Sandra Hüller on the compulsion to lose weight and why people aren’t allowed to “pick their noses” in films

This article is not a film review, but: Sisi & Ich by Frauke Finsterwalder is the funniest Sisi film of recent years – maybe even all the time. At its core is the relationship between Empress Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary (Susanne Wolff) and her confidante Irma (Sandra Hüller), who would do anything to please her capricious boss. Literally. The boundaries between encroaching employment relationships and friendship, maybe even love, become blurred.

The fact that this is not only highly emotional but also incredibly entertaining is mainly due to Sandra Hüller. The actress continues to prove that few people can make awkward moments as “real” and compassionate as she can. Whoever she plays, whatever she does, you don’t want to look away. Otherwise you could miss a small gesture or facial expression that makes their different characters so incredibly alive.

It doesn’t matter whether she has to tame the everyday school chaos as a teacher in the popular hit Fack ju Göhte 3, in Toni Erdmann pulls blank as an overwhelmed management consultant and for one of the best German film moments of the last 10 years – or in Sisi & I, as part of the imperial recruitment process, has to overcome an obstacle course. Not on horseback, on foot.

In the Moviepilot interview: Sandra Hüller “can’t hide” what she feels

Sisi & I is running in German cinemas from March 30, 2023. In an interview with Moviepilot, the exceptional actress reveals why what is human in films is often considered “strange” – and why she never wants to lose weight for a role again.

Moviepilot: I found it incredibly exciting how modern the film felt in many ways. At some point I thought to myself: Isn’t it a total mistake to believe that people who lived in another century must have felt completely differently? As if they didn’t essentially have the same conflicts as we do today?

Sandra Hueller: I think that has a lot to do with the language. When I play in the theatre, we also deal with old material and always try to find out: what does it still have to tell? What else can we do with it now? It’s the same with historical figures. Funnily enough, when you change the physicality and the language, the feelings also change.

That’s funny. You rarely get it separated. These are sudden nobler feelings, nobler breakdowns that are further away from you. I thought it was great that we didn’t do that. Because it was our own emotions that played a role.

You once said in an interview that you don’t like it when your characters are described as “strange”. They are just people in extreme situations. Is that a movie thing where things are immediately seen as weird when they get too real?

I’ve observed that this attribution happens instantly when someone dares to slip. I enjoy it when people see what I feel. That’s what I can do. Most importantly, I can’t hide it. Unfortunately, even if I wanted no one to notice in a scene, you would still notice it! (laughs) That is sometimes a hindrance in life. Something that isn’t completely controlled in the film, something that has a certain perfection or does not correspond to a certain image of neatness and beauty, people then perceive as “strange”.

Although the people who surround her all the time are just like that. People pick their noses, they scratch their faces, they pull their sweaters out of the crevice at the traffic lights. You can’t do that in the film. You do not do that. That’s ugh. But that’s who we are and I enjoy doing these things. Otherwise it’s so … dead. There are many colleagues who can embody such untouchability really well. I can not do that very good.

Diet in front of and behind the camera: Sandra Hüller had to lose weight for Sisi & Me

Sisi’s obsession with beauty plays a very important role in the film. The belief that you have to be as thin as possible also exists in the film industry. Have you already experienced this in your career?

Yes, actually for this film. Right from the start we were told that we couldn’t play the way we are. We should lose weight. At first we resisted and allied with each other. We have said: “It would be a lot more exciting if they were women like us and you talked about it so that you thought all the time that they should actually be thinner.” But it took about two weeks and then we were in the act. Then you start thinking about food and exercise, and then you count calories.

See the second trailer for Sisi & Me here:

what did that do to you

I’ve learned a few things that are really good for me. But I also noticed that as soon as something like this is prescribed from the outside, it doesn’t make any sense to me at all. I would never do that again. Then someone else has to play it. If we talked about the reasons why these characters have this problem, it would have been a psychological trick. But we haven’t talked about learning what it’s like to be in this prison. There was no meta level. Instead, we just went to jail.

Now, looking back, I’m wondering how that worked. How was that so fast? Why did Susanne and I get into a little competition so quickly, where we asked ourselves: “How much weight did you lose? What did you do now?” We also tried to eat according to this diet plan that we created while we were shooting. That was incredibly difficult to endure. A lot revolved around the topic and not at all about the time or how to do this or that now. It was all about the food.

Is that romantic love between Irma and Sisi? Is Irma falling in love?

I know that the story conveys that and you can read it that way. But I never felt it that way, more as infinite admiration. I don’t think Irma has any vocabulary for what “falling in love” means. She knows: I would do anything for this person. Whether this is love now, I can not say exactly. I wouldn’t define love like that for me, I find the idea funny.

Rather vice versa: I believe that Elisabeth is sometimes in love. When she watches the play that Irma is putting on for her, for example. There are moments when she briefly falls in love with Irma, but then it’s gone again.

Seeing tips for home cinema: The 20 biggest series starts in April

Need more fresh streaming tips? You can find the most exciting series that you can stream on Netflix, Prime Video, Sky, Disney+ and more in April here in the monthly preview:

We have checked the long starting lists of the streaming services and present you the 20 big highlights of the month in the Moviepilot podcast stream trawl. Included are Amazon’s second most expensive series in the world, the acclaimed crime hit Poker Face, the return of Grey’s Anatomy and the final seasons of Succession and Barry on Sky.