Daniel Brühl: “I wouldn’t have done a series on Karl Lagerfeld in English or German”

It took a world-class German actor to play the most French of German icons. Daniel Brühl slips under the ponytail with elegance, to bring Karl to life, before Lagerfeld, and tell his little-known passion with Jacques de Bascher. All this in French meticulously worked for the occasion. Interview in the language of Molière.

FIRST: Kark Lagerfeld died 5 years ago. What did he mean to the Germans?
Daniel Brühl : It’s obviously an icon for us. Some have criticized him for having been on the other side of the border, but above all, we are very proud of this man who managed to become a world star, who managed to profoundly change fashion. He knew very well how to talk to journalists and present himself at German shows. He was from northern Germany (Hamburg, Editor's note) like me who am from Cologne. We have a real sense of humor in the north of Germany, not like in the rest of the country where people are not funny (laughs). No, in truth, he knew how to use irony very well and sell the character he had created. What's interesting is to see who he was before that and that's precisely the goal of the series.

Did you meet him once?
Yes, 15 years ago, during the Berlinale, he took photos of the new generation of actors and actresses from Germany, for the cover of a magazine. Everyone wanted to have a good place on this cover so there was jostling on this small platform. We were like German sausages. I was so cool and proud. I found it lacking in dignity. So I wanted to leave and he gave me a little smile, as if to tell me that he understood that I refused this circus. Afterwards, he and I took photos alone. I was a little nervous, but he told jokes, lots of anecdotes and after 5 minutes, I already felt like I knew him. But at the same time, we saw that he was distancing himself and that he was in the skin of a character, hidden behind this ponytail and these glasses.

Do you personally like the world of fashion?
Yes I like that. I don't subscribe to ten fashion magazines, but in my work as an actor, fashion is important. You have to know how to present yourself in a beautiful way and therefore you inevitably build relationships with this environment, sometimes even with fashion designers.

How did you capture the essence of Karl Lagerfeld?
Above all, I wanted to show his fever, this hunger to conquer. He had courage, because he came from outside. He was a gay German in Paris in the 1970s. It wasn't easy for him to find his place and be successful. He had this desire to refresh the established world of fashion and he used tremendous energy and iron discipline to achieve this. Afterwards, he was not an easy man to understand. He loved fashion as much as painting, photography, architecture and literature. So when I moved to Paris for the shoot, I wanted to immerse myself in all that. I tried to live the way Karl lived at the time. I tried to feed on that. Now, I didn't do “method acting”. I do not do it. But I found it important to take the time to find the tone, the look. I asked for heels to walk in the streets of Paris or in my apartment, to learn my posture. And then I practiced for a long time speaking in French, alone in front of myself. The sheep that live with me, in Majorca (Spain), where I live in the mountains, were the first witnesses of my Frenchman and my Karl (laughs). I will never forget their faces when I spoke French to them!

Did you have difficulty filming in French only?
My brain was cooked every evening at the end of filming. I was taking a shower in my apartment in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the color in Karl's hair was fading. My natural brown color reappeared and in front of the mirror, I started speaking in German with my Cologne accent. As a way to come back to myself. But at the same time, I said yes to the series because it was in French, and filmed in Paris. Karl was more French than German after all. Paris was his home. I wouldn't have done a series on Karl Lagerfeld in English or German.

Were you afraid of the caricature?
This is obviously the great danger in a biopic. That of entering into a dynamic of copying. We must not lose the joy and freedom of creating something personal. I found my Karl first. Maybe we meet halfway: 50% him, 50% me… I took out of the character what seemed essential to me to become a version of Karl. And then, I ignored all the images of him. I didn't want to see them. I asked production to remove all the photos of him that were hanging on the set and which served as references to costumes or makeup. I didn't want to see the photos of the real Karl Lagerfeld, because now I was Karl. Because Karl Lagerfeld is very far from me in real life, we don't share many things, except this need to be recognized in his work, this desire to be loved and respected. As an actor, I know that.

You film in French, German, English… Do you define yourself as an international actor?
Like a European actor. In the United States, I feel very European, because there are roles that I don't feel like doing. David Bowie said that you have to know how to step out of your comfort zone just a little. We instinctively feel what we can play or not. Personally, I couldn't play a Texas cowboy. I feel too European for that.

Do you want to film in Hollywood as often as possible?
Not necessarily. I'm not obsessed with it. I'm excited about lots of different projects. That of Ruben Östlund, The Entertainment System is Down, particularly excites me. We'll start filming next year. He's one of my favorite directors. We met at Cannes, and now we see each other a lot, we talk about cinema, it's fascinating. He makes courageous cinema and that's what I like: cinema that dares to do things. Otherwise I'm bored.

Becoming Karl Lagerfeld, currently on Disney Plus.