and Tykwer share asincere intimacy and mutual appreciation, not tomention a visible passion for what they do together.
For their new movie, The Princess and the Warrior,Tykwer and Potente worked together on the script,developing the complicated relationship between hercharacter, the psychiatric nurse Sissi, and anemotionally damaged ex-soldier named Bodo (BennoFurmann). They fall into a peculiar romance, initiatedwhen he performs an emergency tracheotomy on her, onthe pavement under the truck that has just run herdown. Though he takes off after performing thismiracle, Sissi becomes determined to find him, toembrace what she sees as their shared fate.
Cynthia Fuchs:The two movies that you've madetogether are very different romances, from each other,but also from the usual movie romances.
Franka Potente: I'm so uncomfortable, especially inemotional situations, having to say sentences thatdon't feel right. As an actor -- or really, as anykind of person sensitive to it -- we know how[romantic] situations feel, because they affect us somuch. When the writing is not good, I feel almostraped. With Tom, there was never a problem becausehe's not asking that from you: his writing alwaysfeels right. Of course, that can make it harder too,because you have to be very true to it. With thismovie, once the train was set on the rails, there wasno way back. Once we established that it was going tobe intense, honest, and real -- and therefore painful-- then you can't go back, you have to stretch forevery scene. And to do that, you have to have someone,a partner and a director, who is with you. If thewriting is not like that, then it doesn't matter howyou stretch, and you can actually do wrong bystretching. You can't turn it into something highlyintellectual if it's meant to be Scream.
CF: Tom, you seem to have an affinity for characterswho are complex but who don't say much. How do theycome to you?
Tom Tykwer: It's not verbal. For instance, Sissi andBodo have an extraordinary body language, that screamsthe contradictions and different energies theyrepresent, how difficult it will be for them to gettogether, but also how great it will be if they do.They're absolutely complementary, and that's whythey're good for each other. They're like twins ormirrors of each other, but have a hard time findingout about that aspect of each other. That wassomething we constructed in the writing, becauseFranka was there when I was writing it.
FP: Also, we were translating it, to understandourselves what it means.
TT: I was typing and she was walking up and down,like, "You think this way?"
FP: It works in this absurd way. I think if somebodywatched all of us on set, it would be hard. Because asTom says, the characters are not "out-spoken," andthat makes it harder to communicate what they want toexpress. It's more about suggesting.
TT: I think it's also about getting a collectiveunderstanding of the film's mood. The basic thing thattransports you, or asks you to join, in a movie, is anatmosphere. Here, it's strange, the combination of thefairy-tale-ish part and the reality-based part; it'sso much about the toughness and sadness of real life.And you have this character, Sissi, being this totallyweird mixture, half naive and half extremelyexperienced. She has a specific experience, withstrange and special people [her patients], but she hasno idea what the rest of reality actually is. When[viewers] relate to the film in a strong sense, theydon't point to a certain idea. They more often pointto the ambience, the general approach of the film,which takes you on a voyage.
CF: On that point, can you talk about the hospitalscenes, which have a more intense "feeling" than manypsychiatric ward scenes in movies.
TT: This intensity is what we both experienced,because we both spent time in psychiatric wards forresearch, and my impression was that so few filmsrepresent the normality of that. People live there anduse rituals, like any family has its rituals. Most ofthe time during the day at the hospital, not very muchhappens, but there is a potential that everybodycarries around inside of themselves, a potential thatanything can happen. There's a low-key high tension,and you have no idea what's going to happen next. Ithink there's a strong connection between the asylumand the film's structure that I subconsciouslyconceived.
CF:One of the more startling moments comes whenWerner [one of Sissi's patients] comes out of the darkand hits her, and she handles it without missing muchof a beat, just asking, "What is it this time?"
TT: And you know, this is how it is. You have to beprepared all the time, and the people there sensethat. Boom. There's a high energy, and doubt, abouteverything.
FP: For the first two days I was working at theasylum, I was so exhausted. I was working as a"nurse": they slipped me in with glasses and a newname. Soon I started feeling a little morecomfortable, because I saw what the other nurses did.Then I decided to sit in the patients' seating area,to expose myself toward them, just a little chitchathere and there. And all of a sudden this guy turnstoward me and starts telling that he just ate yogurt,and it's diffusing in his blood right NOW. I was takenaback, like, "Really!?" Then he said, "You havecameras behind your eyes." And I didn't know what tosay: it didn't match, what he was saying, and I wastrying to make sense of it. Was it because I waswearing glasses? That sort of thing was constant, youhave to have all these reflexes: Get up NOW. Turnaround NOW. Don't say anything NOW. I was soexhausted.
CF: It is like there's a continuous present, no past,no future.
FP: And no borders. It can be like, you're far awayfrom someone, then the next minute, it's vhhooop --you're right next to one another.
CF: Some of the sets in the film also seem toexternalize that kind of speed and immediacy, likethat super-sleek bank.
TT: [Laughs.] That bank is like science fiction fromthe seventies, like The Omega Man or something. It'sactually a building from the seventies, and it's thebiggest bank in that town. I used to go there when Iwas a boy; it's my hometown [Wuppertal].
CF: So this film involved digging through memories foryou?
