The entertainment industry is full of the stories of child actors who struck it rich at a young age with a big role or captured the hearts of audiences only to find maturing to adulthood to be a detriment to their career. Luckily, Frederick Lau is not one of those cautionary tales.
Quite the opposite, in fact. The popular and award-winning actor has built a remarkable career from those early roles during his adolescence.
This month, let’s get to know Frederick Lau and learn German with film!
Get to Know Frederick Lau
Frederick Lau was born on August 17, 1989, in Berlin’s Steglitz neighborhood. Lau was bitten by the acting bug early. By the young age of ten, he was already acting on television and in films. As a child actor, he was forced to miss extended periods of school. But it was lucrative work and, by the age of 16, he was already living in his own apartment.
But unlike many child actors, Lau has been able to transition into adult roles in both film and television. Today, Lau continues to live in the Steglitz neighborhood with his wife, German radio and television moderator Annika Lau, and their three children.
Die Welle (The Wave)
In 1967, California high school teacher Ron Jones conducted a social experiment called The Third Wave to demonstrate how the Nazi’s actions were accepted to the point that they could rise to power. The experiment and Todd Strasser’s 1981 novel The Wave served as the basis for the 2008 film Die Welle.
In the film, Jürgen Vogel stars as high school teacher Rainer Wegner. He decides to experiment with his students in order to teach them about dictatorship. Much like Das Experiment, things quickly spin out of control with horrible consequences.
Lau portrays Tim, one of Wegner’s students who is greatly affected by the classroom lesson due to his mental instabilities. The film also includes Elyas M’Barek as a student.
Das kalte Herz (Heart of Stone)
Das kalte Herz is the 2016 film version of Wilhelm Hauff’s 1827 fairy tale of the same name. In the film, Lau portrays Peter Munk, a lowly worker in a charcoal factory.
Peter is in love with Lisbeth (portrayed by Henriette Confurius), the glass maker’s daughter. Alas, she is engaged to another. In order to win over Lisbeth, Peter decides his only option is to become wealthy and successful. He seeks out the Glasmännchen who will give him three wishes.
Of course, nothing is ever that easy. Holländer-Mike (portrayed by Moritz Bleibtreu) is an evil sorcerer who doesn’t make things easy for him. Like any fairy tale, Peter has to overcome a number of obstacles to reach his happy ending.
Betonrausch (Rising High)
The 2020 Netflix film Betonrausch (known as Rising High in English) written and directed by Cüneyt Kaya which sees Lau costarring with David Kross and Janina Uhse.
Lau and Kross portray Gerry and Viktor, a pair of Berlin real estate agents. With the help of their banker Nicole (Uhse), the team concocts a fraud to become rich very quickly. But what goes up, must come down. And the thrilling ride of success is threatened by a web of lies and deceit.
Practice practice practice! Discover other great German language actors and actresses previously featured.
Photo by Pascal Bünning, courtesy of Players Agentur Management. This post contains affiliate links.
