Translation

Olin and Hallström about the hard sweet life

When Lasse Hallström's newest movie comes to the cinemas in Sweden, he is already filming his next. The international star this time, is Lena Olin. But has someone ever been able to direct his wife?

A breastfeeding mother to a few months old baby can have her hair the way she wants to. Even if the mother is Lena Olin and a movie star. But a lawyer? What kind of hair does a lawyer have while she's running around in dark action alleys in New York? Curly maybe, like the prosecutor Marcie Clarke in the trial against OJ Simpson, wouldn't that be delicious? It has to be thought through. At least one whole day, maybe two. In Hollywood it's all about the millimetres. So here Lena Olin is, in the chair. The hairdresser is really expensive, French and flown in just for this occasion. There're five men standing by her side. Serious. Olin's hair is too long. But how much? The hairdresser does a test.

"Monsieur, she could have it up."

"In that case, you have to let it out in the love scenes."

"God, that's so ordinary."

"Mostly women let their hair down when they go out, and have it up when they're at home."

"They do?"

Another day, a Thursday, the director Lasse Hallström is sitting in another chair on Manhattan together with other men from Hollywood. No one's interested in Hallströms hair, no one comments on his old sweater. But the seriousness is the same. It's already decided that Hallström will direct this true, unbelievable story about the English girls who, at the turn of the century, convinced the adult world that they'd seen fairies. The making starts after the new year in England, with Lena Olin in one of the leading roles. Lasse Hallström has been looking for a script for the last three, four years that could make them work together:

"There've been a few good ones, but at least one was too 'arty'."

The adventure is finally happening. Lasse Hallström has found 'The Golden Afternoon', a story which fits him and his love for everyday magic. Lena Olin is a known name among the investors, the movie will have its premiere on Halloween 1996, everyone is happy. Even the most serious guys around the table. They don't have anything to do with the production, but they've invested money in it. It would be unlikely, almost wrong that these men would interrupt this process in Sweden. But this is Hollywood having a business meeting on Manhattan.

What if Lasse Hallström makes one of these unpleasant European movies? No Disney-feeling at all, just England and fog, not a soul in Texas would want to see that.

So, Mr Hallström, how's it going with our money?

Lena Olin leaves the French hairdresser with her hair almost exactly 3.37 centimetres shorter. Perfect for a lawyer who acts opposite Andy Garcia in the movie 'Night Falls on Manhattan'. Baby Tora with almost no hair herself couldn't care less and Lena Olin knows what Hollywood wants from her, apart from dollars:

"Status and lustre. Sidney Lumet said that in the films he has left to direct, he only wants to work with interesting people. I'm interesting."

And Lasse Hallström sits quietly through his Thursday meeting.

"Let them talk, that's my technique. In European filmmaking, the director is a dictator who creates the movies and the producer looks after the money. But in the US the responsibility is shared between the director and the producer, and as always, it's all about the money."

Lasse Hallström feels he's had 'decent luck' when it comes to producers, but the ultimate would be that the same person is the director and producer. Like Robert Redford. Like Steven Spielberg. Like Goldie Hawn.

Lasse Hallström waited one whole year to do 'Peter Pan', but the script was bought by the movie company TriStar. They wanted to get rid of anything that could compete with their own 'Hook'. Then he waited one more year to do 'Once Around':

"I had a hard time getting that an actors 'yes' or 'no' could decide if I was going to make the movie or not. I was amazed that I was sitting in meetings with people I hadn't invited. But that's the way it is, and I don't have anything against it, I like the business part of it as well. You don't have to cover your eyes with art just because you work with film."

The other end of the family, Lena Olin's end, it's her job to be one of those actors who decides if the movie will be made or not.

Lena Olin says she's "never been in a movie that was successful" but: "The men are the guys who decide in this business. They like that I grew up with Bergman, they like what I've done this far, so I've been working like someone who's trustworthy. A bit fancy. The director who chooses me is looking to improve his own status."

The fifteen best ranked actors in Hollywood make lists about which director they want to work with. When Julia Roberts announced that she wanted to do 'Something to Talk About', Swedish premiere this Christmas, she made one of those lists. Lasse Hallström was on top. Julia Roberts got 12 million dollars for that part, about 90 million skr, which is nothing because the movie made 40 million dollar the four first weeks, enough to cover the cost of the making of the film. But Julia did already have the money. The important thing was that with the help from Lasse, she went from comedian to actress:

"Hollywood sees European people as more cultural, more sensitive regarding the psychological." Lena Olin says: "My ticket to Hollywood was 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being' and then 'Enemies', which never made any money but the critics loved it. But no one in Hollywood has ever asked me if I have any good looking, talented friends who'd want to come over too. You are some kind of spice as an European actress, but only if you get there by yourself."

