Success at the Oscars has vaulted Christoph Waltz from a little-known Austrian character actor to the toast of Hollywood. He won the Oscar for best supporting actor for his portrayal of a suave Nazi officer in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds." The only German-speaking Oscar winner this year admits he's shell-shocked by his sudden fame.
Clutching the Oscar he won for best supporting actor, Christoph Waltz, 53, seems overwhelmed by his success. Behind the stage of the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles, he smiles at the crowd of wellwishers and politely says "good evening," as if he's just arrived at a cocktail party.
It certainly has been a good evening, for him. The Austrian's portrayal of a ruthless yet debonair Nazi officer in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds" won him the cinema industry's most coveted award, and he's the only representative of the German-speaking film industry to have won one on Sunday night. Michael Haneke's critically-acclaimed "The White Ribbon," nominated for best foreign film, was passed over.
Asked what went through his head when his name was read out, Waltz said: "Nothing at all. Total shock. A total blank."
At least he hadn't had to wait long. The Oscar for best supporting actor was the first one to be announced, just after the monologue by hosts Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. Waltz and his character gave Steve Martin material for a joke early on. "Christoph Waltz played a Nazi obsessed with finding Jews," Martin said. "Well, Christoph," he then gestured across the whole theater, "The mother lode."
Blackout
When Penelope Cruz tore open the envelope and read out Waltz's name, he took a deep breath before he rushed to the stage. His acceptance speech was loquacious and well-meant. He spoke of new continents that he wanted to discover, thanked Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt and many others. "And this is your welcoming embrace and there's no way I can ever thank you enough, but I can start right now. Thank you!"
Later Waltz admits he had a kind of blackout at that moment. "I was shocked. Maybe I still am. I don't know exactly. If I'm talking nonsense please forgive me."
He said he always knew there was a lot to the "Basterds" character. "I saw that it was really good," he said. But an Oscar? "I didn't see that coming. I was too busy. I had too much to do. I didn't think about prizes."
The Toast of Hollywood
The last few days here must have given him a little taste of what to expect. Waltz was followed around Hollywood like a superstar, by paparazzi, reporters and fans. At an Oscar party last Friday he was incognito for just a few minutes until he was spotted and surrounded by wellwishers, while Tarantino disappeared in a quiet corner behind a whisky.
The next day, at an official reception for the German-language Oscar nominees in a villa on the Pacific coast, Waltz's arrival caused such a scrum among photographers and camera people that several glasses were smashed.
Everyone asked him the same question: What's it's like being a European in Hollywood? Waltz balks at being seen as the symbol of any country. "I don't see it from a national point of view, if you don't mind," he said after he won his Oscar.
"Inglourious Basterds," was neither an American nor a German movie, even though it was made at Babelsberg Studios near Berlin and most of the production team were German, says Waltz. "I don't care in the slightest where they came from."
'Overjoyed'
Others do care. Christoph Fisser of the Babelsberg studio, one of the German producers of "Inglourious Basterds," said: "We're overjoyed. After the many, countless international awards, he has now won the most important cinema prize in the world. Now all doors in Hollywood will be open to him."
Babelsberg's pride in Waltz is understandable given that the other German-speaking nominees for Oscars went empty-handed last night, including Michael Haneke's "The White Ribbon," nominated for best foreign film, which lost out to "The Secret in Their Eyes" by Argentine director Juan Jose Campanella.
Campanella couldn't hide his national pride -- in the press room, he was constantly speaking Spanish and basking in the accolade of Argentinian journalists.
One of the few sentences Campanella said in English seemed like a small swipe at Haneke and "The White Ribbon." He praised the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences for not being guided by how many awards a film had received elsewhere. "They simply chose the film they liked," he said. "The White Ribbon" had won the Palme d'Or at Cannes last year.
