David Kross

{{Short description|German actor (born 1990)}}

{{distinguish|David Cross}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}}

{{Infobox person

| name = David Kross

| image = David Kross Deutschlandpremiere 'Boy7' (cropped).JPG

| imagesize =

| caption = Kross in 2018

| native_name = David Kroß

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1990|7|4|df=y}}

| birth_place = Henstedt-Ulzburg, West Germany

| alma_mater = London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art

| occupation = Actor

| years_active = 2002–present

}}

David Kross (born 4 July 1990) is a German actor. He began his career at a young age with a small role in the 2002 film Hilfe, ich bin ein Junge and worked sporadically, mainly focusing on his school work. In 2008, he portrayed Michael Berg in the film The Reader. For his part, he was nominated for various awards and went on to win the Sierra Award at the Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards for Youth in Film.

Kross has since worked in both German and English speaking film roles, including War Horse, Race and Into the White.

Early life and education

Kross was born in Henstedt-Ulzburg, 20 miles north of Hamburg. He grew up in Bargteheide, where he attended Eckhorst High School{{cite news |url=http://www.abendblatt.de/daten/2006/02/14/533522.html |title=Bargteheider erobert Berlin |last=Kastner |first=Ruth |date=14 February 2006 |newspaper=Hamburger Abendblatt |language=de |access-date= 6 April 2019 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060225075747/http://www.abendblatt.de/daten/2006/02/14/533522.html |archive-date=25 February 2006}} until 2007. He has two brothers and one sister. He played basketball at the professional club TSV Bargteheide between 2004 and 2006.

Career

His career started with a small appearance in the 2002 film Hilfe, ich bin ein Junge (English: Help, I'm a Boy!).{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0295003/ |title=Help, I'm a Boy! (2002) |website=IMDb |access-date=6 April 2019}} In December 2003, he joined Blaues Wölkchen, a small group from a children's theatre in Bargteheide. His first major theatrical appearance was in Hilfe, die Herdmanns kommen.{{Citation needed|date=August 2010|reason=where performed, what is the play}}

In 2005, Kross came to the attention of Detlev Buck through his daughter, Bernadette, and he auditioned for Tough Enough (Knallhart);{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0475317/ |title= Tough Enough (2006) |website=IMDb |access-date=6 April 2019 }} Buck hired Kross to play the lead,{{cite magazine |url=http://www.spiegel.de/schulspiegel/leben/0,1518,667188-12,00.html |title=Teenager-Talente der 2000er |first=Carola |last=Padtberg |date=6 January 2010 |magazine=Der Spiegel |language=de |access-date=6 April 2019}} a 15-year-old boy who moves with his mother from a rich neighborhood of Berlin (Zehlendorf) to the Neukölln area, known at the time for its high number of Turkish immigrants and high crime level. Kross not only won praise at Berlinale in 2006, but also won Best Actor in Nuremberg at the 11th Filmfestival Türkei/Deutschland.{{cite web |url=http://www.fftd.net/festival2006/press/releases/begruendung_aciklama2006.pdf |title=Preise / Ödüller |date=19 March 2006 |website=Filmfestival Türkei/Deutschland |language=de, tr |access-date=6 April 2019 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060501211151/http://www.fftd.net/festival2006/press/releases/begruendung_aciklama2006.pdf |archive-date=1 May 2006}}

In 2006, Kross worked again with Buck in the film {{Interlanguage link multi|Hands off Mississippi|de|3=Hände weg von Mississippi|lt=Hands off Mississippi}} (Hände weg von Mississippi), playing an apprentice baker. In the fall of the same year, he started shooting a film by Marco Kreuzpaintner, Krabat (The Satanic Mill). In this version of Otfried Preußler's children's book, Kross plays the title role, one of the apprentices of magic, with co-stars Daniel Brühl and Robert Stadlober. The film was released on 19 September 2007 in movie festivals and in October 2008 in theatres.

In September 2007,{{cite web |url=https://www.studiobabelsberg.com/en/public-relations/press-releases/newsdetails/news/principal-photography-begins-on-the-reader-in-berlin/seite/11/ |title=Principal photography begins on The Reader in Berlin |date=1 October 2007 |website=Studio Babelsberg |access-date=6 April 2019 }}{{Dead link|date=January 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} The Reader began shooting in Berlin, Cologne,{{cite web |url=http://www.wdr.de/themen/kultur/film/der_vorleser/index.jhtml?rubrikenstyle=kultur |title=Ein Hauch von Hollywood in Köln |date=30 March 2008 |website=Westdeutscher Rundfunk |language=de |access-date=6 April 2019 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090212212934/http://www.wdr.de/themen/kultur/film/der_vorleser/index.jhtml?rubrikenstyle=kultur |archive-date=12 February 2009}} and Görlitz. In Stephen Daldry's adaption of the best-selling novel by Bernhard Schlink about the relationship between a teenage boy and an older woman, Kross plays the lead role of Michael Berg, opposite Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, and Bruno Ganz. He had to learn to speak English to appear in the film.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/movies/07kami.html |title=Translating Love and the Unspeakable |last=Kaminer |first=Ariel |date=5 December 2008 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=6 April 2019}} The world premiere was at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York on 3 December 2008. The film was presented in the 2009 Berlinale but did not compete. In May 2009, Kross was honored for his performance in The Reader at the 62nd Cannes Festival, winning the Chopard trophy. Kross was nominated for a European Film Award as best actor.

