After the "Sturm" Comes the Storm

His artistic ambitions mattered more to him than security. That is why Michael Kühl has now leapt into the wide-open country of acting freedom, out of the safe nest of a lead-role commitment on "Sturm der Liebe". "I want to be artistically happy and pursue my goals. I deliberately took this risk to do so." The 29-year-old sees the risk of not knowing what lies ahead as both a challenge and an opportunity. Michael Kühl wants to learn and develop further as an actor. So he is currently filling his newly gained time with acting courses taught by masters of the trade worldwide — for example with the Canadian Oscar winner Paul Haggis and the Argentine acting teacher Fernando Piernas. "I'm trying to go to the source of the art of acting. There are very good German coaches too, but they also studied with these teachers. So I take the courses directly with them." Much is demanded of the students in these courses. In his course in Berlin, Paul Haggis placed the focus on scene study. In English, Michael Kühl and his fellow students had to work up scenes while the screenwriter and director of "L.A. Crash", Paul Haggis, coached them. Directors, actors and other interested parties from the industry could watch this work. "I got a lot of good feedback. Directors who had been watching came up to me afterwards. Let's see what comes of these contacts." The three-week course with Fernando Piernas in Madrid was about being able to play a scene truthfully. "It was important to Fernando Piernas to analyse and understand the logic of a scene. Because if you don't understand it, you can't be truthful on stage and you start to act. That was very demanding, not only because he asks a lot and the course was in Spanish, but above all because the emotional opening-up work really gets to the core," the actor recounts. But the teacher brought Michael Kühl to where he wanted to go: to the core of his feelings, his anger, his grief and his joy, and the ability to show them. "For me it's a great luxury to be able to choose such good teachers. For that alone, my time on 'Sturm der Liebe' was worth it. Now I hope I'll soon be able to show what I learned there in great new projects." For Michael Kühl, the world is his playing board. He wants to look for new acting and film challenges in Germany, but also in England and America. After all, as an actor he wants to get everything possible out of it. If he succeeds, it would be his personal and professional happiness!