Bridging East and West

In 2004, when he was a teenager, Gaertner watched 2046, a romantic drama film by Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai, a Cannes Film Festival award winner. He did not understand the language then but understood the story through frames and background music.

The idea to be an actor had emerged in his mind since then.

Film has the magic to display and engage people into a certain reality, he said. This is creating shared experiences and therefore mutual understanding and empathy.

Famous actors Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan also influenced his impression of Chinese culture and films, and drove him to be an action actor.

However, he temporarily "sealed the dream on the bottom of his heart" after graduation and launched a free language-learning platform.

"I felt like something was missing," he sighed.

Listening to heart, Gaertner joined Hong Kong's Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) in 2013. Four years later, he played a British police inspector in Chasing the Dragon, a action crime film made by film-makers from both Hong Kong and mainland.

However, it's Billy, a demon of lies that he played in this year's TVB series The Exorcist's 2nd Meter, earned him a wider reputation among locals.

When a little boy recognized him on the street and asked him to take a photo with him, it was a fulfilling moment. "He knew the character, Billy. I hope he will further learn that other foreigners, like me, are nice, and be open to more people in the future."

Unfortunately, the filmmaking industry had been heavily disrupted since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The world is split by the pandemic," he said when recalling a trip to visit his family in Germany early this year.

Gaertner realized that Eastern and Western countries tend to have different approaches in dealing with the pandemic, which, he believed, is partly attributed to cultural differences.

"I feel a sense of responsibility to be a bridge between the East and West," he said.

He wants to make films to express himself in one way that may spark different emotional reactions, yet bound by a common sense of resonance and connection.