Roland Emmerich: Director had a brain tumor

Roland Emmerich (68) is the king of disaster films. But more than 20 years ago, the successful director experienced his own personal disaster: he had a brain tumor. He has now made this public for the first time. At the time, he thought “that it was all over now,” Emmerich revealed in an interview with the magazine “Bunte.”

He had undergone two operations at the time, which is where the long scar on his head comes from. It was a “medium-grade tumor,” “but if it had come back, it would probably have been a high-grade tumor, and that would have been my death sentence.” In the end, everything turned out well: “I was really lucky,” said Emmerich.

But the illness didn’t shake his world, it even motivated him: “I just had to look death in the eye. I’ve never been the type of person who throws his hands up in the air and says: ‘Oh, I have to die.’ It actually spurred me on. I then made my film about climate change, ‘Day After Tomorrow’, because I wanted to do something good for the world. It was supposed to be written on my tombstone. It came out in 2004 and was a huge success.”

Roland Emmerich takes more time for his private life

He now takes a more relaxed approach to things: “Whatever happens, happens.” He also takes more time for his private life, friendships, love and his husband. “All of these things are important in life,” says Emmerich. Roland Emmerich has been happily married to his husband Omar de Soto, who is 33 years younger than him, since 2017.

Despite all his private happiness, Roland Emmerich would not consider producing a romantic film: “I cannot understand these films. They are cheesy and no longer make sense in our world.” Instead, the director wants to continue telling “big stories”. He is currently working on a project about climate refugees, and in July Emmerich’s new gladiator series “Those About to Die” will be released on Amazon Prime Video.

Roland Emmerich is one of the most successful German exports to Hollywood. The Stuttgart native first attracted attention in 1994 with the film “Stargate” before reaching the peak of his career in 1996 with “Independence Day”. This was followed by films such as “Godzilla” (1998) and “The Patriot” (2000), and then the disaster film “The Day After Tomorrow” in 2004. With “2012”, Emmerich created another successful disaster film in 2009. He was most recently seen in cinemas in 2022 with “Moonfall”.