Christoph Waltz was worried being half-Austrian and half-German would affect his career.
The Oscar-winning actor almost quit acting when he was told he was unlikely to break Hollywood and would probably be cast in supporting roles as a German Nazi for the rest of his life because of his thick Austrian accent.
He told ShortList magazine: "I was introduced to Paul Kohner years ago, who was the most powerful agent in the 30s. He was at the end of his career and I was at the beginning of my career – he actually knew my grandfather. He said, ‘Of course I can do something for you in Hollywood, that’s not the problem. But you have to ask yourself, do you want to spend the rest of your life walking through the background yelling ‘Heil Hitler’?’ And that was probably the most valuable thing he said to me. I said, ‘No, thank you’, and went back to Europe."
Christoph, 56, is ironically best known for his Best Supporting Actor Oscar win for his role as Nazi Colonel Hans Landa in Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Inglourious Basterds’.
He teamed up with Tarantino for the second time for western ‘Django Unchained’ last year, scoring his second Oscar win, but one of Christoph’s overriding memories about the shoot was a rather difficult horse.
He said: "I didn’t get on with the first [horse]. Or he with me. And the getting off was the thing that was rather dramatic … I didn’t get off, he got rid of me."
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Christoph Waltz worried nationality would hurt career
Christoph Waltz almost gave up on his Hollywood dream when he was told he was likely to be cast as a Nazi for the rest of his life because of his Austrian and German heritage.