Meet Marlene Hoffmann

We were lucky to catch up with Marlene Hoffmann recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Marlene , great to have you with us today and excited to have you share your wisdom with our readers. Over the years, after speaking with countless do-ers, makers, builders, entrepreneurs, artists and more we’ve noticed that the ability to take risks is central to almost all stories of triumph and so we’re really interested in hearing about your journey with risk and how you developed your risk-taking ability.

I don’t remember when, but I remember reading the quote ‘you don’t regret the things you do, you regret the things you DON’T do’ pretty early on in my life. And this quote stuck with me. I’m a person that overthinks a lot, that plays out multiple possible scenarios in my head, but the truth is: if I don’t go for the things in real life, these scenarios will always stay theoretical. I’ve learned that I’m better with knowing than with not knowing, even if the outcome is not necessarily positive. Simple example: I was into a guy once and kept wondering ‘what does he think, how does he feel’ etc., until I realized ‘hey, what if I just ask?’. And so I did, he wasn’t feeling the same way – which hurt – but at least I could stop wondering, and that felt amazing and freeing.
When it comes to taking risks in my career, I’ve probably chosen the most risky and unstable career path of them all: I’m an actress. Not only that, but I recently relocated to the Unites States – after being a working actress in my home country of Germany for 10 years. I had a full career, a stable income in most of the unstable industries ever and yet I chose to take a risk and start from scratch in a new country, not in my native culture or language.
But there is one thing that is worse to me than the fear of taking a risk, and that is being bored! I hate being bored a lot, and I get bored easily so taking risks is my way of getting away from boredom, even getting as far away as moving to a new continent.
And so far it has been true: I only regretted the things in my life that I didn’t do and that I didn’t go for, I’m happy about every risk and every chance that I took because they all brought me to where I am now! The fear of not knowing what might come of taking a risk, of leaving my comfort zone doesn’t get less but it’s also incredibly thrilling, almost like an addictive adrenaline rush. What’s to come? I don’t know, but I’m excited for it!

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I’m a full time actress that recently relocated to New York City. I’ve been working all my adult life as an actress in Germany – mainly focusing on theater. I always knew that I ‘wanted to try it in the United States of America’, whatever that means…I don’t think I really knew it before I went for it to be honest!
Originally I moved to New York to have a year off, to focus on myself and just take in all that life has to offer. I even got a full sleeve tattoo on my left arm right before I relocated – a pretty risky move in the industry, but since I wasn’t planning on working here why the hell not!
My first year in New York I went to the Lee Strasberg Institute, back to acting school after 10 years, a pretty interesting experience! Of course some part of me wasn’t having to many expectations, almost in a condescending ‘what do YOU want to. teach me, I know my job…’ -way, which is why I’m even more greatful for the experience! Not only did I learn a whole lot, it also humbled me and made me realize in a whole different way that we really NEVER stop learning, and when we think we got things all figured out, we’re probably actually the furthest away from it.
Since my job list also my passion – otherwise you can’t really do it in my opinion – I couldn’t stay away from acting for too long! I’ve been pretty much working non-stop, I’ve been in two Off-Broadway Shows; the latest one being with TV-legend Marc Summers, and was also able to focus a lot more on doing Film and TV; which I always wanted to but was never really working out for me in Germany.
I’ve shot well over 30 Shortfilms in the past 2 years, have 2 Feature Films coming out soon and am excited to get to work with so many incredibly talented people every day! The best part about my job is, that it’s basically playing dress-up and getting paid for it. I originally became an actress because I wanted to be able to experience all possible human emotions/experiences/extreme situations without having to suffer from the actual consequences and in the past two years I was lucky to go to places with characters that really gave me that! I’ve played a mother, a demon, a killer, an extreme christian, a CEO, a cop, a drug addict, nurses and many many more. I am so grateful for every experience and opportunity I got and am looking forward to all that’s to come! One of my first Shortmovies ‘Winder’, which we shot in just one weekend, has 30.000 views on Youtube and made it to many renowned Film Festivals, it even won ‘Best Horror Short’ at the Arizona International Film Festival. And I’ve been recently nominated for ‘Best supporting Actress’ at the Lee Strasberg Film Festival for my performance in ‘The Transition’. I’ll be filming A Feature Film in Connecticut this fall and another Horror-Shortmovie in the winter – Unfortunately this is all I’m allowed to say at this point.

New York City is so full of talent that every set I get on you really feel like this is THE next big thing, and who know’s, if you can make it there, am I right! I’ve met so many great collaborators over the past years, and really built a strong network of artists, international filmmakers and also friends.
I’m an absolute workaholic, and I feel like I’m finally in a city where I’m surrounded by my kind. New York never stops, and neither do I, I’m just getting started …!

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I think a big quality of mine is my energy. I almost never run out of it, and I think that is because I always try to look for the fun in what I do. Life is too short, and things are too serious anyways for me to put energy towards being negative or complaining. I love life, I love people and I love to have fun, this fuels my energy hopefully endlessly!
I think another big quality of mine is my professionalism. Back when I was in acting school my teacher told me I had a good balance between being silly and creative and fun but also having a good work ethic. For me that means simple things as respecting other peoples time by being on time and being prepared. I try to find the fun in the work and not aside to it. I love my job and the fact that allows me to be creative and silly (basically playing dress-up for a living); but I also know that it’s a job and not a hobby, so I’m keeping the discipline and professionalism to a max. I take my job very seriously, but myself? Not so much!
Which leads to my third most important quality: my sense of humor and that I don’t take myself too seriously. Having a career in which I have to use my childish imagination and naivety definitely mixes well with that. I’m not afraid to look stupid, put on the weirdest wig or costume or just play around with accents that I’m really bad at. If I loose the fun and humor in that I might aswell become banker, right?

Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?

I think the best and biggest thing my parents did for me was to always support me. I knew at the age of 4 that I wanted to be an actress and they’ve always been nothing but supportive! My parents aren’t artists either, so some sort of concern would have been totally understandable, but they chose to fully just let me go for it. I always took it a bit for granted until I met other people and realized that my experience is not the norm!
My parents always trusted me, I never felt the need to act out or ‘break the rules’ because the told me and, more importantly, showed me that there really is no need. Everything is worth exploring – unless it hurts another person obviously – so I did.
My Mom was with me when I got accepted into acting school and even when I told them that I was going to move to New York they were nothing but excited! I’m extremely lucky to have such a strong support system and no longer take it for granted but am aware of my priviledge.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: mene.hoffmann
• Facebook: Marlene Hoffmann

Image Credits

Lukas Diller, Jenni Loo, Jan-Pieter Fuhr, Martin Sigmund, Odinger Mitchell, Paul Rowley, Pearl Sweeney, Sam Lu, Josh Li