For Sophie Rois, Catholicism always has something to do with theater. The actress can soon be seen at the Berlin Volksbühne in the play “Mein Gott, Herr Pfarrer”.
The actress Sophie Rois (62) feels connected to Catholicism even as a non-believer. “I celebrate the Catholic holidays and on Easter Sunday, standing in front of the radio, I get absolution from the Pope,” said the Austrian theater and film star (“Drei”, “AEIOU – The Fast Alphabet of Love”) of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. “. “My whole soul dynamic is catholic.”
Rois stressed that she had “a concept of guilt and shame”. “And that’s not something I think I’ll have to get rid of at some point.” Her favorite holiday is Easter: “Before that it goes deep, you get depressed, there is no comfort and no hope. And two days later, ta-dah, the curtain rises and the light of the resurrection falls in.”
The Austrian knows from her childhood about the Corpus Christi festival (2023 on June 8th), which is a public holiday in Germany in only six federal states and some regions. She always insisted on going along with the procession with acolytes and monstrance, Rois said: “My family sometimes hated me for it, because on Corpus Christi it’s often so hot that you want to go swimming.” But she was “always at the forefront”. “We wore white clothes and scattered flowers so that Jesus would walk on petals.”
But she feels like a con artist when she talks about faith and religion, Rois said. “I don’t believe in God – but I can’t not believe in it either.”
From Saturday (June 3rd), Rois can be seen again at the Berlin Volksbühne after a long break – in René Pollesch’s play “Mein Gott, Herr Pfarrer”. Rois said of the piece about Christianity and its theatricality: “The hot, up-to-the-minute topics, the others can do that.” They weren’t interested in topics that were on the street.
She always sees a kind of theatrical approach to Catholicism (“a character that I got from home without doing anything about it”): “With all the well-known problems that this church has – what I find so fascinating about Catholicism: I don’t have to keep asking myself if deep down I believe in all of this.” You trot along, murmur what is given – “and if you walk in the sun for an hour and say your “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you” at each station, then it becomes a prayer on its own happens to you.”
Source: Stern
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
