Tom Wlaschiha
Tom Wlaschiha is a German born actor who kicked off his career on the theatre circuit of his native country before moving into English speaking TV roles and movies.
He is back on the big screen this week as he teams up with rising star Andrea Riseborough for Resistance, Amit Gupta’s directorial debut.
I caught up with the actor to talk about the movie, how he found working with his director and what lies ahead.
- Resistance is out on next week so can you tell me a little bit about the movie?
The movie is based on the novel by Owen Sheers and it is about a small troop of German soldiers, the fictitious background is that the Germans have made it to England and this small troop of German soldiers have been sent to a remote valley in Wales to look for hidden art treasures.
At the same time there are some farms in the valley’s and the wives wake up one morning to discover that their men have gone, they don’t know at this point that they have joined the insurgency.
Winter sets in and the German soldiers and the farmers wives are in that valley cut off from the outside world and the film is about how they deal with each other and about collaboration or what is collaboration?
- You take on the role of Albrecht in the movie so what was it about the character and the script that interested you?
What I immediately liked about the script when I first read it is it is very poetic; the language and also the setting.
It’s quite multilayered so it’s not one of those straightforward relationship stories with a happy ending - it’s more like a cat and mouse game where one of the characters takes a step forward and the other steps back and then vice versa.
And what really interested me was to portray this relationship and the different shades and stages of it.
- The movie is an adaptation of the book by Owen Sheers so how familiar with the book were you before the movie and how did the novel help in your preparation for the role?
Actually I hadn’t read the novel before I was cast, only after. But Owen Sheers also co-wrote the script so the story moves along quite nicely with the book.
Being a different medium you can’t always transport all of the elements of the book into the film but I think that it has been done pretty well.
The Welsh landscape is very bleak and hostile and it creates a really special atmosphere; it’s almost like the landscape mirrors the characters and the people living there.
- Apart from the novel what other prep did you do for the role?
I talked to my grandfather, who was in the war; he is ninety five now. What interested me was would a small group of soldiers who have been together for such a long time and away from their unit gradually become friends or if the military structure would still be upheld?
So that is what I found interesting - even if you are in enemy land and it’s just four or five of you you would still observe certain military rules.
- Amit Gupta makes his feature length directorial debut with this movie so how did you find him as a filmmaker?
He was great. I was totally surprised that this was his first feature film as he didn’t give that impression at any stage; he totally knew the story that he wanted and tell and what he wanted the film to look like.
But at the same time he gave the actors quite a lot of space to develop their own ideas and develop the scenes.
That is all you can ask as an actor really, that you have some one to work together with and create something together rather then being told this and that.
- Michael Sheen and Andrea Riseborough are also on the cast list so how did you find working alongside them?
Well I have seen many of Michael Sheen’s movies, some of them are amongst my favourites like Frost/Nixon. But I only had one day of filming with him as his part isn’t that big but I enjoying filming with him.
And Andrea was really great as she is so precise with what she does as an actress, sometimes you don’t have to do anything you just have to look at her and react; that becomes quite natural.
I learnt from her quite a bit.
- Throughout your career you have worked between TV & movies as well as in the theatre so how do the three mediums compare? Do you have a particular favourite?
No I don’t really have a favourite. I really love theatre as that is where I started out. The system in Germany is different as you sign up with a company for two or three years and you work exclusively with them, you can’t do any film work on the side.
So that is why I decided to become a freelancer because I wanted to do film. Now I find it quite hard to go back to theatre, I would love to, you can’t do just one play in Germany most of the time you have to sign up for the company.
Both mediums, theatre and film, have really interesting sides to it that I really like to explore.
- You were born in Germany and worked in theatres over there so how did you find the transition into English speaking work?
Foreign languages was the only thing that interested me when I was at school so playing in another language… it is quite demanding because if it is not your mother tongue you are missing some connotations and some emotional depth of certain things.
But I think that it is more fun as you are discovering something new every day.
- You are also set to appear in the second season of Game of Thrones so how did that role come around? And how did you find working on such an epic project?
