Hape Kerkeling doubts that his best-known figure, Horst Schlämmer, would still be accepted today. “I doubt whether it would still work like Horst Schlämmer today,” said the 58-year-old comedian, actor and author on Thursday evening on the program “Maybrit Illner” on ZDF.
“I think the laughter would get stuck in people’s throats. You couldn’t bring it any longer.” The newspaper reporter Schlämmer with overbite and gasping is the “prototype white old man” for Kerkeling.
Kerkeling said in the panel discussion with the topic “Freedom only for my opinion” that it must remain possible for a heterosexual man to play a homosexual man or for a man to play a woman. “That’s what makes an actor’s job.” He also finds it problematic that foreigners living in Germany can now only be portrayed without an accent, because otherwise one would be exposed to accusations of discrimination. “It’s at the expense of art,” he said. With all of these changes, you should proceed “at a leisurely pace” and try to take as many people with you as possible.
Kerkeling also reported on the show that he and his husband had moved from Berlin to Cologne. “The atmosphere has become significantly more homophobic, and accordingly we decided to leave Berlin with a heavy heart and go back to Cologne, which we have not regretted so far.”
