NewsMario Adorf: "I'm not afraid of flying, but I'm...

Mario Adorf: "I'm not afraid of flying, but I'm afraid of falling"

Actress Simone Rethel-Heesters talks to actor Mario Adorf about the happiness – or unhappiness – of a long life. An excerpt from a book

How old do you feel

I am one of those people who cares very little about age. I prefer to feel as old as I am right now – neither younger nor older. That protects you from surprises and fears!

Is there something you like about getting older?

So – I want to be honest – I’m not an old man. I don’t have a great deal of understanding for the cheering scene of seniors who dance, sing and are happy, that’s very far from me. But I do not suffer from my age and take it as I am physically able to do. I accept it as something that cannot be influenced very much. Obviously there are people who are very good at it and can say a lot of positive things about it. However, I notice how I am getting older, how my strength is becoming less, how my concentration is perhaps no longer as one hundred percent. I still have a relatively good memory, and one is amazed at my good memory. But I cannot say that I enjoy old age, I live the way I lived before. I don’t really have an opinion on aging.

Do you remember the first time you felt age?

I rarely flirted with age that I would have said, for example: Excuse me, after all, I’m already that old. It stands to reason that you do, and it may become more apparent the older you get and the tendency to push the age forward as an explanation for many things. For me, age is less of a physical phenomenon than a spiritual one. What does old age do to me, or have I lost something, for example my curiosity? I was always a very curious person, very curious about other people’s lives because I represent other people. That is not something that can be taken for granted with an actor. There are colleagues who play themselves for a lifetime. I have always viewed the acting profession in such a way that I have to expand my own personality through experience with other lives, with other characters. That was the reason for me to become an actor and not “just” play myself. I’ve known actors who said I work on any role until it suits me, until it fits myself. While I always said: No, I have to work until I can take care of the other person. However, there are also actors who immerse themselves completely in the role until they seem identical to one. I don’t believe in it. I am too influenced by Brecht: Always standing next to the role, watching yourself, what do you want to say, what do you want to show?

You just said that your curiosity wears off with age?

Yes, because at first it is not directed towards the far future. Part of my curiosity about the future has diminished. One is less curious. Curiosity can also focus on the past. Sometimes you want to know how was it then, how were you then? What was different with you? How did you judge How did you see life How young did you feel Or did you really feel a lot younger once? Did you mourn your youth? A retrospective curiosity … And the everyday curiosity now in life is subsiding. You say to yourself a lot more, oh, I won’t live to see that anymore, or I don’t even want to know how the world will develop any more. From my point of view, it will develop poorly. I was able to lead a very privileged life in my youth and much later. We lived in prosperous times, we will never be able to be so easy-going again. I lived in Italy for 40 years and still got to know the Italians with their wonderful lightness, with their love for the sun and doing nothing. At that time we lived in a time that was perhaps the happiest in our lifetime, precisely because we have had more peaceful times since the end of the war than ever before. That is likely to change negatively in the expected future.

What does happiness mean to you?

There are many people who say of themselves that they are happy. I always saw happiness as a great rarity, a rare moment in life. For me, there was never a long journey of happiness, but rather short moments of happiness. I loved one clever thought about happiness early on: Fortuna, the symbol of happiness, is blind, but not invisible. So that means you can pack it! You have to look for happiness, you have to look for it and then know how to pack. But that also means that it takes an effort: you have to earn it! One must not expect it like a grace that comes from somewhere above from heaven, but must be aware that one leads an active life that also has as many moments of happiness as possible. (…)

„Ich bin kein Jubelgreis.“

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“I’m not an old man.”

Artists, it is said, should keep their inner child. When you auditioned at drama school as a young person, it was said that you had strength and naivety. Have you kept your naivete?

Well, I don’t know if you can do that. That was more of a mocking remark from the theater director, who said: You can’t be that naive! Or why can this guy be so naive, he comes from a small town in the Eifel region, without any cultural experience of his own. Suddenly he comes here to drama school and wants to audition here! Since I also worked in construction during this time, I was physically a very present, strong guy, hence the strength. (…)

Do you like to live?

I like to eat and drink, I like to live, yes. And thank God that’s not restricted yet. I still eat everything I like. I took it all up until my 90th. But beyond that, I never had any illusions that you could get older. I’m also not someone who has such ambition to turn 100. I am quite honest with you.

I think if you’re as active as you are, you get healthier as you get older.

Secure. This last Corona year 2020, with no activity, at least made me think. Suddenly I no longer had the present feeling that you are still needed here and that they want something from you here. All of a sudden that fell away all year round.

