Norwgian actress Renate Reinsve made her film debut in “Oslo, August 31st” by Joachim Trier (2011). Ten years later, she had her breakout role in Trier’s critically acclaimed drama “The Worst Person in the World” for which she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress and received a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. She has since starred in the American legal thriller series “Presumed Innocent” and Aaron Schimberg’s film “A Different Man” (both 2024).
Tara Karajica spoke with Renate Reinsve at the 2024 European Film Awards about her role in Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel’s critically acclaimed debut film “Armand”that has scooped multiple awards and nominations including European Discovery – Prix FIPRESCI, European University Film Award and European Actress for Reinsve at the 37th European Awards. In “Armand,” Reinsve plays Elisabeth whose son Armand, a 6-year-old boy, is accused of crossing boundaries against his best friend at elementary school. Here, Reisve also delves, among other subjects, into the difference between US and European film fare and what is next for her.
It’s been a great 2024 for you!
Renate Reinsve: Sounds like a lot when you say it back to me! After The Worst Person in the World, I got so many offers and I got the opportunity to do so many interesting projects. It was hard to say no, but I will do a little less next year because it was too much! I’m very proud of all the projects. I also get to travel around and work with the actors that I’ve admired my whole life, like I Gael García Bernal and Jake Gyllenhaal. It’s been really an amazing year, and I’ve been doing so much! I didn’t have time to think and be so nervous. So, now, I feel like I can relax a little bit more.
It’s been not only a good year for you, but also for Norwegian film. So, may I ask, what’s happening in Norway in terms of Cinema?
R.R.: Exactly! A good question, because we have been for so many years under Denmark and Sweden. We’ve only been our own country for a hundred years, and I think that self-esteem of being under has lasted for a long time, and we have tried to copy other film nations, like America, but with too little money, and we have been scared to actually tell personal stories or do it our way. But I feel the foundation was really laid with Joachim [Trier]. He has been working for twenty years, telling his own stories that were actually a success internationally. So, I think people got a little more curious, and also the people delegating money have actually shifted a little towards personal stories and more progressive ways of making movies. And now, it feels like in the last, I guess, five years, people have gotten a lot more confident, and people are so proud to be a part of this. It’s very surprising that in Norwegian Cinema, there are many interesting things happening. So, we’ll see. I hope it’s a really exciting time. Also, with Armand, it took a really long time to get money for that movie, but also Halfdan [Ullmann Tøndel] has been so brave, not thinking about the normal structure that Norwegian Cinema has been in, but actually thinking [in an innovative way] and pushing boundaries. He’s been very brave making this movie.
Speaking of Norwegian Cinema, what would be a typically Norwegian subject?
R.R.: It’s hard to know. I know that Norway is actually one of the most socially conformed countries in the world, together with Saudi Arabia and South Korea. It’s really, really socially strict. It’s hard to get a sense of that when you’re in the society yourself. But when I travel, I can sense that. For instance, I work now in Italy, and it’s a lot freer in a way, but you have, of course, your restrictions in different ways. Germany and Berlin, it’s very free, but it’s a very narrow way to go. I think that also creates a lot of anxiety and melancholy and depression, but it is also one of the happiest countries in the world. So, I think it’s all those contradictions together that are now creating new stories, and that’s what it’s based on. And, we have a f*cking long winter. Everyone gets depressed. There’s no way around it. It’s impossible to shoot in the winter because it’s so cold and dark and we have two hours of daylight. Now, it’s impossible to shoot a movie. So, in the spring and the fall, that’s when the movies are shot, and that’s when we also feel happy, but we still have a kind of melancholy within us.
Can you talk about the role of Elizabeth? You said that it’s the hardest thing that you’ve ever done. What was so exhausting about it?