And here they are in the surprisingly warm autumn sun, the Swedish couple that yet never together, but on their own have gone through walls and landed in the middle of it all. And they're taken care of as the golden eggs they are. A free day like this, baby Tora is being breastfed, an assistant's taking care of the phones, son August is having private lessons with his godmother, the cook's making lunch, the nanny has a day off, as well as the driver who normally drives Lena between the idyllic suburb Bedford, north of New York, and the set on Manhattan.

Sadly they've found mould in the rented house, but there are others, with heated pool this time, equally beautiful garden, further up the street, no problem. You don't have to be an educated psychologist to see that Lasse is better off now than he was after the success with 'My Life as a Dog', sitting in Hollywood trying to understand all the compliments and promises that we'll soon, soon start filming 'Peter Pan'.

"I couldn't go home. Not after me talking to all my journalist friends about Hollywood's plans for me. Two years past before anything happened. I would have gone up to Bergendahl at SF if I was in Sweden and said, hey, I have this idea about a movie, he'd say okay, I would write a script where I would mix my best ideas with Pelle Berglund's and Brasse's and we would do it. Hollywood was different, to begin with, it was about four hundred SF's."

It's not that hard to see that Lena Olin has it easier too, not having to travel around alone with little August. She made the movie 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being', based on the book by Milan Kundera, just a few months after giving birth to August. The movie with its combination of classic acting and nude scenes made Hollywood gasp. The situation, and terms, are different now. But it's no normal Swedish maternity leave either. I get to hear Lena and Lasse talk properly for the first time when I ask Lena about how she manages both her roles as mother and movie star. Lena tries to explain a technique that's been proven to work unconsciously. Lasse interrupts:

"Oh my God. It's no harder than switching between being a cyclist and a pedestrian!"

And the excitement, the effort, the magic is gone.

"Acting is a job, it's like taking care of one of Gröna Lund's carousels. There's a few rides over the years, some more fun than others. When a director screams, great impulse, work with that, I only want to laugh. I don't have any impulses, I do as I'm told!"

And Lasse says:

"Impulse? I never say that. I do a lot of takes so I get a lot to chose from. Then I sit by the editing table and piece them together like some sort of puzzle. That's when the movies is being made, when I'm by the editing table."

Later on, regarding the roll as a director, it's Lasse who says he wants to "mediate a feeling to the actors, be open to them, give them confidence." Lena is listening, says she's been impressed with Lasses authority the few times she's seen him work, that actors are drawn to good directors, that's why Michelle Pfeiffer and Julia Roberts like Lasse. But then the shrugging begins:

"Every director talks like Lasse just did."

Lasse says:

"I'm allergic to theatre in every way. I cant stand shit, bullshit to be exact, I like documentaries even when it comes to movies."

It doesn't sound that strange to a Swede. But to Julia Roberts and the rest of the Hollywood cast in 'Something to Talk About' it was worse, Hallström was constantly next to them and with his weird accent encouraged them to take it easy. Scream less. Stamp less. Wave less.

"Julia said afterwards that she was wondering what I was doing. She wasn't convinced until she saw the movie."

But she obeyed. Just like Lena Olin, million dollars or not, Julia Roberts gave herself up. Special effect is something the movie business uses a lot, Lasse Hallström says, but he uses the stars, doing the movie about people.

"But it doesn't matter how great or well paid they are, they are the same insecure actors as in Sweden. So working with me was tough for everyone, not only Julia Roberts. No one was allowed to use their normal way of acting - big and loud."

There's a tendency to loose grip of real life during any filmmaking, even for the director. Lasse Hallström has clear memories of Swedish ones that's been like 'day-care for grown-ups', with anxiety about leaving, outbreaks and difficult chemistries between people. He can miss 'the feeling of a family from home', but the American filmmaking is different. Like trailers, some with more luxury than others, which are something that belongs to every American movie set. The stars see their trailer as their own territory, something of a status symbol. The distance is smaller in Sweden: "You know each other. When I was doing a movie it was more like fifteen, sixteen friends" Lasse says. And the actors in Sweden are never far away, you can wave them back with your finger. It makes Lena shiver. She remembers how exposed she's been from time to time.

There's about a hundred people involved in a production team in Hollywood, everyone with his or her special task. The distance grows. There's a lot of people between the director and the actor, everyone has earphones in which the director shouts his 'Where the hell is she?'

"The last guy has the job to knock on the door and tell the star that it's time. What a nightmare!" Lena Olin says. "You are in there with your make-up artist, in your own safe world. Getting inside your own trailer is such an insult."

