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Background:
"I always performed when I was a child. My parents got very annoyed, because my
brother and I had our little bedrooms upstairs, and I would plaster the house
with posters with arrows pointing upstairs: if it was Easter, the signs said,
"Easter Show!" Or for Christmas, "Santa Claus Show!" We'd put up dances and
performances. Without being conscious about it, I had to do it. It wasn't a
choice." Franka Potente
German actress Franka Potente was launched as an international star after
portraying the hot pink haired Lola in the small-budget German film Run Lola Run
(1998) for director Tom Tykwer. In addition to earning worldwide recognition,
she nabbed such awards as a Bambi Award, an International Biennal Award and a
German Film Award. She continued to impress American viewers as Johnny Depp's
drug-running lover in Blow (2001) and Matt Damon's love interest in the popular
The Bourne Identity (2002) and its continuation The Bourne Supremacy (2004).
Potente will soon play roles in the upcoming Elementarteilchen (2006) and Steven
Soderbergh's epic Che (2006).
Before being recognized internationally, Potente, with her trade mark of
ever-changing hair color, had built a solid career in her native speaking
country. In 1996, she was handed a Bavarian Film Award for her bravura work in
her debut film It's a Jungle Out There. A year later, Potente turned the heads
of film critics after playing Gabrielle Becker in the made-for-TV film Opera
Ball (1997), in which she took home a 1998 Bavarian TV Award. In the more recent
film, she delivered well-received performances in the horror Anatomy (2000) and
Tykwer's The Princess and the Warrior (2000), in which she nabbed a 2000 German
Film Award.
Off screen, Potente, which means powerful in Italian and Spanish, was listed as
one of European Film Promotion's 'Shooting Stars' in 1998. She was one of jury
members at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2005. As for her private
life, the Germany-born beauty, who speaks fluent French, English and German, is
currently dating actor Elijah Wood. She also had a long-running relationship
with filmmaker Tom Tykwer. (together from 1998-2002).
Small Town Girl
Childhood and Family:
Raised as the oldest of two siblings to a school teacher father and a an medical
assistant mother, Franka Potente was born on July 22, 1974, in the nearby small
town of Dülmen, Germany. Due to her father's occupation, Franka had to move
quite often from one small town to anther while growing up.
An outgoing girl, Franka was known by her high school pears as the class clown,
the one who frequently was chosen as class spokesperson. Franka once stated that
she often behaved like a clown and arranged performances to get more attention
because of her jealousy to her younger brother Stefan who was very sick and
earned much more notice than her.
Franka started training as an actress during high-school years in Germany and
went on to revise her skill outside her native country, in Houston, Texas, while
completing her last year of high school as an exchange student in Humble High
School. Back to Germany, she spent a two-year studying (1994-1996) at the
Munich's Otto Falkenberg School of Performing Arts in Munich and completed her
last year of training in the US, taking lessons at the Lee Strasberg Theater
Institute in New York City.
The Bourne Identity
Career:
Dreaming of becoming an actress since childhood, Franka Potente got her first
taste in front of the camera in 1995 when she contributed to the student movie
Aufbruch. While still studying at Munich's Otto Falkenberg School of Performing
Arts, Potente made a professional acting debut in the German production of It's
a Jungle Out There after being discovered by a casting agent in a public
restroom in Munich. The television film, helmed by Hans Christian Schmid,
received positive response and quickly made its way into theaters. As for
Potente, her brilliant starring turn as Anna was much-admired by many critics
and handed her a Bavarian Film for Best Young Actress in 1996.
Upon completing her last year of training in the US, Potente returned home in
1997 and kept herself busy with a number of small screen and film projects in
both French and German productions. After headlining the made-for-TV movie
special Coming In (1997), the fledgling actress once again amazed German
audiences for her bright portrayal of Gabrielle Becker in television film Opera
Ball (1997), for which she netted a Bavarian TV in 1998.
Potente's international breakthrough arrived in 1998 when she was cast as the
hot red headed titular role in Run Lola Run, a film about fortune and destiny
and how one tiny moment could change the "happenings" in someone's life. The
movie saw Potente's character runs through town frantically attempting to gather
money to save her boyfriend Mani. Delivering an outstanding performance, she
received critical kudos, as well as won such awards as a 1998 Bambi, an
International Biennal, and a 1999 Audience for German Actress of the Year.
Directed and written by her lover Tom Tykwer, Run Lola Run became a huge hit in
Germany and a sleeper hit in America. As for Potente and Tykwer, they were
hailed as one of the European cinema's most exciting new talents.
Following the massive triumph, Potente's doors to the Hollywood cinematic
industry was flung open but she preferred working in her native language. She
picked up the leads in movies like Am I Beautiful? (1998), Downhill City (1999),
Our Island in the South Pacific (1999) and Paradise Mall (1999). She offered
good turns as med student Paula Henning in the horror Anatomy (2000) and
psychological hospital nurse Simone 'Sissi' Schmidt in Tykwer's The Princess and
the Warrior (2000). The same year, Potente was honored a second German Film,
this time for the 2000's Actress of the Year.
In 2001, Potente finally made American debut film with Ted Demme's cocaine-trade
epic Blow, in which she was cast as Johnny Depp's love interest, the stewardess
Barbara Buckley. After being featured as a film editor in "Nonfiction" segment
of Todd Solondz's Storytelling (2001), Potente's worldwide status further
established when she was signed to star along side Matt Damon in Doug Liman's
The Bourne Idenitity (2002). In the highly-anticipated spy thriller, she
portrayed Marie Kreutz, a woman that Damon's character snatches but soon helps
him as he realized his own lost identity. Potente next costarred with Elijah
Wood and Mandy Moore in the little-seen romantic comedy Try Seventeen (2002),
reprised her role of Paula Hening for the installment of Anatomy 2 (2003),
played a well-liked actress in a story marriage to fame-unfriendly Giovanni
Ribisi in actor Adam Goldberg's directorial debut I Love Your Work (2003) and
played a dual role of Iris Sellin/Siri Sellin in the unique German replica drama
Blueprint (2003). 2004 saw role opposite Madonna and Isabella Rossellini in the
Berlin Film Festival-screened film by Peter Greenaway, The Tulse Luper
Suitcases, Part 2: Vaux to the Sea (2004) before reuniting with Damon for the
popular 2004 sequel The Bourne Supremacy. She also starred in the German film
Creep (2004).
In 2005, Potente spent a great deal of time working behind the camera. She
penned and directed the short movie 'Der die Tollkirsche ausgraebt'. She also
wrote her first book titled "Los Angeles - Berlin. One Year" together with her
good friend, the actor Max Urlacher 2005. The 32-year-old actress will soon back
in front of the camera playing Annabelle in Oskar Roehler's Elementarteilchen
(2006). She is also set to play small role Tamara Bunke in director Steven
Soderbergh's epic Che (2006), a film about Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara.
The film will star Benicio Del Toro, Javier Bardem, Benjamin Bratt and Ryan
Gosling.
Awards:
- German Film: Audience-Award- German Actor/Actress of the Year, 2000
- German Film: German Actor/Actress of the Year, 1999
- International Biennal for Film Music: Special Prize of the German Phono
Academy, Run Lola Run, 1999
- Bambi: Film - National, Run Lola Run, 1998
- Bavarian TV: Opera Ball, 1998
- Bavarian Film: Best Young Actress, It's a Jungle Out There, 1996
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