R.R.: It’s really complicated because a lot of the times in the media, you can say something, and it’s this one headline, and it’s like: “She’s slept for two months.” I used to be a competition swimmer for many years. I wouldn’t call myself an athlete, but just to paint a picture, because you want to become better and push your boundarie. And, this movie is about pushing boundaries, and Halfdan and I, we get so excited when we work together. We are like dogs together on set, trying to push each other’s boundaries of what we can do and how to be brave. It gets more fun and exhilarating then. So, someone else has to stop us and say: “Okay, now we actually have to finish the scene.” I think it’s this old mentality of being a competition swimmer, going into acting, trying to push my own boundaries and seeing if I can go somewhere that’s impossible for me, like getting this task of laughing for seven minutes. It’s impossible. I said to Halfdan: “I’m not gonna [be able to do] that, but I’ll try.” It’s very interesting.
I come from the theater. I’ve been working in the theater since I was nine, and I had a really strict analytical teacher, and she taught me how to build a character from analysis and then practice fantasy. So, actually, your body doesn’t know the difference between when it’s real and when it’s not real, because you built this logic of the character so strongly, and the more detail you put into it, the stronger that sincerity in the moment will appear. So, I just built. I had seven years. Halfdan and I made a short film eight years ago, and we connected so strongly in what we wanted to do in movies. And then, eight years later, he got financing and we actually got to do the movie. And, in the meantime, I had a very big overview of who she was. But to get to that point, you can’t do it without sincerity. You have to get to this state where she’s so desperate and in such a big crisis, and she’s so vigilant and in this fight or flight [state that she is in], the only thing that comes out is laughter. So, building that moment was just very specific. Both Halfdan and I have this thing where we have both been at funerals for relatives where we started laughing. And so, I knew this reaction, and it’s a very shameful reaction. My aunt, when she died, I couldn’t stop laughing at Church during the ceremony. So, I knew where in the body this would be. Then, I went over to the sound guy. He’s very funny. I asked him to tell me a joke, and it was a really bad joke. It’s very hard to translate because in Norway, we have specific words, but it’s not funny. In Norway, a big jacket is called a bubble jacket. So, he said very dryly: “Imagine a bubble jacket with only one bubble.” And then, I went in – I had all the analysis, and I had this very serious crowd of actors – and I was so nervous, and I knew I was not gonna make this. Then, I just started laughing. And, of course, we did it for ten hours because we needed the pivot of the whole story and the whole character. We needed that scene, so there was no way around it. He had put one day to make this scene.
You’ve also made the TV series Presumed Innocent and Aaron Schimberg’s A Different Man, which are in English What is it like for a European, non-British actress to break into the English–speaking film scene? Is that a goal of yours?
R.R.: There are not many personal stories in Hollywood. Presumed Innocent was more of a big production. A Different Man is a very small and more indie film, and the director actually has his personal story, but it’s very, very rare. The crew chose to go into this movie specifically because of the story. And that’s also very rare in America because of funding. I was scared in Presumed Innocent to not be able to do my way of acting. This is also my theory – I don’t know if it’s true, but I feel that in acting in Europe, you are more focused on the vision of the director. But in America, the actors have more power in a production. So, in a story, they will find a way. What I’ve experienced is that they’re leading, but for me, it’s more about being under the vision of the director, and that will dictate what the movie becomes. So, that’s two very different values. Also, I feel that in Europe, you get to be rawer. You don’t have to necessarily know what the scene is going to be like or what your emotional path through the scene needs to be. And, if you’re vulnerable, you try to find that vulnerability in you for real. But in America, it’s more solid; you know what emotions you’re going to go through, and they’re more trained in going through those emotions. And so, it’s not so raw and free, I feel. But specifically, Presumed Innocent, had a Norwegian director for the first episodes, so I actually got to be very free, but I don’t know how I would’ve handled it otherwise because I’m not very technical. I’m really bad if I try to do it technically. So, I need to actually find it in myself, through analysis and then losing control, to kind of live it. So, I could never do an action movie or something like that. It would be really bad, I think.
In that sense, how do you see the difference between the European film industry and the global film industry?
R.R.: I feel it’s small things and small nuances that actually make a big difference. I feel I can’t tell the difference, but it’s in very small ways. I think it’s that value of regional Cinema; I feel there’s more room for making mistakes, and that it’s messier than and in the US. Maybe it’s because of how it’s funded. In Norway, we get the money from the State. It’s not so many private people giving money, and that’s how it’s funded in the US and maybe they’re more scared of losing their money. Maybe they’re more scared of not getting their money back, so they need to be safer. It might come from there because in Europe, or in Norway, when it is state-funded, you are actually freer because then they lose control over it; they don’t have an influence after they give the money. So, maybe that creates more freedom.
