Alexandra Maria Lara

Alexandra Maria Lara
Lara in 2020
Born	Alexandra Maria Plătăreanu (1978-11-12) 12 November 1978 Bucharest, Romania
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1994–present
Spouse	Sam Riley ​ (m. 2009)​
Children	1

Alexandra Maria Lara (née Plătăreanu; 12 November 1978) is a Romanian-German actress who has appeared in Downfall (2004), Control (2007), Youth Without Youth (2007), The Reader (2008), Rush (2013), and Geostorm (2017).

Early life

Born in Bucharest, Lara is the only child of Valentin Plătăreanu, an actor, and his wife, Doina. In 1983, her family fled to West Germany to escape Nicolae Ceaușescu's regime in Communist Romania. Although the family had planned to emigrate to Canada, they settled in Freiburg im Breisgau, before eventually moving to Berlin.

Career

By sixteen, she was playing lead roles in various television dramas; since then, she has appeared in films, including as Traudl Junge, Adolf Hitler's secretary, in the Academy Award-nominated 2004 film Downfall; following this, Francis Ford Coppola wrote her a letter and gave her a leading role in Youth Without Youth (2007).

In 2007 she also appeared as Belgian journalist Annik Honoré in the film Control, the Ian Curtis biopic. In 2008, she served as a member of the Cannes Film Festival jury. She has also appeared in several French productions, including Napoléon and L'Affaire Farewell. She appeared in The Reader and Der Baader Meinhof Komplex which were both nominated for the 81st Academy Awards, for best picture and best foreign language film, respectively.

In 2018 she starred with her real life husband Sam Riley in Happy New Year, Colin Burstead by Ben Wheatley, playing his German girlfriend.

Personal life

Lara with husband Sam Riley at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival on 20 February 2020

In August 2009, Lara married English actor Sam Riley, with whom she acted in the films Control and Suite Française. In January 2014, she gave birth to their first child, a boy.

Filmography

• Stella Stellaris (1994, TV miniseries)
• I Desire You (1995), as Mädchen am Bahnhof
• Mensch, Pia! (1996, TV series, breakthrough role), as Pia Mangold
• Faust: Tote weinen nicht (1997, TV), as Laura
• Das Vorsprechen (1997, Short), as Junge Schauspielerin
• Die Mädchenfalle – Der Tod kommt online (1998, TV Movie), as Silke Hartmann
• Tatort: Fürstenschüler (1998, TV), as Kerstin
• The Bubi Scholz Story (1998, TV Movie), as Renate - jung
• Polizeiruf 110: Sumpf (1999, TV), as Meike
• Sperling (Sperling und der falsche Freund) (1999, TV)
• Südsee, eigene Insel (1999), as Sandra
• Vertrauen ist alles (2000, TV film), as Jennifer Blankenburg
• Lady Cop (ep. Die Geliebte des Killers) (2000, TV), as Sabine Sasse
• Fisimatenten (2000), as Hanna
• Crazy (2000), as Melanie
• Luftpiraten – 113 Passagiere in Todesangst (2000, TV Movie), as Nicolette
• The Tunnel (TV film, 2001), as Charlotte 'Lotte' Lohmann
• Honolulu (2001), as Cleonise
• 99 Euro Films (2001) (segment "Privat")
• Leo & Claire (2001), as Käthe Katzenberger
• Liebe und Verrat (2002, TV film), as Marie Irimia
• If It Don't Fit, Use a Bigger Hammer (2002), as Astrid
• Schleudertrauma (2002, TV film), as Doreen
• Naked (2002), as Annette
• Napoléon (2002, TV miniseries), as Comtesse Marie Walewska
• Doctor Zhivago (2002, TV series), as Tonya Gromyko Zhivago
• Trenck (2002, TV film), as Princess Amélie (Anna Amalia)
• The Wishing Tree (2004, TV miniseries), as Camilla Senger, geb. Hofmann
• Leise Krieger (2004, Short), as Nora
• Der Untergang (Downfall) (2004, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel), as Traudl Junge
• Cowgirl (2004), as Johanna 'Paula' Jakobi / Murderous Lady im Film Noir
• About the Looking for and the Finding of Love (2005), as Venus Morgenstern
• The Fisherman and His Wife (2005), as Ida
• Offset (2006), as Brindusa Herghelegiu
• Wo ist Fred? (2006), as Denise Poppnick
• The Company (2007, TV miniseries), as Lili
• Control (2007, directed by Anton Corbijn), as Annik Honore
• I Really Hate My Job (2007), as Suzie
• Youth Without Youth (2007, directed by Francis Ford Coppola), as Veronica / Laura / Rupini
• Miracle at St. Anna (2008, directed by Spike Lee), as Axis Sally
• The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008, directed by Uli Edel), as Petra Schelm
• The Reader (2008, directed by Stephen Daldry), as Young Ilana Mather
• Kaifeck Murder (2009), as Juliana Lukas
• The City of Your Final Destination (2009, directed by James Ivory), as Deirdre Rothemund
• Farewell (2009), as Jessica
• City of Life (2009), as Natalia Moldovan
• The Nazi Officer's Wife (2010)
• A Distant Neighborhood (2010, directed by Sam Garbarski), as Anna Verniaz
• Small World (2010), as Simone Senn
• Woman in Love (2011, directed by Detlev Buck), as Sarah
• Nachtlärm (2012), as Livia
• Imagine (2012, directed by Andrzej Jakimowski), as Eva
• Move On (2012), as Szefowa Lena
• Rush (2013, directed by Ron Howard), as Marlene Lauda
• Suite Française (2015, directed by Saul Dibb), as Leah
• The Most Beautiful Day (2016), as Mona
• Robbi, Tobbi und das Fliewatüüt (2016), as Sharon Schalldämpfer
• Sing (2016, directed by Garth Jennings), as Rosita (German dubbing, originally performed by Reese Witherspoon)
• Vier gegen die Bank (2016, directed by Wolfgang Petersen), as Freddie
• Geostorm (2017, directed by Dean Devlin), as Ute Fassbinder
• 25 km/h (2018, directed by Marcus Goller), as Ingrid
• Und der Zukunft zugewandt (2018), as Antonia Berger
• Happy New Year, Colin Burstead (2018, directed by Ben Wheatley), as Hannah
• The Collini Case (2019, directed by Marco Kreuzpaintner), as Johanna
• Børning 3: Asphalt Burning (2020), as Robin
• The King's Man (2021, directed by Matthew Vaughn), as Emily Oxford

External links

• Official website (in German)
• Alexandra Maria Lara at IMDb
• 2005 interview on cineastentreff.de (in German)