Christian Friedel taps into the unremarkable monster at the heart of ‘Zone of Interest’

When Christian Friedel was preparing to play Rudolf Höss, the real-life Nazi commandant at Auschwitz who’s the alarmingly opaque protagonist of “The Zone of Interest,” he discovered an audio recording of Höss from the Nuremberg trials. But what made “The Zone of Interest” writer-director Jonathan Glazer, who adapted Martin Amis’ novel, think Friedel would be right for Höss? “There was a very famous interview from an American journalist with Rudolf Höss, and he described him as an ordinary schoolteacher,” Friedel says, adding with a laugh, “Jonathan saw ‘The White Ribbon,’ and I played a schoolteacher.” Getting more serious, he offers, “I think he was searching for, maybe, a soft person — Jonathan said, ‘You are full of warmth. Christian Friedel Not that Friedel, who exudes a shy sweetness, was meant to utilize those attributes in “The Zone of Interest.” Working inside a set equipped with multiple cameras — “‘Big Brother’ in the Nazi house” became the cast and crew’s shorthand for the technique — he and his co-stars are, essentially, being surveilled by the audience, their characters’ actions reduced to the most basic domestic activities, their personalities neutered. “I missed some ‘important’ scenes for me as an actor,” Friedel admits, referring to moments when Höss is more emotionally expressive.