So, you wouldn’t train for half a year for a role?
R.R.: I would love to do it physically, but I wouldn’t want any lines. A swimmer or something like a superhero swimmer – I could do that
You’ve done a lot of theater and in A Different Man, you play a playwright. How was it to play a character involved in the world of theater?
R.R.: I also did that in the new the movie [Sentimental Value] we just finished with Joachim where I play a theater actor, and I was so happy to be in theater again. I actually started to talk to a theater director in Norway to actually do something next year because I miss it so much. It’s a very different way of acting. But I think [both arenas] can inform each other and complement each other if you do both. And, I see a lot of really great actors like Sandra Hüller – I love her and her work and I really wanted to go and see her play Hamlet last year, but I had no time, but I’m gonna go see her definitely next year. I feel you learn how to build a character differently than if you just come into the movies without that kind of work. And, you are also very concerned about the collectiveness of it as in you don’t go in as an actor and just do your thing. It’s all about everyone involved and how we work together to make a scene, and that’s a good mentality to have inside, too.
Are you able to dissociate yourself from your own persona in order to become someone else? Do you always take someone that you play back home with you?
R.R.: It’s almost philosophical! I think that every human being if put in a desperate situation, the worst things would come out. Or, I think we have some things that are similar, and it’s always a scary process to find those things and be honest with those things. Like Elisabeth, this character, the things that she does, to have it feel real, is a very scary process because I had been building the character for so long. If I get the role a long time in advance rather than two weeks before shooting, I don’t know the difference between this character and myself, and you feel like you’re half psychotic, in a way, but you need it to actually be truthful and sincere. But it’s also a fantastic feeling. It’s a rush, like you’re high or something when you’re in that state and Halfdan as a director, he has the same thing. So, you could imagine – it was like crazy!
I want to jump back quickly to The Worst Person in the World. How important was the role for you, not only in terms of your career, but also on a personal level?
R.R.: It was very, very big! It changed my whole life professionally, but also to have a character written for me that was so similar to me in some ways. You often go to characters that are like: “How far can you get away from yourself?” But being close to myself was very unnatural and very scary. To have so many people in the world say that they loved this character and that it was similar to me was the greatest therapy for a lot of my life. This was the biggest self-esteem boost I’ve ever had. It was also like a director seeing something in you like that, and then you get to be very free in your actin because he’s already said that he trusts you, even though you don’t do an audition, or that he knows how you’re going to do the character. Also, the themes in the movie – I’ve heard so many people say: “Oh, I broke up with my partner because of the movie” or, “I got married to this person because of the movie.” So many people have said that, and it happened to me too, reading the script, I kind of changed my whole life. So, it’s very special that movie.
You’re also going to start your next movie?
R.R.: Yes, we have just finished shooting it actually.
Can you tell us something about the role, or is it a mystery?
R.R.: This is actually a darker role because Julie struggled to find out what she wanted to do in her life and who to choose in her life, and she was very melancholic. But this character is actually having a really hard time just coping with life and relationships. And, it’s a love story between a father and a daughter and how they cannot connect and how they really admire each other in a way, but they don’t find a way to talk to each other because of how they are. And so, the movie tries to find a way to talk about this and how the relationships in our lives and the lives of our relatives in the past also directly influence our life. So, a lot bigger. It’s about how we exist together.
Should we expect a similar atmosphere?
R.R.: I saw some clips. It’s really funny. It’s the same screenwriter. Joachim and Eskil [Vogt], found through The Worst Person in the World, that they really wanted to make movies that blended into something that was very them because they tried a little, I think, with Thelma and Louder than Bombs to go into different, more unknown waters to see what they found. And, I also feel that Joachim is trying to be even more open and honest about what he wants to talk about.
Photo credits: European Film Academy.
This interview was conducted at the 2024 European Film Awards.
