Jennifer Ulrich in We Are the Night
Jennifer Ulrich tackled the vampire genre with one of her most recent projects We Are The Night - which is due out on DVD on Monday.
I caught up with the actress to chat about the movie, working with director Dennis Gansel and what lies ahead.
- We Are The Night is about to be released on DVD so can you tell me a little bit about the movie?
We are the Night is a film about 3 vampire ladies biting her way through Berlin nightlife and coming across a young girl called Lena. A lonesome rider longing for things in her life to change.
The leader of the pack, Louise, is biting her in a nightclub and making her one of them. First enjoying her new gained self confidence and independence Lena realizes more and more that she doesn’t wanna be part of this killing complot anymore.
But once she’s in there’s no way out again and she discovers that also the other ladies are struggling with their situation, everyone in its own way.
- You take on the role of Charlotte in the movie so what was it about the script and the character that drew you to the project?
First of all it’s the first German vampire movie since a long time. There are not many horror and action films done in Germany and especially for women there are rarely any roles in which you can work as physical as in this film.
Charlotte is completely different to everything I played before. She is so different to who I am personally that it was a big challenge physically and emotionally for me.
The way she moves, the way she talks and her cold appearance hiding a very vulnerable soul. That was a wonderful multi-layered character work.
- As I said you play Charlotte so can you tell me about the character and how we are going to see her develop throughout the movie?
Charlotte was an actress in the mute film era of the 20ies who really enjoyed being a vampire first because she was hungry for life.
When we meet her in the film, about 90 years later, she has become a woman filled with bitterness, still dressing like in the 20ies to express her longing back for her old human life.
Charlotte is the quiet, deliberate and thoughtful woman in the background. She’s an observer with a cold appearance but a very vulnerable soul.
She symbolizes the sad side of being a vampire who seems to give up more and more throughout the film. She misses her family and feels almost no excitement about being a vampire anymore.
- Dennis Gansel in the director's chair for the movie so how did you find working with him?
Dennis is a young, creative director with a great sensibility to work with his actors. We worked together on 'The Wave' before and I was very happy to work with him again.
He’s always open to new ideas, willing to try things out and pushing you in the right way. He comes up with great examples to explain things and jumps into every moment with you as deep as he can.
It’s a great work and he gives you a lot of space to create the character hand in hand with him.
- And what is he like as a director - is he very collaborative? Does he let you develop the characters yourself during filming?
We had a week of rehearsals before the shoot and we talked a lot about our characters, their relationships to each other and their personal back-stories.
That made it possible that even the supporting roles like Charlotte and Nora have their own individual story that makes them come to life on screen. He’s very open to changes, ideas and inputs from his actors which makes the work with him even more enriching.
- Karoline Herfurth and Nina Hoss are just two of the other names on the cast list so how did you find working with them? And was it a fun set to be on?
It was fun working with the other women. Karoline I know from my very first film already and also Max Riemelt and I know each other for over 10 years. That makes it even more fun to work together.
We had fun shooting but it was also very hard and compelling sometimes. A lot of night shoots in winter in many outside locations. So we were freezing sometimes and had to stay awake during the night. It was a physical challenge for many of us.
- There is a real hype around vampire movies at the moment so what do you think makes them so popular?
Vampires have always been the personification of people longing for independence, freedom, sexual liberation and the forbidden. So there are a lot of aspects that vampires symbolize that are tabooed through society.
I think that’s one of the reasons people like vampires because they seem to be everything people would like to be sometimes. Especially teenagers. They are searching for their identity, trying to find out who they are and who they want to be.
There are so many wishes they have to find a way to escape from their daily teenage problems and vampires have so many traits they’d like to have.
I think that’s one of the reasons the youngsters love the Twilight Saga so much. In my opinion the Twilight Saga movies show a really romanticised kind of vampires which is not my cup of tea but I can totally understand the teenagers go crazy about it. It became very en vogue the last years.
- And what makes We Are The Night so different to vampire movies that we have seen before?
Well, I haven’t seen a vampire movie like ours before. I have never seen such strong pack of female vampires in any film. 4 independent, sexy women in our materialistic society taking whatever they want to on the one hand but longing for everlasting love on the other.
Women, eroticism, action, emotions, fancy cars and a lot of blood, what else do you need. If you break it down it’s a little bit like 'The Lost Boys' meets 'Sex and the City'. A perfect mixture of the old fashioned image of vampires and a modern view on it.
- Meet Me in Montenegro is another project that you have been working on so can you tell me a bit about that and how you got involved with it?
Meet me in Montenegro is about love, partnerships and life changing decisions. 4 Berlin based characters in search of their identity and their longings. A romantic comedy about the twists and turns of love and life.
I haven’t seen the film so far but I loved the script and jumped on the project right away after director Alex Holdridge asked me to participate. It’s a great story and it was a great possibility for me to shoot a film in English language again. It was much fun to shoot the film.
We were only about 7 or 8 crew members and shot for 2 weeks in Berlin. Alex Holdridge is a great director with a clear vision and a lot of passion for his actors and a big will to improvise and try things out.
My partner was Rupert Friend who has been the funniest guy on set. We were laughing so hard sometimes and trying to teach him some German sentences.
You will see him try in the film! There was a young German producer involved in that project who I shot another English film with before so she suggested me to Alex for the role. I had a lot of luck to jump on that project.
- Throughout your career you have moved between TV and film so how do you find that the two mediums compare/differ?
Mostly film is more about quality whereas TV focuses more on quantity. Of course there are exceptions but from what I experienced it is mostly that way. I like to do both. More likely film because it is more about the art and about telling new stories in different ways. TV is a good opportunity to work precise very fast.
It trains your concentration but very often filmmakers are not allowed to fully develop their creativity and to tap their full potential in TV productions because there are too many restrictions from the TV channels and the commissioning editors.
And of course we shouldn’t forget that TV makes a living for many of us actors beside the chance to play many different roles in a short time.
- And how much are you now looking to move into English speaking film? Hollywood maybe?
I’ve done a German-British co-production called 'Albert Schweitzer' before and last year I shot an Italian film called 'DIAZ - Don’t clean up this Blood', so you can see I’m very curious to work in other countries and other languages.
I would love to do more foreign films. I love the English language and feel pretty comfortable in it and it always is a great chance to shoot in other countries and see how they work.
Of course Hollywood would be wonderful because the possibilities for actors are much bigger there once you’re in but it’s a long way to get there if you’re not a native. I’m open to everything but also very happy with my ongoing career here in Germany.
- Finally what is next for you?
Right now I’m in talks with a director for an independent film in January but nothings set yet. But before I will be the Jury president of a Fantastic Film Festival in Switzerland called YFFF.
I will see many films of young filmmakers and present my new horror film '205 - Room of Fear' and I’m looking forward to that. It’s always a great collaboration of creative people on festivals. I love it!
We Are The Night is released 15th October.
Click here to pre-order We Are The Night on DVD
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw