Helena Zengel Age: 12 Hometown: BerlinAfter winning the German Film Award for Best Leading Actress with 2019’s System Crasher, Helena Zengel made her American film debut alongside Tom Hanks in News of the World.
To star opposite Hanks, who plays Captain Jefferson Kidd, a war veteran widower traveling town-to-town reading the news for audiences, Zengel auditioned for director Paul Greengrass, with her mom as stand-in. “We did the scene where I bite Tom Hanks’ hand.
I was pretty nervous, but it was really fun, and cute also, for my mom to do it with me.” Fun—and a bit of a formality, really.
Director Paul Greengrass had already been impressed with Zengel in System Crasher. He cast her in News of the World as Johanna Leonberger, the young girl
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