| ARMIN MUELLER-STAHL June 2001 |
After a long and very successful career, what’s it like to have to
start over again, completely over, and create your life anew in a different
place where they don’t even speak the same language? Armin Mueller-Stahl knows
— for he made just such a change and did it very well.
A native of what became East Germany, he grew up during the Second World
War. When he was 14, his father was killed in May of 1945, a week before the end
of the conflict. In the aftermath of that international and
personal tragedy, he created a career in the theater of that Communist country,
appearing on stage for decades and in more than a hundred feature films there
before he was “blacklisted” by the government for taking part in criticism
of the regime.
Never one to be easily dominated, he wrote a critically acclaimed book, Ordered
Sunday, which chronicled this difficult period of his life. Subsequently, he
escaped to the West and resumed acting, first in West Germany and later in this
country.
Mueller-Stahl’s reborn career in motion pictures has seen him in many
productions known to American audiences, most notably his supporting actor role
in Shine which garnered him an Oscar nomination. He also received the
Best Actor prize at the Montreal Film Festival for his role in Angry Harvest,
and he delivered noteworthy performances in Avalon, Jakob the Liar, Music
Box, and The Thirteenth Floor.
Now,
he is becoming increasingly well known to American filmgoers. But just a few
years ago, no one in this country would have recognized his face, much less his
name. “Fate is sometimes very nice to you. I had [just] cancelled a
[television] series...in Germany, and, at the same moment, a door had opened,”
he declares. “I made two films - Angry Harvest and Colonel Redl
- and they were both Oscar-nominated for Best Foreign Film in the same year. I
got wonderful reviews, and I was invited to come over to America. That was the
first step.”
Then
there was his role in Shine for which he personally received an Oscar
nomination. He declares that he had a very positive response to the script when
he was approached by both the director and producer. “I never thought it would
become such a big success worldwide. In my mind, I thought it was an art film.
But it was a wonderful, interesting story psychologically. I thought it was a
wonderful piece of work. But suddenly it became a big commercial success. I
think it was a very important step in my career to make this film.”
More
recently was his performance in The X Files Movie as the sinister head
of an international conspiracy to conceal evidence of alien beings on Earth.
Mueller-Stahl admits that he had not seen much of the American television series
when he was offered the role. However, Chris Carter, the
writer and producer of The X Files, had personally sought out the German
actor for a part in the big-budget production. Even though it wasn’t a large
part, Carter had written the role for an older actor who had a “strength
within,” Mueller-Stahl proclaims. “He said that he thought I had that
strength. It wasn’t a big part, but he asked me to do it. He wrote me a letter
and told me that he was writing this part with me in mind. He came to me, and he
said that he had been thinking about this character for a long time. We had a
wonderful talk about [the] character. It was a nice honor. Then I saw some
episodes, and I liked [the TV series].”
Mueller-Stahl has been well
decorated for many of his achievements as an actor. Though he didn’t win the
Oscar for his role in Shine, he did receive an American Film Institute
Best Supporting Actor Award for his performance in the film. He has also won
numerous awards at film festivals for his various portrayals over the years. But
winning awards doesn’t seem that important to him. “An award is an award,
and you put it on your table or on a shelf, and that’s it. It’s always nice
to get an award, but an award is not always helpful for your future. You have to
still work and make your work as good as you can.”
With
all his accomplishments, he remains a very modest man. “What I have
accomplished is like a drop of water on a hot stove. That’s what I did in my
life. But even if it’s not more, that’s what I could do,” he offered in a
recent interview while in St. Louis to promote his new motion picture, The
Long Run. “Sometimes it’s very important, even if you think you can’t
make a better world by doing films, you can always try. That’s the main
message I can give: Try. That’s the beauty of telling stories — to keep
alive what’s good and what’s not. Why else? Only to entertain? That’s part
of every film — to always entertain; you have to entertain — but underneath
you should explain a little bit more.”
Although
he has performed in several large, expensive cinematic productions since coming
to the West, Mueller-Stahl prefers the less-elaborate, character-driven
productions, like The Long Run. “These [kinds of] films have stories,
and to a certain extent...are timeless. Big films with all these special effects
are not timeless. The special effects will be so different in 20 years than they
are now [that] the audiences will laugh at these films.... I am always trying to
find stories — to tell stories — and then [to develop} characters.”
Making
The Long Run in South Africa proved to be both a joy and a test of
strength for the 70-year-old actor who was very observant of the conflicts which
have divided that nation.
