Reinhard Hauff s The Main Actor takes up the thread of his previous film which dealt with the miseries of farm life in Northern Germany In that film, Pauie Paulander, Hauff filmed the daily lives of a youth and his brutal step-father, and he cast in the leading roles a father and son who never acted before.

The Main Actor shows' the consequences of this interruption to their lives. The film begins with the last day of shooting for Pepe's Life (referring to Paule Paulander) Pepe, who is fifteen, has been allowed a measure of freedom from his step-father while the film was being shot, and now he has to return home.

Seeing the film as a new beginning for him, he escapes, follows the director to his Munich flat, and attempts to enlist his interest When the director (in Hauff's ironic comment on himself) appears indifferent, the boy begins a campaign of psychological terror, he sets fire to a dump in front of the hotel where the crew is celebrating the last day of shooting, he smashes the windows of the director's car, then sets fire to the foyer of the theatre where Pepe's Life has its premiere>