I thought that if you come across as a freak, there will be some kind of distance. Maybe the distance became excessive. I realized that people were afraid of me without knowing me.

I experienced a lot, and achieved nearly everything I wanted. I can enjoy that today. Go to bed at nine in the evening, because my child wakes up around seven, without having the feeling that I missed or are missing something.

Acting is all about truth and honesty, and the sensitivity that`s capable of transporting you.

Leaving [home] is kind of a strange thing - the world opens up, but at the same time, it gets smaller. The more you see of the world, the smaller it seems. After I did the film "Stalingard," I left Germany, and I did a couple of films in France and lived there for about three years, and a couple of films in Italy, and lived there for two years. Then I came over here. The more you get familiar with different countries, the more you think, "Where am I going to live for the rest of my life?" You think, "OK, Germany sucks - don`t want to live there; France, no; Italy - the food is nice, but I don`t want to live there." In the end, you have nowhere to go anymore.

My reputation was a bit exaggerated. Things were written in newspapers, then copied, then doubled. One of the reasons why I never disclaimed that, was because I found it amusing. But I also constructed such an image for myself in order to gain more of a private life.

I don`t pretend anything anymore. I don`t have time, desire or energy to calculate anymore.

I`m proud of the fact that I made my way in life very rigorously. I was a bit too stubborn when it came to certain things, which was unnecessary, like getting independent from and leaving Germany.

I`ve worked with many directors, good ones and bad ones. So if I have a chance to work the good ones, I better put myself in their hands, and trust them, because that`s my big opportunity to be different, and to be better than usual.

I don`t see a film industry in Germany. They have a great TV culture, but how many German films are really exciting?

I figured out, I guess, that the job just makes me happy if it`s not number one. So if it all works, great. If it doesn`t, I still go home, look at my kids, and I have a big smile on my face.