A movie star in her native Germany, Franka Potente made her first splash in the United States, and around the world, with her exuberant performance in the frenetically hypnotic 1998 film Run Lola Run, in which Potente, donning dazzling orange hair and urban-slacker attire, lit up the screen with her infectious blend of strength and sensuality as the title heroine, who has just 20 minutes to come up with a bundle of cash and dash across Berlin on foot to save her boyfriend's life.
Trying to explain the overwhelmingly positive reaction audiences had to the film, Potente, during a recent visit from her home in Berlin to a press junket in Los Angeles, said, "I think it was a very universal story. Lola could have run in New York, Tokyo, Zurich, anywhere. She portrayed something that everybody's longing for-to be an everyday hero succeeding in the test for love. And the rhythm of the movie [accompanied by an intoxicating techno soundtrack] got people really excited and hyped up by the end."
Though her latest performance-a comparatively smaller role as Johnny Depp's fun-loving, pot-smoking girlfriend, Barbara, in the American-made film Blow-will not likely have the same impact as her exhilarating work in Lola did, Potente is gearing up for a full-scale invasion of the United States.
She recently wrapped Universal Pictures' big-budget thriller The Bourne Identity, in which she stars opposite Matt Damon and worked under the direction of Doug Liman (Swingers, Go). She also reunited with Run Lola Run's writer/director Tom Tykwer on his next feature, Der Krieger und die Kaiserin (The Princess and the Warrior), due in U.S. theatres later this year.Potente told Back Stage West she's an extremely finicky actress when it comes to selecting work, especially when it came to doing her first English-speaking role in Blow.
Her primary criteria are usually a director's body of work and personality."I'm very, very careful when choosing my projects," said Potente, who speaks nearly perfect English, albeit with a strong German accent. "Sometimes I start to worry that I've become too careful, but I really want to be sure. With every movie and every choice, I know a lot more what I want and what I don't want."Following the success of the adrenaline-pumping Run Lola Run, Potente was offered a number of Hollywood vehicles in the action genre, all of which she declined. She said, "I didn't want to introduce myself to American moviegoers that way."While she wasn't sure exactly what kind of film her first American role would be, she knew she wanted to work with a "pleasant" director."I wanted a nice guy. In Germany, I've done 16 movies, and I've worked with some difficult people. I can handle that because I'm the lead there and it's my own language. It's easier to overcome problems and talk to people. But here, I had no idea what it would be like to talk to a director or to work on a set. I didn't want so many complications."
She eventually found the right match with Ted Demme (The Ref, Beautiful Girls, Life).Potente was also attracted to the idea of working with Johnny Depp, who had already signed on to star in Blow as real-life drug trafficker George Jung, who, according to the film, was the first American to smuggle mass quantities of cocaine into the U.S."On my list of the coolest, bravest American actors, Johnny's among the top five," noted the actress. "Knowing that he was doing the film, I must say that interested me."
Potente's rise to fame began like one of those mythic tales we've heard before, like Lana Turner's legendary discovery at Schwab's Drugstore. As Potente's story goes, a German casting director spotted the then-17-year-old actress in a Munich bar and approached her in the bathroom with an invitation to audition for a film. Though Potente, who at the time was enrolled in acting school, did not get that job, she was soon recommended to German director Hans-Christian Schmid, who was looking for a lead actress for his 1996 film Nach Funf im Urwald (It's a Jungle Out There) and cast Potente. She's been working steadily as a leading lady in Germany ever since.
Potente acknowledged that luck, indeed, played a key role in the inception of her career, but added that it takes far more than just good fortune to keep a career going."You have to be able to realize that luck and deal with it," said the 26-year-old. "Aside from talent, you have to be mature enough and have the right people around you to help you with those decisions, and you have to do something with it. You can't just put luck in somebody's hands; you have to know what to do with it."
In addition to trying to seek out worthy projects and good people to surround herself with (including a second team of agents, a manager, and a publicist in the United States), Potente has made it a particularly important point to remain grounded. Though she said she attends the occasional premiere in Germany and always does press for her films, she avoids paparazzi-heavy scenes and self-publicity when she doesn't have a film to promote.After spending some time with her, I must say I found Potente to be one of the most laidback and down-to-earth actors around. Sitting cross-legged and barefoot on the floor of her hotel room with not a trace of makeup, a recently shaved head, and rumpled clothes, she could easily be mistaken on Hollywood Boulevard as a runaway teen. But as Potente speaks about acting, she exudes a radiance, a sparkle lights up her eyes, and it quickly becomes clear how much direction she has.
She told Back Stage West she can't remember when she didn't want to be an actress, although she was initially more interested in stage acting than in working in films.She recalled, "I grew up in a small town without a movie theatre. My background was the theatre. My parents took me to plays all the time. But when I did my first movie, I realized I loved working with the camera more than I did working onstage. I always had a problem that you had to be so much bigger onstage. It's always felt weird to me, and people would always say, 'Franka, you have to speak up.' As much as I loved everything about acting school, I left and decided to do movies."
Though Hollywood now beckons, Potente has no intention of abandoning her work or her home in Germany. She feels bound to the issues that prevail in her native cinema and a sense of duty to tell those stories. Still, she's interested in expanding her horizons, and if that means traveling outside her home, she'll go. I expect that she will be racking up many frequent flier miles over the next few years.As we wound down our conversation, I asked Potente what satisfies her most about acting. She paused, looking very serious for a moment, before revealing a huge smile and saying, "What I love is that it keeps me nervous in a good way. I always have this feeling inside of being in motion. I think this is what life is about. What's spinning in my soul is a search for why I'm on this planet. Who am I, anyway? What can I give to the world? What can I take from it? This job is about just that. With every new character, it helps me get closer to the answer, and that's very fulfilling."