{"id":298517,"date":"2026-02-14T23:42:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T23:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/298517\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T23:42:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T23:42:07","slug":"sandra-huller-on-playing-a-woman-playing-a-man-in-rose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/298517\/","title":{"rendered":"Sandra H\u00fcller on Playing a Woman Playing a Man in ‘Rose’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe world is about to see a lot more of Sandra H\u00fcller<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe acclaimed German actress<\/a>, Oscar-nominated for Anatomy of a Fall, whose long line of European arthouse triumphs includes Jonathan Glazer\u2019s The Zone of Interest <\/a>(2023), Maren Ade\u2019s Toni Erdmann (2016), and Hans-Christian Schmid\u2019s Requiem (2006), is about to have a very big year, starring alongside Tom Cruise<\/a> in Alejandro G. I\u00f1\u00e1rritu\u2019s hotly anticipated dramedy Digger<\/a>, and together with Ryan Gosling<\/a> in the sci-fi feature Project Hail Mary<\/a> from Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. <\/p>\n

\n\tBut before you think H\u00fcller has gone Hollywood, she is returning to the terrain that made her reputation. Markus Schleinzer\u2019s stark black-and-white period drama Rose finds H\u00fcller once again pushing herself to extremes. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe film is set in the aftermath of the brutal Thirty Years\u2019 War (1618-1648), in which the death toll in some regions of Germany topped 50 percent of the population. H\u00fcller plays a scarred, taciturn soldier, a woman who has long lived disguised as a man. She arrives at a small village to claim a long-abandoned farm, presenting herself as the long-lost son of the owner. With time, the suspicious, deeply religious villagers begin to slowly accept this hard-working, God-fearing man. But Rose lives under constant fear of her lie being exposed, with potentially deadly consequences. <\/p>\n

\n\tInspired by real historical cases, Rose is the third feature from Austrian director Markus Schleinzer following Cannes competition title Michael (2011) and Angelo (2018), which premiered in Toronto.<\/p>\n

\n\tH\u00fcller spoke to The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the film\u2019s world premiere in competition in Berlin<\/a> about taking on one of the most demanding roles of her career, how this 17th-century story speaks to the present moment, and what she\u2019s learned working with Cruise and co..<\/p>\n

\n\tHow did you come to be involved in the film, and what interested you about Rose?<\/p>\n

\n\tMarkus [Schleinzer] asked me if I wanted to play it. I read the script and found it very interesting. I liked the idea of portraying someone like this and of the possibility of creating a kind of monument, a testament to her. I also wanted to know whether I could pull it off. Because I found it genuinely challenging to play someone who disguises themselves like this and has this life story. It wasn\u2019t something I\u2019d done before.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo that interested me. I was also interested in Markus\u2019 way of working, and in the period the film is set in \u2014 the time after the Thirty Years\u2019 War \u2014 which I don\u2019t think I\u2019d really explored in film before.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u2018The Zone of Interest\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of A24<\/p>\n

\n\tYou\u2019ve played male roles on stage before, including Hamlet, famously. What was the main challenge for you in slipping into the role of Rose? <\/p>\n

\n\tIn theater, taking on a male role is something different than in film. [On stage], it\u2019s clear I\u2019m a female actor playing the role, and you can approach it on different levels other than the realistic one we\u2019re dealing with in this film. Especially here, where the character\u2019s life is in danger if she\u2019s discovered. That creates a different tension, and it\u2019s a different task [as an actor] both physically and mentally. So this was riskier, and that made it an interesting exploration to find out what\u2019s actually required [to play the role].<\/p>\n

\n\tHow did you build your character?<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat helped enormously were [costume designer] Doris Bartelt\u2019s outfits \u2014 they were incredibly precise and helpful. They were like armor. There were many different layers that I had to put on every morning, from the chest binding to \u201cthe horn\u201d [penis prosthetic] that I always always wore, to the padding over the entire body, so any female form was no longer visible. It was a whole ritual. And of course, it helped to apply the makeup every morning with [makeup artist] Anette Keiser to transform my face. I also tried to find a different stability, a different calm and focus, to conceal the fear of being discovered. That was probably my main work.<\/p>\n

\n\tRose doesn\u2019t have much dialogue; most of the film is in the movement, the glances. Did you consciously think about how to move as a woman disguised as a man?<\/p>\n

\n\tThe costume already dictates certain movements \u2014 the shoes, how heavy they are, how big they are, everything you\u2019re wearing. But it was also about finding a certain calmness in my movement, with no hectic gestures. That helped a lot. <\/p>\n

\n\tBut when I look at men, they move very differently, too. There isn\u2019t one single male way of moving. There are clich\u00e9s, of course, which I tried to avoid. For me, it was more about calmness and thoughtfulness, about Rose always having a sense of what\u2019s happening around her and where danger might lurk \u2014 aside from the fact that she\u2019s also a traumatized person who\u2019s experienced war, which also affects people.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat was the hardest thing for you about stepping into this role?<\/p>\n

