Actor Ulrich Matthes (62) had decided not to play National Socialists in films anymore – he has now made an exception for a new thriller.
In the film “Munich – In the View of War” he can be seen as the dictator Adolf Hitler. That was also due to a coincidence, as Matthes told the German Press Agency.
Actor Jeremy Irons suddenly asked him – over an afternoon coffee with director Volker Schlöndorff: “Uli, do you want to play Hitler?” At the time, Martin Wuttke had left the current shooting for personal reasons. “And then I was a bit taken aback at first,” said Matthes.
After the casting, director Christian Schwochow called him in the evening and said: “Well, those responsible for Netflix are also there for you to play it. There is only the curious disadvantage that you will be picked up early tomorrow morning for your first day of shooting.” That gave him a real shock.
Matthes said yes anyway and justifies it today with his appreciation for the director, a great screenplay and the fact that Hitler only has a supporting role in the film.
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The thriller, which can be seen on Netflix from Friday (January 21), tells how the Munich Agreement came about in 1938. It was about the future of the Sudetenland. Irons plays British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.
Matthes has already acted in the historical drama “Der Untergang” (2004). After that he was sure he didn’t want to play Nazis anymore. “Because I basically try to keep the characters I play open to the widest possible range of audience interpretations,” Matthes said. The kind of inconsistency that he usually strives for in his characters is absent with such mass murderers as Hitler.
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