Hope you'll enjoy the first one
Interview from the magazine Nollarton (in 1998):
Two female rolemodels
Rebecca:
"It's not wise to become too dependant on the attention you get, cause it won't be there for ever. If you think that this is half of your life, then that half disappears when you are not famous anymore. I believe this is a problem for many celebrities."
Rebecca on...
Alexandra
-We are not best friends but there is nothing strange about that, after all the age gap is fairly big. She is very similar to me when I was 14, but I think she is a little more wild. The best thing about Alexandra is that she is good at what she does, the worst part is that she has silly behaviour sometimes. But this can also be a good thing...
Music
-I like different types of music, today I've listened to the Beatles all day long, but we have a rather big record collection at home, so it depends on what mood I'm in.
The Graaf Sisters ( Note: these were two blonde Swedish sisters with breast implants, who did some nude modeling and had a brief pop-music career in Sweden in the late 90s)
-In a way there is perhaps something good about the Graaf sisters. Of course it's bad to have bad role models. But nowadays it's easier for anybody to get fame and in the long run maybe this will make the hype about being a celebrity less big.
Rebecca arrives for the interview relaxed and with no make-up on. In spite of the huge success with FÅ and the exposure of herself, she seems very unaffected and not at all mannered. She is not particularly impressed by the "celebrity world", she says that she and her boyfriend get lots of invitations to premieres and parties, but that they hardly ever attend anything.
-If there is a good reason then we go. For example in a few days Colin Nutley's new film premieres, then we will go.
Do you think that your friends act differently to you now after the success of the film?
-No I have a few friends that I really trust. On the other hand there are some I don't hang out with that much any longer, who get in touch with me and want to meet me more often.
Dealing with media can be a hard thing she tells us, she feels a pressure to do more interviews etc than she really wants to.
-I don't want to do too many things, and of course I make my own decisions, but the movie company wants me to do most of the publicity stuff. I don't believe all publicity is good publicity. It's hard to know when the audience will get tired of you.
Just like Alexandra she says that the actual film-making was not hard to do. The hardest part was that it was made so far from home, in the town of Trollhättan.
-It was fun to get to know so many new people, the whole film-team became good friends.
-When I watch it I remember lots of things that happened when we made the film, things that the audience don't get to see.
Rebecca talks about intrigues and smiles when she thinks back.
-We will probably meet and have a party when the film reaches half a million visitors. I think this will be soon because the other day it had already reached 450.000 visitors.
She protests when I ask if there will be a Fucking Åmål 2.
-No I don't think Moodysson have this in mind.
Rebecca quit high-school when shooting was about to start, but she intends to resume her studies after the summer. In the future she wants to become a children's doctor. She says herself that she is bright and is an easy learner.
-This is a huge advantage for me, otherwise I probably would have become tired of school long ago.
-The worst thing about me is that I'm not so good at answering letters, make phone calls and keep in touch with people, to show people that I like them, even though I do like them. That's why I have so few friends, I don't have time for more.
A large part of her free time is spent making a homepage together with her boyfriend whom she also lives with.
It takes time and it's not at all ready yet, she says, but she looks pleased anyway.
-When I have some more time I hang out with my siblings or my friends.
Is there anybody you admire?
My mother, Rebecca says and smiles. -If you mean an actress then it's probably Maria Lagerkrantz. She has a sensible attitude to her profession, for example that you're not more important than others just because you're a famous actor.
Do you have a dream part?
-It would be to play someone very special, totally mad for example. I don't go around dreaming about the part of Ophelia or something like that, she laughs.
-I could do a television-movie if I found it really good.
What advice would you give to others who suddenly become as famous as you have?
-It's not wise to become too dependant on the attention you get, cause it won't be there for ever. If you think that this is half of your life, then that half disappears when you are not famous anymore. I believe this is a problem for many celebrities.
__________________________________________
Alexandra:
"Sometimes I wonder if people who see me in real life wonder "Oh how ugly she is!" since I don't normally wear make-up and mini skirts like in the film."
Alexandra on...
Rebecca
A little more reserved than me. She is very professional. If I'd worked with an eleven year old, we probably wouldn't have hung out together privately either.
Music
There are so many records I would like to have... Sometimes you want stuff that seem cool. E-Type is maybe underestimated, but I usually listen to stuff with more depth, with more of a sad feeling.
-But I like E-Type anyway, she adds.
PJ Harvey, Miles Davies, Marlyn Manson are some of the artists Alexandra listens to.
