Michael Herbig is a multi-talent. Popular for decades as head of the Bullyparade, he wrote cinema history with Der Schuh des Manitu and showed great skill for serious subjects with the drama Ballon. At LOL: Last One Laughing he bullies other comedians.
He can currently be seen twice in the cinema.
Michael Bully Herbig in an interview about Hui Buh 2, A Thousand Lines and Elyas M’Barek
In his directorial work A Thousand Lines he lets Elyas M’Barek den Counterfeit scandal involving Spiegel author Claas Relotius (in the film: Lars Bogenius) enlighten. Recently you can also hear him again as the castle ghost in Hui Boo and the Witch’s Castle. We spoke to him about the two films.
Hui Boo and the Witch’s Castle – Trailer (German) HD
Moviepilot: You last lent your voice to Hui Buh 16 years ago. A lot has happened to you since then and you have implemented very different projects with LOL or your journalism satire Thousand Lines, among other things. How was it for you now, returning as a castle ghost?
Michael Bully Herbig: It’s like riding a bike, if you’ve played or spoken a character before, time doesn’t matter that much. Only the motion capture process took some getting used to. In contrast to the first part, this time I had to perform in a diving suit that felt two sizes too small. In the evening, my body looked like a map due to the cables that pressed against my skin all day.
Hui Buh is a rather friendly ghost. What do you think: How would you haunt a bully if you were a ghost? deliberately scare people? Telling jokes in a scary voice…?
I would just float through the world all day. Preferably on your back, I imagine it is extremely relaxing.
You are also in the cinema with the film “A Thousand Lines” at the moment. Juan Moreno’s book A Thousand Lines of Lies is a factual report, your film A Thousand Lines is a satire. What were the situations in the book that made you realize: Actually, I find that totally funny?
There were a few quotes that really inspired me. In the book, Moreno writes, for example, that at some point he felt like a getaway driver in a bank robbery. I immediately thought, that’s exactly how we shoot it. I want to see how the two are on the run.
A Thousand Lines – Trailer 2 (German) HD
So I saw the book more as a recommendation and inspiration. I knew early on that you can’t turn it one-to-one. It’s too documentary for that. Rather, we tried to deal creatively with the lie. That allowed us to invent or twist things ourselves. The film has something of a thriller, something of a drama, but also satirical elements. I wanted to surprise the audience.
When did you realize that Elyas M’Barek was the ideal Juan Moreno (Juan Romero in the film)?
Beforehand, we talked a lot about journalists and the peculiarities of reporters. How do they move, how do they act? What distinguishes the feuilleton journalist from a tabloid reporter? It was important to us that the movie star Elyas M’Barek disappeared completely behind the character “Romero” and that worked out perfectly. Of course it also has something to do with appearances, but the game is much more important. And Elyas delivered that wonderfully!
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Elyas M’Barek in A Thousand Lines
I was surprised how complex Jonas Nay Claas Relotius (in the film Lars Bogenius) embodies. I was expecting a lot of arrogance, instead the character shows a fragile side.
Jonas plays an impostor who keeps twisting people around his finger. He also has to be lovable and trustworthy. Sometimes ask for help, show weakness. This character has to be believable, otherwise all the other characters will look like clowns. It’s about manipulation.
Have you personally had a really absurd or negative experience with the press?
About 15 years ago, a major tabloid newspaper ran the headline: “Here Hui Buh is building his new castle!”. You could see a huge construction site that I didn’t know at all.
Among them was a photo of me and my assistant at the time, whom I once took to the Bavarian Film Awards. The photo read: “A rare picture: Bully and his wife”. So there was absolutely nothing wrong with this article. Neither the construction site nor the woman. I just thought, “If you’re going to do this to me, what about the really important news?”
How do you manage to make a film about such a case without running the risk of using right-wing lying press narratives? Or has this question never arisen for you?
Unfortunately, this has increased massively in recent years. The Internet was and is a fire accelerator, especially social media. But the media and the press representatives are not entirely innocent either. You get the impression that it’s all about being the fastest or the first to get a message out. If the headlines have to be as lurid as possible to get people to click on the articles, then priorities have shifted. This is perhaps understandable from an economic point of view, but trust is lost. I’m not a moralizer, but I just want to be able to trust the press and journalists. You can have 99 journalists working clean. If there’s someone who doesn’t follow the rules, they’ll tear the whole thing down with their ass.
The best streaming films of 2022 on Netflix, Disney+ and Co.
In the latest edition of our podcast Streamgegefuehl we take a look back at the streaming films of the year so far. Netflix, Disney+ and Co. have outbid each other with elaborate productions. But which of the films are really successful? In the podcast we talk about our top 10 best streaming movies of 2022.
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The streaming year was very varied in the film sector. A red panda has thrown Toronto into chaos while a princess struggled from the top floor of a tower to the ground floor. We were also able to experience the first moon landing through children’s eyes and received an amusing Jackass encore.
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