Quotes

Leaving [home] is kind of a strange thing - the world opens up but, at the same time, it gets smaller. The more you see of the world, the smaller it seems. After I did the film Stalingrad (1993), I left Germany, and I did a couple of films in France and lived there for about three years, and a couple of films in Italy, and lived there for two years. Then I came over here. The more you get familiar with different countries, the more you think, "Where am I going to live for the rest of my life?" You think, "OK, Germany sucks - don't want to live there; France, no; Italy - the food is nice, but I don't want to live there". In the end, you have nowhere to go anymore.

[on his title role in Eichmann (2007)] I was born long after the war but I still carry this collective guilt around. It's not as much fun for a German to play a part like this than it would be for, say, Ralph Fiennes. It's a very juicy part, but I couldn't get myself excited to go and play Eichmann. Strangely, I have lots of Jewish friends in LA. My wife is Jewish. They were all excited that I play him, so I wanted to do it for them.

I don't let anyone tell me to shut up, but I have never brawled.

[on fleeing the GDR] I ran until I could run no more. It was midnight, I've been running for six hours straight.

Well, I only auditioned at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts because I didn't know what else to do with my life. I actually wanted to do architecture and design and something like that and then a friend had asked me if I'm stupid, what I would want to design *here*. That was while I was still living in the GDR.