David Kross

Interview By: Rebecca Ford
RebeccaFord@TheCinemaSource.com

David Kross is a relatively unknown actor from Germany, who has stumbled upon a goldmine. He was cast as 15-year-old Michael in The Reader, Stephen Daldry's new film.

The Reader is the story of a young man who'years after having an affair with an older woman'finds himself as a law student witnessing his former love defending herself against war-crime charges. Set in post WWII Germany, The Reader is already receiving wide-spread acclaim.

David plays the younger version of Michael, falling in love with an older woman, played by Kate Winslet.

We sat down with David to ask him about the challenges of learning a new language, and working with the stunning and talented Winslet.

David, who spoke only his native German, learned English for the role. His English at the interview is impressive, and his accent makes him all the more charming. 'It was great to learn English,' he says. 'It was great to have to learn to English. It was really fun. It was great to learn English with a dialect coach."

Yes, but was it scary' 'Yes. I was scared,' he admits. 'But it was both exciting and scary. And it was great. It is great fun to act in English.'

Director Stephen Daldry was nominated for two Oscars for The Hours and Billy Elliot, but did David know his work' 'I saw 'Billy Elliot.' I know the film,' he says. 'But I didn't know [Stephen Daldry's] name."

David was cast very early, and most of the other cast members were built around him. The older version of Michael is played by Ralph Fiennes (The Constant Gardner, Maid in Manhattan). We asked David if he got to spend time with Fiennes.

'We've never talked about the character together. I just talked to Stephen and he talked to Stephen,' explained David. 'We had some rehearsals in preparation of the film. We had some funny rehearsals when we had to watch ourselves. We had to watch each other.'

'One thing was we had to lie and the other person had to realize when the other person lies,' explains David.

But if David was playing only half of a character, wouldn't that be difficult for him' 'I made a decision not to worry about it.,' explains David. 'For me, I'm the first one, I play the younger one, so it doesn't really matter because it's the first thing that happens. It's more important for Ralph'what happened before.'

David spends a lot of time onscreen with Kate Winslet. David, who has only two other major films under his belt (both of them German productions), could have been understandably intimidated by Kate'especially in some of the more intimate scenes.

'Especially because it was the first time I had to do these scenes,' explains David. 'But Steven always told me 'Shut up' when I was worrying about them. Because you should focus on different acting scenes in the film because they are much more difficult than the sex scenes,' David continues. 'Because especially the sex scenes didn't have to anything to do with acting, because it was very technical and he knew exactly what he wanted to have. We talked a lot about it.'

'Kate was very great, and secure about it, so that helped a lot,' David adds.

Working with Kate brought some attention from his friends, of course.

'They're very jealous,' he laughs.

The Reader explores the affect of WWII on the people who lived through it. Although David had not discussed it with any survivors, he feels people need to keep learning about it.

'I think it was a horrible thing. It was a very, very horrible thing,' says David. 'We still learn about it in school. And we have to keep learning, and reading and telling our children about it, and never forget it.'

David brings a freshness to The Reader, perhaps because he is so new to the acting world. We asked what his experience has taught him.

'As an actor, it changed me a lot because [director Stephen Daldry] is a very actor-based director, and I learned so much doing his film,' says David. 'I really learned a lot because that was my third film and I still very inexperienced and still have to learn so much. It was a great experience.'