Elisabeth Moss, Claes Bang, ‘The Square’ And The Truth About Losing Awards [Interview]

Claes Bang: But I think they were doing something else.

The Playlist: No, this may be wrong, but I heard that Nicole was really upset because they literally did not give her enough time to even, like, call the plane. She couldn’t. She would never have made it.

Claes Bang: Oh, I see. What I heard is when the know that you stay on they will let you know at the last second.

Elisabeth Moss: Right, but if they think you’re leaving, they’ll tell you.

Claes Bang: If they know that you have gone back to Mongolia or wherever you came from, they will let you know in time to get back;

The Playlist: It’s such an unconventional movie. Were you nervous about how it would play with audiences? I mean, I don’t know. I don’t want to put words in your guys’ mouth, but what was your expectations for it?

Elisabeth Moss: I mean, honestly, I really like the movie. I think it’s really good and it’s the kind of movie I would like to see. I’m sure somebody won’t like it, but I don’t know it’s gonna be if you like Ruben Ostlund’s work and if that’s the kind of thing. I think we want people to see it, we want people to think and we want people to question themselves and talk about the movie. It’s not about necessarily liking or not liking, if that makes sense.

Claes Bang: I’ve seen it twice in Sweden, I saw it in Cannes, in Iceland and in London, as well. I didn’t see it yesterday because…

Elisabeth Moss: You’ve seen it five times?

Claes Bang: It’s so fucking embarrassing if I sit there and watch myself all the time, but I was actually quite interested in the reaction yesterday, because I thought it’s going to be interesting to see, because it think there’s something quite specific European about this film. So I was interested … I was really interested in the reaction yesterday in terms of does it land with an American audience?

Elisabeth Moss: Yeah and the reception was really amazing. Which makes sense to me, though, because we love like, Armando Iannucci, we love “Veep,” we love “The Office.” We love awkward, uncomfortable stuff.

The Playlist: But also, your character is the character that shows up and not for Europeans, but for North Americans you’re sort of reacting to everything how that audience would react in a way. It’s sort of a genius move to have you in the movie because I mean, did he talk to you about what just your presence would bring?

Elisabeth Moss: No, no. It was just very much about me and Christian and my position with him and the dynamic between the two of us and on a scene-by-scene basis what are we doing in this scene, and what are we trying to get at, and what are we trying to get to? Let’s figure it out together. It wasn’t really like, “You are this for the movie.”

Claes Bang: It’s all the time a man and a woman, and we’ve got this thing. If she’s American and I’m like whatever. He never ever talks about that. There’s something that when you’re not from Scandinavia, when you’re not Danish and Swedish there’s a big issue. There’s a big thing that you will understand if you’re from Denmark and Sweden that you don’t get here, because it plays on that sort of love/hate relationship. There are so many little things here and there because I’m a Dane and I speak in Danish. My assistant is Danish, as well. All the other people are Swedish, but you don’t get that here. People don’t really realize and you’ve got this brother/sister sort of love/hate relationship between Denmark and Sweden. But these things are not important to him. To answer the question, the thing that [Elisabeth’s character is American] it’s not about that . To him it’s about there’s this woman, there’s this man and what happens is they do this with each other and that’s what he wants to investigate. I actually think when you say, “That’s a genius move,” that is something that you experience from your point of view being an American and being from North America, and I think that is so cool that you can actually think that, because this is not something that any European would say.

Elisabeth Moss: Yeah.

Claes Bang: Do you know what I mean? That you think that, “Okay, she looks at it like an American audience would look at all this shit.”

The Playlist: Well, I would think from a storytelling perspective by making a movie in Europe, by bringing a character like Elisabeth’s character, it shows that people can react to something completely different, like, from a different perspective.

Claes Bang: Exactly, but it’s quite interesting that the film actually works even if this is something that you would think here, and that Scandinavian thing is something that you only get if you’re from Scandinavia, and I mean it’s quite interesting, really.

The Playlist: So, the publicist is gonna kick me out but I have to ask this really quick question, because I think you said in previous interviews. Does Ruben do like, 50 or 70 takes or something?

Claes Bang: He does really long ones, seven, eight minutes.

The Playlist: So expand on that. There’s the scene with you guys in the museum. Let’s just take that scene. How many times did you do the scene?

Elisabeth Moss: It was different every day so I don’t know how long. Seventy?

Claes Bang: Yeah, I mean. Probably more than 70. A lot of takes. At least 30 takes this way, at least 30 takes this way, and then moving it a little bit around and everything probably 80.

Elisabeth Moss: Yeah. Yeah.

The Playlist: Have either of you ever done anything where you’ve done so many takes?

Elisabeth Moss: No. Never.

Claes Bang: No.

Elisabeth Moss: Never, and it’s like you said, it’s also really long takes.

Claes Bang: It’s like the full scene every time.

Elisabeth Moss: It’s the whole scene every time so you’re not just like, breaking it up. Also, the other thing is the changes. It’s very different every time. It’s never the same way twice, so it’s a really intense, challenging experience, honestly.

Claes Bang: You’re really on your toes. On your toes.

Elisabeth Moss: You’re really on your toes. It’s not a set where you’re taking a break and looking at your phone. It’s like, you are there. From the moment you walk on set to the moment you wrap, you are working.

“The Square” is now playing in New York and Los Angeles.