His next work was Same Same But Different (2009), again with Buck directing. The script is based on an autobiographical article by Benjamin Prüfer.

In June 2010, it was announced that Kross had been cast in Steven Spielberg's film War Horse.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/exclusive-war-horse-cast-announced/ |title=War Horse Cast Announced |last=Freer |first=Ian |date=June 17, 2010 |magazine=Empire |access-date=April 6, 2019}} Filming started in August 2010, in Dartmoor, Devon, U.K. and the film was released in December 2011.{{cite news |url=http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/news/SPIELBERG-FILMS-DARTMOOR/article-2482773-detail/article.html |title=Steven Spielberg pictured filming new blockbuster War Horse on Dartmoor |last=Nichols |first=Tristan |date=August 3, 2010 |newspaper=The Herald |access-date=January 13, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100905052552/http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/news/SPIELBERG-FILMS-DARTMOOR/article-2482773-detail/article.html |archive-date=September 5, 2010}}

Personal life

In 2009, Kross started a three-year course at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).{{cite web |url=https://article.wn.com/view/2012/02/19/ICM_Exclusive_Interview_with_Rupert_Grints_Into_The_White_co/ |title=Interview with Rupert Grint's Into The White costar David Kross! |date=February 19, 2012 |website=World News Network |access-date=April 6, 2019}} His plan was to improve his acting and English skills but he dropped out at the end of the same year to concentrate on films. He has since lived in Berlin-Mitte. Kross has expressed no desire to move to Hollywood, preferring to stay in Germany and continue making both German and English language films.{{cite web |url=https://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/58131777.html |title=David Kross – Interview and videos |date=April 8, 2011 |website=Oh No They Didn't! |access-date=April 6, 2019}}

Filmography

class="wikitable"
style="background:#b0c4de; text-align:center;"

! Year

! Film

! Role

! Notes

2002

| Hilfe, ich bin ein Junge

| Paddy

| Help, I'm a Boy!

2003

| Adam & Eva

| Adams Sohn

| Austrian film

2006

| Knallhart

| Michael Polischka

| Tough Enough

2007

| {{Interlanguage link multi|Hands off Mississippi|de|3=Hände weg von Mississippi|lt=Hände weg von Mississippi}}

| Bäckerlehrling Bröckel

| Hands off Mississippi

rowspan="2" | 2008

| Krabat

| Krabat

| Adapted from a German language novel Krabat (The Satanic Mill in English) by Otfried Preußler

The Reader

| Young Michael Berg

| Las Vegas Film Critics Award for Youth in Film
Nominated – Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Young Performer
Nominated – Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
Nominated – European Film Award for Best Actor

2009

| Same Same But Different

| Ben

| Received Variety Piazza Grande Award at the International Film Festival organised in Locarno.

rowspan="3"| 2011

| {{ill|Promising the Moon|de|Das Blaue vom Himmel (2011)}}{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1620444/ |title=Das Blaue von Himmel (2011) |website=IMDb |access-date=April 6, 2019 }}

| Young Osvalds Kalnins

|

Rio

|Blu

|German Voice

War Horse{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1568911/ |title=War Horse (2011) |website=IMDb |access-date=April 6, 2019 }}

| Private Gunther Schröder

|

rowspan="2"| 2012

| Into the White{{cite web |url=http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4547567 |title=Comrade – Director's Note |date=March 16, 2011 |website=Wehrmacht-Awards.com |access-date=April 6, 2019 |archive-date=8 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140308002916/http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4547567 |url-status=dead }}

| Josef Auchtor

|

Measuring the World

| Eugen Gauß

|

2013

| Michael Kohlhaas

| The Preacher

|

2015

| Boy 7

| Sam

|

rowspan="2" | 2016

| Race

| Carl "Luz" Long

|

{{ill|The General Case|de|Die Akte General}}

| Joachim Hell

| TV film

2017

| Halal Daddy

| Jasper

|

2018

| Balloon

| Günter Wetzel

|

2019

| The Keeper

| Bert Trautmann

|

2020

| Rising High

| Viktor

|

rowspan="3" | 2021

|Prey

|Roman

|

Confessions of Felix Krull{{cite web | last=Gebhardt | first=Jens | title=Detlev Bucks "Felix Krull" ist abgedreht – News | website=GOLDENE KAMERA | url=https://www.goldenekamera.de/news/article230087154/Detlev-Bucks-Felix-Krull-ist-abgedreht.html | access-date=4 August 2021}}

|Marquis de Venosta

|

The King's Man{{Cite web|last=Truitt|first=Brian|title=Spoilers! How 'The King's Man' sets up a future prequel, rise of an evil historical villain|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2021/12/24/the-kings-man-spoilers-spy-prequel-sets-up-future-villain/9008182002/|access-date=2021-12-25|website=USA TODAY|language=en-US}}

| Adolf Hitler

| Credited as Moustached Man

2024

| Kafka

|

| Miniseries

rowspan="2" | 2025

| The World Will Tremble

| {{TBA}}

|

Fabula

| The Grape

| Opening film of the IFFR.{{cite web|url=https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2025/films/fabula |title=Fabula|work=International Film Festival Rotterdam|access-date=6 January 2025}}

Awards

File:David Kross, 2009.jpg

References

{{reflist}}