Actress Franka Potente talks to The Inside Reel about instinct, connection, limitations, drive and physicality vs.emotionality of her character in regards to the 25th Anniversary 4K re-release of "Run Lola Run" from Sony Pictures Classics.
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00:00No! No!
00:30You know, you were talking about intuition. And a lot of this kind of stuff, you know,
00:37when you're making films like that is instinct. It's reacting in the moment, you know, even
00:41though you have a path you're going down. Could you talk about sort of a first the initial
00:46conversations with Tom about who she was and how you guys were to do it? Or was it just
00:51okay, here's the layout, let's go, you know, we'll sort of figure it out. Where was the
00:56balance? Because that was back in the time when Aronofsky was first starting out, and
01:00these kind of directors, and Tom was part of that. Could you talk about that about intuition
01:04and instinct versus, you know, knowing the path between you two, whether you needed to
01:09talk about it, or if it was just shorthand saying, I know what we need to do. And you
01:14guys were just off and running, per se, you know, literally.
01:17Right. I think, you know, in order to feel the freedom, what you're talking about, to
01:23follow your intuition and be spontaneous and all the things, you need to know the path.
01:29For me, one doesn't exist without the other, you know, and in filmmaking, we do have technicalities
01:35and especially a movie like Lola, there's marks that needed to be hit, you know, there
01:41was a constant dance between me and the camera, you know, we had steady cams, we had all sorts
01:45of little vehicles that would follow me. And like, literally, I grazed my heels running.
01:51I mean, there's this one shot that's above you, Pranka, where it's going down like this.
01:56And I'm like, how is she completely aware and not reacting? That's your job, of course.
02:01But I, you know, I'm lucky. I'm pretty good any way with like, I like, I love the camera.
02:08So we always have a very good connection. So I don't mind it. I don't mind hitting
02:13marks and stuff. I can actually do that. You know, it's there's other things I can't do.
02:18But even though I need glass, but that works. So that was not that was not a problem. And we
02:23just communicated really well. So and I think once these technicalities, and of course,
02:29the DP frankly, it was awesome. So if you trust each other, and you have each other's back,
02:35then it's not it's not a problem. And I think it goes back to the previous question of rhythm.
02:40You know, like, if there's a rhythm, then everybody can plug themselves into that. And
02:44then a lot of things actually fall into place that are technical. And I remember with Tom,
02:51we like I said, very early on, we had we had plucked into each other, you know, into this flow.
02:57And so we just needed to calibrate on the day, you know, he would sometimes come and give me
03:04like a little piece of paper, and it had maybe some kind of piece of a poem or something that
03:09meant something for that day. And we just leave it with me. I remember after takes,
03:13I would just look at him, and he would look at me. And it was we had like an understanding what
03:18worked and what didn't non verbally, like we didn't have to talk that much. And he always
03:23gave me the freedom to try one and see what, where we would start. And we always reached beyond,
03:30you know, like, we always tried to, to see where we can go within the limitations. We're in a crazy
03:36city, like, you know, sometimes without permits, like, you know, like, but the limitations,
03:41sometimes what they do is they, they push and challenge your creativity a little bit, you know.
03:48And I think I just really, really trusted him. So, and it never was disappointed, you know.
04:11And my last question, thank you very much,
04:34is the, you know, interesting, because that look is such an iconic thing now with the red hair,
04:40and all that. But it was always I thought about the physicality, informing the emotionality,
04:46like when you come out of the bank, you see, you know, you're like a tiger, and then you pull back
04:51once you see what the reaction is. So it's always about that yin and yang of the physicality versus
04:57the emotionality. But all these years later, looking back at it, were there moments? What
05:03did you think about sort of that iconic look, per se, and then how you were able to transform
05:09physically within that, because it's all about that. That's almost her armor, that the outfit
05:17you have on, everything like that, the even the tattoo on your stomach, you know, stuff like that.
05:22It's like a coat of arms, if you will. Can you talk about physicality, informing emotionality,
05:27but also looking at how, you know, iconic, you know, that look is still to this day? It's
05:33unbelievable. Yeah, it's funny, we really just tried different things. So we tried, I think
05:39red was obviously, you know, it's the most cinematic color in this context, you know,
05:43conveying the emotionality, if you want to translate that into a color, you arrive at
05:47red very quickly, not yellow, not green. But we tried it. And, you know, you have the monochromatic
05:53background, that kind of backdrop, like that makes sense for her to pop and be that color on
06:00this canvas. The clothes were very much at the time, probably something that I was wearing,
06:05like the Doc Martens and all the things, you know. And I think what you're describing,
06:12the suit of armor, that's something that happens within the emotion, of course, you know, like,
06:17you turn someone who was just dressed for a normal day, and then was thrown in this situation,
06:23you just that decision, this decisiveness, and the reaction to stress and all the things that
06:30turn that into the suit of armor that you see, you know, and
06:37I mean, does a scene like jump out to you that where you just remember, wow, this is
06:42what this film needs to be using sort of all those things together? I know it's such a long
06:47time ago. So I apologize. No, I think that there's a scene that's a front shot of me
06:52running. And I think it goes into slow motion that I like in particular, you know, there's
06:57just a lot of determination, but there's also peace that I see, you know, and I think that is
07:05a really fantastic combination. You know, like, that there's like a dynamic determination,
07:15which is kind of hard, and peace is very soft to me. So that is, to me, the ideal balance of
07:23feeling of control. And when I think of someone who's dangerous, in the sense that they are
07:30superior in their control and determination to others, so that they can exceed anyone else.
07:37That is what comes up in my mind.
07:43And then the way Tom said it always to me, he always says, she's willing this to happen,
07:48you know, willing it. And I remember, at first being like, what does that mean? But that's what
07:55that meant to me that she has to will herself to rise above, so she can do what she needs to do.
08:04That's why that ending shot is so great. That's just she has the money, she has the hand,
08:09and then you see all the anger go away for like, she's at peace again,
08:15until she needs to come back. Wow. I never quite thought of it that way. That's awesome.