Los Angeles (AP) – The twelve-year-old German actress Helena Zengel («Systemsprenger») receives for her US film debut at the side of Tom Hanks praise in the Western “News from the World” in Hollywood.
Zengel shows an “amazing performance” and could have a chance of an award in the upcoming film award season, wrote the industry journal “Hollywood Reporter”. The journal “Variety” put Zengel on its “Actors to Watch” list in November, for which the paper selects ten actors each year who are predicted to have promising careers.
In “Neues aus der Welt” (News from the World), Hanks played a messenger in 1870 who met the orphaned Johanna (Zengel), who was raised by an indigenous people. The western by Paul Greengrass (“The Bourne Conspiracy”) will hit US cinemas at Christmas.
The most difficult were the quiet scenes, says Zengel, according to the Hollywood Reporter, in a video call from Berlin. Action scenes would be much easier for her because she was “very strong” and full of energy. Expressing something important with just your face and without words was a challenge.
Hanks was also enthusiastic about the young co-star. You have an “incredible expressiveness,” said the Oscar winner in October, according to the film company Universal. “Her silence, her eyes, her instincts – she may not be aware of the rules of acting, but she already knows them implicitly.”
Zengel became known with the German drama “Systemsprenger”. She received the German Film Prize for her leading role.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 201216-99-708496 / 2
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