German actor Nina Hoss: ‘London is more driven. In the theatre, people are full of positive energy’

The star of Homeland and Tár on performing In The Cherry Orchard at the Donmar, working with Cate Blanchett, her Green party upbringing, and acting in a second language

Nina Hoss, 48, is a German actor who won international acclaim for her role as Sharon Goodnow in Tár (2022), playing opposite Cate Blanchett. She was cast as a first violinist/wife in that film partly because of an unforgettable performance as a music teacher in Ina Weisse’s movie The Audition (2019), and is familiar to fans of Homeland for her role as German intelligence officer Astrid. She is about to make her London stage debut as Mme Ranevskaya in The Cherry Orchard at London’s Donmar Warehouse, directed by Benedict Andrews.

How will you set about making Mme Ranevskaya your own?
I’m just starting the third week of rehearsals and making new discoveries every day. How Benedict Andrews works is unusual in that we don’t fix anything; he encourages us to keep surprising one another as characters. I love doing this but it is daunting because you have no safety net. We’re together as a group throughout the day and watch and comment, usually positively, on one another’s ideas. We learn what works, what doesn’t. In a more conventional rehearsal, you might note the shift in which a mood changes and try to pin that down in order to keep returning to it. Here, not at all. At this stage, nothing is fixed. But by doing it again and again, we’ll find a certain rhythm. I know I have to be open to everyone around me.

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