”Theatre is a high-performance sport“
Moritz Führmann is a TV and theatre actor and a familiar face at the Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf. A conversation about rehearsals in times of Covid, new projects and the trip of a lifetime.
Moritz, how do you feel as an actor in these times when theatres can only work under restrictions and also filming involves additional demands?
The effort that the theatres and also the television stations have been making since the beginning of the pandemic is indeed enormous. I can't even count the cotton swabs I've used to torture my nose with so far. But seriously, I am grateful that so much is possible and being done despite the difficult conditions. In 2020, I was lucky enough to get a lot of assignments, especially for television, and to be able to continue working. At the beginning it was of course odd that we always rehearsed with mask until the take. Then you realise very clearly what it means when the core - the face, the facial expressions of an actor - remains hidden. How important body language is. Apart from the recordings and rehearsals, the last few months were also a time of contemplation for me as an artist, in which great creative processes got underway ...
We would like to hear more about that, of course!
In 2021 I wrote the script for my own short film. Title: “Last Exit Oberhausen”. I came up with the idea with a good friend. We both love the comedy genre typical for the Ruhr region also called ‘Ruhrpott’. The fact that my wife (actress Anna Schudt, editor's note) plays the role of Inspector Bönisch in the Dortmund Tatort certainly contributed to my enthusiasm for the region. We then took the ‘Ruhrpott’ theme further and initially wanted to make a novel out of it. But at some point I realised: No, this has to be a film! And in the meantime it has become one. Now we are working on when and where it will be shown.
”There comes a moment when there is this point
of no return - then everyone is so inspired by it
that you just have to keep going.”
So as a director and producer you are also in a way entrepreneurial: How do you enjoy that?
I like the idea of an enterprise, in the very classical sense. I think it has something to do with standing wholeheartedly behind an idea and doing everything you can to realise it. So it's something very active and at the same time very authentic. At the same time, you need the right partners to get such an undertaking off the ground conceptually, but also financially. Fortunately, many good friends have actually been involved in my film project, who believe in it too and support the whole thing with me. It's the joy and enthusiasm that arise together when an idea takes shape! There comes a moment when there is this point of no return - then everyone is so inspired by it that you just have to keep going. That's fantastic. I would almost say the last few months have been the trip of a lifetime.
You have been an ensemble member at the Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf since 2009. Here you have given very impressive performances in plays such as “Die Entdeckung des Himmels” (“The Discovery of Heaven”), “Die Tage, die ich mit Gott verbrachte” (“The Days I Spent with God”) and also as “Mephisto”. How does working as a film actor differ from working in the theatre - in terms of craft, but also for you personally and through what you show of yourself?
Theatre is a high-performance sport. You run across the stage, you hang from ropes under the ceiling. You struggle with the text and have to speak so loudly that the audience understands everything, even in the last row. You have to know every costume change, every use of music, every light setting to the letter - but you always have to reckon with imponderables. During my first full-time engagement at the Hans Otto Theatre in Potsdam, I was asked to bridle a horse in a play, saddle it and then ride it off the stage. I rehearsed this for six weeks and it really wasn't easy for me. Then came the premiere. The lights went on, I went on stage. Only: there was no horse. The animal had simply got loose. So I stood there, looked into 500 empty faces and said the phrase: “How desperate is my situation!”. That was part of my monologue anyway, but I probably never said the words as honestly as I did on that premiere night. What I mean by that is: in the theatre, you are at the mercy of the audience, so to speak - in a very invigorating way, because you always take in the unique situation and the atmosphere from the audience. In film it's a bit different: there's this moment for every actor when the director says “Action!”. And then, especially with emotions, every nuance counts. The camera is like a magnifying glass here. In the theatre, on the other hand, it's more difficult. Here, emotions have to be literally “pushed over the ramp”. Both are a great challenge. And with regard to your question about what I show of myself, I can say: for both, as an actor you have to have a certain looseness and be prepared to let the audience look into your soul to a certain extent.
When you're working with a character, you're surely also constantly working on yourself. What is it, for example, that you have learned about yourself in the time you have been an actor?
You learn a lot about yourself, that's true. Strong emotions, for example anger, which I hardly know in private, I can test and live out on stage. Once I had to abseil down a gasometer, which is part of the Hans Otto Theatre in Potsdam, and face my fear of heights. Or let's take the horse example again: my fear of horses became especially clear to me through my work in Potsdam. And so there are always demons that I have to face on stage.
When can we see you on stage again around here?
Next up is a reading as part of the Salon Festival, in which I'm slipping into the role of Thomas Mann's “Felix Krull” (see box), and I'm really looking forward to that.
You spoke earlier about a time of contemplation that the crisis brings with it, among other things. Where do you spend such a time? What is a suitable place for this in Düsseldorf?
The Rhine is of course an ideal place for it. Walking along the Rhine meadows is pure relaxation - on my own, but also together with my family. Not to mention the culture: Düsseldorf has so much to offer here. From theatre to the art scene. There is simply a very cultural spirit in the city that brings people together and that I appreciate immensely. •
About Moritz Führmann
Moritz Führmann studied acting at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Academy of Music and Theatre in Leipzig until 2004. His first thea-tre engagement was at the Hans Otto Theater Potsdam from 2004 to 2009. Subsequently, an engagement at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus followed. In 2013 and 2016 he was awarded the Düsseldorf theatre prize “Gustaf” as Best Actor. He has also worked for film and television since 2002. Since 2018 he has been working as a freelance actor.
Words Elena Winter
Pictures Nils Schwarz and Thomas Rabsch