“Karl Lagerfeld was a liar and an imposter”
Actor Daniel Brühl transforms into iconic Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld for a new Disney+ series, which premieres next Friday.
The interpreter Daniel Brühl covers the young years of the couturier and his enormous rivalry with Yves Saint Laurent during the six chapters of Becoming Karl Lagerfeld .
- How was your role as Karl Lagerfeld?
- It was a long process, but I’m getting older now. I’m not going to lie like Karl, because at almost 46 years old I look for a challenge and I want to do things I haven’t done before. So, I knew perfectly well that there was a danger of entering the world of caricature or copy. That’s always the challenge with real characters when creating your own character. First, you have to get closer and I read three very different biographies with many contradictions. Karl Lagerfeld was a liar and an imposter so there were many very different versions about his past.
- How did you document yourself?
- He knew how to sell himself very well since he was young and that is why he had many interviews, reports and documentaries about him. So I was able to study his way of expressing himself before becoming the character. I also came into contact with his close friends and, step by step, I got closer. Then, moments appear when you notice that you click and that you have found something like a gesture or a thought.
- And what helped you the most?
- I was talking to a man in Paris about his physique and how he moved. Then I found that image of the matador that for me has something very masculine, but also feminine. I worked with the idea of the bullfighter, of the corset, of being locked up and I had that image very stuck. And the French made fun of me because before each shot I made my bullfighter movements. In the end, you also have to dare and lose all fear because you enter very delicate and very intimate paths of a character who wanted to avoid just that. Lagerfeld was always very distant and did not want anyone to enter his private world. But, as an actor, you have to do it because if not you are lost.
- If you had to highlight one of Lagerfeld’s traits, what would it be?
- Don’t know. There’s not much in common there. The eyes…
- I mean his personality. What would characterize you?
- Liar. Impostor.
- How was your rivalry with Yves Saint-Laurent?
- Mozart and Salieri. Love and hate. Respect and envy. Friendship and jealousy. A very complicated relationship.
- Lagerfeld was known for lapidary phrases like this: “It’s not that I lie. I just don’t have to tell the truth to anyone.” Have you had to lie a lot?
- Yes. I like people who paint their own lives or biographies with fresher, more intense and exotic colors if reality is too gray and boring.
- You are one of the actors with the most international projection, but your face is still not well known in this country. How did you do it?
- I think that is also the challenge of running long distances, but without burning out. When you have your moment as an actor, you should not squeeze everything out, but rather go out and then come back in. You have to know how to disappear and not expose yourself too much. Nowadays, that’s the problem because people expose themselves all the time. So I try to maintain the mystery and the enigma. Karl Lagerfeld is the best example because he lived in the spotlight his entire life surrounded by 100,000 people and yet he was always an enigma. I’m not as mysterious and fascinating as Karl Lagerfeld either, but it’s important to know how to say no and not get too burned. If you have your moment, you have to know how to stop, run away, and then come back.
- What do you have to have to make a splash in Hollywood?
- Work and have discipline. You have to do it well, but there is also an element of luck. There have been projects or paths that I did not seek on purpose, but they are things that happen to you in life. And if those gifts arrive and are offered to you, you have to know how to unpack them and appreciate them.
- What is the order that is most difficult for you to follow as an actor?
- When they force me to act in sequences that are not well written or that do not work. You can’t make a miracle out of something that isn’t good. So, there you have to have an open mind and collaborate, and that is the most beautiful thing about this job, which is a collaboration of the entire team. For this reason, the credits are very long in each series and each film. There are 200 people and each one has to do their things very well. It’s like clockwork and what I love about this work is that it is a team.
- What annoys you the most in a casting?
- When you look for the superficial and don’t go deep. When they don’t see the depth of a character and only go for the looks, the fame or the followers.
- You made the leap into directing with ‘The Next Door’. What is the most difficult moment on a shoot?
- Well, every second is complicated because you have to make 100,000 decisions. But I found it very funny to have to resolve conflicts with actors, because I know perfectly well how annoying I can be as an actor. So it was very strange to be on the other side and have to be diplomatic.
- Conflicts between them or with you?
- With both.
- You had to play peacemaker.
- Yeah.
- In that film you also criticized the gentrification of cities. You were born in Barcelona, a city that has suffered the ravages of mass tourism. What do you think?
- In Berlin, it is a little slower because we do not have such a centralized system, but in all European capitals such as London, Madrid or Paris, it is the problem. But now I have my mind on this new project, so you catch me with a question that I have already answered many times in the past.
- You have a tapas bar in Berlin. What do you see behind the counter?
- There I have tapas from all over Spain. Our intention was to give Germans an idea of the richness of the world of Spanish tapas. Many of them only know croquettes, ham, sangria and nothing else. So I wanted to give a broader image of the rich Spanish world. And also about the wines because there are not only Riojas, but many more. That’s why we are always traveling within the provinces and for a couple of weeks we visit different regions.
- And which cover did you like the most?
- I don’t know if it was a Basque pincho, because they didn’t know what Basque pinchos were either, but I don’t remember. And the calçots too. That was funny because they were cutting them and then I had to explain to them how it was done. But this happens even in Spain because some do not know what calçots are. So the whole street smelled like onions and the Germans were freaking out about it. For them those burnt onions were something very strange. But they loved them.
- What role would you kill for?
- I’m not looking for a certain role. I have never had that dream of playing Napoleon. I only ask that I receive interesting projects until the end of my life and that in the future you and I can continue talking about something I have done. I don’t have a character I want to play like Jesus or Napoleon.
- What things did you do when you were young that you can’t do now?
- I liked the night life, going out and dancing until late in Berlin, Madrid or wherever. And that is now impossible because then I can’t work the next day.
- And they will also chase you for fame.
- I always knew how to protect myself. It’s not like I’m Brad Pitt either. It’s more about the energy. I can not anymore.
- What is the suit that you have learned the most about professionally?
- There have been many like when they tell you ‘no’ after a casting. But ‘no’ is very important to train you and make you stronger. Having those rejections at the beginning of your career is very important. And now I know. But there were many projects that, in the end, did not come out. And you also have to be realistic, because there are projects in which I compete with the best at an international level. So, you shouldn’t take it too seriously either, because there are projects where it is very clear that they need an American or English actor and nothing happens. I have still been lucky enough to find projects in which, in the end, they have chosen me and it is a great privilege.
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