Maybe... Maybe Not

“i had noticed sönke wortmann much earlier in a completely different context. namely, as a player for my hometown soccer club sc westfalia herne 04. we met in person for the first time on a student film set in tübingen. i was visiting one of my acting teachers who had taken on a role there, and sönke wortmann was a member of the film crew. our meeting resulted in two engagements under sönke wortmann’s direction. in “die hochzeit des figaro” and in “wahnsinnsehe”. at some point he asked me if i knew ralf könig’s comics. i even knew ralf könig personally. at the beginning of the 80s, he had caused quite a stir with his trashy troupe “the emscher sisters”, among others also in the corner pub VORORT in dortmund, which i ran at that time together with six other crazy people. ralf könig was impressive with a “mireille-mathieu-playback-disaster”. how i was supposed to find myself in ralf’s bulbous-nosed ensemble was a mystery to me. until sönke wortmann explained his plans to me and offered me the role of the homosexual norbert brommer. today, i have to laugh when i think that my first thought back then was: if i play norbert brommer, it’s absolutely necessary to communicate that I’m not gay. 1994. a different time. a casting at the film academy in ludwigsburg as part of a workshop by sönke wortman, but with kai wiesinger as axel feldheim at my side, brought the decision. the material i worked up convinced the producer bernd eichinger - and i had the role. later he told me that i was actually too old for him, but that he was very, very happy to have overlooked it.