Daniel Bruhl he always felt like a “stranger”, someone from another place. He was born in Spain, in Barcelona, but his family moved to West Germanyespecially in Cologne when I was a child. After German reunification moved to the East Berlin area from the former Democratic Republic… And then he moved to Barcelona for several years. And he always felt observed, just like the other. And from here, according to observations, his first director’s film was born, Next door…
“The story was born in Barcelona 10 years ago, when I lived in the city, I sat in a restaurant, was very proud that I had my own place on Passeig de Gràcia, and told everyone that I live in Barcelona, that I am from here and play well“, – says the actor and director. Andres Arconada during the interview for This movie on esRadio… But that day “I realized that there is a worker who looked at me and from his look I realized that he didn’t like me“It could very well be ‘a worker working on the façade of a building in the Gràcia area and who can watch me at home from the scaffolding.’
He was referring to the plot, not the script: “I don’t write scripts” and “It was difficult to make a film in Spain.” Years later “I moved from one apartment to another in Berlin and found very Berlin situation, in the patio next door, where I noticed these views. ” Daniel Brühl was already quite well known, in 2003 he became famous all over the world thanks to Goodbye Lenin!, fame, which he cemented with films such as Damn bastards, Quentin Tarantino, in 2009, or Hurry in 2013. His villain in the Marvel Universe in 2016 at Captain America: Civil War He ended up catapulting him.
To ease the views of his new neighbors, “my friends from the east,” he contacted them “so that they would not have these prejudices.” There he returned to pursue an idea born in Barcelona, but exchange “worker for neighbor” because I am fascinated by the stories of the neighbors, what we know about the neighbors and what they know about us. “
On Next door In addition to directing, he plays one of the two main characters, Daniel, a famous actor who travels to the Berlin airport where he lives to take part in a casting in London. superhero blockbuster North American. Indeed, Daniel Brühl laughs at himself in this film. “I’m not like that, this actor’s name is Daniel and I mean the films that I made, but it’s not me, and I had a lot of fun.” In fact, “the writer consulted me and said, but it might hurt, you think I told him, it hurts.”
Thus: “I need a character who represents a certain success, someone from those who do not know their surroundings and who supposedly lives a perfect life, but has lost himself in fame and his ego. “Before leaving for the airport, he decides to have coffee at a bar on the corner of his building to find time. There he will match Bruno (Peter Kurt) a man who has always lived in East Germany, formerly communist Germany, and who has the dark past of a member of the Soviet Stasi… At that meeting, the forgotten reunion participant will take revenge in his own way.
“Talking to my eastern neighbors who lived in the Democratic Republic, I realized that there is a lot of bitterness, disappointment, frustration, a feeling that life and the system are deceiving me.” Even “some say that they were better before, I’m surprised that this continues. these two parts of Germany were not aligned“.
Throughout the film, “I wanted to make the two characters human, not black and white.” In the early drafts of the script “I was too lazy, innocent, and even handsome, and the neighbor cliché of a spy from the east, from the Stasi“But little by little” we polished so that you do not sympathize too much with one or another and so that in the end it would be clear why this person, a neighbor, insists on destroying the actor’s life so much. “
This is how Daniel Bruhl found his story and started making his first film, “without complicating anything from that period or science fiction, I focused on two characters, something almost theatrical.” About him directorial experience He says that the key was to surround yourself with a good team, which he warned: “I’m going to ask you about a hundred thousand things that may seem obvious to you, but I am not going to know.” The team “respected my authority and accepted my decisions because you need to know how to delegate and make everyone responsible.” Next Door is already in theaters.
can also download here in podcast format this is an interview.