“I was a Humble Wildcat!” Potente, 49, told the Current during a recent interview. “I spoke English really well. I think language is freedom. So, it was awesome that I was able to make friends and study in a different language.”
Potente played tennis in high school and traveled to San Antonio for competitions. She recalled Texas as a “very colorful state” where men wore cowboy hats and the words “super big” could be used to describe everything.
“I had never seen anything like it,” she said. “The hair of the girls in high school, the sandwiches, everything. I was like, ‘Oh, my God, this is America.’ Living in Texas definitely shaped me as a person.”
A few years after her time as an exchange student, Potente was back in Germany making what would become her breakout film, Run Lola Run. The experimental German thriller is celebrating its 25th anniversary with the release of a 4K restoration at select theaters on June 7.
In Run Lola Run, Potente plays the title character, a young woman trying to help her boyfriend replace $55,000 he accidentally misplaced. The stakes are higher than the cash though: his criminal boss will kill him if he finds out about the lost loot.
Told in three separate but similar narratives, Lola finds herself running toward the same goal in each story, but her destiny changes each time because of a subtle difference at the start of every sprint.
During our interview, Potente, who’s also known for her appearances in Blow, The Bourne Identity and The Conjuring 2, talked about what she remembers most about making Run Lola Run 25 years ago and how the film changed her own ideas about destiny.
When you moved to Texas for a year, did you discover more American films and TV series?
Well, we had them in Germany — just dubbed. Growing up, I loved [the TV series] The Fall Guy with Lee Majors. They just made that into a movie. That was one of my absolute favorite shows. I wanted to become a stunt girl watching that as a kid. One of my dad's favorite movies was Moby Dick with Gregory Peck. During my time in Texas, we would watch TV like any American family, but I was also doing a lot of other stuff like school activities.
What do you remember most about making Run Lola Run 25 years ago?
The whole shoot was really exciting. I was 23. At the time, I was a student at an acting school in Munich. It was my first time in Berlin. It was such an exciting city and still is. The vibe hasn’t changed that much. The director [Tom Tykwer] was so cool and energetic. We really didn’t know what we were making, but there was a sense that we were all working on something cool. We worked long hours, but it was just so much fun. I was totally dialed into that energy.
Was the physical aspect of the film challenging?
I was running a lot, but I didn’t get very tired. I was young. If you know Berlin really well, the route that [Lola runs] in the film, nobody could run that in 20 minutes. Geographically, that's not possible. Those scenes were very spontaneous. We didn't have permits for everything.
I saw Run Lola Run when I was a teenager, and I had never seen anything like it before. I remember playing it on a loop for months.
I think overall, the film is just very accessible. It has a very simple premise, and there are so many different energetic levels to connect to. The visuals are very strong, and there’s this whole philosophical idea about what happens if you change one thing.
How did your participation in the film affect your thoughts on destiny?
I think it probably made me more aware. That was a very formative time in my career. Tom [cast me] after seeing my first film [After Five in the Forest Primeval]. I got that film because I was at a club and there was a scout there who invited me to audition to be an MTV VJ. That audition tape got into the hands of a director who was friends with the casting director [of Forest Primeval]. Tom saw it and cast me in Lola. That plays into the theme of the film. If I hadn't gone to a club that night, would I have ended up doing Run Lola Run?
It’s too exhausting to think about things like that.
There's a million different ways you can play it. You and I are talking to each other right now while life is happening out there for these 30 minutes. We could be doing something else. It is kind of overwhelming if you think about it all the time. But I think that gives you a certain awareness. I don't know if it makes your life better or worse. I think within that lies an opportunity to consciously go left or right. I think that's definitely a powerful principle.
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