Waltz, meanwhile, was on a high as he embarked on a tour of afterparties on Sunday night. "It's incredible," he said, referring to all the attention he was getting. "It's fantastic. I could never have imagined it being like this. Tomorrow I will probably be sorry it's over."
Clutching the Oscar he won for best supporting actor, Christoph Waltz, 53, seems overwhelmed by his success. Behind the stage of the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles, he smiles at the crowd of wellwishers and politely says "good evening," as if he's just arrived at a cocktail party.
It certainly has been a good evening, for him. The Austrian's portrayal of a ruthless yet debonair Nazi officer in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds" won him the cinema industry's most coveted award, and he's the only representative of the German-speaking film industry to have won one on Sunday night. Michael Haneke's critically-acclaimed "The White Ribbon," nominated for best foreign film, was passed over.
Asked what went through his head when his name was read out, Waltz said: "Nothing at all. Total shock. A total blank."
At least he hadn't had to wait long. The Oscar for best supporting actor was the first one to be announced, just after the monologue by hosts Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. Waltz and his character gave Steve Martin material for a joke early on. "Christoph Waltz played a Nazi obsessed with finding Jews," Martin said. "Well, Christoph," he then gestured across the whole theater, "The mother lode."
Blackout
When Penelope Cruz tore open the envelope and read out Waltz's name, he took a deep breath before he rushed to the stage. His acceptance speech was loquacious and well-meant. He spoke of new continents that he wanted to discover, thanked Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt and many others. "And this is your welcoming embrace and there's no way I can ever thank you enough, but I can start right now. Thank you!"
Later Waltz admits he had a kind of blackout at that moment. "I was shocked. Maybe I still am. I don't know exactly. If I'm talking nonsense please forgive me."
He said he always knew there was a lot to the "Basterds" character. "I saw that it was really good," he said. But an Oscar? "I didn't see that coming. I was too busy. I had too much to do. I didn't think about prizes."
The Toast of Hollywood
The last few days here must have given him a little taste of what to expect. Waltz was followed around Hollywood like a superstar, by paparazzi, reporters and fans. At an Oscar party last Friday he was incognito for just a few minutes until he was spotted and surrounded by wellwishers, while Tarantino disappeared in a quiet corner behind a whisky.
The next day, at an official reception for the German-language Oscar nominees in a villa on the Pacific coast, Waltz's arrival caused such a scrum among photographers and camera people that several glasses were smashed.
Everyone asked him the same question: What's it's like being a European in Hollywood? Waltz balks at being seen as the symbol of any country. "I don't see it from a national point of view, if you don't mind," he said after he won his Oscar.
"Inglourious Basterds," was neither an American nor a German movie, even though it was made at Babelsberg Studios near Berlin and most of the production team were German, says Waltz. "I don't care in the slightest where they came from."
'Overjoyed'
Others do care. Christoph Fisser of the Babelsberg studio, one of the German producers of "Inglourious Basterds," said: "We're overjoyed. After the many, countless international awards, he has now won the most important cinema prize in the world. Now all doors in Hollywood will be open to him."
Babelsberg's pride in Waltz is understandable given that the other German-speaking nominees for Oscars went empty-handed last night, including Michael Haneke's "The White Ribbon," nominated for best foreign film, which lost out to "The Secret in Their Eyes" by Argentine director Juan Jose Campanella.
Campanella couldn't hide his national pride -- in the press room, he was constantly speaking Spanish and basking in the accolade of Argentinian journalists.
One of the few sentences Campanella said in English seemed like a small swipe at Haneke and "The White Ribbon." He praised the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences for not being guided by how many awards a film had received elsewhere. "They simply chose the film they liked," he said. "The White Ribbon" had won the Palme d'Or at Cannes last year.
Waltz, meanwhile, was on a high as he embarked on a tour of afterparties on Sunday night. "It's incredible," he said, referring to all the attention he was getting. "It's fantastic. I could never have imagined it being like this. Tomorrow I will probably be sorry it's over."
