‘Jack Ryan’: Who Is Nina Hoss, AKA President Alena Kovac in Season 3?
After a long three-year hiatus, the suspenseful political action thriller Jack Ryan recently returned to Amazon Prime Video for its third season. Fans were excited to see The Office star John Krasinski reprise his role as the titular character, along with other familiar faces such as Michael Kelly (Mike November) and Wendell Pierce (James Greer).
Newcomer Nina Hoss, who took on the role of President Alena Kovac, mesmerized viewers with her performance, leaving many to wonder who she is and what other projects she has appeared in. Here is everything we know about the intriguing actor from Season 3 of Jack Ryan.
How Hoss feels about working on the project
Nina Hoss portrays the President of the Czech Republic in Season 3 of the action-packed spy drama. In an interview with ScreenRant, the Táractor explained that she was a fan of the first two seasons of Jack Ryan and “was drawn into that whole universe.” She said, “when I actually got to work on it, it was very exciting for me.”
The Barbara actor enjoys how the series takes viewers to other countries, allowing them to “learn about other cultures and how things are being run there.” She explained Season 3 depicts a storyline in the Czech Republic, Russia, Athens, Rome, and Vienna, which is an exciting part of the series.
Hoss proclaimed, “We have a great ensemble that surrounded my part of the story, which was very diverse, and we all came from all kinds of places. [It was] very multicultural also and made it really fun to be working together.”
Talking with JoBlo Celebrity Interviews, Hoss said she studied the “incredibly well-written” script to prepare for the intense role, finding inspiration from current female presidents such as Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand. The 47-year-old actor said she likes how they hold themselves and are not afraid to show their femininity, being not only “self-assured, clear, and strong-minded but very open.” Hoss explained, “there is a humanistic side that they bring to the game, which I love, and that I wanted to give to Alena.”
Who is Nina Hoss?
The German-born actor made her stage debut when she was only 14 years old. In 1997, she graduated from a Berlin drama school, and in 2000 was named one of the “Shooting Stars” in European films. She is the daughter of Willi Hoss, the co-founder of the German Green Party, and actor Heidemarie Rohwedder.
According to IMDb, Nina Hoss has a long list of film and television credits from Germany. It wasn’t until her appearance in the 2014 film A Most Wanted Man, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Rachel McAdams, that Hoss was introduced to the American film industry. That same year, the Phoenix actor appeared in several episodes of Showtime’s Homeland, a popular series filmed in Berlin. In 2015, she married her longtime partner Alex Silva, who also worked as a musical arranger on A Most Wanted Man.
Most recently, Hoss appeared alongside acclaimed actor Cate Blanchett in Tár, a film about the first female conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic.
The Season 3 cast of ‘Jack Ryan’
Betty Gabriel, who starred in Get Out, takes on the role of Elizabeth Wright, the CIA station chief in Rome. She is both an adversary and an ally to Jack Ryan as she attempts to determine if he is innocent or a threat that needs to be destroyed.
Ant-Man’s fan-favorite actor, Michael Peña, has a small role in Season 3 as Domingo “Ding” Chavez, but his character will be more prominent in the fourth and final season. British television actor Peter Guinness stars in the third season as Petr Kovac, the father and most trusted adviser to President Kovac (Hoss).
Game of Thrones actor James Cosmo also joins the Season 3 cast as a Russian operative involved in a world-ending conspiracy that only Jack Ryan can stop.
