German actor and Arrowverse star Falk Hentschel chatted about his latest endeavors and the digital age.
He is known for playing Hawkman in the Arrowverse shows “The Flash,” “Arrow,” and “Legends of Tomorrow.” “These were very complicated,” he admitted. “It was good, it was fun. It has been seven years now and I find myself on the edge. It was a mixed experience. I loved the role and the audition, I really connected to it. I am a big spiritual person so I thought there was a lot of exploration for that. It was a good learning experience. I grew and I learned from it. I was treated very kindly,” he elaborated.
In addition to playing Carter Hall (“Hawkman”) on the superhero shows, Falk starred opposite Tom Cruise in “Knight and Day” as the villain. He played opposite Steve Carell in “Welcome to Marwen,” and recently, “Swap Me, Baby,” the comedy from Caden Butera.
Speaking of “Swap Me, Baby,” he said, “It is going well, which is a huge success. We had such a small budget, and I made sure everyone got paid a wage, that way they could make a living. It was quite a trial but we got this film made at a very high-level quality and that was a big success.”
“In ‘Swap Me, Baby,’ I got to work with my girl, Kimberly Leemans, who was eight months pregnant at the time,” he revealed.
“I want to work with people that love what they do in all areas,” he added.
Falk was born in east Germany behind the iron curtain. After he and his family fled the country Falk was able to pursue his dream of becoming a storyteller.
After some detouring that led Falk to become a professional backup dancer and choreographer, he finally landed in Los Angeles and got his first big break in Hollywood with Knight and Day, playing opposite Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz.
From that point on Falk continued to work on blockbuster films like White House Down, Transcendence, and most recently Oscar winner Robert Zemeckis’ Welcome to Marwen.
Falk had the opportunity to appear on Emmy-winning shows such as “Arrested Development,” “The Alienist,” and “The Closer,” among others.
Eventually, Falk put on a superhero costume like so many others to portray Hawkman in the DC television universe.
Despite fulfilling his childhood dreams and achieving his goals, Falk suffered from severe depression. In his search for purpose and fulfillment, he was led to the plant medicine Ayahuasca, an ancient medicine originating in the amazon.
This work opened up a whole new perspective for Falk and he decided to focus his efforts on producing and creating an environment for filmmakers that brings the focus back to story vs maximum profit.
He founded the company Patronage Film together with Firestone heir Charlie Thiel. His biggest dream is to bring transparency, fairness, and creativity back to the film industry.
Hentschel had great words about master photographer Bjoern Kommerell. “I love Bjoern,” he exclaimed.
He listed Mel Gibson, Keanu Reeves, Will Smith, and Robert Duvall as his dream acting partners.
On the title of the current chapter of his life, he said, “Refinding and redefining my purpose.”
The digital age
On being an actor and filmmaker in the digital age, he said, “It is nice. On one hand, distribution is easy. That’s amazing, the new challenge is to get people to tune in and people to care.”
“The industry has actually challenged me and confused me as to who I really am. That’s why I moved from Los Angeles,” he said. “Acting has become my artistic outlet and I do it on my terms only.”
“I want to meet the pioneers, the people that want to do things differently that want to be a part of creative stories again. I want to be surprised, I want to be moved. I want to work with people that are interested in something new,” he added.
Hentschel defined the word success as “navigating life’s discomforts with grace.” “Getting through the ups and downs with grace,” he said.
To learn more about Falk Hentschel, follow him on Instagram and check out his IMDb page.