“The
apartheid struggle between white and black is still there, although [former
South African President Nelson] Mandela has resolved many, many things. The
country is still in the beginnings of coming together, of living again. In
America, you know how difficult it is. And there are still some kinds of borders
there [in South Africa]. It’s a shame,” he declared. “So why did we do
this film in South Africa? The goal is to achieve something. What is it? The
Long Way to Freedom is [the title of] a biography of Mandela. So which is it
— The Long Run or The Long Way? It (the title) means a lot
underneath, but you have to discover that yourself.”
Mueller-Stahl has spent most of his life as a performer, although he has
also written five books and is an accomplished musician and painter. At this
point, he finds that he enjoys filmmaking much more than performing on stage
which he calls “boring,” adding that “it’s exhausting to play one
character a hundred times.”
Though he has appeared in literally hundreds of productions in film and
on stage, one particular project which he wrote, directed, and starred in
reaches a new level of commentary on the human condition. It’s his film Conversation
with the Beast about Adolf Hitler, whom he characterizes as “the main evil
person in the Second World War,” noting that “the only way to keep a certain
distance [from Hitler] was to play him as comedy.”
Mueller-Stahl
asserts that he began writing Conversation with the Beast when he was
working on Music Box (a film about a war criminal) and that he had
another actor in mind to play the part of Hitler, but when casting didn’t work
out, he took on the role himself. “I made this film to bring him back to life,
but it has a certain absurdity about it because [in the film, Hitler] was 103
years [old]. The goal was to bring him back to life and shoot him — what he
deserved — and that’s what I did.”
For Mueller-Stahl, as he has grown older, there doesn’t seem to be a
slowing down of effort, just a shift in focus: “I played the heroes and sons
in East Europe. I played the father and bad guys in West Europe. Now, I’m
going to make a full circle by playing the grandfathers in America.”
He may be a grandfather now, but he’s part of a new breed of older
adults, and, most assuredly, Armin Mueller-Stahl is not likely to just sit back
on his front porch and watch the world go by.
#
# #
SIDEBAR:
Like
the character he plays in his new film, Armin Mueller-Stahl is a very complex
man, and doing what he terms “a little bit more” seems to have been part of
his motivation in The Long Run. “I did this film because you have a
character here who is complex with one part that is not visible — he
doesn’t show it. The other part is visible — his coaching — where
he’s very pushy. [His feelings] are underneath, and he doesn’t show [them].
That makes the character more exciting because good stories and good films never
answer all the questions.”
The
Long Run is set in South Africa where Mueller-Stahl’s character, Bertold,
is an aging coach of long-distance runners at a brick factory. His decades-long
goal has been for one of his athletes to win the grueling Comrades Marathon.
However, his dreams appear dashed when he is replaced three years before his
scheduled retirement by a young, native South African for what Bertold feels are
political reasons.
Just as he is about to see all his hopes come to naught, Bertold notices
a young woman running on her own, and he watches her in secret, amazed at her
natural abilities. He discovers that her name is Christine, but when he attempts
to introduce himself, she is frightened because she’s an illegal alien, and
she suspects his intentions. To make matters worse, while they’re speaking,
the police burst in, and she is arrested. Ever the persistent one, Bertold is
able to get Christine released into his custody.
He takes her to his home and provides her food, telling her that she has
great potential as a runner and that he would like to train her to be a marathon
participant and enter her in the Comrades race. He offers her accommodations in
his home and even buys her clothing. Because of South Africa’s long history of
racism and racial separation, the arrangement between Bertold and Christine
causes much more than raised eyebrows.
As the training begins, it is evident that his style of tough management
does not mesh well with her desires. She is put off by his demanding ways,
believing he doesn’t see her as a woman but just as a means to an end. Even
after he is able to persuade his former runners from the brick factory to join
her as she practices, it’s obvious that a brooding sense of frustration is
growing inside Christine. Added to this mix is her romantic association with the
young South African native who replaced Bertold at the factory, and the story
begins to develop in multiple directions.
Armin
Mueller-Stahl was long recognized for his talents in his native East Germany,
and although this may be a different kind of role than Americans have seen him
play before, he doesn’t disappoint. Though his character is rough and
unpolished and often aloof, Mueller-Stahl, nevertheless, plays him
sympathetically and maintains Bertold’s dignity throughout the film.
And
Mueller-Stahl challenges audiences to go further, to venture beyond the
conclusion of the film: “What will happen [to the characters] next? What can
happen? All these questions are open — the door is open. You definitely should
discover a little bit of yourself [when watching] a good film, I believe.”
As
a matter of fact, Mueller-Stahl thinks filmgoers should look for significance in
every aspect of a movie, even the title, and question what the filmmaker’s
motivation is: “The Long Run: What does it mean? Only the long
[marathon] — 90 kilometers — or [does it mean] the long run of your life?”