Deadline
  • 3 months ago
Connect with Deadline online!
https://www.facebook.com/deadline/
https://twitter.com/DEADLINE
https://www.instagram.com/deadline/

Category

😹
Fun
Transcript
00:00What film or series lit your fuse and made you have to tell stories on screen?
00:18So I think when I was eight I almost by mistake got to watch Wizard of Oz
00:27and it was such a kind of weird mix of it absolutely terrified I can still to this day
00:37you know when she's in the tornado and everything kind of moves around I can still today in a very
00:42palpable way feel that and I and I think it took me probably 15 years until I realized that it was
00:55just a movie it kind of stayed it kind of became part of my physical entity and then I did all
01:03sorts of other things I started architecture and I thought I was going to do all other things but
01:08for some reason that experience stayed with me and it brought me back when I kind of started
01:14thinking I'm not that interested in architecture I'm more interested in the in the people inside
01:20the spaces I'm designing who are they what do they want to do and then that sort of Wizard
01:29of Oz came back to me and and so I think it it kind of made a huge very definite stamp on my soul
01:41and kind of made me made me do what I'm doing today weirdly. Wow I love that to be hit so hard
01:49at a young age by a movie that and it never leaves you and that's a good one. So now as you
01:56were making your way as a filmmaker and still kind of getting your footing was there a movie or a
02:02series that you watched that was so good it made you think wow can I really do this can I rise to
02:09that level? You know I think there was a few because I think once I went to film school which
02:16I started when I was I was 23 there was like a few things but but one I watched Last Tango in
02:24Paris and I think by Bertolucci and I think it was kind of it was a kind of very I was a very shy
02:34girl like I was a kind of boys girls I was always playing with the boys I was kind of
02:38like doing physical things running and climbing and everything but but but you know
02:45erotic stuff and things like that was a little bit whoa you know and then I watched Last Tango
02:53in Paris and it was like a kind of um it just tricked a whole lot of things in me and also
02:59tricked the kind of way of okay cinema cinema is not just about telling comfortable stories it's
03:07also about addressing spaces between human being which are not necessarily comfortable
03:14or transcends um transcends your your the culture you are kind of being being spoon fed
03:25um and and that did to me and then I kind of stayed with Bertolucci because I kind of
03:301900 has stayed with me as a kind of monumental monumental
03:38definition of last century um um and yeah but but I I then became then I became very I mean I like
03:50those weirdly I you know when when I was thinking about coming onto this show I it struck me that I
03:57was very um attached like I also like The Godfather I like movies which are more than two hours
04:06more than two hours and maybe maybe there is a kind of you know I've done like a number of tv
04:12series which are also like six hours or something there's something about a very monumental very
04:18I mean no comparison I mean I'm not comparing myself in any shape or form to those monumental
04:24masterpieces but there's something about the the ability to have a lot of characters
04:32to have a lot of complex storytelling which are not necessarily just linear which usually
04:38feature films are um which I think in the beginning of my career I was already very
04:45attracted to without actually knowing what they were. So now maybe it was the success
04:53of a work you directed I mean you won the the best foreign language a language film Oscar
05:00it seemed kind of in in your formative uh stages of your career so maybe it was that
05:07or maybe it was approval from somebody whose work mattered to you but what first gave you
05:13the confidence that you could exist in this world and you did belong as a storyteller?
05:21You know what I actually almost think it's more the opposite so my very first film was called
05:27Fright Leaving Home and that was like a Swedish film and it was quite a huge success and then
05:34I thought I could walk on water essentially I thought I can do anything and then I did my
05:41second film and it was a gigantic thing the critics slammed it nobody came to see it
05:51and I think for a very brief period I was paralyzed and then I got over it and I think
05:59in a way I think in a way and I spoke to somebody I spoke to one of my teachers at film school
06:05and and he was like you know don't don't believe when other people label you a success but also
06:13do not believe when other people label you a failure and that has stayed with me since and that
06:19I think in a way that that has kind of enabled me to feel that I can do this and I can do that
06:29for the rest of my life and I can do that happily and excitedly and and maintain my curiosity because
06:38because I overcame a failure at an early point in my career and I think that that was hugely
06:46important and I you know I kind of sometimes worry for people who have too much success too
06:52early because it almost becomes a curse because you don't everybody at some point fails everybody
07:00who does anything creative at some point inevitably fail because if you're not ready to
07:06to make a mistake then you also aren't creative if you always play it safe then there's no creative
07:13challenge and by by by embracing a challenge there is a a potential inbuilt
07:23failure in that and and I think you have to like learning that you can overcome that
07:29and learning that it's okay you'll get over it you move on and and you learn from it
07:36hmm um was incredibly important yeah and I think I probably have learned nothing in victory and
07:45everything uh with setbacks it just is the probably the best teacher in the world isn't it
07:52absolutely it is it's very painful it's very unpleasant and you don't want to be in that space
08:00but when you come out of it you are stronger and you are better at what you're doing
08:07and you are also you have an insight you didn't have before how long like what was the lowest
08:14moment here you are you say wow this isn't that hard I you know I come right out of the gate and
08:20I make a a huge successful movie and then you come out with one and it's the exact opposite
