- 39-year-old Austrian actress, Valerie Pachner got her first Hollywood gig when American movie director Terrence Malick gave her the role of Franziska Jägerstätter in his 2019 movie Hidden Life
- Pachner with no intention of becoming an actress at the beginning of her journey won several accolades including the Austrian Film Award for her roles in Egon Schiele: Death And The Maiden and The German Acting Award for The Ground Beneath My Feet in 2017 and 2019, respectively
- Before she officially took to acting, she spent some time in a theater in Munich, Germany, featuring in stage productions
Valerie Pachner is an award-winning Austrian actress whose portrayal of different characters in theatre and film earned her global acclaim. She is well-known for playing the role of Franziska Jägerstätter in A Hidden Life (2019), Lola Wegenstein in The Ground Beneath My Feet (2019), and Mata Hari in The King’s Man (2021).
Raised in Bad Schallerbach, Austria, Pachner initially had no idea she would be pursuing a career in film. Acting gave her the opportunity to travel out of her small town. One of her notable works, Egon Schiele: Death And The Maiden (2016) earned her the Austrian Film Award. Two years later, she won the German Acting Award for Best Actress in The Ground Beneath My Feet in 2019. Aside from this, here are other fascinating details about her.
Valerie Pachner was Born and Bred in Bad Schallerbach, Austria
Born on June 26, 1987, in Wels, Austria, Valerie Pachner is the youngest child of her parents’ two children. The 37 year-old grew up in the small village of Bad Schallerbach alongside an unidentified sibling and her older sister, Sophie who works with a production organization in the Austrian capital, Vienna.
At the age of 13 or thereabout, she wanted to leave her small town to experience the world outside and meet new people. It was at this point that acting first came to her mind, although she didn’t quite fashion the idea of becoming an actress.
Since she saw acting as a means to get away from her small town, The Ground Beneath My Feet actress started attending acting workshops in other cities and towns that were much bigger than hers around the age of 15 or 16. It was here that she found peace and fulfillment, and even at that, she didn’t find enough reason to pursue an acting career.
After graduating from school, she traveled to Honduras where she spent a year gaining experience in social fields, made possible by an organization that does exchanges for people that are interested in that endeavor. The experiences she gained made an impact on her and she felt the need to do something to help change the world.
To push for this, she returned to her home country and enrolled to study international development in Vienna. While at it, acting was still on her mind, so she went looking for little groups and auditions.
When she turned 21, the girl from Bad Schallerbach applied and was accepted into Max Reinhardt Seminar, an acting school in Vienna. At the end of her time at the acting school, she joined a theater in Munich, Germany.
See Also: Laurence Rupp- 10 Unknown Facts About The Actor
Her Acting Career
As stated earlier, she started acting at a young age. Her initial works were in Theatre. Many sources credit her earlier roles as far back as 2010, yet, IMDB credits Pachnner’s earliest roles in two 2013 works-Tuppern and Libemacht. This was followed by two Austrian movies, Bad Luck and Jack in 2015. At the time, she wasn’t deeply involved as the theater has taken much of her time. So, she took some time off from the theater and subsequently quit. It was during this period that she started getting invitations to audition for film roles, and one came from Hollywood director, Terrence Malick.
Malick gave her the role of Franziska Jägerstätter, the wife of Franz Jägerstätter in Hidden Life, the depiction of the latter’s life who was imprisoned by the Nazis in World War ll for refusing to fight for them. The movie won two awards at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival among many others, while Pachner was applauded for her performances at different film festivals in Canada and America.
In the same 2019, she is one of the actresses that received awards including the German Acting Award for Best Actress for her role in Maria Kreutzer’s The Ground Beneath My Feet. In addition, she won the Austrian Film Award for her depiction of Egon Schiele’s lover Wally Neuzil in Egon Schiele: Death And The Maiden (2016) in 2017.
Afterward, she played Anna in Another Coin For The Merry-Go-Round (2021), Mata Hari in The King’s Man (2021), and Henrietta Fischer in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022).
Her Filmography
Film
- Bad Luck (2015)
- Jack (2015)
- Stefan Zweig: Farewell To Europe (2016)
- Egon Schiele: Death And The Maiden (2016)
- The Ground Beneath My Feet (2019)
- All My Loving (2019)
- A Hidden Life (2019)
- Another Coin For The Merry-Go-Round (2021)
- The King’s Man (2021)
- Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022)
Theater
- The Shape of Things (2010)
- Mozart and Salieri (2010)
- Anywhere But Here (2011)
- The Brothers Karamzov (2012)
- The Snow Queen (2013)
- Orestes (2013)
- Hoppla, We’re Alive! (2013)
- Three Sisters (2014)
- Anthony and Cleopatra (2015)
- The Crucilbe (2016)
- Foxfinder (2017)
Valerie Pachner Awards and Recognitions
In her career of over a decade, Valerie Pachner has bagged several awards and gained fair recognition for her roles. Here are some of them:
- Austrian Film Award for Egon Schiele: Death And The Maiden (2016)
- Romy for Egon Schiele: Death And The Maiden (2016)
- Förderpreis der Freunde des Residenztheaters (2016)
- German Acting Award for Best Actress in The Ground Beneath My Feet (2019)
- Premio Maguey: Best Performance at the Guadalajara International Film Festival (2019)
- Discovery Award at the SCAD Filmfestival Savannah College of Art and Design (2019)
How Rich Is the Austrian Actress
The 5ft 6in (1.68m) tall actress is definitely cashing out from the number of roles she has landed since her acting career took off. At the moment, different sources reported different figures as her net worth. Judging from those figures, Pachner’s net worth is above $1 million.
