Sitting in Idan Weiss’ drafts folder is an email to his agent. He declares he’s going to quit acting.

The young German actor, working in experimental theater, wasn’t having much luck with auditions. He felt stuck in artistic limbo: committed enough to the craft that he understood its power, but too ambitious to be put in any neat box. “I think acting is not about staying comfortable,” Weiss muses to The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s the opposite.”

Six weeks after Weiss wrote this once-and-for-all note to his agent — which, he admits, was left unsent (“You never know!”) — he heard from legendary German casting director Simone Bär, who thought Weiss was a good match, physically and spiritually, for the titular role in Agnieszka Holland‘s upcoming Kafka biopic Franz.

Granted, Weiss is a dead ringer for the celebrated Czech novelist. But the bond he soon established with the Polish filmmaker transcended his dark hair and lean frame: “She had a connection to me and I had a connection to her,” Weiss tells THR about meeting Holland. “Sometimes there are these moments where magic has happened.”

The magic conjured in this creative partnership has now turned the once-entirely-unknown Weiss into an Oscar hopeful. Holland’s innovative, fragmented portrait of the cultural visionary debuted in Toronto and nabbed coveted spots at a spate of European festivals, before it was tapped to represent Poland for best international feature film at the 2026 Academy Awards.

Holland — who in November was hosted at a THR Frontrunners panel in London, where she detailed crafting this project and how her relationship with Kafka has evolved — describes Weiss as Bär’s “last gift to cinema,” following the casting director’s death in 2023 from cancer.

Below, in one of his first interviews since becoming a rising star of European film, Weiss discusses joining an exclusive group of actors that have portrayed Franz Kafka on screen. He details why Holland had him watching Rafael Nadal play tennis in preparation, locking himself in his Hamburg flat and the doors that have opened as a result of Franz: “I have to be honest. This movie changed my my life.”

Idan, how did this all begin for you?

It was a crazy time actually. I always did acting — I come from theater, experimental theater and performance theater. I almost tried to do movies and go into [it] a different way, but it never really happened. I had, like, over 180 auditions. Everybody said no to me, and it didn’t work out. And then there was this casting from Simone Bär, a very famous casting director. She wrote to my agent: “Hey, we have a role for Idan. Maybe he can do a .” It was very nice. We got in touch and everything. And then I did the audition.

What’s very funny [is] six weeks before I did the audition, I wrote my agent an email that I’m quitting acting because I was done with it. I did so many auditions. I mean, I never gave up, but it’s still in your head. It’s still running: “Maybe one day.” You never know, so I didn’t send the email to her. It was still in the [drafts]. Then I did the audition, and I met Agnieszka. She’s sitting on the floor and looking [at] me: “Hey, nice to meet you.” I had a connection to Kafka, and she had a connection to me, I had a connection to her. Sometimes there are these moments where magic has happened. Then you’re realizing it and you’re enjoying it.

Agnieszka mentioned at our THR Frontrunners panel this physical resemblance between you and Kafka, but she also said you had this soul and creative spirit that she was looking for. What do you think that was — your experience in theater? Your own relationship with Kafka?

When I read his books, I felt a weird connection to them. I love books that get out of the normal. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s like when I’m reading Dostoyevsky or Chekhov… people who are really interesting to me, personally. So I don’t know which way, but I directly felt the connection somehow, and then I had time for preparation. I tried to do a lot with my body, to work with my body, to create ticks and everything. I wouldn’t say that I played him, you know? It was more the feeling — to search for him, because, I mean, how can you play a character who died? It’s a great question. So I really tried to get very close to him. Agnieszka and me, we searched for him together during the shoot. Every day we got a bit closer to him.

Weiss as Franz Kafka in ‘Franz.’

Courtesy of TIFF

What’s your first memory of Kafka — your introduction to him?

When I read his book The Castle. I think he has a very, very great sense of humor. At the same time, it’s very melancholic. After reading the first book and the next book, I really felt that he’s a very funny and intelligent man. He built his own world somehow. So that was very interesting for me. [Yet], I realized that Kafka got a mark somehow as a depressive, crazy writer, and he was much more than this. He was very happy, he was very sensitive, and he thinks differently. He feels differently. It’s the same with us human beings. We are all sensitive and we all have feelings and we are all connected to the world differently. So it was interesting for me to realize how similar we all are.

He’s also, famously, a very elusive writer. And as you said, it’s so hard to portray any historical figure. What conversations did you and Agnieszka have about the Kafka you wanted to depict?

Agneiszka and I, we had conversations about some scenes or what Kafka means to her. At the same time, I tried to tell her what I think about him. We built something up — how we could go, together, through this movie and the ideas we have. We collected ideas. She mentioned Rafael Nadal, the tennis player, [and said] that he has some ticks and maybe I should look at how he plays tennis and his ticks. [Laughs.]

