Original-Cin Q&A: Sentimental Value’s Starry Cast Discusses their Acclaimed Drama
By Bonnie Laufer
The deeply moving new film Sentimental Value which opens Friday (November 14) brings together an extraordinary ensemble of talent both in front of and behind the camera.
Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Joachim Trier (The Worst Person in the World), the film explores memory, love, and the emotional weight we attach to the past.
Bonnie Laufer spoke with stars Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, and Elle Fanning about working on the film. CLICK HERE to read Karen Gordon’s review of the film.
Stellan Skarsgård & Elle Fanning
ORIGINAL-CIN: Stellan, what a wonderful and subtle performance. You play Gustav, a man who by profession is a director trying to reconnect with his adult daughters. How did you find your way into play this man because in real life, you are so far from who he is.
STELLAN SKARSGÅRD: It was easy. I'm playing somebody else, so it was easy to disassociate from who I really am. I just dove right in.
O-C: It must have been flattering because the role was written for you with you in mind.
SS: Oh yes, it was extremely flattering for me. Joachim Trier wrote a beautiful script. It was a fantastic role which I can easily say was one of the best I've had in my entire career. I especially loved the aspect of trying to get through to his eldest daughter through a script that he wrote for her. It felt very genuine and real for me because sometimes we can’t express ourselves to the ones we love but art helps us do that.
O-C: Elle, you play Rachel, an American actress who in a fish out of water. She's been offered a role in a new country, and she's very determined to play it her way. How did you find your way into relating to an actor playing an actor?
ELLE FANNING: She's not so far from me but also, she's eons away from who I am. So of course, they're the easy similarities that you could compare but I think the challenge with her was making sure that she wasn't kind of a cliched Hollywood vapid star.
We see that she has talent. It was nice to show the Hollywoodesque of her personality in the beginning, but that facade is quickly disarmed. It's gone when she's ready to kind of get down to business but then is really trying to find her way into this character. She has this confidence at first in the scene that we have with the rehearsal scene with the monologue, and you see she's good at what she does. She is talented but knows she's not quite right for the role. So, for me, it was finding how to play someone that's completely miscast for the role and ultimately doing a very brave thing and walking away from something that she ultimately wants.
O-C: Stellan, the extraordinary Renate Reinsve plays your eldest daughter who worked with Joachim Trier on the films Oslo and The Worst Person in The World. You and Renate also took on executive producer roles for this film. Ultimately, what was it that made you so passionate about this project?
SS: It was all about Joachim Trier, his track record, this wonderful story. It felt so real and personal and I felt like he was wearing his heart on his sleeve. If you've seen his films, you've seen him develop and mature and grow with every project. Then he comes with this script, which is very complex and much more mature than any films he has done before. So, there was no way that I wasn’t going to be involved.
Renate Reinsve & Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas
O-C: Renate, you are no stranger to working with Joachim Trier but how flattering is it to have a film written for you? There's so much emotional depth I don't know if you were scared or immediately ready to dive in for this challenge.
RENATE REINSAVE: You said both the words to explain how I felt when he approached me with the script. Flattering 100 percent and also scared 100 percent. I think it's such a gift to have someone who wants to challenge you, or a director who wants to challenge you in that way and write something specifically for you after getting to know you as an actor and as a person through Worst Person in The World that we did a few years ago.
Honestly, it was such a joy to explore this character. We have developed such a shorthand, it was almost wordless between us on set now because we know each other so well. I know what he wants to express and the way he wants to express it, and he gives me so much space to search for things and find these details by myself. We have developed a real deep collaboration at this point. It's such a joy.
O-C: Inga, you and Renate had worked together briefly about 10 years ago in the theater, so you really hadn't been together in a long time. The sisterly bond between you in this film felt so real and honest. Was it an easy process to reconnect?
INGA IBSDOTTER LILLEAAS: We started rehearsals, and we talked a lot with Joachim, both together and separately about the themes and about sisterhood in particular. I think we just gradually grew into each other a little and we have a kind of a similar way of working.
I really enjoyed working with Renate, to be able to just be present and listen and be able to feed off of every little thing that happens that you don't necessarily mean to happen, but I can just see so much going on. We both have sisters and siblings, and so we know what that's like and I think because the environment is so open and trusting and respectful, it was easy to just open up and let the body just react to what that's like to be in a sister relationship. We just gradually grew into our relationship and made it as real as we both knew how.
O-C: Renate, when we are first introduced to your character, we see that she is a stage actress. Given your extensive theatre background, I wanted to know if you've ever gone on stage and had such a massive panic attack.
RR: I haven't. Not to say there aren’t always butterflies when I go on stage (laughs). I really love to facilitate my fear. I have a lot of it, but I kind of know how to spread it out in a role, to use it in a way. I saw that exact panic attack happening right next to me going on stage and we were all nervous that we weren't going to get to actually having our premiere. So I took a lot of inspiration from that moment, and it was, of course, very sad to see, and also in looking back, very funny for her as well. But yeah, I think it happens to a lot of actors.
O-C: Inga, I was extremely moved by the young actor who played your son. His scenes were so sweet with both you and Renate.
IIR: Yeah, he is wonderful, such an energetic kid. He's all over the place and very physical. I was so impressed by what he did, because it's like the complete opposite of how he was in real life. He was so calm and present when he was performing, and the moment they cut, he was climbing the walls (laughs)!
It was such a joy to get to know him, and we got to play basketball together and get to know each other on his terms. I want to add that Joachim is really a good director for kids.
I was very happy and impressed by how he was included in our work and made him a legitimate part of the cast and took really good care of him, which is not always the case for child actors.