German actor Nina Hoss: ‘London is more driven. In the theatre, people are full of positive energy

Kate Kellaway

The star of Homeland and Tár on performing In The Cherry Orchard at the Donmar, working with Cate Blanchett, her Green party upbringing, and acting in a second language

Nina Hoss, 48, is a German actor who won international acclaim for her role as Sharon Goodnow in Tár (2022), playing opposite Cate Blanchett. She was cast as a first violinist/wife in that film partly because of an unforgettable performance as a music teacher in Ina Weisse’s movie The Audition (2019), and is familiar to fans of Homeland for her role as German intelligence officer Astrid. She is about to make her London stage debut as Mme Ranevskaya in The Cherry Orchard at London’s Donmar Warehouse, directed by Benedict Andrews.

How will you set about making Mme Ranevskaya your own?
I’m just starting the third week of rehearsals and making new discoveries every day. How Benedict Andrews works is unusual in that we don’t fix anything; he encourages us to keep surprising one another as characters. I love doing this but it is daunting because you have no safety net. We’re together as a group throughout the day and watch and comment, usually positively, on one another’s ideas. We learn what works, what doesn’t. In a more conventional rehearsal, you might note the shift in which a mood changes and try to pin that down in order to keep returning to it. Here, not at all. At this stage, nothing is fixed. But by doing it again and again, we’ll find a certain rhythm. I know I have to be open to everyone around me.

What do you admire most about Chekhov?
In everything he writes, he never judges people. He loves his characters. People can be really angry with each other and the next moment they are drinking a coffee and embracing.

Hoss in Tár (2022). Photograph: Alamy

How does acting in a second language affect you?
I have to do a little extra work on my own. I translate the lines – at least once – into German and, most importantly, the lines of other characters, because what gets spoken in another language tends not actually to reach your core. Yet, at the same time, I’m finding it freeing to act in English because I can’t control it in the same way and find myself at a stage in my acting life where I’m not looking for control.

I’m curious about people – how different we are yet looking for the same things

Tell me a little about your upbringing.
I was born in Stuttgart. My father was a welder and one of the co-founders of Germany’s Green party. I attended the founding conventions as a little girl. Green party ideas influenced me, though I’m not in the party now… it is too big a topic to explain here! I was given the theatre gene by my mother, an actress who became a director and who was the head of three theatres consecutively. So I was in parliament with my dad and rehearsals with my mum. I loved the theatre world so much – it always felt like home. My mother was so fulfilled by what she did.

Where are you based now? I gather you are married to a Brit, music producer Alex Silva?
I’m based in Berlin. And yes, I am married to a Welshman although he has Italian roots. When we first got together, he was living in London so we spent quite a bit of time here, but this is my longest stretch in London. Berlin is very free-spirited and no one cares how we live – the energy levels are lower. I love London’s energy. London is more driven. In the theatre in London, people are full of positive energy. In Berlin, you don’t have to achieve as much to have a good life.

The New York Times once described you as having “old style movie-star glamour”. Is this how you see yourself?
I don’t want to think about my appearance, although sometimes I have to. Nowadays, every picture in your films or taken on the red carpet stays out there to haunt you. But appearance is not something I think of in my work. I’m so bored with it. I’m lucky my career started in an earlier time. I feel for 20-year-olds having to invent – or reinvent – themselves on Instagram.

As Astrid in series six of Homeland. Photograph: 20th Century Fox/Jeff Neumann/Showtime

What is needed to stay the course as an actor?
I remain fascinated by acting because I’m curious about people – how different we are yet looking for the same things in life: love, respect, attention, being seen. If that curiosity is in you, acting is the perfect thing to do. You need to be observant. I like to sit on a train looking at people, wondering what their stories might be.

How was it playing opposite Cate Blanchett?
Cate is so receptive. I found her inspiring. I’m in awe of how hard she works.

You learned to play violin for your film roles, which must have been hard?
I play piano so could already read the notes, and I had a wonderful teacher who took my fear away. I’ve never wanted to be an instrumentalist although, at 16, I wanted to be an opera singer.

What do you do for pleasure that has nothing to do with your work?
Work is my pleasure. I enjoy the company of others yet need to time on my own to process things. I love to walk though nature. Right now, I’m very taken with Sweden. My husband and I recently enjoyed a camping trip in Canada – we love the cold – and on the west coast of Sweden, we’ve found something similar. I am not sure about cold-water swimming though – I like the cold as long as I can wear a big coat.

What is it like working with the German director Christian Petzold, with whom you’ve collaborated a lot?
I’ve done six films with him since 2000. When I was starting out, he taught me so much about film-making and how to tell stories about our country in an honest and sometimes brutal way. He has a love/hate relationship with Germany – as do I. We talked about it so much.

What are you doing once The Cherry Orchard is over?
I’m shooting another film with Ina Weisse, director of The Audition – I love her writing. The film’s title describes those little creatures that make noises with their legs. What’s the English word? Cicadas? I think that’s it.