Los Angeles, CA – Sandra Hüller is having something of a genre-expanding year. The German actor first broke out to global audiences with films such as Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest, both of which firmly placed her in the orbit of prestige cinema. In 2026, however, she has been seamlessly moving between projects as varied as Rose, Austria’s entry to the Oscars, which also won Hüller the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance at the Berlin International Film Festival; Fatherland, Poland’s entry to the Oscars; and big-budget studio films such as the blockbuster Project Hail Mary and the upcoming Digger.
Hüller insists, though, that there was no grand plan to swap intense dramas for tentpoles. “I mean, I didn’t have any offers of that kind before,” she says. “The whole journey with Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest opened a lot of doors for me. I’m just grateful for having the opportunity to learn about other work environments and how people try to achieve what they want to tell, say and show.” “I think it’s about growth; I’m just happy that I can do it,” she adds.
The Oscar nominee, who plays Digger Rockwell’s chaotic half-sister and business partner Emma in Digger, spent considerable time with her iconic co-star Tom Cruise building their sibling dynamic, with the pair finding their on-screen rhythm through an extensive rehearsal process. That appetite for experimentation also came in handy when working with Alejandro González Iñárritu, whose anything-goes approach to filmmaking pushed Hüller, Cruise, and the rest of the cast to throw convention out the window and embrace the unexpected.
“It’s been really risky because we had to go to really big gestures, big voices and big emotions,” Hüller says. “We don’t use the normal tools, so we’re not used to this form of acting and connecting to each other in that way.” Naturally, that kind of uninhibited approach came with a little second-guessing. “We sometimes looked at each other after takes and asked each other if it was too much.
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But we were also constantly encouraging each other to just go on and try and find out, and also exhaust ourselves in this process,” she recalls. For Hüller, that willingness to abandon the handbrake was part of the fun. “I really love the idea of not working with any handbrakes on, and just trying to find out. Working with Tom Cruise was such a big example as well, because he did the same!” Digger will hit theatrical screens in India on October 2, 2026.
