Martin Feifel: Fewer roles despite stopping alcohol

Martin Feifel will be 60 years old on June 16th. the Munich film and television actor takes stock of his life. And it’s not all rosy – just like the pictures he painted himself that he’ll soon be exhibiting in a Munich gallery. Feifel talks about how he comes to terms with his father’s death five years ago. He also gives deep insights into his mental life in relation to his former alcohol addiction. Even though he drank the last drop of alcohol ten years ago, he is noticeably less frequently employed than before.

After abstinence, fewer orders than before

Martin Feifel is a thoroughbred actor – across all genres. Feifel made his screen debut in 1991 in a small role in Helmut Dietl’s film satire “Schtonk”. In 1997 he celebrated his breakthrough in the leading role of the poet Friedrich Hölderlin in “The Fire Rider”. Since then, viewers have known him from numerous crime series as well as from the mini-series “The Pass” produced by Sky or the German-Austrian series “The Vienna Crime: Blindly Investigated”, in whose episode “Death in the Palace” he appeared on January 9th May be seen on ARD. For many years, Feifel had an initially invisible companion in front of the camera: his alcohol addiction. “For almost ten years,” said Feifel in the interview, he “hasn’t drunk a drop of alcohol. But once word gets around in the industry, it stays there.” His assessment initially sounds sobering: “It’s like a flaw. Since I stopped drinking alcohol, I have the feeling that I’m getting fewer orders than before.”

Founded painting when his father died

Feifel’s strength, who describes himself as a “melancholic person”, lies in his courage to be vulnerable and broken. And he wants to continue to use this special talent: “I can only play my mysterious roles if I find something in them that I love. Otherwise people won’t believe me. So the fact that I remain thin-skinned and vulnerable helps me also.” The son of the respected doctor and university professor Gernot Feifel would like to play more and demonstrate his skills in front of cameras more often. The relationship with his father was difficult for a long time, Feifel struggled for recognition: “His respect for my acting came very late. But he came to every performance and saw every film, which I knew nothing about.” When his father was dying, Feifel found his way back to an old passion: painting. He showed his pictures to his father on his cell phone – with a conciliatory outcome: “When I said goodbye, he made a lip movement, i.e. pursed his lips like he was saying ‘nice’ or ‘good’. And with that I then found my peace.”

Wife is a manager and critic

Today the pictures Feifel paints are brighter and lighter than before. His wife Judith Sutter, with whom he has been married since 2016 and who has been managing him with her agency since 2019, is also to blame for this. When Feifel sells a picture, he is happy – and it makes him sad at the same time. “Then she says, ‘You have to imagine it hanging on someone’s wall. And people enjoying it.’ That makes him “actually happy,” says Feifel. At home, his wife puts his pictures in front of the bed or in the living room. “She says that her eyes then like to wander from the television to the pictures and that she no longer watches television but looks at my pictures.” If Martin Feifel can be seen on screen more often again, that might change.