Vecko Revyn (Note: a magazine in Sweden aimed at girls and young women)
I have turned down an interview for Vecko Revyn four times now, I don't like that magazine, it's a result of a sick society.
-It's funny that when Rebecca and I are photographed, they always want us to look like we're best friends or in love, but we are none of that, Alexandra says in a matter of fact tone.
They don't hang out privately. Like Alexandra says there is a big difference between being 14 and 17 years old.
We are having lunch together with her not far from her school at Odenplan. She is in 9th grade and is a little stressed by all her work in school.
I ask how she got the part of Elin in Fucking Åmål and she tells me there was an audition at her school when she was in 7th grade, they were looking for suitable actors for the film.
-They tested everybody who were interested. I went there with some friends and I said "Hi I'm Alexandra and I play basket in my free time"or something like that. A while later they called me and told me I'd got the part.
Is it fun being an actress?
-I don't even call myself an actress. It's not a great acting performance I did. I mean I didn't exactly push myself to feel any deeper feelings, and I didn't study other people's way of expressing themselves. It just sort of happened. I did what they told me to do, she says while munching on her sandwich.
But the result turned out really good...
-Elin is like me in so many respects. Plus the film has the world's best script and the world's best directing. No wonder it all turned out so good.
However Alexandra doesn't seem very interested in continuing an acting career.
But if you're offered a really good script again?
-Yes maybe, if I have the time.
She is mostly focused on school at the moment, and is about to choose what type of high-school she should attend.
-I don't know which one yet. I want it to be a broad education so that I will learn a lot.
I wonder what she would think of eventually coming to Uppsala and study at the university there, but she doesn't want to make any plans so far ahead.
-But I know that I would be ambitious enough to handle it.
Alexandra thinks the hardest scene to shoot was at the bridge when it was cold and they didn't have much clothes on.
-They had to use a blowdryer on the bannister before I could lean on it.
-We had so much fun in Trollhättan, she tells me.
What was the funniest thing that happened?
-The most funny thing I'm not gonna tell you, she says and looks happy.
-Don't write that I said so because then everybody will wonder.
Are you as wild as Elin?
-Sometimes...but she is much more naive than I am. Maybe I think a little more, at least I hope so.
Some school mates throw a snowball at her and shouts when we photograph her. She thinks it's embarrassing when they all watch, and she laughs a little. I ask if her friends from school treat her a lot differently now after the success of the film.
-Still this is Vasastan, many here have been neighbours with other celebrities, and should be used to this. Possibly people from the suburbs shout more after me.
-Did I sound racist now?, she laughs.
A guy in school ask her all the time if they couldn't lock themselves in the toilet and then come out and tell everybody they love each other.
-No we can't I tell him.
She tells me that she gets a lot of fan mail. One guy had seen Fucking Åmål and was really in love with her.
-He wrote that he was almost about to commit suicide. Stop it! Or... take it easy I mean! she says and shakes her head.
-Maybe I have become a little more self-confident now after the film.
-I mean you get so much attention.
-Sometimes I wonder if people who see me in real life wonder "Oh how ugly she is!" since I don't normally wear make-up and mini skirts like in the film.
What do you like to do when you're not in school?
Recently I got a lot of books that I'm gonna read. Besides that I got about 4000 records from my sister that I'm gonna listen to.
-I go out sometimes too, but only on weekends that is.
Alexandra tells me she got an invitation from Café Opera one night but she didn't go.
-I went with a friend to Wallmans Salonger instead, she says and laughs at silly old men and their perfumed wives who followed them to see what they were going to do.
What's good and what's bad about you?
-What's bad is that I'm hysterical. I bite my nails off before a test in school. I'm a bad listener, I'd rather talk about myself instead. I'm kind, but I can be pretty mean sometimes when I'm too tired to be kind. I'm smart...although not all the time. One good thing is that I don't just accept things, I have to question everything.
Is there someone you admire?
-Erica Carlson, the girl who plays my sister in Fucking Åmål.
Is she as kind as she was in the film?
She is even kinder in reality! You get surprised by this.
When I ask Alexandra what she thinks about the Graaf Sisters, she gets irritated since everybody asks her what she thinks of them.
-I don't give a damn about them, they're not interesting! They are not female role-models. At least I don't hope so. You have to take one step back and try to see the reasons why things are the way they are, and always wonder about what you're doing and why.
-Although yesterday when I used face wash I thought to myself "Alright, I'm manipulated" . But it doesn't help to drop bombs on sex shops. I mean if you look at this problem as if it were a human being, it would be just like cutting your nails to bomb a sex shop. You have to go deeper than that.
