In the new "Tatort: Die goldene Zeit" (February 9, 8:15 p.m., the first) the viewer is taken to the Hamburg neighborhood and gets an insight into the criminal structures that are hidden behind the tourist attraction. Austrian actress Franziska Weisz (39), who has been seen as police superintendent Julia Grosz in this "crime scene" offshoot since 2016, investigates prostitution and human trafficking. In an interview with the news agency spot on news, the actress reveals how she stands privately to the neighborhood, whether the tears were real and how things are going with Commissioners Grosz and Falke (Wotan Wilke Möhring, 52).
They come from Austria and had to explore the Hamburg neighborhood in the new "Tatort: Die goldene Zeit". How was that for you?
Franziska Weisz: I think it's good that I was pushed in. After all, it is a failure not to know the neighborhood as a police officer from Hamburg and the surrounding area. But I have to say: privately I would not have voluntarily spent so much time there. In broad daylight, broken people lie there on the roadside and have thrown their lives away. Then it gets dark and the tourists come, who are told where the Beatles played everywhere. It gets darker and sex tourism begins. It is an absurd plastic world.
Did you know about the different clans that are in charge of the neighborhood?
Weisz: We are very lucky that the federal police in Hamburg are actively supporting us. They take us under the wing, look at the scripts and tell us about them. It is a great luxury. We did a neighborhood tour with a former police officer. That was great. He had stories in store everywhere – for example where the Marek gang was. I had the issues of human trafficking and organized crime in Germany explained to me in more detail. That was before filming and so I was able to incorporate the knowledge.
But there are also changes in the neighborhood …
Weisz: Exactly. I think that's very nice about the script: The comparison of old neighborhoods versus new ones. Nostalgia versus crime – Falke and Grosz also make their points of view clear. I can also well imagine that for figures like Lübcke, the times were really golden at that time. After all, he drove the Rolls-Royce with his boss through the neighborhood and spent his vacation on some yacht. But the women who bought back then are probably dead or alcoholics by now.
Go to a brothel as a woman and see the women sitting there. Even if it was just played, was it difficult for you to see this when shooting?
Weisz: Everything should be very realistic. Until shortly before shooting started, it was said that we were playing in a real brothel. That didn't work for various reasons. The location was modeled as realistic as possible. And then I thought to myself: I wouldn't be able to do it as a man. On the other hand, I don't want to lump everyone together. Not all prostitutes in Germany are forced prostitutes and were brought to Germany through human trafficking. There is also a pretty, self-confident German in her 30s who says she likes to work there. And I think it's good that we showed it in the "crime scene". After all, there is also.
Does the tender love story between Grosz and policewoman Tina Geissler, which has started at "ricochets", continue?
Weisz: Who knows. I think it's very nice about "ricochets" that the whole thing ends with a whisper in our ears, where we don't exactly know what Grosz says to her colleague. It is also the strength of our "crime scene" that we do not go so much into private stories, but primarily about criminal cases. These private stories are only lightly nudged. In the "Golden Age" there is, for example, the connection with the boy and falcon meets his old mentor. We do not take much more space for the private lives of our commissioners. But it could be that this ball is picked up again.
In the end, they also crushed a few tears. Were they real?
Weiz: Yes, definitely. No water has ever been poured into my eyes or artificially made to cry. After all, it's not about a character squeezing a tear. It should be intense – it doesn't always need tears. But when they come, they are right. That's why I found it very nice that Julia Grosz can finally be emotional and can allow that. It was her first tears in the "crime scene". It wasn't in the script. However, we have agreed that this is the moment when we can look Grosz in the soul. Nina Spengler is a very good director, with an excellent feel for her characters. She managed to sweep the inside out of all the characters. You get very close to the people.
When will the shooting of the new "crime scene" begin?
Weisz: They start in April. We have just finished filming Norderney. And I can confirm that my incredibly brave colleague Wotan Wilke Möhring went to the North Sea for half a day of shooting in November. I read the script and thought, "For God's sake, you can't really do that!" But he did it.
Can you already tell something about the plot?
Weisz: I haven't read the script yet. I just think I heard that this time it will be more about the federal police. So far, it has only been mentioned in passing that we are from the federal police. But many cannot imagine that much. And this time it should be a case that is more devoted to the structures. A real police film.