Everyone loves Verena Altenberger! She talks to Elle about her role as JS Bach's forgotten wife and how she celebrates Christmas

It's cold in Salzburg. Drizzle. But the Hotel Sacher feels like a hug and Verena Altenberger is also beaming in her light blue cashmere sweater. When we order, we briefly suspect that the 37-year-old, who became famous in the film “The Best of All Worlds” (2017), comes from the mountains nearby. Then your standard German returns. That's easy - after all, the actress, who is firmly committed to the Burgtheater Vienna ("Looking into the Souls of the Gods"), speaks seven languages...

Verena Altenberger:Since I can remember, yes! I actually don't know why. Nobody in my family does anything artistic for a living. And where I come from, the Salzburg mountains, there was hardly any. Maybe it was because this job is a kind of escape from patterns that are too narrow. In a village you can easily get looked at strangely. When it comes to female artists, it’s like, “Oh, leave them alone. That’s just how they are…”

VA:One cannot say that it was significantly written down. But I am always a strong advocate for my characters. And I'll put it this way - with female roles, there's often more that you have to work for before the role has real meat. Right from the start I was sure that I had a strong ally at my side in Florian Baxmeyer; I especially remembered his female roles in the Netflix series “Tribes of Europa”. I hope we managed to show Anna Magdalena the way she deserves!

VA:The film takes place in 1734, when the Christmas oratorio was created, and there are these two people, Anna Magdalena and her husband Johann Sebastian. Today he has a huge honorary grave in St. Thomas Church. Her memory was treated far less honorably. For a long time she was exclusively “the woman of”. She was by far the bigger star at the time! Has sung at the courts where he applied and was then rejected. At times she earned more, composed music herself and “just by the way” had 13 children. An incredible woman!

VA:Exactly! And there are also discussions in research about two other well-known works by Bach that should actually be attributed to Anna Magdalena. But that is a separate topic.

VA:You should ask the bourgeoisie that... Not where I come from. We have the devotional yodeler(laughs).

VA:I love thatto celebrate! During this time, holy water is first sprinkled in the apartment and then incense is thrown into every corner and the evil and old things are thrown out. You wish something for the New Year, for example in the hallway, that happy visitors always come. Where I come from it is also said that the dead and the living are closer in the rough nights. This leads to more people dying. Because it's easier to come across. My mother died on Christmas. She stuck to it.

VA:I have a little arachnophobia. I couldn't let a big spider crawl over me.

VA:I never expected it, but yes, it was extreme. Suddenly I was no longer seen as a woman. Where before I sometimes received rather sexualized, unpleasant looks, the men then became openly aggressive. Interesting, because shaving off hair has often been a shameful act in history. For example, with women who had affairs with enemy soldiers during the Second World War or during the witch hunt.

VA:To be honest, this is the case with almost all of my roles. Not because their lives are so great. But I love being able to give myself 100 percent on set. During this time I have no problems, I have no emails, not even relationships. I'm just this other person - it's so liberating. So it always feels terrible to stop. Because it's like someone disappears and you don't know if you'll see each other again.

“Bach – a Christmas Miracle” has been available in the ARD media library since December 13th and will be broadcast on First on December 18th at 8:15 p.m.