There is no need to explain to Germans, whether they are film fans or not, who Sandra Hüller is, a name that is beginning to be known by the general public on the other side of the Atlantic. Emerging from the ranks of the intense Berlin theater in the late 1990s, this actress born in a town of 7,000 inhabitants in the People's Republic soon showed that she had a special talent.
At just 28 years old, she won the Silver Bear at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival for Requiem, where she played a girl whose epileptic attacks had convinced the members of her church that she was possessed. The film, many will remember, also won her the award for Best Actress at the Sitges Festival. Never too interested in becoming rich or famous, Sandra continued her career in German cinema, but her prestige began to cross borders when a decade later she was chosen as Best European Actress by Toni Erdmann, which placed her in a special category in her country, where only two other colleagues, Julia Jentsch and Paula Beer, had managed to add that award and the one from Berlin to their careers.
That film, where in one of her few forays into comedy she played the daughter of the eccentric title character, also took her to the United States for the first time. Acquired by the prestigious Sony Pictures Classics, Toni Erdmann grossed 1.4 million euros and was nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Although she lost, Hüller had the required meetings with agents and studios in Los Angeles, but there were no concrete results.
Back in Germany, he continued to pursue good projects and even dared to star in a version of Hamlet in the theater in which the Prince of Denmark is a woman, to which he added forays into French cinema.
It is no secret that in 2023 Hüller has taken a new step to become a global star. The Cannes debut of two of the three films that will hit theaters this year gave him another unusual record. She was the protagonist of the Palme d'Or winner, Anatomy of a Fall, her second work for the French director Justine Triet, which will hit Spanish screens in December, and also of the one that won the Festival's Grand Prize, La zona of interest, which passed through San Sebastián and will arrive in our cinemas in January.
Although the powerful talent agency UTA represents him in the United States, the fact that he has never worked for an American production has allowed him to promote both films despite the actors' strike that has paralyzed the industry. His first stop was last month at the Toronto Film Festival, which traditionally kicks off the Oscar campaign, where both films were screened to excellent response. In recent days she could be seen, accompanied by Trier and her husband, screenwriter Arthur Harari, participating in question and answer sessions at the preview screening of Anatomy... with her characteristic style, that is, without makeup or a striking costume.
In a recent interview with the print edition of Variety, Sandra made clear the ambiguity of her feelings towards Hollywood: “I would love to work in the United States. I have a long list of amazing talents that I would like to collaborate with. But I am a European actress who speaks German, and that is where my base will always be.” At 45 years old, and with the physique of an ordinary woman, if the mecca of cinema opens its doors to her, she could follow in the footsteps of other great actresses such as Meryl Streep, Helen Mirren or Jessica Chastain, who have been growing in their careers as they demonstrated that have no limits to transform.
Much will depend on how she does with the Oscar, since her name is mentioned as a potential candidate for Best Actress for Anatomy..., in which she plays a writer accused of having murdered her husband, and as a possible Best Supporting Actress for The Zone... in which she plays the wife of Rudolf Höss, the commandant of Auschwitz, who leads a privileged life in the beautiful residence he occupies next to the concentration camp.
While in Hollywood screenwriters and actors find their way to return to normality, Hüller is not standing still, and has already signed a contract to participate in Rose, by the Austrian Marcus Schleinzer. There she will play a mysterious female soldier who in the 17th century claims to be the heiress of an estate. Whether she stays in Europe or lets herself be seduced by the palm trees of Beverly Hills, what surely won't change about her is her pragmatism when it comes to not sharing details about her private life. The mother of a 12-year-old daughter whose name she has never revealed, who has not even let anyone know the name of her dog, even when it appears in her film set in the Holocaust, told Variety with complete seriousness: “My job is not to show people who I really am. If someone wants to meet me outside of my work, write me a letter and we will have a drink together.”
