Photo: Getty
- Being unemployed at 50+ - that's what it was for Andrea Sawatzki
- What makes life from 50 worth living?
- Why do women always want to do everything on their own?
Being unemployed at 50+ - that's what it was for Andrea Sawatzki
What happens if you become unemployed when you are over 50? Andrea Sawatzki has to face this question in her new film. We interviewed the actress about age, love and happiness.
In the comedy "It's even better" (Thursday, May 7, 2015, 8:15 pm, ZDF), Ina, played by Andrea Sawatzki, loses her job of many years and has to reorient herself. Everything seems hopeless, because with over 50 and three decades of work experience in the same job, she has hardly a realistic chance to re-conquer the job market.
Reason for us to ask the actress Andrea Sawatzki, how she survived her 50th birthday and what makes life worth living for her!
What makes life from 50 worth living?
Wunderweib: Ms. Sawatzki, in her latest movie "It's even better", you play a woman in her 50's who is unemployed from one day to the next. What do you think about the unemployed?
Andrea Sawatzki: I have no inhibitions at all. Why? It could be everyone. It does not necessarily change a person's character, no one becomes a bad person just because he has no work.
Have you also had phases in which you feared it would not continue?
I think that's always the case with freelancers. What people who have had a solid office job when dismissed are likely to be more blatant because they have fewer opportunities to start elsewhere again. For artists, the phone can ring every day and bring a new offer. In that sense, we all have the feeling that we have no mission, no job, but we have learned to handle it.
You are now 52 years old. How has your life changed with your 50th birthday?
I just think my life is wonderful. I have no problem getting older. Especially in the field of acting there are particularly interesting roles, because you have already experienced so much that you can pack in his roles. I also write novels and also there I can handle my many experiences well. In principle, one gets more relaxed with the years.
Why do women always want to do everything on their own?
In the film they play Ina Becker, a woman who prefers to solve everything alone . What do you mean, why do women so often want to do it all on their own?
I think that's a men's problem too. I think men find it difficult to digest and express this when they have become unemployed. For women, that's probably the strength of women. Women have a lot to do with themselves. Women are better at solving things by themselves. I often see this in the household, even with girlfriends who complain that nobody ever helps, but when someone wants to help, they say, "No, no, let me do it faster." On the other hand, women complain very much,
Andrea Sawatzki as Ina, who surprisingly loses her job. | Photo: ZDF / Britta Krehl
Wunderweib: Ina Becker was cheated and abandoned by her husband and kept secret for years before all her acquaintances. Have you experienced such a thing in your private environment?
Andrea Sawatzki: No, I have not experienced that! But I know that the figure of Ina has a true story as background. It was a woman who worked in an upscale position who was always perfectly made-up and styled. One day she was unemployed and yet she has always kept this facade. She also claims to have a boyfriend who always waits for her in a couple of streets down the road in his Mercedes, but he has never been seen ... How far can a person go about not looking at his life realistically, but auditioning for themselves? ? Out of this question, this movie was made.
This is probably because people are defined only by job and money ...
Yes, it is growing, it's really scary. I can already see that with the young people, who barely read, who are constantly hanging in front of their smartphones. I think that's very dangerous because later on things are going too slowly for these young people. You always have to have everything immediately, earn money quickly, have a great job very quickly. Few people still have the patience or the gift to really enjoy their lives and I think that's a pity.
How do you keep this stressful lifestyle from or away from you?
I think that comes automatically, if you have children. Children make life a lot more stressful. But children also bring you back to the essence, perhaps through the love you feel. Children make you feel that you understand and can live the purpose of life. They are simply more important than any telephone calls or performance dates, because it's about the existential, the really important.
You are with an actor together. Do you find it difficult to be with somebody that could create a competition?
This is not a competition for us. He is a man, I am a woman .. He is happy if I have a great offer, I am happy for him. Right now he's doing a great movie in France and I know that that meant a lot to him to get that role. It makes me so happy that he got this chance.
How would you describe love?
Always be there for the other and be happy with the other and be sad with the other.
A great love: Andrea Sawatzki and acting colleague Christian Berkel are together for more than 15 years, the couple has two sons and lives in a house on the lake near Berlin. | Photo: Getty
Wunderweib: You look like a very strong woman. Do you have the impression that other people are afraid of you and treat you with respect?
Andrea Sawatzki: That is different. When people recognize me on the street as the crime scene commissar, they immediately come up to me and hug me and want photos, because I notice no distance. At the readings of my novels I sometimes hear this at the signing lesson that people are surprised that I am quite different from what they thought. This, in turn, surprises me because the characters I play are already very intimate and vulnerable. They are in difficult situations and are people who are afraid of other people. People who have met me personally, they do not feel me as dismissive.
How would you describe yourself?
Life affirming, curious, likes to laugh! That would be three words that describe me well.
What are your hopes for the future?
I am happy when we are all home. Then I can work in the garden and bake cakes, the children have friends there and in the evening you can barbecue together .. You can walk with the dogs or swim in the lake, which is located near our house. It would be nice if it keeps going on, if I can always stay in contact with nature and if my children can experience it that way until they go their own way.
What do you prefer to cook?
In fact the favorite dishes of the kids, for example steak with mashed potatoes from - then - happy cattle, Thai curry or chicken-sliced - of course, also happy chickens, we are very organic ... I wanted to be a vet as a child, but the school services have unfortunately not enough. Fortunately, playing is the most beautiful thing for me now, it is very fulfilling and I do not want to do anything else.
How do you manage to keep your fantastic figure?
When I turn, I try to do without carbohydrates. That's not nice, but you can talk it nice ...
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