The dream ship
So is the "dream ship" in Corona times tricked
As hotel director Hanna Liebhold, Barbara Wussow is in front of the camera for "Das Traumschiff" with Florian Silbereisen (left), among others.
© ZDF / Dirk Bartling
What's next for "Das Traumschiff"? Barbara Wussow talks about the difficult filming conditions during the corona pandemic.
Barbara Wussow (59, "Italy in the Heart") will be on "Das große Promibacken" in the Sat.1 kitchen from February 17th and will prove her talent for baking. The native Austrian can usually be seen as an actress on television. In the ZDF classic "Das Traumschiff" she has been slipping into the role of hotel director Hanna Liebhold since 2018. So also in 2021: "We were only recently ten days in the Maldives and were shooting for the next Christmas episode," says the 59-year-old. In an interview with the news agency spot on news, Wussow reveals how the shooting of the "dream ship" works in Corona times.
What influence does the corona pandemic have on the "dream ship"? Is it currently even possible to shoot?
Barbara Wussow: We were only recently in the Maldives for ten days and were shooting for the next Christmas episode. It was a very small island and there were no other hotel guests and everyone who was there had to do a corona test. All the employees were in quarantine 14 days beforehand. We also have a corona inspector who makes sure that we don't get too close. In addition, a fever is measured every day, a corona test is done every week and every two hours they say: wash your hands. The security standards are very high. We also only shot the scenes that take place on land.
And the other scenes?
Wussow: We shoot the scenes that take place on the ship in Bremerhaven. Existing material is used for the landscape photographs. I hope that the ship will be able to sail again soon and that passengers will be able to come on board. But right now I'm happy and grateful that we're allowed to work at all. And we do it for the audience. So that there are new episodes of the "dream ship" at Christmas and New Year. You can't just do repetitions all the time.
How then does that South Sea feeling come to Bremerhaven?
Wussow: You have to work with a green screen. Finally the ship is standing and there is no sea. It is very expensive to shoot like this. Three episodes of "Das Traumschiff" plus two episodes of "Kreuzfahrt ins Glück" have already been shot with the help of green screens. It wouldn't have worked without it. The technology is also used in "Lord of the Rings" or "Harry Potter". And what they can do, we've been able to do for a long time. You have to see everything with a sense of humor. As my mother used to say: humor is the button you press before you burst your neck.
So for the Christmas episode we went to the Maldives. Where does the Easter episode take place?
Wussow: In autumn 2020 we shot the Easter episode for this year. We were also on a small island in the Indian Ocean. It all worked well, we all stayed healthy.
Do you already know how the "Traumschiff" filming will continue in 2021?
Wussow: I don't know. No ship is currently sailing and no shipping company is open. We don't even know what's going to happen. I only think until the end of March at the moment. After all, you don't know whether the numbers will go down or up or whether countries will open their borders.
Florian Silbereisen has been the "dream ship" captain since 2019. How has the cooperation been so far?
Wussow: Wonderful. Florian is a great guy. He is a highly professional artist and is always in a good mood. You can go party with him and he sits like a 1 in the mask the next morning at seven o'clock. And can also write his text, which is not always the case with other colleagues. He's charming and has a huge following. If you bring two big battleships like "Das Traumschiff" and Florian Silbereisen together, that can only result in something good. I can only take my hat off to him.
Collien Ulmen-Fernandes will be there for the first time as a ship doctor at Easter 2021. Were you happy to see her join?
Wussow: The ship's crew, that is me, Daniel Morgenroth and Florian Silbereisen, are always excited to see which actors are coming. I was very happy about collies. She is gifted, very amiable and an incredibly beautiful woman – a real asset. She was there again as a doctor in the second episode. We have a couple of scenes together, which makes me very happy. Let's see if she stays with the "dream ship".