The multi-talented Zsá Zaá Inci Bürkle joins us on Close-up Culture to chat about her upcoming acting roles, her interest in fashion and making her own music.
Q: 2019 looks to be another exciting year for you with roles in Thomas Jahn’s ‘Professor T’ and Hanno Olderdissen’s ‘Der Bulle und Dad Biest’. Can you reveal anything about your role In these projects and your experience working on them?
A: They both are very different characters. One being a physics student studying nuclear energy and the other one being this young party girl who is dating a famous DJ. I felt very welcomed and had a lot of fun while filming, though I didn’t have one of the biggest roles.
Q: Many of our readers will recognise you from your role as Silke Bischoff in the acclaimed series ‘54 Hours’ – which is still available to watch on BBC iPlayer. What was it like stepping into the shoes of a real life character? How did you prepare for the role?
A: This was my first time playing a character that is based on a real-life person. I tried to approach it with a lot of care and mindfulness. The production had done an amazing job at researching and we had all those original files available which was very helpful. It was actually really crazy coming on set the first day. I felt like stepping out of a time machine and into the material that I had been looking at for the past three months.
Q: You are returning to 1988 again for Hans Steinbichler’stwo-part mini series ‘Walpurgisnacht’, which comes out in February. What can audiences expect?
A: Waldpurgisnacht is full of mysteries, complicated relationships, secrets being revealed, murders and crazy plot twists.
Q: You’ve spent time living in London and US. Can you tell us about these experiences and how they have helped shape you as a performance and a person?
A: I think travelling in general, living in different places and getting to know different cultures helped me grow as a person. It has made me more fearless in life as well as more empathetic in my work.
Q: Do you have plans to work US or UK in the future? If so, what kind of projects excite you?
A: Wherever I’ve lived or wherever I am, I am working and trying to audition and to find good material. I will go wherever the good parts/scripts are. I would love to be in a superhero movie one day.
Q: As well as acting, you are a growingly influential figure in the world of fashion. How important to you is fashion?
A: Like a lot of girls my age, I like to experiment with fashion and I think it is really fun, but I do not really know much about it (laughs).
Q: Another of your talents is music and I have really been taken by some of your covers on YouTube. Can you tell us about your love for music and what type of creative release it gives you?
A: I think most of those covers are actually my songs! I would write those little poems and then play the guitar and just sing them. They might not have a classical song structure, but they are mine and I just really enjoy writing them.
I feel like my music has grown up over the past years as well. I don’t have to wait on anyone or ask for permission when it comes to writing and singing. I really love that about music, but it can get really into my head when I wonder whether a song is “good enough” to be released . It’s a process (laughs).
Currently, I am working on an EP, so I hope I‘ll get to share it with you guys soon !
Q: I know these questions can be a pain but – can you name your biggest role model/influence from the worlds of acting, fashion and music?
A: I don‘t have one particular role model but there are a definitively people I admire! Bjork and Kate Bush, for example, are women I grew up listening to because of my mom. And their work and their lives are so inspiring to me.
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Title photo by Lena Faye