TT: In a way, yes. But not so much being nostalgicabout the place, but about what you do to a place whenyou look at it in a certain way. We were trying hardto get a strong subjectivity into the movie, for bothcharacters. Sissi walks through this city with thesechildren's eyes that transform it into a fairy taleforest, where everything is to be discovered, andthere's no prejudgment about everything. She meetsBodo, a guy with guns who's obviously not a nice guy,but she doesn't think he's worse than all the otherguys she already knows, so why should she be afraid ofhim? It's something I admire, an ability that you havewhen you're a child, because you're under-experienced.Of course, it has dangers, but it has something thatis amazing, this power of ...
FP: ... disarming.
TT: Yes, it is a disarming power. And, it is a strongconnection to your fantasy, and your beautiful picturethat you make yourself from the world, related to yourdreams. The most stupid streets that you walk on yourway to school, when you were seven or eight or twelve, as youwalk, half-asleep, the trees can turn into wonderfulforest and dangers waiting for you: it can be amythical, mystical place. But everybody who came withme [to Wuppertal], the crew, they said, "What? We'regoing to stay sixteen weeks here!? Hell!" And then, with[working on] the film, they slowly started to be takeninto Sissi's perspective, transforming the town intosomething more magical and beautiful. That's like thecharacters, who aren't the great guys on first sight.It was an issue for the film, to get the audience totake time to get to know somebody, and not make thembe shiny super-heroes on first sight. I think it takesthree-quarters of an hour to see them. I feel like thebreakthrough scene, when I see it with an audience, iswhen Sissi goes to the gun shop and makes the blindguy fall down and pretend to have a fit, and suddenly,people are thinking, "Wow, she's amazing!" For thefirst time they really enjoy her. And it's wonderfulto enjoy someone that you've had time to get to know.You know, because in a regular drama, you have to lovesomebody before you know him: "This is the hero, soshut the fuck up and love him!"
FP: [Laughs.] Because of a certain outfit, or haircolor.
TT: Exactly. Let's dress her in a way that you have tocare for her. So we didn't do that with the make-upand the hair. [Laughs.] It wasn't washed very often.
CF: Your career choice seems like a way of revisitingthat sense of wonder. Did you both know early what youwanted to do?
TT: I did. Mine is one of those ridiculous careerswhere I didn't seem to have a choice. The only thingsthat I learned were about films. I'm a specializedperson, and luckily, fate welcomed me and said, "Thereis a path for you to go to become a filmmaker." That'swhat's similar with us; she was a clown early on.
FP: I always performed when I was a child. My parentsgot very annoyed, because my brother and I had ourlittle bedrooms upstairs, and I would plaster thehouse with posters with arrows pointing upstairs: ifit was Easter, the signs said, "Easter Show!" Or forChristmas, "Santa Claus Show!" We'd put up dances andperformances. Without being conscious about it, I hadto do it. It wasn't a choice.
CF: How do you like doing the behind the scenesproduction and writing now too, with Tom?
FP: I love it. He's really the only director with whomI've enjoyed it. Usually I'm just the actress. I don'tthink of myself with being a writer, I'm so concernedwith my own shit, concerning my job, I don't want totake away somebody else's. I think make-up should domake-up, costumes should do costumes. I really respectall of the departments. So this turned out to beluxurious, and really important for the character.Sissi was the hardest character to get to know, of allthe characters I've played so far. And I needed thatextra time to get into her shoes, for preparation.Other roles, you can learn tae-kwon-do or visit anasylum for a week, I've done that. But she neededspecial treatment. And I couldn't have done it withoutTom, or Benno, really. The character is not like othercharacters, where I can base them on a friend, or asmell, whatever. For this one I didn't really haveanything on my mind. You had to be brave enough to dothese weird things, and you can't watch yourself atthe same time. You need a third eye, a partner likeBenno, to give you room but also to stand up assupport.
CF: It's a complicated structure in the film too,because both characters are equally important, equallysubjective.
TT: The balance was an issue for me. I didn't want thefilm to become [tilted] to one character, though I dothink that the whole film is influenced by Sissi.She's pursuing Bodo, so we wait for him to open up toher. Even though she is very close to me, he is themale part of me. I know about his obvious problems,this whole anxiety to open your wounds again, thesewalls you build when you've been hurt once and don'twant to repeat that. This whole idea of not showingemotions, I understand this. That's a very common maleattitude, by nature.
CF: But you seem open to the "female" part too.
TT: Absolutely, I'm not trying to say what peopleshould be like, but to observe how people are. I'mtrying to show male and female behavior and how theystruggle with each other.
CF: Franka, how are you feeling about your career now,after becoming so visible with Lola?
FP: I've done this job now for six years, and I'mgetting closer to finding what I want or don't want,which is always influenced by what I just did. But mylongings don't change because the American market isopened up now for me. I've done two movies in Americanow, but I still did what I know how to do. I didn'tchange anything, attitude-wise or work-wise. Itsometimes collides with your partners, because they doit differently. But you have to have a thick skin. Youhave to say, "Look guys, there's something else that Iknow and that works for me." It's like being anexchange student. But I couldn't handle it in anyother way.
Click here to read Cynthia Fuchs' review.