Martina Gedeck on sexism in the film industry: Götz George criticized her presentation

The Munich actress Martina Gedeck (63) started her film career in the mid/late 1980s with, among other things, “The Prey” (1988) and “Tiger, Lion, Panther” (1988), two films by the star director and “crime scene” specialist Dominik Count (72). Many different roles in television series followed. Gedeck then received his first major award for “Hölleisengretl” (1994), followed by successful productions such as “Rossini – or the murderous question of who slept with whom” (1997), “Life is a construction site” (1996), “Bella Martha ” (2001) or “The Lives of Others” (2006). But despite her great success, she is now harshly criticizing many of her previous roles in a new interview.

“I started filming when I was about 25 and there was always, always, a little erotic kick. When I look at how I was dressed up: the lipstick, the hair – terrible,” says Gedeck to the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung “. “I felt absolutely equal. I didn’t stress at all that I was installed as a little, sexy surprise egg.”

Manfred Krug and Götz George supported them

Gedeck gives examples of roles with a questionable image of women – there were an awful lot of them; after all, she was already filming in the 1980s. “In ‘Liebling Kreuzberg’, for example, I was an intern in the lawyer’s office, always in a short skirt, with my eyes focused enthusiastically on Manfred Krug,” she says about filming with the title star. She appeared in the legal series from 1989 to 1994.

Lead actor Krug (1937-2016) explicitly excludes her from the criticism. On the contrary, he even supported her and gave her tips on how she could position herself for future projects. “The sexism did not come from the male colleagues. Those were the dominant structures in the television landscape at that time,” emphasizes Gedeck.

And she gives another laudable example from a male colleague. She appeared in front of the camera with film star Götz George (1938-2016) for “Schulz & Schulz” (1989), “The Pig – A German Career” (1995) and “Rossini”. When she came out of the mask during the film shoot mentioned above, the actor’s collar burst because of the sexist presentation:

“In the film ‘Schulz & Schulz’ I played Götz George’s lover. I still remember how I came out of the mask. Götz collapsed. ‘What do you look like?’ he asked – and then smashed the mask together: ‘What funny thing did you make out of it? Make it the way it was before,’ the actress tells the “NOZ”.

Has the zeitgeist of the 1980s and 1990s been overcome?

But Martina Gedeck also admits that she only developed a feeling for the problem over time. At that time she had no sense of the gender image behind her characters: “All I know is that I didn’t care at all. I had no awareness of what we were conveying. None at all. I just wanted to play,” said Gedeck.

But if you think everything is different today, you’re wrong, according to Gedeck. “It’s not over,” said the 63-year-old. “Not long ago a director said to my face: ‘There are supposed to be people who believe in films with women in the lead. I don’t do that.'”