Actor's Portrait:

FOR THE LOVE OF FILM
A portrait of Hinnerk Schoenemann

If Hinnerk Schoenemann had followed his first love, he would now have developed a business of breeding Koi carp and tortoises.

Following the profession of an actor, though, had never crossed his mind when he was making career choices at school, even though he had been involved in some amateur dramatics at school and in a small theater when he was living in Pankow.

True, there were some family connections to the film industry through an uncle who was a cameraman and an aunt and uncle who were documentary filmmakers, “but there were no actors in the family and the idea just didn’t appear on the radar,” he says.

However, it was only when a friend who was studying at the Ernst Busch acting school in Berlin persuaded him to think about acting as a career that he took the plunge and applied to the drama schools in the capital.

He was accepted at the University of Arts (Hochschule der Kuenste/HdK), but knew from the outset that his destiny was to work in the cinema even though the studies were focused solely on acting for the theater.

FIRST TASTE OF FILM

While he did not appear on stage during his time at the HdK, Hinnerk did manage to get his first taste of acting in front of a camera when he was cast for two small roles in international productions shooting in Berlin. By coincidence, both productions were about German history in the Second World War: Constantin Costa Gavras’ adaptation of Rolf Hochhuth’s play Der Stellvertreter as Amen, and Frank Pierson’s BBC/HBO TV movie Conspiracy recreating the Wannsee Conference where the Nazi top brass met to discuss the ’Final Solution’.

When asked what is so fascinating about being an actor, he replies that “it allows you to try things out in every respect. You can hide behind a role and try things out which you might perhaps never dare to do in real life. I find that really interesting that you could perhaps use these experiences for your other life afterwards.”

He also reveals that Jim Carrey was often an inspiration to him during his studies at drama school: “When I got to a point where I wasn’t getting any further in my studies, I often asked myself: ’How would Jim do this now?’. He impressed and encouraged me so much – even though he isn’t aware of the fact! I just have to watch him and see so many things. For me, he is the Charlie Chaplin of today.”

After graduating from the HdK in 2000, Hinnerk became a member of the acting ensemble at Hamburg’s Thalia Theater the following year, but, before beginning his engagement there, he took on his first proper screen acting appearance in Getting My Brother Laid by Sven Taddicken, a graduation film from Ludwigsburg’s Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg.

“I can remember finishing the shoot and then traveling from Stuttgart through the night so that I would be in Hamburg in the morning to begin work at the theater,” Hinnerk recalls.

During his three years in Hamburg, he was constantly hankering for opportunities to work again in front of the camera. “There was a constant conflict because I wanted to work on films, but had to stay in the theater to earn my keep and pay the rent. It was a vicious circle and I was only able to do a few things outside of the theater in this time,” he says.

RETURNING TO THE CINEMA

When his engagement came to an end in 2003, Hinnerk happily moved over to film and television work and has never regretted not working on the stage again. “It was the right decision for me,” he argues. “Drama school was just training for the theater, but I always knew that I wanted to work for the cinema. There was a real competitive atmosphere at the time where people said that cinema is stupid and the theater is the best. They really are two different professions.”

Over the past four years Hinnerk has moved seemingly effortlessly between roles for cinema and television, working for directors as different as Leander Haussmann, Markus Imboden, Vanessa Jopp, Christian Petzold, Angelina Maccarone, Dani Levy, Sylke Enders and Volker Einrauch.

He doesn’t make any distinction between cinema and television. “If the screenplay is good and the role appeals to me, then I’ll take on the part,” he explains. “I pay more attention now to my choice of roles and can take things a little easier. I think I have an absolutely privileged position.”

“I am quite open to all genres but, at the moment, I am often cast for roles as policemen which is alright with me as the parts are so different from one another,” Hinnerk continues. “I always try to interpret the roles so that the character is slightly crackers or broken in a way. Then there can be a bit of a conflict in the character.”

LOOKING BACK

Taking stock of his screen performances so far, he sees “two pearls” which have left a lasting mark on him: the role of Mirco in Hermine Huntgeburth’s Der Boxer und die Friseuse, for which he received a Special Prize from the Academy of Performing Arts in Baden-Baden in 2005, and the part of the pragmatic detective Klaus Burck in Markus Imboden’s highly-regarded TV crime film Moerderische Erpressung.

And then, of course, there’s the lead in Sven Taddicken’s film which launched his screen acting career. “I have an agreement with Sven that I will appear in each one of his films – even if it means that I just have a walk-on part!,” Hinnerk says. “In fact, I have been in every film except his first short which he made at film school.”

For this autumn, he is booked up with the shooting of the second season of the ProSieben series Dr. Psycho which sees Hinnerk reprising the character of Edmund “Eddie” Stachowiak opposite Christian Ulmen in the title role, but the 33-year-old would welcome the chance to spread his wings and work on international productions from other parts of Europe.

Moreover, he also harbors a dream of maybe one day moving behind the camera and occupying the director’s chair for his own film. “That would really fascinate me to have the opportunity of choosing the people to play and developing my own story to tell,” he says.

In the meantime, Hinnerk is enjoying his chosen profession to the full. And his first love is not quite forgotten either: he may not have Koi carp anymore, but he still keeps tortoises in a terrarium in his flat!