How Germany's Franz Rogowski Became an Unlikely Sex Symbol

Franz Rogowski may not look the part when you first see him, but the 32-year-old German actor has become one of the country’s most admired leading men. Cerebral and quiet, and with a scar leftover from a childhood cleft lip operation, he is now wooing audiences across Europe. At this year’s Berlin Film Festival, known as the Berlinale, Rogowski had lead roles in two major films: Transit, by German director Christian Petzold; and In the Aisles, a love story set in a wholesale supermarket. And Rogowska is already racking up honors. He won a European Shooting Star Award, reports The New York Times, given every year to promising young European actors, and last week, he won a Lola, the German equivalent for an Oscar.

He says he is adjusting, albeit awkwardly, to his newfound success. “When I take the subway and see a headline that I am ‘dominating’ the Berlinale, I feel bad,” he told the Times, who writes that he then sarcastically joked, “It’s so clear that I am a sex symbol, I just need to accept it.”

Growing up, Rogowski was bullied for his lisp and didn’t do very well in school. He said he had an undiagnosed attention disorder, and he also smoked a lot of pot, leading to fights with his mother. At 16, he left school and moved in with a friend. It was thanks to a conversation with a social worker that he started to look into acting as a career. He went to clown school but was eventually kicked out, so he moved to Berlin and became a street performer, and began acting in small German features. Now, he balances theater work with his growing fame from his repertoire of films.