As a crane operator Gabriel is exposed to dizzying heights day in and day out. You get the impression that when he is back on solid ground, he still needs to have that permanent sense of being on the brink of falling. How would you describe your character?
Lukas Miko: It was a special challenge for me to work on this role because it poses a lot of questions. I was faced with the task of finding two poles in my character and building a tension between them that would give the viewer a strong sense of how addicted Gabriel is to gambling; it gives him something he doesn’t seem to get from anything else in life. I don’t want to say what it might be because the screenplay doesn’t do that either. Gabriel is a likeable, naive person. On the other hand he has no control over himself emotionally or in anything he does.

Did you prepare for this role by talking to pathological gamblers?
Lukas Miko: I got to know several pathological gamblers and I gambled quite well myself for a while. There are vastly different types: those who never succeed at anything in life and who experience the quick thrill of victory when they gamble, those who are drawn to the notion of being able to guess what lies in the future, or in many cases those who must endure extreme stress in their daily lives and gambling is how they unwind. The interesting thing about compulsive gambling is that society doesn’t excuse it the way it does alcohol or drug addiction. The moral condemnation attached to it isolates gambling addicts even more. What fascinated me about this character was the potential loneliness and his inability to resist the compulsion to go to a place where he puts himself at risk.

Did you also learn how to operate a crane?
Lukas Miko: I’m the kind of actor who likes to try out everything involved in his role because you make surprising discoveries. I took the crane operator’s training course and was amazed how quickly you can get your license. It’s a strange profession because you are up there all alone for up to twelve hours, sometimes without a break, and the whole time your eyes are focused on something that is 50, 100 meters below you. The first few times I was always really dizzy afterwards. On top of that, it’s also stressful because you are potentially endangering the lives of other people, and a lot of crane operators can’t afford proper insurance. It is definitely an underpaid and insecure job.

How did the intensive preparation work specifically influence how you played your role?
Lukas Miko: We met regularly for two months, worked out new scenes together, discarded them, acted out new scenes, discarded more scenes, tossed around different ideas. Anja was very open and allowed this kind of process. I think I can be a huge pain in the neck if I’m fighting for something I want my character to convey. It was really good to work together and fathom the potential of the character and argue about what one can express through a character if one doesn’t want to explicitly say why he does something.

You had to drastically change your appearance for this role. How did you become the Archangel Gabriel?
Lukas Miko: Anja and I pondered this a long time and experimented a lot – we tried out different wigs, short hair, long hair, beard, no beard, then we’d get rid of everything and start over. What decided things in the end was my desire to actually transform myself and Anja’s wish for Gabriel to stand out visually. For me it was a great chance to start with a role that was way far away and to approach it little by little. Basically, I’m an actor who enjoys transforming himself into someone very different. To me it’s a compliment when people fail to recognize me.