Movie Actor Sven Schelker on playing with identities
In the film "Stiller", based on the classic novel by Max Frisch, Basel actor Sven Schelker plays the leading role - at least half of it. A conversation about the closeness to a role, toxic masculinity and a trick by the director.
13.10.2025, 09:50
SDA
The main character in the film "Stiller" pretends to be someone else after disappearing for several years. You are an actor: how realistic do you think it is to get away with this in real life?
Schelker: "The time factor certainly plays a role. After an absence of one week, nobody would believe that you are someone else. However, the more time passes since the last reunion, the more memories can change or even dissolve. That would certainly benefit you if you wanted to try something like that. Personally, though, I've never felt the need to pretend to be someone else. Except at work, of course."
Have you ever merged with a role to such an extent that you occasionally forget your true personality?
Schelker: "No, that's never happened to me. I take a rather critical view of it when you bring yourself to a point from which it is difficult to return to yourself. There is a certain technique that actors can use to achieve this, but I don't want to work like that. What I often can't let go of, however, are the fates of characters. Or stories that relate to my own reality."
Can you give an example?
Schelker: "Bruno Manser, of course (Sven Schelker played the environmental activist in "Bruno Manser - The Voice of the Rainforest", editor's note). I've worked most intensively on this film so far, as it took a long time. We spent almost four months in the jungle and filmed with real Penan - and for them I very quickly became Bruno. Because of this, but also because his legacy is still highly topical, I found it difficult to distance myself from the subject matter. In this case, however, I don't want to."
Does that mean this role still has an influence on your life?
Schelker: "Yes, in that I remain aware that we all have a responsibility when it comes to nature conservation issues. I do get involved on a small scale. But I would definitely call it commitment if you pay attention to sustainability."
"Stiller" is about themes such as identity and the search for the self. To what extent do you see the movie as a love story?
Schelker: "The period of Stiller's life that I play is about falling in love, getting married and living together. Of course, love is a big theme. However, interpreting the movie as a love story would be too two-dimensional for me. It's about much more, above all about several relationships and fates that are interwoven. I wouldn't call it a love story."
Above all, it is also about toxic masculinity, but this is not made quite so clear.
Schelker: "I think so. When I saw the movie for the first time, I took the perspective of Stiller's wife Julika. Just like her, I kept asking myself: is what he's saying true or not? And especially in the flashbacks, Stiller often comes across as brash and egotistical - you can clearly sense how he is gaslighting, among other things. When I read the script, I didn't notice this as clearly as I did later in the movie."
You often read about people who direct Stiller that they are brave to take on this work.
Schelker: "When someone dares to tackle such a well-known work, it's certainly courageous because many people have a personal connection and an opinion. Both are linked to high expectations. But I can imagine another reason why the book hasn't been filmed for so long: as soon as you visually place two people next to each other, it's immediately clear whether they are the same person or two different people. Stefan Haupt has found a very, very good trick. And I think his idea of casting the role twice is courageous, because it's extremely difficult."
You share the role with Albrecht Schuch, who looks very similar to you in the movie. How many facial comparisons were necessary before this combination was found?
Schelker: "I wasn't involved in the process, but it was certainly very good casting. In the end, we only met on two days of shooting. So we didn't agree on any hand movements or a certain gait from Stiller in advance. We simply trusted each other."
Identity and self-discovery in the film "Stiller"
Is James Larkin White Anatol Stiller - or not? This is the question at issue in the novel by Max Frisch and the film adaptation by Stefan Haupt ("Zwingli", "The Circle"). But compared to the novel, the movie "Stiller" is limited to the essentials.
A train travels through a foggy area. The personality of Anatol Stiller, the main character in Max Frisch's novel "Stiller" (1954), the basis for Stefan Haupt's film adaptation of the same name, is also opaque.
For the time being, however, it is about a man named James Larkin White (Abrecht Schuch). He is identified by a train passenger as the long-lost sculptor Anatol Stiller and is therefore arrested at Zurich station. Stiller is accused of criminal activities. But White denies knowing Stiller, let alone being Stiller.
Author Frisch wrote down the course of the story and the protagonist's inner monologues in dense detail at the time. Director Haupt roughly summarizes the core of the literary classic for the big screen. That makes sense. Haupt focuses on the essentials: the arrest, the question of whether it was a case of mistaken identity or not, and the relationship between Stiller (young: Sven Schelker) and his wife Julika (Paula Beer). He simply leaves out the second part of the novel.
As a result, the characters and their motivations remain more one-dimensional for the movie audience than for readers of the original text. But the film is certainly enough to trigger lively discussions about identity and self-discovery. The film opens in cinemas in German-speaking Switzerland on October 16.
*The interview and film review by Miriam Margani, Keystone-SDA, were realized with the help of the Gottlieb and Hans Vogt Foundation.
