Early life

The elder of two children, Potente was born in Münster, West Germany, and raised in nearby Dülmen. Her mother, Hildegard, is a medical assistant, and her father, Dieter Potente, is a teacher. Her Italian surname stems from her great-grandfather, a Sicilian slater who immigrated to Germany during the 19th century. When she was 17 years old, Potente spent a few months as an exchange student in Humble, a suburb of Houston, Texas. She noted in an interview she "had an American boyfriend, went to football games and to my American prom. I was so serious about my American boyfriend, I brought him back to Germany with me to visit my parents. They were horrified."

Career

After finishing high school in Germany, Potente enrolled at the Otto Falckenberg School of Performing Arts in Munich. Potente took acting jobs outside school time and appeared in her first movie in the 1995 student film Aufbruch. She was then spotted by a casting agent and appeared in the film Nach Fünf im Urwald (It's a Jungle Out There), directed by her then-boyfriend, Hans Christian Schmid. She received the 1996 Bavarian Film Award for Young Talent for her work in this film. She then finished her last year of training at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in Manhattan.

Potente returned to Europe and worked in German and French films. She was cast as the lead in Lola Rennt (Run Lola Run) after meeting the director, Tom Tykwer, in a café. The part was written for her and the film was a small-budget art house film production. The film and Potente's performance received acclaim; Variety wrote that her performance was "heroic, fierce, frightened and vulnerable all at once", while eFilmCritic.com called her casting a "smart choice". Run Lola Run was a commercial success, with a $14,533,173 worldwide gross from a budget of $1 million. Potente also performed on the film's soundtrack. She then appeared in the German-language horror film Anatomy (2000), which enjoyed box office success. Her performance in the film was called "gutsy" by Variety. In the same year, she also had the starring role in the romantic thriller The Princess and the Warrior, directed by Tykwer. She received nominations for the European Film Award and the German Film Award for Best Actress.

Potente's first English-language role was that of a film editor in Storytelling (2001). She also had a supporting role in Blow, alongside Johnny Depp. The film gained mixed reviews and was a moderate box office success. She said in an interview with Contactmusic that her American accent in the film was due to two months of practice. She next appeared in The Bourne Identity (2002) with Matt Damon. The movie had a positive reception and Potente and Damon's strong chemistry was praised by critics at Slant magazine. She reprised her role in The Bourne Supremacy. In 2006, she starred with Eric Bana and Marton Csokas in the Australian drama film Romulus, My Father, for which she was nominated for an Australian Film Industry Award for Best Lead Actress. She wrote and directed Der die Tollkirsche ausgräbt, a silent comedy film that also premiered in 2006. Starting on 22 May 2007, Potente had a three-episode recurring role in the FX drama The Shield, where she played Diro Kesakhian, "the ruthless godmother of L.A.'s Armenian mafia".

After appearing in Eichmann (2007), she had one of the lead roles in the biographical film Che, which opened at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Remarking on working with director Steven Soderbergh, she stated: "When we were working, he was almost invisible, in a sense. He always stayed in the forest. He was like a chameleon. He was hidden behind leaves and stuff. He almost made himself dissolve to get the result that he had." In 2009, she appeared in the House television series two-part episode "Broken" and in 2010, she appeared in Shanghai. The film was released only in China, where it grossed $9,199,466. In January 2011, she played Hilda in the BBC drama The Sinking of the Laconia. She then starred as the brothel madam Eva Heissen in BBC America's first original scripted series, Copper. The show premiered to 1.1 million viewers during its broadcast, the largest debut in the network's history, and was renewed for a second season. She also guest starred in two episodes of American Horror Story: Asylum.

In 2014, Potente landed a role on the FX series The Bridge as Eleanor Nacht. In September 2015, she joined the cast of the horror film sequel The Conjuring 2 as real-life German-British parapsychologist Anita Gregory. In 2016, Potente was cast in a supporting role in the BBC period drama miniseries Taboo, alongside Tom Hardy.

Personal life

Potente was in a relationship with director Tom Tykwer from 1998 until January 2003. She then briefly dated Eric Melvin, the guitarist for the punk band NOFX.

In April 2011, Potente and her partner, actor Derek Richardson, welcomed their first child, a daughter named Polly. In mid-2012, the couple were married. In 2013, they welcomed their second daughter, Georgie.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1995	After Five in the Forest Primeval	Anna
1998	Run Lola Run	Lola
1998	Bin ich schön?	Linda
1999	Paradise Mall	Mona Wendt
1999	Downhill City	Peggy
2000	Anatomy	Paula Henning
2000	The Princess and the Warrior	Simone "Sissi" Schmidt
2001	Blow	Barbara Buckley
2001	Storytelling	Toby's Editor
2002	The Bourne Identity	Marie Helena Kreutz
2002	All I Want	Jane
2003	The Tulse Luper Suitcases	Trixie Boudain
2003	I Love Your Work	Mia Lang
2003	Blueprint	Iris Sellin / Siri Sellin
2003	Anatomy 2	Paula Henning
2004	The Bourne Supremacy	Marie Helena Kreutz
2004	Creep	Kate
2006	The Elementary Particles	Annabelle
2007	Romulus, My Father	Christine Gaita
2007	The Bourne Ultimatum	Marie Helena Kreutz	Flashbacks only
2007	Eichmann	Vera Less
2008	Che	Tamara "Tania" Bunke
2010	Shanghai	Leni Müller
2010	Small Lights	Valerie
2016	The Conjuring 2	Anita Gregory	Completed

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997	Coming In	Nina	Television film
1998	Opernball	Gabrielle Becker	Television film
2006	The Shield	Diro Kesakhian	3 episodes
2008	Manhunt	Beate Klarsfeld	Television film
2008	The Bridge	Elfie Bauer	Television film
2009	House	Lydia	Episode: "Broken"
2010	Psych	Nadia	Episode: "One, Maybe Two, Ways Out"
2011	The Sinking of the Laconia	Hilda Smith	2 episodes
2011	Beate Uhse: Das Recht auf Liebe	Beate Uhse	Television film
2012-13	Copper	Eva Heissen	20 episodes
2012	American Horror Story: Asylum	Anne Frank / Charlotte Brown	2 episodes
2014	The Bridge	Eleanor Nacht	12 episodes
2016	Dark Matter	Chief Inspector Shaddick	Episode: "Welcome to Your New Home"
2016	Taboo	Helga	Miniseries

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2004	Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas	Kendl Johnson	Voice role
2008	Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy	Marie Helena Kreutz	Voice role

Discography

• Believe (1998)
• Wish (Komm zu mir) (1998)
• Easy Day (1999)
• Fly With Me (2001)

Bibliography

• 2005: Los Angeles - Berlin. Ein Jahr
• 2006: Der die Tollkirsche ausgräbt, Drehbuch zum Film
• 2009: Kick Ass - Das alternative Workout
• 2010: Zehn: Stories

Awards and nominations

Year	Work	Award	Result
1995	After Five in the Forest Primeval	Bavarian Film Award for Best Young Actress	Won
1998	Run Lola Run	Bambi Award for Best Actress	Won
2000	The Princess and the Warrior	European Film Award for Best Actress Nominated - German Film Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role	Nominated
2007	Romulus, My Father	Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role	Nominated

[ Source: Wikipedia ]