08:27what was the lowest moment for you and how did you pull yourself out of that I don't know if
08:34the if the rut is one of insecurity of self-doubt um of self-loathing but um can you uh illuminate
08:43that a little so you you kind of finish the film and you're all kind of you know ah this is so
08:52great this is so great and then you it comes out there's a premiere and the weird thing even in the
09:01premiere if I would have allowed myself I would probably have been able to read the room but I
09:07was kind of going I'm not I'm not actually you know when people start saying great costumes as
09:14opposed to I really enjoyed the film you should be worried I did not actually read those signs
09:21I wasn't experienced enough to quite understand the code of it um but then the reviews came out
09:30and they were they were so severe and and I was paralyzed I think I was probably paralyzed for
09:40a week or something like I think I was really feeling shocked and then I slowly got myself out
09:47of it and um you know just move on just figure out what is it what why why did you why did you
09:58mess up what was it and are they right because I think I think you know I don't think that critics
10:04are always right but I do think unfortunately sometimes when they don't like what you're doing
10:11sometimes not always sometimes they have a point and it might be pretty educational to
10:18to see what the point is and then not do that again yeah but at the same time it must be like
10:25reading somebody calling your children ugly it is it is and and also and also because sometimes
10:32reviewers like to be like kind of linguistically really eloquent and really witty and really sharp
10:42and you can go oh oh like like you know sometimes you kind of you don't
10:47you don't realize how hurtful it becomes yeah um and I think you know with what we do
10:57we you know it's unavoidable and um we also get accolades and so I think it's about
11:06it it's about in allowing yourself to enjoy the accolades a little bit and allowing yourself to
11:14suffer a little bit when they're not accolades but also fundamentally trust oneself and and then
11:21know I mean you know even if we're doing something which is insanely important but also
11:28knowing that you have loved people around you or you know other things
11:33well now what would you say was the biggest obstacle that you had to overcome to
11:41turn these films that in great films that have influenced you into your own language as a
11:48filmmaker so I think I think kind of what I got very influenced like I'm I got very impacted by
11:57Dear Hunter I got very impacted by Apocalypse Now and you know those movies are very
12:07uh has an immense amount of life in them um and I think I think I had to I had to kind of figure
12:18out how to be very impacted by them and learning from them and at that point I was still working
12:25in Denmark but also recognizing that culturally it's a very different society and how do you
12:34how do you what how can you use how can you use the sort of insight that those movies gave me
12:41but still do something which is culturally correct for Denmark and that I think that that sort of
12:49learning that acting at that point acting was becoming real at that point you know that was
12:55like like I want to say from the end of the 60s and up to the 70s American movies were very much
13:01about actors on screen are real human beings but when you then you know work in Denmark you go
13:09actors on screen are real human Danish beings and that's very different and the way we talk and the
13:17way we is pretty different so I had to look at it and understand what it did and then look at
13:25myself and look at my own society and see how can I how can I apply the realness um and and still
13:36make it culturally correct does that make sense yes it does it does so my last question I'm gonna
13:42kind of lump two questions together you are the films that you admire and your early films were
13:51straight to theatrical films and you know like you said some of them hit and some of them are
13:57more challenging but you have had this niche in the streaming segment of the business where it
14:05feels like it's just been hit after hit I mean Bird Box was like the biggest thing ever on Netflix
14:10for a long time the undoing the the night manager my last question is what burned in you to tell the
14:20story of the perfect couple first of all I want to say there's something incredibly
14:27enticing about knowing that that if you get it right if you need something which is really good
14:36you're gonna have a huge audience there's something there's something because because
14:42you don't I mean as a filmmaker as a storyteller as a you know you want to make you want to tell
14:50stories for human beings you want to do something which people see and you want to do something
14:57which is yeah it's entertainment but you also want to you know there's you want to have you do feel
15:05or I feel that there is some sort of substance in what I do there's some kind of human substance
15:12in what I do and if I can do that and reach and gigantic audience it's incredibly satisfying
15:20and so I think I think that is you know I've always been drawn I've always been drawn to
15:26to do things which would which would generate an audience like my biggest my biggest Danish
15:33success was a a a comedy called the one and only and it was huge it's like part of it's like an
15:40great part of Danish culture every Danish person has seen and and and so I always had that kind of
15:49joy of of of create to create something which which which is meaningful to a lot of people
15:57and and and at the current in the current landscape streaming enabled me to do that
16:04I'm not saying I will only do streaming from now on that I won't ever do a theatrical ever I'm not
16:09saying that but I'm just saying that there's something very for me there's something very
16:13satisfying in in doing something which comes out to this many people and and and you know the
16:19interesting thing about Netflix is that you know you talk to people who are not involved in the
16:23industry and they say yeah I go home and I watch Netflix and they don't go home and watch Netflix
16:29they go home and watch another streaming service but because Netflix was there and they were so
16:35early out there it it has become kind of the generic term for streaming and it's kind of
16:43fascinating so so I am I am very seduced by by by doing something which potentially has a huge audience