Franka Potente is a German film actress and singer.
She first appeared in the comedy After Five in the Forest Primeval, for which she won
a Bavarian Film Award for Best Young Actress and her breakthrough came in 1998, when she
had the leading role in the acclaimed action thriller Lola rennt.
Potente received Germany's highest film and television awards for her performances in
Run Lola Run and the television film Opernball.
After half a decade of critically acclaimed roles in German films, Potente went on to
land the role of Barbara Buckley in Blow and as Jason Bourne's love interest in the Bourne
film series.
Early life The elder of two children, Potente was born
in Münster, and raised in nearby Dülmen.
Her mother, Hildegard, is a medical assistant, and her father, Dieter Potente, is a teacher.
Her Italian surname stems from her great-grandfather, a Sicilian slater who emigrated to Germany
during the 19th century.
When 17 years old, she spent a few months as an exchange student in Humble, Texas, a
suburb of Houston, United States.
She admitted in an interview she "had an American boyfriend, went to football games and to my
American prom.
I was so serious about my American boyfriend, I brought him back to Germany with me to visit
my parents.
They were horrified."
Career After finishing high school in Germany, Potente
enrolled at the Otto Falckenberg School of Performing Arts in Munich.
Potente took acting jobs outside school time and appeared in her first movie in the 1995
student film Aufbruch.
She was then spotted by a casting agent and appeared in the film Nach Fünf im Urwald,
directed by her then-boyfriend, Hans Christian Schmid.
She received the 1996 Bavarian Film Prize for Young Talent for her work in this film.
She then finished her last year of training at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in
Manhattan.
Potente returned to Europe and worked in German and French films.
She was cast as the lead in Lola Rennt after meeting the director, Tom Tykwer, in a café.
The part was written for her and the film was a small-budget art house film production.
The movie and Potente received acclaim; Variety wrote she was "heroic, fierce, frightened
and vulnerable all at once" while eFilmCritic.com called her a "smart choice".
Run Lola Run was a commercial success with a $14,533,173 worldwide gross over a budget
of $1 million.
Potente also performed on the film's soundtrack.
She then appeared in the German-language horror film Anatomy, which enjoyed box office success.
Her performance in the movie was called "gutsy" by Variety magazine.
In that year, she also had the starring role in the romantic thriller The Princess and
the Warrior, directed by Tykwer.
She received nominations for the European Film Award and the German Film Award for Best
Actress.
Potente's first English-language role was that of film editor in Storytelling in 2001.
She had a supporting role in Blow, with Johnny Depp.
The movie gained mixed reviews and was a moderate box office success.
She admitted in an interview with Contactmusic that her American accent in the film was due
to two months of practice.
She appeared in The Bourne Identity, with Matt Damon.
The movie had a positive reception and Potente and Damon's strong chemistry was praised by
Slant magazine.
She reprised her role in The Bourne Supremacy.
In 2006, she starred with Eric Bana in the Australian drama film Romulus, My Father,
for which she was nominated for an Australian Film Industry Award for Best Lead Actress.
She wrote and directed Der die Tollkirsche ausgräbt, a silent comedy that premiered
also in 2006.
Starting on 22 May 2007, Potente had a three-episode recurring role in the FX drama The Shield,
where she played Diro Kesakhian, "the ruthless godmother of L.A.'s Armenian mafia".
After appearing in Eichmann, she had one of the leads in the biographical movie Che, which
opened at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.
Remarking on working with director Steven Soderbergh, she stated: "When we were working,
he was almost invisible, in a sense.
He always stayed in the forest.
He was like a chameleon.
He was hidden behind leaves and stuff.
He almost made himself dissolve to get the result that he had."
In 2009, she appeared in the House television series two-part episode "Broken" and in 2010,
she appeared in Shanghai.
The film was released only in China, where it grossed $9,199,466.
In January 2011, she played Hilda in a BBC drama The Sinking of the Laconia.
She stars as the brothel madam Eva Heissen in BBC America's first original scripted series,
Copper.
The show premiered to 1.1 million viewers during its debut broadcast, the largest debut
in network history and was renewed for a second season set to premiere in 2013.
In 2014, Potente landed a spot on the FX series The Bridge as Eleanor Nacht.
Personal life She was in a romantic relationship with director
Tom Tykwer from 1998 until January 2003.
Potente briefly dated Eric Melvin, guitarist for punk band NOFX.
In 2008, she was engaged to an American businessman; however, in September 2009, the couple separated
and the engagement was called off.
In April 2011, she gave birth to a daughter, Polly.
In mid-2012 she married actor Derek Richardson.
Filmography Discography
"Believe" "Wish"
"Easy Day" "Fly With Me"
Bibliography 2005: Los Angeles – Berlin.
Ein Jahr 2006: Der die Tollkirsche ausgräbt, Drehbuch
zum Film 2009: Kick Ass – Das alternative Workout
2010: Zehn: Stories References
External links Franka Potente at the Internet Movie Database
Franka Potente at AllMusic