"With the attitude, you don't have to choose the AfD, we do this for you, you don't win people back." The White Lotus star Christian Friedel in an interview

Berlin-west, it rains into dense rush hour.Christian Friedelcomes to the interview too late. It is uncomfortable for him. The actor apologizes for the delay, although he can't do anything. No doors, nothing. Instead, warm, modest and open. Loud appearance is not his way anyway, he prefers to convince with his talent as a gifted actor in the Oscar-winning filmThe Zone of Interestand currently in the third season of.

Esquire: Mr. Friedel, after The Zone of Interest, in which you embodied the concentration camp commander Rudolf Höß, it was a little surprising that you can now be seen in the HBO series The White Lotus. How do you get to play in a dream ship for intellectuals in a version?

Christian Friedel: The funny thing is that I didn't know the series before. I actually thought that she was something like an American dream ship. But you are wrong with that. She is smart and funny. After looking at some episodes to prepare for the casting, it was clear to me that I would like to be there.

The third season is now playing in Hawaii and Sicily in a luxury resort in Thailand. You play the German hotel manager Fabian. What is special about your role?

Fabian tries to find his inner center in distant Thailand, but is far from it. But that is exactly the comedic potential of this figure. If director Mike White knows who should play what role, the character will be adjusted again. And my role as a Fabian developed amazingly during the shoot, there were new scope for me. It's all at the level of the first two seasons, black humor and unique characters watched with a clever.

They have been awarded many times for their acting talent. You could say that if Friedel participates, it has to be demanding.

That is also important to me and I think about which project I am promising. I play theater, make music and make films. Fortunately, I can be more selective when choosing my jobs. Some in my environment warned me about it, said that I should only focus on films because I would make a career faster. But because I wanted to be more selective, I was also lucky enough to be filled for the role in The Zone of Interest. So I wasn't the face already overpredented in the heads of the directors.

How was the collaboration in The White Lotus with her colleague Patrick Schwarzenegger, who adorns our cover?

We saw each other almost every day at breakfast. It was like on a fun school trip. I got on well with Patrick. And of course he told me that he is often in Germany, for example at the Oktoberfest. Or also in Austria, where his father Arnold Schwarzenegger originally comes from. And that he speaks a little German. We then talked a little, but his German is limited. A super likeable type.

In The Zone of Interest I had to keep my eyes and ears again because it was not to be endured emotionally. As a viewer, it took me days to get back into my everyday life. How long did you take to get out of the Höß role?

It was the first time in my career that it was very difficult for me to get rid of a role and shake it out of my body. When I was shooting, I also had a panic attack for the first time in my life. My body reacted extremely to what I played. The responsibility towards the victims, the location, the role you play, the subtexts you have in your head, but which you could not show as a role. It was an intense cocktail that stored in my body. I was happy, really happy when the film celebrated its premiere and I realized that the shoot was over.

What helped you to process the shooting?

To get into conversation with people, to exchange ideas about the film. As a result, I was able to take out more and more.

How often were further Nazi roles after the Zone of Interest?

Unfortunately too often. There were four or five projects that I all rejected. Even the role of Rudolf Hess was there. I would only have had to change one letter. That was a little too unimaginative for me.

It wasn't her first role as Nazi.

That's right, I was a Nazi in the theater and in a crime scene. Many of my films played during the Third Reich. I played a Jewish character on the run, the resistance fighter Georg Elser and in the white band in a kind of history at that time. They were all great roles, but after The Zone of Interest I had to get out of this time.

They grew up in Magdeburg. How intensely was your history lessons about National Socialism?

Very intense. I had a very good history teacher in the middle school. With us she took the story of the Nazi era very vividly. I still remember it well because it was still very busy after her lessons. My grandparents often told me about their war experiences. Her stories, mixed with my teacher's history lessons, had a strong enlightening effect on me. Above all, as a teenager, I was scared about what terrible things were possible and that this time was not that long ago.

Today, 30 percent choose the AfD in some East German federal states. What triggers this with you?

I watch that with frightened. But it's not just an East German problem. It may be more visible in East Germany, but there is a shift to the right throughout Germany and also in Europe. There is great dissatisfaction. For me as an East German, the frustration of many people is understandable to a certain extent because I also found in my own family that reunification, as important as it was and is, was not really well thought out. This great dissatisfaction has led to no confidence in politics. But it is all the more frightening that a party like the AfD receives this recognition as a populist and right strength.

Who is responsible for this situation?

This is complex and it is also partially the fault of a very weak government, which then broke apart last year. But the question is why it is possible that a party like the AfD becomes so strong. I have the feeling that mistakes are not processed by the parties. Not everything went properly in Corona pandemic. I understand that politics was overwhelmed. But it would have been smart to name the mistakes instead of ignoring the people and their open questions. Just stepping back five years later, as if nothing had happened, people make people angry.

There are many who are annoyed and disappointed with current politics, but they still do not choose the AfD.

Also because they know that there are no simple answers to difficult questions, how the AfD suggests. Many people do not see this complexity if they don't really want to admit. But don't see that. Therefore, the democratic parties must be all the more transparent so that trust in them increases again. With the attitude, you don't have to choose the AfD, we do this for you, you don't win back people. I personally cannot understand that the AfD is chosen. But there are people who don't know where to go with their fear, with their frustration. You have not seen the feeling that you are not heard. And the AfD tells them: we hear you, we'll see you. And unfortunately they fall in that.

How do we manage to pull these people back on the democratic side?

 We live at a time when there are apparently only two sides, right or wrong, black or white. But the truth is often in the middle. And we only find them when we communicate. We are all duty. We have to talk to each other. We should be allowed to have different attitudes and try to solve problems. I now sound like a politician, but there is no other way. Listening to the other is not that difficult.

Does it help you in these political times, to get out of reality and to get into a role?

Oh, yes. The nice thing about my job is that as an actor I am more of a kind of cover that I can fill out while turning. The role crawls into my subconscious and I take an attitude. I hope in each of my films that people are inspired and get involved. But I don't want to instruct them, I am not entitled to that. And that's why I don't want to take myself too important. I notice that we live at a time when people are happy about it when you perceive the attitude of someone else, but are left to you how to deal with this attitude.

In addition to film and theater, they also make music with their band Woods of Birnam. Are many different stages for you an advantage or a disadvantage?

A total advantage. But of course it is a big, complicated and sometimes stressful organization to combine everything. The music may be my most personal means of expression. And if the different areas sometimes overlap or work with each other, it is perfect. An absolute feeling of happiness.

What is the biggest difference between your work as an actor and as a musician?

The decision on how the film is cut is not in my hands. That gives me a certain protection as an actor. But I don't have this protective coat in music. I also put a lot of myself into the characters, but it remains my secret of what is of me or what played. Music is more direct because the texts are very personal. When I make music, I put my protective coat off.

And now they have also discovered fashion for themselves!

Yes, that's completely new to me. And then you suddenly stand there and don't know what to wear. I didn't really feel like it in the past and always found shootings a bit silly. But playing with fashion and realizing what she does with you and that she makes something out of you is fascinating. You feel the fabric as it feels on the skin, and suddenly the posture changes.