Well I just auditioned for it; I have a really great agent here in London. It was a totally different type of production but it was good fun because you had two hundred extras on horses every day on location it is a huge enterprise.
It was so different compared to a project like Resistance, which was quite intimate. Both projects were really fun to do.
- Can you give us any hints as to what we can epic from season 2 and what your role is going to entail?
My role a magical assassin called Jaqen H'ghar and he mainly interacts with Arya, the little stark girl, and he is a teacher.
What I liked about that character is that at the beginning he appears as one of the bad guys because he is introduced as an assassin but he turns out to be more her teacher and helps her to kill off her enemies.
And I got to shape-shift which was great - it was my first shape-shift on screen (laughs).
- The year is coming to a close so what movies have you been enjoying over the past twelve months?
Oh god you have got me there - what was the last movie that I saw? I have been travelling and working so much over the last half year I haven’t been to the movies in quite a while.
I thought Drive was very good and I am really looking forward to Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady.
- Finally what’s next for you?
I have just started a German comedy feature film. It’s a comedy which makes a nice change (laughs) not having to be so deep and thoughtful.
Resistance is released 25th November.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tom Wlaschiha is a German born actor who kicked off his career on the theatre circuit of his native country before moving into English speaking TV roles and movies.
He is back on the big screen this week as he teams up with rising star Andrea Riseborough for Resistance, Amit Gupta’s directorial debut.
I caught up with the actor to talk about the movie, how he found working with his director and what lies ahead.
- Resistance is out on next week so can you tell me a little bit about the movie?
The movie is based on the novel by Owen Sheers and it is about a small troop of German soldiers, the fictitious background is that the Germans have made it to England and this small troop of German soldiers have been sent to a remote valley in Wales to look for hidden art treasures.
At the same time there are some farms in the valley’s and the wives wake up one morning to discover that their men have gone, they don’t know at this point that they have joined the insurgency.
Winter sets in and the German soldiers and the farmers wives are in that valley cut off from the outside world and the film is about how they deal with each other and about collaboration or what is collaboration?
- You take on the role of Albrecht in the movie so what was it about the character and the script that interested you?
What I immediately liked about the script when I first read it is it is very poetic; the language and also the setting.
It’s quite multilayered so it’s not one of those straightforward relationship stories with a happy ending - it’s more like a cat and mouse game where one of the characters takes a step forward and the other steps back and then vice versa.
And what really interested me was to portray this relationship and the different shades and stages of it.
- The movie is an adaptation of the book by Owen Sheers so how familiar with the book were you before the movie and how did the novel help in your preparation for the role?
Actually I hadn’t read the novel before I was cast, only after. But Owen Sheers also co-wrote the script so the story moves along quite nicely with the book.
Being a different medium you can’t always transport all of the elements of the book into the film but I think that it has been done pretty well.
The Welsh landscape is very bleak and hostile and it creates a really special atmosphere; it’s almost like the landscape mirrors the characters and the people living there.
- Apart from the novel what other prep did you do for the role?
I talked to my grandfather, who was in the war; he is ninety five now. What interested me was would a small group of soldiers who have been together for such a long time and away from their unit gradually become friends or if the military structure would still be upheld?
So that is what I found interesting - even if you are in enemy land and it’s just four or five of you you would still observe certain military rules.
- Amit Gupta makes his feature length directorial debut with this movie so how did you find him as a filmmaker?
He was great. I was totally surprised that this was his first feature film as he didn’t give that impression at any stage; he totally knew the story that he wanted and tell and what he wanted the film to look like.
But at the same time he gave the actors quite a lot of space to develop their own ideas and develop the scenes.
That is all you can ask as an actor really, that you have some one to work together with and create something together rather then being told this and that.
- Michael Sheen and Andrea Riseborough are also on the cast list so how did you find working alongside them?
Well I have seen many of Michael Sheen’s movies, some of them are amongst my favourites like Frost/Nixon. But I only had one day of filming with him as his part isn’t that big but I enjoying filming with him.
And Andrea was really great as she is so precise with what she does as an actress, sometimes you don’t have to do anything you just have to look at her and react; that becomes quite natural.
I learnt from her quite a bit.