Men are hunters and women are gatherers. The cinema film “Caveman” is now making fun of this age-old image. A conversation with the two main actors Moritz Bleibtreu and Wotan Wilke Möhring about men, women and love.
BILD am SONNTAG: Do you have any tips on how to inspire women?
Moritz Bleibtreu: “With a good measure of romance. A few flowers every week, just tell yourself how pretty she is, put a small present on the table from time to time, make breakfast, little things. I think that helps tremendously. At least that is my personal experience.”
Wotan Wilke Woehring: “It has to be an appreciation of the other. Even in a conflict, do something that makes the other person happy. These are often the most difficult things, but they make the other person even more happy.”
Stay faithful: “I’ve heard from friends that at the end of couples therapy, they both go their separate ways because it’s said you have to take care of yourself first. Which is basically correct, but I think it’s the wrong approach, especially in this relationship, and I’d say: more about the other person.”
Moritz Bleibtreu married his love Saskia in the summer of 2022
Wotan Wilke Möhring with his new love Anna
Does truth matter when a woman asks if something suits her?
carrots: “Honestly, what is the truth doing in a question like this? Which ones too? Why? Someone comes and wants to pick something up: Does that look good? Yes? But don’t you think so here, too? Then why do you say: It looks stupid?! Why? Unless you’re really in the mood for Zoff! What’s the point of honesty? I think that’s total nonsense.”
Stay faithful: “When I stand in front of someone I love and I know they need validation about their self-esteem, I give them that. I don’t go there and say:
That’s right, you’re right, you’ve gotten pretty fat. Just because then I was honest. And if we now briefly digress into politics. It is often completely impossible to tell the truth. Lying is part of diplomacy. Even when raising children. What about Santa Claus?
carrots: “When children proudly give you a picture they have painted themselves. You don’t say: “What’s that supposed to be?” Then at some point you’ll be alone in the cave. The proof of love is that she asks you. And even if you think the pants are stupid, but you say: “You look great.” Then she loves you twice over.”
Möhring and Bleibtreu are also private friends. While Möhring is a fan of Borussia Dortmund, Bleibtreu from Hamburg is hardly interested in football. Nevertheless, they can talk well about half the league.
How often do you see each other?
Stay faithful: “We see each other quite regularly, visit each other, meet up for dinner. You were with me the other day, we watched Germany’s last World Cup game.”
carrots: “The only one I’ve ever seen.”
Moritz Bleibtreu (from left), Jürgen Vogel (54) and Wotan Wilke Möhring present their bodies in the comedy “Caveman” (currently in cinemas).
Aren’t you a BVB fan, Mr. Bleibtreu?
Stay faithful: “I don’t have a club at all, I’m not really interested in football except for big tournaments. That always upsets him too.”
carrots: “No, only if you were a fan of another club.”
Stay faithful: “That would be bad, right?! But, hey, I’m a hamburger. Both clubs don’t go there.”
carrots: “You don’t have to make a decision either.”
But you’re unlikely to become a Bayern fan anymore, Mr. Möhring…
carrots: “That’s also unnatural. That will not do. I can pee sitting or standing, but I can’t become a Bayern fan.”
Stay faithful: “It’s not a question of the decision of these crazy football fans. His three children have been BVB members since birth.”
carrots: “And still get the billy goat jersey from their mother. Well, they live in Cologne.”
Möhring has two daughters (Henriette, 14 and Mia, 10) and a son (Karl, 11).
BILD am SONNTAG reporter Michael Niehus (centre) met Möhring and Bleibtreu in Munich
Stay faithful: “Your poor son is now being abused as a BVB fan. And at some point he will grow up and maybe be a Schalke fan. That would be the worst thing that could be done to you.”
carrots: “He won’t.”
Stay faithful: “Imagine Karl coming home with a Schalke vest. And then? What do you do then?”
carrots: “Which Karl?”
Let’s return from children to the relationship between man and woman. Sometimes in a relationship you only realize after many years that it is not forever. Why is that?
carrots: “In the beginning everything feels the same. The partners are not responsible for this, but the hormones, the feeling that brings each other closer. But then your real “work” begins. People change and you have to give the other person the opportunity to change too. Not in the direction you want, but in his. If you understand that, that’s really helpful.”
Stay faithful: “It all starts with the fact that I myself should first be in a position to be able to love. And that means I have to have a fulfilling life. Of course, if there is a void, the very first thing you try to do is fill it with a partner. And that cannot work.”
Moritz Bleibtreu and Saskia separate 20 years of age difference – similar to Wotan Wilke Möhring and his new girlfriend
Or does the hunting instinct wake up again after a certain time?
carrots: “The hunting instinct initially presupposes that something is missing. If you feel like you have to go hunting again, you’ve missed something. There was a vacuum that you didn’t communicate about. You know my attitude towards marriage.”
Moritz Bleibtreu looks over skeptically from the side. He only married his girlfriend Saskia de Tschaschell (31) in the summer of 2022. Wotan Wilke Möhring is also taken. His relationship with assistant director Anna M. became public in the fall.
carrots: “Okay, Moritz, unless you get married late. But when marriage was introduced, people died at 45. If you look out the window as a 70-year-old man and think that the last 30 years of marriage were rather rubbish, then neither you nor your partner, your partner, nor anyone else is helped.
Moritz Bleibtreu and Wotan Wilke Möhring in the film “Caveman”
Love doesn’t mean that I like something, but whether it’s good for my partner. Do I love her for her own sake or because of the image I have of her. But we, as actors, are also in this fraud business. Our film “Caveman” ends when the two fall in love. And then? Then the relationship work begins. First it’s the hormones, then it’s your turn. Although work is not the right word there.”
Stay faithful: “But I find patience.”
carrot: “With himself.”
Stay faithful: “And with the other. sit things out. That’s how it is now, it hurts – but what are we doing there? Just think about it.”
This article comes from BILD am SONNTAG. The ePaper of the entire issue is available here.