I realized that I have to go out of my comfort zone, because that’s what I’m thinking as an actor: you have to go out of your comfort zone. You have to be uncomfortable, have to be weird or whatever. I think acting is not about staying comfortable. It’s the opposite. So I really try to think, “What can I do?” And I tried to get [to] that darkness as well. I had a dialect coach for Czech, I learned Czech for five months, [did] rowing, read every book of his. I locked myself in my flat in Hamburg to get that feeling of dark energy somehow. I mean, not to go into a depressive character, but to go into a dark character. Every dark character has a kind of emptiness or sadness in a way. For me, it helped me a lot to just go out when the daylight was gone. [Laughs.] I really tried to create something interesting for the audience, not just for me to play.

Do you feel like you understand him, or know him better now you’ve embodied him?

I think I learned one thing from him, and that is to stay awake. No matter how hard times [are] or how rough your life can be, it is always so important to stay awake, look around you and realize that everything can happen at any moment. Keep on going, no matter what comes against you or what people think about you. Obviously, he was writing every time [something happened to him].

Talk to me about that experience of being on your first film set — with Agnieszka Holland of all people. Was it a very different life to being on stage?

One word: overwhelming! [Laughs.] No, to be honest, it was a fucking amazing experience. Because I come from theater and I learned so much from theater, and now I just want to make movies and to get a different kind of audience at the same time. To work with Agnieszka… she creates that kind of high-energy atmosphere [and] at the same time, you have so much freedom for improvisation and talking about the scenes. It was great, actually, that combination. You know you can do whatever you want, but there’s a script which is very important. Agnieszka opens the space to talk about things… And that was a really great experience. I love the camera work. The camera man, he’s just so talented and he had so much freedom in his head. I think him and Agnieszka really created that kind of shooting experience. I’m looking forward more to my next projects now. I’m very lucky.

It is such clever camera work. I loved the surrealism: the dramatization of In the Penal Colony and jumps forward to modern day, where we saw Franz Kafka the commercial brand in 2025. Would he be mortified by the commodification of his legacy?

You never know. [Laughs]. No, it’s very important to tell what Agnieszka was trying to tell: those people who are doing something different and, when they die, they’re [becoming] a brand, which is so ironic. Max Brod published all of [Kafka’s] books. He never wanted the books getting published in any way and wanted the books burned. I think life can be so ironic, so Agnieszka wanted to try and tell that a bit, but also there was one sentence she said in an interview which I really resonated with. She said that, actually, we live in a time where people are getting less and less important. They are fitting more into the system. I think that’s about Kafka, in a way. At the end of the day, he’s just a sensitive human being who’s trying to connect with the world, who is looking for someone who understands him, and none of that happened.

So somehow, the movie gives hope, because so many people can connect differently to it. Also the father and son relationship is in every family and a very interesting topic — you also can [apply] it to a daughter and father relationship… But I think for Agnieszka, [Kafka] was kind of a childhood hero. Maybe it’s her last movie, she told me.

I certainly hope not… What do you think his relevance is today? Why is this such an important film to be out in the world right now?

I think that so many young people can connect to him, because now we are in times where social media has taken over. Social media is to show yourself, to promote yourself and people are looking to find people who understand them. Kafka was the same. That’s why everyone is somehow connected to the movie and to Kafka, because… he just wanted to be understood. All the young people who grew up during the COVID times and are in school now and on Instagram — we and they are just looking for attention; to be understood.

To go from anonymity to Franz… How have you found the attention?

Overwhelming! [Laughs.] No, it’s a great experience, to have your first role, first movie [be] an international movie in different languages and all. You can show so much of your soul and try so many [different things]. I appreciate it. I’m very thankful for that. To get this kind of attention, for me personally, is very confusing. But to get this kind of acceptance for what you did is really heartwarming. To [go to] all those movie festivals, it’s great and overwhelming for sure. But the last three months were completely crazy looking back now.

Can you talk to me about anything that you have lined up? Has this opened a lot of a lot of doors?

Yeah, I have to be honest: This movie changed my my life. I’m getting very interesting roles now. When I did all the auditions, I had so many different different castings because nobody could put me in a box and say, “Okay, it’s Idan. He can play this.” So I’d get so many different kind of castings, it’s crazy. But now I can play with that. Everyone is like, “Okay, Idan can be everything,” and that’s great.

I have a great movie called Save Our Souls. It’s my first English movie, and it’s an eco-thriller drama about three young people who are committing suicide together on a container ship as a climate protest. The script is amazing and the director is a friend of mine. I think it’s great movie. I’m getting out of my comfort zone. That’s [what] it’s all about, at the end of the day.