Luiii Takes A Swing At Hollywood with Uppercut 

While many young actors spend most of their lives knowing that they want to be on stage or in front of a camera, Luise Großmann, professionally known as Luiii, was moving down a different path. The switch in careers was a big leap — or perhaps more accurately, a vault. While Luiii is a hungry young boxer training with Ving Rhames in Uppercut, her own origin story is filled with its own elements of drama, inspiration and plot twists.

“I was a professional athlete in my youth,” Luiii says. Born in Wolmirstedt, Germany, the actress-producer has always been driven toward excellence. “I did track and field, especially pole vaulting, until I was 18-ish,” Luiii says. “And then I got some injuries and I had to quit.” That transition led her to explore other passions, including modeling, and eventually a love of acting. “When it’s not possible to create this certain dream you have, and you’ve got a lot of free time, then you’re looking for kind of a new passion,” Luiii says. “I think this is how I found in acting.” Luiii trained at Cologne’s renowned Theater der Keller and later co-founded Hello Moment Productions along with Torsten Ruether, the writer-director of Uppercut, after moving to Berlin in 2019. The two partnered on Leberhaken, one of the first German Paramount+ Originals. Now, she is breaking new ground with Uppercut, the American remake of Leberhaken, in which she stars alongside Rhames (Pulp Fiction, the Mission: Impossible franchise) and Joanna Cassidy (Blade Runner, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?).

“He has such a presence and his voice, it’s like, really overwhelming.”

Uppercut follows Toni (Luiii), a determined female boxer and Elliott (Rhames), a tough ex-boxing champion who reluctantly agrees to train her. Their relationship transforms as Elliott’s experience and insight challenge Toni both in and out of the ring. For Luiii, the role felt like a natural extension of her athletic past. “I think in these physical parts, it’s definitely an advantage I have, because I know my body quite well,” Luiii says. “I still work out almost every day. And so I’m in good shape. So to approach a more physical character, I think it’s easier for me to dive into.” Though Luiii originally pursued sports journalism, she always gravitated toward storytelling. “I think there was this part between when I decided [that] I’m not going for this professional sports anymore, in between acting and that, I decided I wanna keep this sports part within me,” Luiii says. “And I went for the sports journalism study. Also, I like telling these stories and exploring this field of sports, for sure.”

Stepping onto set with a screen legend like Rhames was a surreal experience. “He has such a presence and his voice, it’s like, really overwhelming,” Luiii says. “And, of course, at the beginning before we first met, there was this kind of nervousness, but also a big [sense of] excitement.” That nervousness quickly faded as Rhames welcomed her with open arms. “He took me really seriously from the first scene we shot,” Luiii says. “And this was really a wonderful experience for me.”

“I think there are, of course, some parts in Toni I can really relate to, and I feel them. And I think she is a great character in this very time where everyone is asking for strong female characters.”

What made their on-screen dynamic even more powerful was the real-life parallel between their characters and their personal experiences. “In the movie, I play a young German who wants to get trained by a legend. And in real life, I was also this young German actress, working eye to eye with such an icon,” Luiii says. “So our chemistry here came together really naturally.”

At the heart of Uppercut is Toni, a character Luiii connects with deeply. “I think there are, of course, some parts in Toni I can really relate to, and I feel them. And I think she is a great character in this very time where everyone is asking for strong female characters.” But, as she has learned, strong women often face backlash. “Some people then feel offended by her — that she is too much or that she is just annoying, or whatever. And this is really, really interesting,” Luiii says.

“I have this background, I could really imagine to go into the action genre.”

Beyond Toni’s journey, Luiii found personal inspiration in the character’s persistence. “I take away from her [that] you can’t take no as no, but you still have to find a different way how to get what you want,” Luiii says. Making Uppercut itself required similar determination, especially in the face of industry challenges like the actors’ strike. “I mean, as a German nobody, coming here and doing a movie with Ving Rhames is basically a miracle itself. And so I just keep her persistence with me,” Luiii says.

As she looks to the future, Luiii wants to explore beyond the sports drama genre. “I have this background, I could really imagine to go into the action genre, but also, I want to — because I did this also a couple of times back in Germany — to really be put in this sports box basically and also trying to get out of there a bit and really wanna do something totally different,” Luiii says. She has even taken on developing her own TV series. “I developed also a TV series myself, which is now in discussion with some interesting people,” Luiii says. “And I still think I still wanna do both producing and acting, but I’m also looking forward to really just being on set and having no responsibility to anything else.”

With Uppercut, Luiii has proven that she is not only a powerhouse performer but also a determined creative force. Whether in front of the camera or behind the scenes, she is pushing boundaries and making her mark on the international film industry.

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