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Berlin’s rising star: Katarina Stark wanted to become an actress – The Hollywood Reporter

Apparently, there is a Santa Claus. At least for Katherina Stark. For the German actress, who has been named one of this year’s European Shooting Stars and is set to be honored at the 2024 Berlinale among the continent’s top 10 up-and-coming actors, being in films was her Christmas wish.

“I’ve always wanted to act and be in movies. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been watching movies, and I wanted to be in them, to live in them,” says Stark. “So when I was eight years old, this is what I hoped for: to I will be an actress. My parents gave me a gift certificate, writing that they would do everything in their power to support my dream and that they would always support me.

The Starks had come to pick up little Katharina from their town of Illerstein (pop. 16,000) in rural Bavaria, 90 minutes from Munich, the nearest media hub, for acting classes and auditions.

Our city was far from the film industry; “It was basically a few farms and a lot of cows,” she recalls. “There wasn’t even a school, and we had to go to the next village for it. So it took a while for me to figure out how things worked, get an agent, etc. Years later I got my first role, when I was 15 .

Her first appearance was the role of Similde in the German fantasy film King Lorrainereceived positive reviews, and Stark began to make her way in the industry, landing one-off roles in such popular television procedurals as Tatort And Sawako Munich.

When she graduated from high school, she enrolled at the Otto Falkenberg School of Performing Arts in Munich but continued to work in television. While in school, Stark auditioned for the role that would take her to the next level this year Interpreter of silence.

Set in Frankfurt in 1963, the five-part series follows Eva Bruns (Stark), a 24-year-old who relishes the thrill of Germany’s post-war economic boom and lands a job as a Polish-to-German interpreter at the Auschwitz trials. The first ever trial of Nazi war criminals by German authorities. The eyewitness testimony of Holocaust survivors forces Eva to question the foundations of her country’s newly formed democracy and confront her family’s involvement in the genocide.

Interpreter of silence It bowed on Hulu in the US and on Disney+ worldwide and was nominated for a Critics’ Choice Award for Best International Series this year.

“Eva was my first major role in a series, so it was a big step for me – but also for the role itself,” says Stark. “Until then, I had not had the opportunity to write real political stories. I learned about the Holocaust in school, of course, but in preparing for this role, I realized how deeply connected we all, as Germans, are to this history. When I talked to my grandparents, I could see how difficult it was for people at this time to talk about what happened.

Recordings of the entire Auschwitz trial are on YouTube, and Stark watched all the proceedings while reading transcripts of the trial. Her character is based on a real person, the Polish translator at the trial.

Interpreter of silence

© The Walt Disney Company 2023

“I didn’t try to imitate her,” says Stark. “(Series creator) Annette Hess said it wouldn’t make sense because Eva is a fictional character,” Stark says. “But I was fascinated by the way she worked, how she tried to reflect the people she was translating — she really gave me an idea of ​​what The translator’s profession and how it works in practice.

Meanwhile, Stark learned Polish for the role. “I had weeks of training so I could understand the lines I was speaking and not just do it phonetically,” she says. “I can’t speak fluently, but I can follow him, which is essential so I can respond to what the other actors are saying in Polish in real time.”

She says the biggest challenge was taking responsibility for an entire series and keeping track of the story of each episode even when the production went out of sequence. “Some days, we were shooting scenes from three different episodes, one after the other, and it was hard to keep an overview of the whole story and how everything fit together,” she says.

The success of the show – and interest from the Shooting Stars nomination – means that producers and casting agents around the world may start to take notice of the 25-year-old from Illertissen. Stark says she loves working in English.

White lotus, Succession, Flea bag – Almost all the TV shows and most of the movies I watch are American or British. “I find American soap operas in particular very well written, funny but with a lot of cleverly woven political criticism, social criticism but also very entertaining. … I like to do it all: dramatic roles, funny roles, even romantic ones, but I also think that It’s important to consider the social impact of the stories you tell.

Stark has also begun writing, working on short film scripts, and hopefully there will be a feature film that her sister will direct soon.

That first birthday wish has come true. So Stark must have at least two more trips from Santa.

Interpreter of silence

Disney