When the star opens the door, the whispering begins. From guy to guy, all the way to the director 'She's coming!' Lasse understands the need of private space, he has his own trailer as a director, the agents make sure it's the biggest.

"It is tempting to just close the door when everything's too much. When someone knocks, it's like 'Don't interrupt me with this damn production.'"

When Lena talks warmly about friendship with the make-up artist, she who doesn't only put colours on the actors but also irritates the director by shouting every time the star isn't perfect, Lasse sees the disadvantages:

"It's always too much powder. And you can hardly talk to the actors, the make-up artists build walls around them, and they just sit there giggling."

Lena shakes her head, it's a classic situation: "There's always jealousy between the make-up and the director."

And now Hallström will direct Olin.

If it's different professional roles or personalities, but Lena, after all these years, still believes in what she calls "a need to cling on to the director, feel safe, create relationships in the team."

How will she get that complicated yet professional relationship with her husband? It's not the first time in the history of movies that one loved one is behind the camera and the other one is in front of it, this time there's no need to build something from scratch though. The Swedish equality between the sexes is a strange thing in these circumstances. People are surprised, almost irritated about the fact that Lasse takes care of Tora in Lena's trailer during the filming on Manhattan:

"Why is he sitting there, don't you have a nanny?"

Shared responsibility may have little to do with Hollywood, but more to do with Lasse's and Lena's private history together.Since that night four years ago, when Lasse surprised himself by asking Lena Olin out for dinner and she, surprising them both, said yes, they've been out on adventures together. Lasse thinks they both are brave people, that threw themselves out into the world without any security. He tells about the confusion of landing in Hollywood not knowing anything. Lena says she could have thrown up in the beginning, because she was so scared:

"I was in no way prepared for the life I was getting myself into."

Lasse laughs:

"She freaks out just thinking about packing a suitcase, she's even scared about driving to Södertälje, there might be something wrong with the car..."

They both, and it's no bad foundation to stand on together, even survived the overwhelming rush about suddenly be the flavour of the mouth, Hollywood's sweethearts:

"It is really hard in the beginning to know if they are nice because they like you, or because they could use you..."

Another thing they have in common is their driving force in their work, and because of that Lasse believes that if they've met twenty years ago, the love wouldn't have happened:

"We were both really into our art. There wouldn't have been any space for any private life."

And Lena, who was sure she didn't want to get married, didn't want children, says dreamingly: "It's hard to know if the great love in life will cool your interest for your career, or if a cooling interest for your career will make space for great love."

Now they're out on adventures. To live on a plantation in the south part of America during the filming of 'Something to Talk About' was an adventure, Tora being born was an adventure, to live in New York the fall of 1995 was an adventure, to have August going to school in London will be an adventure, now the filmmaking will be an adventure as well as the success and new plans for the future.

"We use to ask ourselves: when is it time to take something seriously?"

That day will come sometime. Lasse thinks the American adventure will last three or maybe four more years. He will be able to do two or three movies in that time and Lena four or five:

"We are out collecting nuts!"

Then what?

"Now with Lasse I have really started to understand all the talk about actors appearances," Lena says. "It's really important in Hollywood how I look. It's too easy as an actor to give yourself up to others. In the last few years I have learned to distinguish between the person I am, I want to be and the professional, the one the director, producer, photographer and everyone else wants me to be."

This is it, just like the old happy Lasse-and-Lena pattern, take it down before it all gets too grand. Lena hardly gets to say she likes that American stars always looking "as lovely as possible" and that it's "necessary to understand that principle if you want to work here" before Lasse happily interrupts:

"Luckily we'll be home again in ten years, you being afraid of doctors. Then it's time for old lady-parts at the Dramaten!" Lasse can't stand theater. Not since the sixties when he was dating the daughter of the critic Allan Fagerström and 'had to watch everything': "The line was crossed when Hans Ernback in a typical seventies kind of way pointed his finger at me sitting in the audience and declared me a fascist."

Lena only laughs and says that Dramaten sounds great. She used to like doing theatre work, liked the kick it gave her, doing it 'right now'. But she started to dislike the whole idea of being watched. She still thinks there's 'nothing left' when a play has been done:

"But now the discomfort is gone. On the contrary, sometimes I miss it, like when I heard they were doing Medea in Stockholm."

She turns to Lasse again and reminds him of the project that never happened, 'Peter Pan'. Even though it may take a lot to get her to read his scripts, but in ten years maybe?

"I can play Wendy when I'm old, August can be Peter Pan and Tora can be Tinkerbell!"

Lasse and Lena are out in the world, on adventures and having fun almost all the time.


Translated by Polly for LENA OnLINe, used with permission.