Verena Altenberger
“Armpit hair is automatically a statement of emancipation”
“Police call 110: Until midnight”: Chief Detective Elisabeth “Bessie” Eyckhoff (Verena Altenberger) interrogates the suspect.
© BR / Provobis Society for Film and Television / Hendrik Heiden
Bessie Eyckhoff is now chief detective. This can also be seen in her appearance, as actress Verena Altenberger explains.
The “Polizeiruf 110: Bis Mitternacht” (September 5th, 8:15 pm, the first) by director Dominik Graf (68) is the fourth case of investigator Elisabeth “Bessie” Eyckhoff, who has meanwhile risen from police superintendent to chief detective. It is played by the Austrian Verena Altenberger (33, “Generation incapable of relationships”), who was celebrated as a short-haired fanatic at this year’s Salzburg Festival. The interview on the crime thriller, which premiered at the Munich Film Festival, also dealt with emblematic externalities, among other things. The successful actress also told spot on news on the sidelines of the premiere event which trait she associates with her role Bessie.
Investigator Elisabeth “Bessie” Eyckhoff has opted for a change in “Polizeiruf 110: Until midnight”. She has a completely different hairstyle. Has that to do with the new rank?
Verena Altenberger: It’s a mixture of an artistic consideration and a professional fact. I had quite long hair before and had to have it shortened to shoulder length because I shot the film “Unter der Haut der Stadt” in Austria after the “Police call 110: Until midnight”. In it I play a woman with cancer who is going bald. The two make-up artists of the films agreed on which hair length is not too short for Bessie and which can be better hidden under a silicone bald head. The compromise was then shoulder length. You can really fake a lot of great things in film. In the end, I really had a bald head shaved. But that was not initially planned.
And why is Bessie’s pony gone?
Altenberger: After I suddenly looked way too young for the role with shoulder-length hair plus bangs, we pushed the bangs to one side. Then we made a virtue out of necessity and thought the change was good, because we also talk about a small leap in time in the crime series. Ultimately, a hairstyle is always a good way to tell that a new phase of life has begun.
And another issue of external appearance stands out in the crime thriller: When you move, you can see Bessie’s armpit hair: Why did you and / or director Dominik Graf want to show that?
Altenberger: It is still automatically a kind of emancipation statement. In that case, however, it was not set consciously, instead Bessie had armpit hair when the very first “police call” was made. That was something I came up with for the role. Because for me one of the inner beauties of this role is that it has fallen a bit out of time. I can’t grasp whether Bessie got stuck in the 1980s or maybe even has a very old soul or is a totally modern woman. Sometimes she also talks like a 30-year-old might not be able to talk. Sometimes she looks older, sometimes she looks younger. I like that Bessie is so anachronistic. You can’t pack them into any time. And that’s when I found the armpit hair a nice idea. Because the armpit hair is also a mixture of unfashionable, i.e. 1970s or 1980s, but also totally on the rise again. I have 16-year-old female colleagues who suddenly have armpit hair again. Is it super modern now or totally old fashioned?
You can actually see the armpit hair in every single case …
Altenberger: That’s right, rarely as present as in “Police Call 110: Until Midnight”. That is certainly also due to the fact that Dominik Graf simply enjoys it when something is not completely smooth in the figurative sense. He likes rough edges and weird people. In this sense, of course, he also celebrates the armpit hair a bit, because it is unexpected. And that’s exactly why he then of course holds it three seconds longer.
Bessie has new colleagues again in this crime thriller. As is well known, it is part of this concept, but still the question: Who will stay this time?
Altenberger: I don’t know yet. We always choose the script first and then see who we need. I exist as a constant, but whether three other colleagues help determine or one or none, whether it needs a boss or a boss, that depends on the respective story. I already have the next script for the fifth case in my mailbox, but I haven’t been able to read it yet because of the preparations for my engagement at the Salzburg Festival. In this respect, I do not yet know specifically how and with whom I will investigate. However, it is possible at any time for a colleague who is already familiar to return.
In the crime thriller, Bessie empathizes with the suspect’s psyche. Did you understand this trait well?
Altenberger: Yes, definitely. Bessie is simply interested in people, wants to understand them, regardless of whether they are doing good or bad. She would like to do good herself. But neither is it repelled per se by people who do bad things. She is interested in why they are doing this. What has to happen in a person’s life to do such a bad thing? This quality of Bessie also drove me as an actress. And one of the reasons I like my job so much is because I’m interested in people in all facets. I just find it exciting how people behave.
The end of the thriller is a glimmer of hope …
Altenberger: That is also a statement that should be conveyed: It is not inhuman. Everything is human. The best we can do is to let us help – and to help, to help honestly.