The controversial feminist and “Emma” publisher Alice Schwarzer celebrates her 80th birthday on December 3rd. On this occasion, the first is showing the two-part TV film “Alice” with Nina Gummich (31, “Charité”) in the title role, which is well worth seeing.
The two-parter tells about the life of Alice Schwarzer, who was born in Wuppertal. She wants to be a journalist, moves to Paris in the 1960s and lives there for a long time with her first great love, Bruno Pietzsch (played by Thomas Guenè). In the 1970s she was involved in the French women’s movement for equal rights – particularly against the applicable abortion laws – and also worked with the cartoonists of the French satirical magazine “Charlie Hebdo”. In the second part (from 9:45 p.m.) Schwarzer becomes famous through a television appearance with the German-Argentinian anti-feminist Esther Vilar (87, played by Katharina Schüttler, 43) – and becomes one of the most polarizing personalities in Germany. Her opponents pull out all the stops, but she goes on, celebrates success as a feminist bestselling author and finally founds the magazine “Emma”, in which she can combine activism and journalism…
When she was invited to the casting, actress Nina Gummich knew that she wasn’t looking for just any actress for the role, as she explains in an interview with spot on news, and so she pulled out all the stops.
Nina Gummich: It wasn’t easy. I didn’t really have time to prepare because when the call came about casting, I was on vacation and rented a house with a lot of friends and wanted to be with them too. The casting should be one day after the return flight. But that’s not a role where you say: I’ll learn the lines, put on good pants and then I’ll have the thing. It was already clear to me that they were looking for an actress who was immediately convincing in terms of looks and language.
And so I started to query my entire network from my vacation spot. I asked the makeup artist to cut my hair as soon as I landed. We then did that at night. I asked the costume designer if she could choose a suitable costume for me. That also worked. I was really flabbergasted and thankful for how many people I have around me who are unconditionally willing to help me and got involved so spontaneously.
Gummich: Alice Schwarzer had a say in three roles. Once, of course, with the main character, then with regard to her great love Bruno in the first part, with whom she was together for ten years and also lived in Paris. And in the role of Ursula, her first friend, with whom she will be together in part two. Alice Schwarzer’s condition was that, above all, she wasn’t put in front of just any actress who she was only allowed to nod. She wanted to see at least three women and meet them privately.
I then auditioned a second time and had learned six pages of French because I also have to speak a lot of French in the film. After that, Alice Schwarzer apparently immediately called the editor and told her that she wasn’t ready to cast another actress. I didn’t know anything about it at the time. After a few weeks it was finally clear that I would play the role.
Gummich: When I first met Alice Schwarzer in person, she gave me a stack of books to read in order to understand her. But it wasn’t clear then that I would get the role. And so I had the choice between ignoring stacks of books to protect myself or giving in to the impulse because I just wanted to engage with it. I decided to read myself in, even if I would have invested four weeks in vain.
Gummich: Three days after the first casting, I received an email that just said Alice Schwarzer would like to meet me for dinner. I didn’t know what that meant now, whether they chose me or just want to test me. I then drove to Cologne to meet her in her tower and I was more excited than any date in my life.
Gummich: Alice and the editor were bent over a Paris plan behind the glass pane in their office and were discussing something for the shooting. The “Emma” employees welcomed me and were surprisingly excited because from their perspective a well-known actress was walking in. I wasn’t aware of that up to that point. We all got along well straight away.
And then Alice came out of her office and said: “This is Nina Gummich, my leading actress – at least I hope so. I’m not going to beat around the bush: I’ve looked at thousands, I liked you the best. And now I’ll ask the uncomfortable question first: Why do you want to do this?” Of course I was prepared for the question – and apparently it was the right answer. She then said: “You have recognized my nature.” That touched me very much.
Gummich: Because that’s something different than just imitating someone. The goal with a role like this is, of course, that everything I observe on the outside – how she speaks, how she laughs, how she brushes her bangs – uses it to understand the essence of the person so that I can understand it from the inside out can play and it doesn’t remain a counterfeit shell. If someone feels recognized in their nature, then that is something very beautiful and special. And I also had the feeling that I had access to her essence and that I was able to embody it.
Gummich: What’s typically Saxon about me is that I always have to be careful that my dialect doesn’t shine through. And every time I’m shooting for the crime series “Theresa Wolff” in Jena, Thuringia, I think: Oh how nice, now you can let go and just talk like you do. And with “Alice” it was of course a particularly big task not to let that shine through and to steer everything towards Wuppertal.
