Happy Nice Mall

Actors have a long history of indulging in side projects: some use their spare time to write books, while others even pave the way for rock bands. But it’s fair to say that few stage actors have gone on to a dual career like Anders Danielsen Lie, who currently starred as a lasting love affair in both “Bergman Island” and “The World’s Worst Person.” criticize imitate it “the next big ex-boyfriend of the art house” – while still working full time as a doctor in Oslo.

“This was overwhelming,” 43-year-old Lie told me in a recent video chat, and he wasn’t kidding: In early January, he was named best supporting actor. National Society of Film Critics despite working three days a week at a vaccination center in Oslo and two days a week as a general practitioner. “It feels kind of abstract because the most important part of making a movie as an actor is the shooting itself,” he said. “Then, when the movie comes out, it becomes a surreal experience.”

Expect things to get even more surreal, like the applauded ones.”worst person in the world” finally hits American theaters on February 4. Renate Reinsve, who won the best actress award for her role in this romantic drama from director Joachim Trier. Cannes Film Festival – As Julie, who in her 20s tries to figure out her future. For a while, she was with the character of Aksel, a charismatic comic book artist older than Lie herself, and adopted her settled life as her own. But even when they break up and Julie discovers new pursuits, she finds her bond with the smug Aksel unshakable.

Lie has previously collaborated with Trier on well-reviewed films. “Again” (2008) and “oslo, august 31” (2012), but “The Worst Person in the World” has proven to be something groundbreaking: the Internet is already video tributes and the movie struck a chord with audiences who preferred simple, human issues to superhuman ones. “We felt we were doing something very local from Oslo and we were afraid anyone in the world would understand,” Lie said. “But people on the other side of the planet can identify with it. That’s the beauty of feature films, it kind of brings people together.”

Here are edited excerpts from our talk.

In Aksel and Julie, she feels that the qualities that draw them together are finally separating them. How would you summarize their relationship?

She’s good at expressing her feelings and thoughts and this is something she probably wanted at an earlier stage in their relationship, but at this point, she’s just been bothered by it. He’s a very kind person, but he’s also trying to subtly dominate her by using language as a tool, because he’s good at it.

Is Aksel a “bad boyfriend”? latest Vanity Fair article He claimed?

I actually don’t see him as a bad boyfriend at all. He is not bad; he is not bad; they are just human. They get into situations where they have to make tough choices and feel like the worst people in the world, but it’s not their fault. In a way, it’s life’s fault.

In the movie, we watch Julie transitioning between different identities, trying new jobs and new passions. Did you act the same way at that age?

Personally, I thought my 20s and 30s were tough and difficult years because I spent a lot of time trying to figure out who I was and what to do. I still haven’t made that choice, but it doesn’t bother me much anymore. I am happy enough that I have two children and a wife. Maybe it’s that simple.

When you were younger, did you feel pressured to make the ultimate choice between acting and medicine?

This was my ongoing identity crisis.

Maybe this is the bifurcated life you feel most suited to.

It’s definitely a bifurcated life, and sometimes it feels like an identity crisis because there’s just too much hustle and bustle to work the calendar. It’s hard to put these two professions together, and sometimes I wonder a little bit who I am. I try to think that I am something deeper than that: I am not a doctor or an actor, I am someone else, and these are just roles I get into.

Your mother is an actress. Has this affected your view of an actor’s life?

My mom isn’t the typical actress – she’s not a diva or anything like that. He’s a very ordinary person and I think it’s important to keep up with reality if you want to portray people on screen with confidence and credibility. But I grew up seeing what it was like to be an actor and a doctor, and I ended up being both! I should probably go into psychoanalysis or something.

Your father was a doctor. That cut you right in the middle, didn’t it?

Exactly. Maybe it’s an inherited disease.

Does one career inform another?

Working as an actor improved my communication skills as a doctor because acting is all about listening to other actors and trying to communicate well with people you usually don’t know very well, and that reminds me a bit. works as a doctor. It’s usually my first time meeting people and they present me with a very specific problem and I need to get the right information to help them. In fact, it is a very sensitive, difficult communication job.

You made your movie debut at the age of 11 in a movie called “Herman”. How did that happen?

My mom had worked with the director, so she knew she was looking for a boy my age and asked if I wanted to audition. I didn’t really know what I was signing up for – I was 10 and it felt like a game we were playing. I remember when the director asked me to do the part, he came to our house with flowers and said “Congratulations” and I was scared because I said, “Now I really have to play that part and deliver it”. For the first time, I felt this anxiety of not doing a good job, the same feeling I can feel now in front of a shoot that really matters to me. I may be afraid of not being able to catch up with the event.

You didn’t work as an actor for 16 years after that movie.

“Herman” was an overwhelming experience. Felt like I was playing with explosives. I was dealing with emotions and manipulating my psyche in a somewhat frightening way.

Do you think that feeling overwhelmed as a child could affect your decision to live this bifurcated life? Acting can never completely overwhelm you anymore because you also have a completely different career.

You must be an analyst. I think you’re up to something here because I always thought that working full time as an actor wouldn’t be good for me, especially when the episodes are really dark and emotional. I often thought that as an actor I needed to find a psychologically sustainable way of working. I don’t know if I’m there yet, but I’m starting to see how I can protect myself.

It’s interesting that you refused this for so long until Joachim Trier asked you to audition for “Reprise.” If it wasn’t for that, do you think you would go back to acting?

When I was asked to audition for Joachim’s first film, I had no plans to act – I had a year left in med school and had other plans. But many times I asked myself why I keep doing this, because as a person I am very neurotic and if I perform on stage I get very, very nervous. It costs me a lot to do this, and I often ask, “If it’s so hard, why are you doing it?” I ask.

So why are you doing it?

I think the process of creating a fiction and the extreme experience of getting into that fictional character is something that fascinates me. You seem to be discovering and empowering potentials that you probably wouldn’t discover in real life.

Have you ever done the “come to LA, meet the Hollywood people” thing, or do you still keep all this at arm’s length?

I’ve been to Los Angeles many times, but I don’t have any pure illusions about what it’s like to be a movie actor. Being in this industry for the right reasons is important to me. I certainly have ambitions, but I hope these are more artistic ambitions, not career ambitions.

I think these are good ambitions to have. I’ve seen European actors with a big memory like yours, and they quickly get paid to play the villain in an American comic book movie.

Maybe it would be so much fun to play that character! But I try to have a long perspective. I want to work with this for a long time, and I don’t want to be someone who shows up a year later and never hears of that actor again. I want to make a career in time.

After what happened last year, are you more interested in acting or medicine?

In an ideal world, I’d like to keep doing both. In the last five years, I think I’ve managed to find a balance that makes sense and doesn’t tire me too much. But I do not know. I keep postponing the final election.

If there hasn’t been a final choice so far, maybe there never will be.

You may be right. We’ll see.