Björn Diemel has been mindfully murdering bookshelves since 2019. Now the fictional character created by Karsten Dusse is coming to Netflix – in the form of Tom Schilling. The one from movies like Oh Boy. Work without an author and actors known to Fabian or The Go to the Dogs have already appeared in many successful literary adaptations. He places Dusse’s template for Mindful Murders roughly between Dostoyevsky and Tarantino.
It tells the story of a lawyer who actually just wants to spend time with his daughter, but is then drawn into a spiral of violence and crime by one of his clients. But for Björn Diemel that’s not a problem. Since he took part in a mindfulness seminar, he has gotten everything under control. Also the murder of a gang boss, whose place he takes from then on.
An inconspicuous man who becomes a criminal mastermind: Echoes of Walter White and Breaking Bad echo through the first season of Mindful Morden. But what is it like to bring such an ambivalent character to life? How careful was the filming? And can a film or series actually be better than the original book? Tom Schilling talks to us about all these things and more in an interview.
Moviepilot: How did you come to Mindful Murders? Did you have any previous contact with the book?
Tom Schilling: Our producer, Jan Ehlert, had read the novel before it was published and optioned it for the production company Constantin Film. When the first two scripts were available, i.e. the pilot episode and the second episode, I got them from my agency to read and then went to the casting for the role. And then Netflix and Constantin Film actually wanted me to play it.
What kind of mindset did you have when you went into the casting? What did you think best suited you for the role?
Honestly, it helps incredibly when you don’t really want something. This could also be a mindfulness tip: You achieve more when you want less. When I got the offer for the series, I didn’t know the series yet. But after reading the novel, I was totally blown away and thought to myself, “Wow, that’s all in there!” However, we then put a lot of work into the books with our head author Doron Wisotzky to achieve that Karsten Dusse tone.
Can you share a few of the things that changed during this process? How does the current version differ from the first version?
It’s all about tonality and staying true to the work and closer to the novel. When making a literary film, you always have to ask yourself the question: what should I tell and what should I leave out? You can tell the same story in very different ways, taking some of the comments a character makes out of the adaptation or putting them back in. Our current version of Björn Diemel, who allows himself a lot and is really not the wokest person on the planet, does the novel a little more justice than the one before it.
What was the most important thing for you that couldn’t be missed?
The argument with his receptionist. If you’re too sensitive, you might not like it. Everyone always has this fear: This is our main character. We can’t damage it. It has to be understandable. He has to be friendly. But it’s exactly the opposite. The further he goes, the more he dares and allows himself, the more the audience enjoys him – a large part of them anyway. We also looked at the reviews on Amazon. 90 percent love the book and ten percent hate it like the plague. What kind of disgusting figure is that? How is he behaving? This is totally inhumane. He ends up torturing someone too. You can’t please everyone. Otherwise you won’t get a complex figure.
I see Björn Diemel in the tradition of anti-heroes like Tony Soprano and Walter White, who only become really interesting because of their gray areas. I also often had to thank Edward Norton for his hypnotizing power in telling Fight Club. Were these characters an inspiration for you?
This is this very famous male character cosmos that we have often seen in series. But I didn’t copy anything from them directly. My job was to make Björn Diemel as authentic and as cool as possible. When I play Björn, I want people to follow me and not question me. And I’ll do whatever it takes to do that.
Did you feel like you went too far with the character at some point?
Of course, if you take the book and the series apart, he’s totally problematic. It’s always someone else’s fault. In the book it is even more obvious that he blames his wife. He doesn’t get promoted at work. He has no time for his daughter, even though he could easily take her. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a really big house and a really expensive car. But when I play a character like that, I’m not allowed to question it because the character doesn’t do that either. And that’s why in this case there is no such thing as “too far”, only “not far enough”.
You said that faithfulness to the work is important. As an actor, you interpret a character in front of the camera. What did you add to Björn, where as an actor you became sort of a co-author of the character?
I don’t see myself as a co-author. I think it’s a great gift to have such a great template that is really strong cinematically and psychologically. The book reminded me of Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. This rather well-adjusted man breaks the biggest social taboo and suddenly feels completely free. He is above the law and that gives him an incredible feeling of exhilaration. Karsten Dusse writes such excellent dialogues about it. It would be a total shame not to adopt them in this breadth and in their entirety and in all the arcs that they do. It’s almost Tarantino-esque.
You probably had some specific images in mind as you read. Do they still match the images that the series now delivers?
Hmm, no, probably not. That’s the tragedy of film adaptations. They kind of take away the fantasy.
Is it a tragedy or an extension?
I don’t think it’s an extension.
Does this mean that all film adaptations, no matter what we make of them, are doomed to fail?
No, because there are also mediocre books that can be made into strong films.
You recently starred in a novel adaptation, One Million Minutes, which also fits the concept of mindfulness quite well. Were you able to take anything new away from working on the series?
This time I didn’t take much with me because I had already dealt with the topic before. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to shoot these projects. Of course, I always do better with roles when I can load them personally. When I understand what makes the characters tick. If I didn’t have children and weren’t in a relationship and trying to get everything together, then I wouldn’t be able to do so much with my character in One Million Minutes and Björn Diemel. Then I wouldn’t be able to fill the role with my own emotional life.
I imagine working on a film set is very stressful. Many things are happening at the same time. Were you able to transfer the mindfulness theme to the production?
Yes, we tried it by doing mindfulness exercises early in the morning with our amazing director Martina Plura.
What were you doing there?
For example, we walked mindfully. I once did an exercise where we stood in a circle. Two people looked carefully into each other’s eyes for a minute. That was cool too. Or lie on the floor for a minute and breathe mindfully. This is like a brake on the careless work that you often do on set. Everyone is busy with their things. This is a quick way to find yourself at the beginning of the day. Fun fact: We lost more and more people and in the end it was just Martina and me. [lacht]. Many then said: “Yes, we’ll take part again tomorrow.” But no one came back.
So the whole concept actually failed, right?
It failed, yes.
What would have to have been done to make it work?
That’s a good question. [Überlegt nachdenklich]. You can’t force it. It comes to you when you are ready for it.
Mindful Morden has been streaming since then October 31, 2024 on Netflix.