Franka Potente

Franka Potente
Franka Potente, October 2005
Born	(1974-07-22) 22 July 1974 Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany
Other names	Franke Potente
Occupation	Actress Singer[1]
Years active	1995–present
Spouse(s)	Derek Richardson (m. 2012)
Children	Polly (b. April 2011)
Website
www.franka-potente.org

Franka Potente (born 22 July 1974) is a German film actress and singer. She first appeared in the comedy After Five in the Forest Primeval (1995), for which she won a Bavarian Film Award for Best Young Actress and her breakthrough came in 1998, when she had the leading role in the acclaimed action thriller Lola rennt (released in English as Run Lola Run) (1998). Potente received Germany's highest film and television awards for her performances in Run Lola Run and the television film Opernball. After half a decade of critically acclaimed roles in German films, Potente went on to garner the role of Barbara Buckley in Blow (2001) and as Jason Bourne's love interest in the Bourne film series.

Early life

The elder of two children, Potente was born in Münster,^[2] and raised in nearby Dülmen.^[3] Her mother, Hildegard, is a medical assistant, and her father, Dieter Potente, is a teacher.^[4] Her Italian surname stems from her great-grandfather, a Sicilian slater who emigrated to Germany during the 19th century. When 17 years old, she spent a few months as an exchange student in Humble, Texas, a suburb of Houston, United States.^[5] She admitted in an interview she "had an American boyfriend, went to football games and to my American prom. I was so serious about my American boyfriend, I brought him back to Germany with me to visit my parents. They were horrified."^[6]

Career

After finishing high school in Germany, Potente enrolled at the Otto Falckenberg School of Performing Arts in Munich. Potente took acting jobs outside school time and appeared in her first movie in the 1995 student film Aufbruch. She was then spotted by a casting agent and appeared in the film Nach Fünf im Urwald (It's a Jungle Out There), directed by her then-boyfriend, Hans Christian Schmid. She received the 1996 Bavarian Film Prize for Young Talent for her work in this film. She then finished her last year of training at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in Manhattan.^{[citation needed]}

Potente returned to Europe and worked in German and French films. She was cast as the lead in Lola Rennt (Run Lola Run) after meeting the director, Tom Tykwer, in a café. The part was written for her and the film was a small-budget art house film production. The movie and Potente received acclaim;^[7] Variety wrote she was "heroic, fierce, frightened and vulnerable all at once"^[8] while eFilmCritic.com called her a "smart choice".^[9] Run Lola Run was a commercial success with a $14,533,173 worldwide gross over a budget of $1 million.^[10] Potente also performed on the film's soundtrack. She then appeared in the German-language horror film Anatomy (2000), which enjoyed box office success^[11] Her performance in the movie was called "gutsy" by Variety magazine. In that year, she also had the starring role in the romantic thriller The Princess and the Warrior, directed by Tykwer. She received nominations for the Chlotrudis Award, the European Film Award and the German Film Award for Best Actress.

Potente's first English-language role was that of film editor in Storytelling in 2001. She had a supporting role in Blow, with Johnny Depp. The movie gained mixed reviews^[12] and was a moderate box office success.^[13] She admitted in an interview with Contactmusic that her American accent in the film was due to two months of practice.^[14] She appeared in The Bourne Identity, with Matt Damon. The movie had a positive reception^[15] and Potente and Damon's strong chemistry was praised by Slant magazine.^[16] She reprised her role in The Bourne Supremacy. In 2006, she starred with Eric Bana in the Australian drama film Romulus, My Father, for which she was nominated for an Australian Film Industry Award for Best Lead Actress. She wrote and directed Der die Tollkirsche ausgräbt, a silent comedy that premiered also in 2006.

Starting on 22 May 2007, Potente had a three-episode recurring role in the FX drama The Shield, where she played Diro Kesakhian, "the ruthless godmother of L.A.'s Armenian mafia".^[17] After appearing in Eichmann (2007), she had one of the leads in the biographical movie Che, which opened at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Remarking on working with director Steven Soderbergh, she stated: "When we were working, he was almost invisible, in a sense. He always stayed in the forest. He was like a chameleon. He was hidden behind leaves and stuff. He almost made himself dissolve to get the result that he had."^[18]

In 2009, she appeared in the House television series two-part episode "Broken" and in 2010, she appeared in Shanghai. The film was released only in China, where it grossed $9,199,466.^[19] In January 2011, she played Hilda in a BBC drama The Sinking of the Laconia.^[20] She stars as the brothel madam Eva Heissen in BBC America's first original scripted series, Copper.^[21] The show premiered to 1.1 million viewers during its debut broadcast, the largest debut in network history and was renewed for a second season set to premiere in 2013.^[22]

Personal life

She was in a romantic relationship with director Tom Tykwer from 1998 until January 2003.^[23][24] Potente briefly dated Eric Melvin, guitarist for punk band NOFX.^[25] In 2008, she was engaged to an American businessman; however, in September 2009, the couple separated and the engagement was called off.^[26] In April 2011, she gave birth to a daughter.^[27] In mid-2012 she married actor Derek Richardson.^{[citation needed]}

Filmography

Discography

• "Believe" (1998)
• "Wish (Komm zu mir)" (1998)
• "Easy Day" (1999)
• "Fly With Me" (2001)

Bibliography

• 2005: Los Angeles - Berlin. Ein Jahr
• 2006: Der die Tollkirsche ausgräbt, Drehbuch zum Film
• 2009: Kick Ass - Das alternative Workout
• 2010: Zehn: Stories

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Franka Potente.

• Franka Potente at the Internet Movie Database
• Franka Potente at AllMusic