INTERVIEW: Young German star surprised at Spielberg's Warhorse role

By Elke Vogel Feb 15, 2012, 2:06 GMT

Berlin - German actor David Kross could hardly believe it when Steven Spielberg offered him a part in his latest movie, Warhorse, he told dpa in an interview ahead of the movie's German release on Thursday.

'I played a scene from the film, video-recording it and then we sent it over. Surprisingly, things then went pretty quickly. After three weeks I got the go-ahead. I was speechless,' Kross said.

'You don't often get a chance like this,' added the 21-year-old, who shot to prominence with his lead role as Michael Berg in The Reader, playing opposite Kate Winslet.

Kross said Spielberg had immediately given him a feeling of security. That took off some of the pressure, the actor said.

In Warhorse, Kross plays a German soldier who tries to prevent his younger brother from being sent to the front during World War I.

'My younger brother Franz is 14, like my brother in the film. While shooting, I frequently asked myself how one would react to a difficult situation like that,' said the actor, who has stayed very close to his family despite his rapid rise in the film world.

Kross described his two months in London preparing for the film's riding scenes.

'Until I was 12, I used to ride, but then I stopped, because football was more important,' he said. 'In London, I went daily to a horse farm, where I learnt to ride again on (actor) Russell Crowe's white horse from Robin Hood.'

The actor, who comes from a small town near Hamburg and now lives in Berlin, said he was a Spielberg fan.

'I really like Close Encounters of the Third Kind. And I always liked Indiana Jones. Schindler's List is really dramatic.'

Kross' list of credits includes the lead in Tough Enough, released in 2006 to acclaim in Germany for its portrayal of life in the harsh Berlin neighbourhood of Neukoelln with its large immigrant community. He was just 15 when the film was shot on location in the German capital.

The stage, however, was not for Kross, who abandoned a course at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art after just three months.

'I didn't like the situation that a teacher was telling me what was right and wrong,' he said. 'The school was theatre-based, and that was not what I wanted at the time.'