\n\tTechnically, what I found hardest was that we shot in two parts \u2014 spring and summer, then winter. Staying connected to the story over such a long break and then re-entering it was difficult, also because of the weather conditions. Otherwise, Rose keeps a lot inside. Very little of what moves her comes out. Maintaining that focus, holding everything in, letting very little show \u2014 the disguise she\u2019s literally trapped in \u2014 that was emotionally challenging.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis film was shot entirely on location, in eastern Germany and Austria. What was Markus Schleinzer\u2019s approach to directing?<\/p>\n

\n\tHe\u2019s not just someone who writes a script and then directs it \u2014 he builds an entire world. I found the conditions Markus and the team created for it spectacular. All the houses were actually built; they really existed, built by our set designers, and you could move around in them and use them. All the prerequisites were created so you really had the feeling of being in that time and place.<\/p>\n

\n\tMarkus cared about the fields not being harvested, about little landscape maintenance in the places where we shot, so it would look more like it did back then. Of course, a lot of it could have been shot in a studio, but he didn\u2019t want that. He wanted us to actually be in that place, to walk those paths. It was important to him that the barn really existed, that there was a real pig. All the animals were real. That\u2019s part of Markus\u2019 process, and it\u2019s incredibly impressive.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSandra H\u00fcller, courtesy of Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tWas that comparable to the experience on The Zone of Interest, where you were also moving through real houses and spaces?<\/p>\n

\n\tNo, mainly because of the camera work. On The Zone of Interest, we were basically left alone; we weren\u2019t, to use a harsh word, bothered by the camera. Here it was different \u2014 it was shot in black and white, with a lot of artificial light. On The Zone of Interest, we shot entirely without artificial light, only daylight or candlelight. The preparation time for each take in Rose was much longer.<\/p>\n

\n\tRose\u2019s story is based on many real, documented cases of women who lived as men in 17th-century Germany and Austria. I find it interesting that films like this, or like The Devil\u2019s Bath<\/a> (2024), are revisiting the past, based on facts that were ignored, to offer a new interpretation of history.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt shows how diverse that time actually was. There were many different people living under different circumstances and constellations \u2014 that\u2019s what\u2019s great about it. Nothing is being reinterpreted here; it\u2019s just one version of reality that existed alongside many others.<\/p>\n

\n\tDo you think that perspective on the past can have a special relevance for today?<\/p>\n

\n\tYou don\u2019t make a film like this today without a reason. We live in a time when the freedom of people who don\u2019t fit into a certain mold is once again massively threatened. Showing that 300 or 400 years ago, people had to hide like this just to survive or to have a right to their own life is a warning. If we continue like this, there\u2019s a danger that these kinds of constraints will return. I don\u2019t want that \u2014 not for myself, not for anyone on this planet. Every person has a place in this world; that\u2019s a human right, a universal right. So this film isn\u2019t made without reason. It\u2019s also about how two people can find each other when they truly show themselves \u2014 how much of your supposed identity you have to shed to really meet someone. The film has many layers, and I find that wonderful and very modern.<\/p>\n

\n\tSince your success with Anatomy of a Fall and Zone of Interest, you\u2019ve taken on international<\/a> roles. You\u2019re starring in the upcoming films Digger<\/a>, alongside Tom Cruise, and Project Hail Mary<\/a> with Ryan Gosling. What have you learned working on these bigger projects?<\/p>\n

\n\tI can\u2019t talk about the work itself yet, I\u2019m not allowed to. But personally, I learned that I can function in those contexts \u2014 I didn\u2019t know if I would be able to beforehand. You don\u2019t know whether you\u2019ll be unable to sleep from fear, arrive on set drenched in sweat, and forget your lines because you\u2019re starstruck. But it works, and it\u2019s fun.<\/p>\n

\n\tI also learned that not everything always has to be motivated from the inside; Sometimes you can simply assert something, perform. As long as the director finds it credible, it\u2019s credible. It doesn\u2019t always have to align with my own sense of truth. And I learned I can function under great pressure \u2014 but I actually knew that already.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow are you choosing your projects now?<\/p>\n

\n\tI still basically do what interests me. Where it comes from doesn\u2019t really matter.<\/p>\n

\n\tAre you managing to keep a balance between work and private life?<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019ve done many things I\u2019d never done before, and I always like it when I can learn something new. But I still live in the same place [at her home in Leipzig], and things are pretty much the same. When it comes to balance, that\u2019s what I\u2019m reestablishing right now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The world is about to see a lot more of Sandra H\u00fcller. The acclaimed German actress, Oscar-nominated for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[27235,139246,141667,93,61,1042,60,270,22822,141668,5592],"class_list":{"0":"post-298517","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-berlin","9":"tag-berlinale","10":"tag-berlinale-2026","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-international","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-movies","16":"tag-ryan-gosling","17":"tag-sandra-hu00fcller","18":"tag-tom-cruise"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}