In Afire, Paula Beer’s Nadja Couldn’t Care Less About Men

It’s quite possible to talk to Paula Beer and feel, for a few moments, perfectly at peace. There’s an effortless lightness to her sincerity—she can say things like this without sounding cloying: “I like creating stories with people, and it doesn’t matter where I do that—I just want to be surrounded by nice people.” The German actor has found that kind of collaboration with the director Christian Petzold. They’ve made three shape-shifting movies together: the mysterious wartime thriller Transit, modern-day relationship fairy-tale Undine (winning her Best Actress at Berlin), and now Afire, a summer comedy of manners that runs headfirst into reality.

In Afire, a sad-sack writer, Leon (Thomas Schubert), heads out to a summer house on the Baltic with a friend, but they find a stranger, Nadja (Beer), happily ensconced there already. Nadja’s state of utter chill makes Leon’s neurosis seem absurd. “She’s so settled and easy about everything,” Beer said. But that cool gets put to the test with a looming forest fire—and it’s Beer who grounds the story through the delicate tonal shifts that follow (along with effortlessly quoting some German poetry).

Beer, 28, first broke through in 2016 as a World War I widow in Francois Ozon’s Frantz, and her upcoming projects steer her back into deep waters: a legal thriller set in 1933 Germany (Thirty-Three) and a new adaptation of Max Frisch’s existential novel Stiller. When we spoke in June during her visit for the Tribeca Festival’s screenings of Afire, she wore a playful Gucci shirt with a frazzled cat. (“It’s a little angry kitten,” she said with a chuckle.) She talked to me about growing up with parents who were artists, reshaping a key scene in Afire, and the Jim Jarmusch movie she wouldn’t mind living in.

The German title of the movie is Red Sky, which sounds apropos to the apocalyptic orange skies we had here in New York [in June].

Yeah, I read about it in the news. It’s the revenge of nature!

Not good. What appealed to you about playing Nadja?

The first time I learned something about the movie was when I met with Christian—actually, we had a falafel—and he was like, “I have a new idea for a movie.” Christian is just crazy about stories and how to tell them, and I felt that from the very beginning: this movie was about the essence of life—what love means and how complicated it can be, being a human being and struggling with yourself and meeting other people. I like this idea of Nadja being very mature and grown-up by being just fine with who she is—and being able to look at someone else without prejudice.

I think it’s your greatest and fullest character with Petzold so far. Your past two roles were more abstract.

Yeah, absolutely, that’s right. I love Nadja especially because I still feel a lot of female characters are centered on the male role and being like, “Oh, now he’s showing his emotions and I’m applauding, because I’m happy to finally reach him!” Nadja’s like, Okay, but... I have other things to do. I like her attitude of not caring too much about a man but more about humans.

I love the scene where Leon asks Nadja what she thinks of the book he’s writing. You really draw out the moment in this great way.

The story of that moment is funny: I read the scene and Nadja was supposed to have a monologue about what she thought about the book. I was like, “Well, Christian, maybe that’s a bit... you.” Because he knows so much about literature and movies. But that would not be Nadja’s personality. She doesn’t make a fuss about who she is, that she’s studying this and doing that. That’s not her style, really. So I told Christian I thought there could be a better reaction. And he was like, “Okay, just say it!”

You grew up with parents who are painters. Did that turn you off from doing something artistic, or the opposite?

Well, as a kid, I think you get bored by the things your parents do. “Ugh, we’re going to this exhibition.” But I always loved the atmosphere in my mom’s atelier. Later on sometimes I’d just go over there, have a coffee, and just sit among the drying paintings.

That sounds lovely.

And my mom never forced me into doing something. It was more about finding out what brings me joy and what I enjoy doing. I was never this kid saying “I want to be an actress when I grow up.” Then we moved to Berlin, and when I was 12 I started at the Friedrichstadt-Palast, which has a huge kids ensemble. Being there in a huge group of about 100 kids on stage was really joyful: playing a character, wearing costumes, and telling stories.

Were there any films or actors you admired as you went along?

I really love acting and understanding how characters work, but I’m maybe not the biggest film fan in the world. But I do have these moments in cinema where I completely forget who I am for an hour and a half. And the first time I remember being hit hard by a movie was Only Lovers Left Alive by Jim Jarmusch.

What a picture!

So many great actors and performances! And I’m always wondering how it actually works to be an actor and prepare a scene. Because sometimes I feel like I become a medium—sorry, this is a bit esoteric—for a character in that moment. Being like, “Okay, now just everything from my personality just go to the left of it just for a second, and then let the character be there.” I don't know how, but it works, and your body just knows how things feel. That’s something really nice about being a human being: that you can mirror so much and forget about yourself.

I love that Jarmusch movie. They’re basically like, what if we were just cool... forever?

Yeah! [chuckles] And listen to great music, have a grand time, and be really kind to each other.

Afire is in select theaters nationwide July 14.