That was a foretaste of retirement.

Yes, which I never aspired to. I never thought I would stop at some point, but I always said that as long as I have a memory, feel physically good and someone believes I can do something, I want to do that too.

Does that mean that as long as you can and want to keep going?

Yes. The thought of retirement has nothing comforting or relaxing for me, but rather a certain … not fear, but it is the idea, what do you do then? Grow flowers or paint pictures or what do you do then? You have a job, that’s your life and not growing flowers! (…)

You live in Munich, Paris and Saint-Tropez. When you are in the sun on the Côte d’Azur, for example, do you reflect that you are particularly lucky to be in such a beautiful place? Are you aware of that?

„Alterslos – Grenzenlos. Porträts und Gespräche über das Leben“, Westend Verlag, 216 Seiten, 34 Euro.

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“Ageless – Limitless. Portraits and Conversations about Life ”, Westend Verlag, 216 pages, 34 euros.

About the person and the book

We take the excerpt from the book “Ageless – Boundless. Portraits and Conversations about Life “: The actress, author, painter and photographer Simone Rethel-Heesters opened up with a camera and microphone and talked to celebrities about age. Also present: musician Peter Maffay, politician Rita Süssmuth, actress Nicole Heesters, politician Gregor Gysi.

Book presentation : Friday, October 22nd, 6 pm, in the shop “Genusskomplizen, Frankfurt, An der Kleinmarkthalle 7-9, moderated by Daniella Baumeister from Hessischer Rundfunk.

Simone Rethel-Heesters , born in 1949, played at the Bavarian State Theater in Munich, at the Deutsches Theater, at the Hamburg Thalia Theater and in many films and TV series. She was married to Johannes Heesters and was an ambassador for the “Aging in Dignity” initiative. osk

I’m already enjoying it, yeah. I didn’t choose this place, my wife is from Saint-Tropez, she was born there. We ourselves weren’t part of fancy society. We knew Brigitte Bardot from the beginning – a friend of my wife’s. But we soon moved to the country, we really like the rural area there. However, I enjoyed our life in Rome a lot more. 40 wonderful years, the best time of our life.

Older people often dress very monotonously, but they are always dressed very chic. Is your wife influencing you there?

It was more my mother who influenced me than my wife, after all, she had become a master tailor during the war. She has already taught me a certain taste for fashion. “Decent,” she said, “you have to be decently dressed!” I’ve played a lot of roles where I didn’t look decent. When I played the “Big Bellheim”, my mother said: “Finally a gentleman!” (…)

What can you do better today than 70 years ago?

(He ponders for a long time) I can’t think of anything, not even lying. I can not lie. I can sometimes withhold the truth out of consideration not to hurt someone when I tell the truth.

Are you afraid of death?

No, so fear … it’s like flying: I’m not afraid of flying, but I’m afraid of falling. And I’m afraid of dying, but not of dying. For me, death is a fact that is so clear and foreseeable.

In your biography, I was impressed by this chapter “for the last time”: You sit on the plane and say to yourself, today I will fly “the last time” – for example to Saint-Tropez and that would make you enjoy everything more. It would make me sad if I said to myself: Well, this is the last time now, then I would enjoy everything with sadness.

I don’t know if it’s happiness or sadness, but it’s just the feeling that I’m enjoying more, perceiving more than before, when I imagine it’s the last time. For example, I’ve been to Capri 20 times, but the last time I thought that if it’s the last time, then I really want to enjoy it more than I used to, when I thought I’ll be back next year anyway.

So a trick?

Yes, that’s a little trick that you simply experience it more consciously.

Now if the fairy godmother came and could grant you three wishes, what kind of wishes would you have?

Mmm … I can’t tell you, I’m very underdeveloped. I have no wishes. [He pauses again.] There are wishes that one could have, but which cannot be fulfilled anyway, so I don’t go after them at all. But one wish … [he thinks], maybe please not to die as miserably as my mother. I take it as it comes and I wish it may be gracious.

Well I would rather have heard something happier from you than dying …

What could that be? I no longer want to go to Honolulu or anywhere. (He goes on thinking.)

Have you seen it all?

Yes, I’ve had almost everything. And I’m not telling myself: It would be all over again if I could still see this or that …

But we are not through with the wishes yet! I want one more wish from you, any wish. And if you were to say: “Stop this eternal questioning.” …

What could that be? I really have nothing. (He goes on thinking.)

You are actually the first of the people I talk to who says: “I can’t think of anything.” One could assume that you are perfectly happy!

(He laughs) Yes, of course I have one wish: good sleep and good digestion!

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