A fairy tale has come true for 20-year-old Pauline Pollmann: alongside cinema star Johnny Depp, she plays Queen Marie Antoinette in “Jeanne du Barry”. The historical drama opens the 76th International Film Festival in Cannes.
To be a princess one day – an ancient dream that many little girls still enjoy dreaming of to this day. But it is only extremely rarely true. That’s exactly what happened to the young North German Pauline Pollmann – albeit on screen. In the lavishly furnished historical drama “Jeanne du Barry” by and with the award-winning French filmmaker Maïwenn (“Die Meinen”), she plays the legendary rococo queen Marie Antoinette – a born princess of Austria-Lorraine (1755-1793) – in a corset robe and a large wig. .
One of her partners: Hollywood great Johnny Depp (59, “Pirates of the Caribbean”) as King Louis XV. The 88-year-old cinema star Pierre Richard (“Asterix & Obelix in the Middle Kingdom”) and India Hair (“The Line”) can also be seen among others. This Tuesday, “Jeanne du Barry” will open the 76th Cannes International Film Festival. And the 20-year-old high school graduate Pollmann is allowed to stand there for the first time on a red carpet.
At the age of eight or nine at theater courses
She is excited about Cannes, where she will see the film on the big screen for the first time, says the young actress, who was born in Hamburg and grew up just outside the city in Schleswig-Holstein, shortly before the big appearance to the German Press Agency. She drinks a latte macchiato in Hamburg’s HafenCity.
“Even as a small child I wanted to be an actress. Namely, when I was telling and portraying stories with my friends in the garden for hours,” says Pollmann. And laughingly adds: “On photos you can actually see me as the only one among them in princess dresses.”
The fact that her father works as a television producer didn’t bring her closer to her goal, she explains. Because as an industry insider, he knew what it meant for a child when it went to the casting and it said: Thank you, no. “It can break his heart. So my parents told me they didn’t want it.” But the only daughter prevailed and at the age of eight or nine she went to theater courses and workshops.
She found Johnny Depp very likeable
An agency there became aware of her, says Pollmann. From time to time, she offered her small TV roles, for which she was given time off from school. As a teenager, she played the ex-girlfriend of a teenager in the fact-based ARD series “Gladbeck” (2018), who is shot by hostage-takers. “It was a very intense experience,” the young woman recalls, “but I also had a lot of fun playing it.”
Two years ago, her agency brokered a video casting for Pollmann for the film Maïwenns, which was still secret at the time. Several castings and crash language courses in Paris later, Pollmann found out from the director, co-author and leading actress that she was getting the role. “I didn’t even know what to say – and then I didn’t stop smiling for two weeks. It was really like in a fairy tale,” the 20-year-old describes her reaction.
Why might one have thought of her when casting? “I think I have a historical face because it’s quite oval,” says Pollmann. During the shooting from July to October 2022 in Parisian studios, in the gardens of Versailles and in castles like Vaux-le-Vicomte, she first fell in love with the stylish French way of life.
And how was it with Maïwenn and especially Depp, who had often made the headlines in recent years because of private quarrels? “I found him very likeable, very accommodating,” says the North German – and smiles in memory of the first encounter. “It was the first day of shooting, and I didn’t have my glasses on when our director waved me over – and I saw a blur of someone standing next to her, who gradually turned out to be Johnny Depp.”
Now comes first again “Notruf Hafen Kante”
He then talked to her longer, asked if she was already excited, and made jokes. “I didn’t feel like I was talking to a world star. It was totally eye-to-eye.” And how was Pollmann doing in the costumes made to measure in Rome? She “felt really good,” she quickly replied. “It’s a dream – you look in the mirror and you don’t recognize yourself.” With a corset you immediately have a different posture – but you can’t breathe particularly deeply. As Marie Antoinette, who is known to be beheaded later, Pollmann is in conflict with the king and his lover Jeanne du Barry, a woman from the humblest of circumstances.
Where does the 20-year-old sports enthusiast see the film about the time shortly before the 1789 revolution making sense for us today? “It’s the story of a woman who doesn’t really fit in there, because she’s one of the street people. Who completely overturns the rules at court – with great joie de vivre and cheek. And there is this true love between her and the king,” as Pollmann puts it – “It’s about a strong woman.”
And new career plans? “I’m currently shooting three episodes of the ZDF series “Notruf Hafen Kante”, where I play the daughter of a chief inspector. That will probably be broadcast in the autumn,” says Pollmann. Later she would like to study acting – but initially explore her options without pressure. “Through the film I gained life experience,” she sums up. “And I think after each project everything feels lighter.”