In the winter of 2018, Vicky Krieps as a “thing.” The Luxembourg-born actress had worked steadily in the background for years, but her leading role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Phantom Thread” put her in the middle of a Hollywood spotlight she’d never dreamt of. Following, the 2018 Oscars, however, Krieps sort of disappeared. The adjustment to life post-“Phantom” was something of a shock, but it was a dinner with Anderson that helped get her back on her feet. Now, partially due to pandemic delays, Krieps is back in a big way. This past summer she appeared in M. Night Shyamalan’s hit thriller “Old” and headed to Cannes for the long-awaited debut of Mia Hansen-Løve’s “Bergman Island.” The latter has earned strong notices, but almost completely fell apart before filming was scheduled to begin over three years ago.
“Bergman Island” follows filmmakers Chris (Krieps) and her husband Tony (Tim Roth), as they head to the Swedish island of Fårö, the home of Ingmar Bergman and the setting for many of his films. An acclaimed director in his own right, Tony is being celebrated at a local event while Chris hopes the extended trip can provide her some much-needed creative inspiration. Luckily, the independently financed production found a way to stay afloat when the actor originally cast to play Tony, John Turturro, dropped out at the last minute. Considering her reluctance to work again after “Phantom Thread,” it was a somewhat distressing turn of events for Krieps.
“Yes, it was very scary and how I like to say, for me, acting is like a leap into the unknown,” Krieps says. “So, it was scary but I tried to take it as an opportunity also, to find the story. So when they said, ‘Vicky, are you O.K. with still shooting it because we now have everything in place, the crew is already on location, everything is rented the other actors are ready to go. It’s just really you who has to say, yes.’ I just said, ‘Yes.’ Because I always liked the adventure and I like to see what happens when you take yourself into something you don’t know. But yes, it was scary.”
What followed were two separate trips over almost the course of a year to finish filming “Bergman.” In the interim, Krieps shot Barry Levinson’s WWII boxing drama “The Survivor” alongside Ben Foster. That TIFF world premiere, another pandemic delayed debut, was recently acquired by HBO and will hit the service sometime next year.
During an interview last week, Krieps gave some frank remarks about the confidence Love’s casting gave her, how Bergman’s films helped her shoot her initial scenes without knowing who was playing her husband, and more.
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The Playlist: So I read that Mia reached out to you out of the blue in an E-mail with the script attached. Did you have a heads up or were you genuinely surprised?
Vicky Krieps: I didn’t have a heads-up but I remember reading her name and the email and that was what struck me. I remember it was an email from my agent saying, “The Director, Mia Hansen-Løve is sending you her script.” And I remember, I really sank down on my seat because Mia Hansen-Løve was a name that did something to me. Because I think, somewhere in little Luxembourg and me not knowing that I was going to be a movie actor one day, I came out of one of her movies. Her second one, I think,“Father of My Children.” And so to say that I was really just an audience member and I came out of it and I was so impressed, not only by the movie, but I remember it was the first time in my life I could make out the direction. And I remember saying it to my friend who was next to me, “I feel I can see the Director behind or the direction in the sense that one person has taken all of these decisions as a director.” And this was so impressive to me. So, when I got the email, I was like, “Oh my God, it’s this woman. I have to read it.” I knew I was going to do the movie the moment I read her name.
When you read the script, what struck you about it?
I think I was going to do it anyway just because it’s her. But when I read the script, it was more like, I knew why she sent it to me. I could tell that there was a connection between me and Mia’s universe in a way that we share a certain sense of sensitivity, maybe, to life. That it was not explained but you could feel that this person is lost and trying to find her way and this is how I felt often in life. And I could just really relate to that.
I know that originally another actor was supposed to play Tim’s part and dropped out almost at the last minute. Then the production went ahead without knowing who was going to play the husband for a while.
Yes.
Was that scary?
Yes, it was very scary and how I like to say, for me, acting is like a leap into the unknown. So, it was scary but I tried to take it as an opportunity also, to find the story. So when they said, “Vicky, are you O.K. with still shooting it because we now have everything in place, the crew is already on location, everything is rented the other actors are ready to go. It’s just really you who has to say, yes.” I just said, “Yes.” Because I always liked the adventure and I like to see what happens when you take yourself into something you don’t know. But yes, it was scary.
Stepping back even further, did Mia ask you to watch any of Ingmar Bergman’s films? Did that matter at all to her?
No, she didn’t. She said, “If you want to, you can watch them. If you don’t, don’t. To me, it’s really not important to make the movie.” Then she said a few that she would recommend but those were the ones I knew anyway. [I then decided to] get them all and was sitting there and it was weird anyway and it was like this adventure and this big risk I was taking of acting without my partner. I thought, “Well, I just might also not watch the movies” to go the whole way. So, not knowing more than what I knew of Bergman, which were maybe three films, one in particular, which is “Persona,” which is interesting because this is the one I watched when I was on the island in Bergman’s cinema. And I tried to really go there as empty and open as possible, what I always like to do in my work, like in “Phantom Thread,” it’s really what I did too and see what happens and take the risk because I think it’s really when you embrace your vulnerability, you can find a new strength, you could not have found before.
Did Mia ever tell you, “Yes, your character is me going through this sort of experience”? I think people watch the film and assume that that’s the case.
No, no, no. She said that all of her movies are always heavily drawn out of her life but that people know that and that’s not a secret. And then I decided to not ask many more questions, just like you, wondering and telling myself, “Well, I guess, probably she came home with her husband.” Now I know she never [went to the island] with her husband. I knew what you know. I didn’t know more and I didn’t want to because, to me, it was the quest of a person trying to find the answer to her life, in a way. And I saw that it was best if I was [also] full of questions and not with all these answers.
I didn’t realize you shot this in 2018.
Yeah.
There are filmmakers, actors, etc. who’ve waited a long time for their movies to come out because of the pandemic but you really waited a long time for this one. When did you finally get to see it?
So it was during the pandemic, I remember I got the screener and I watched it maybe on [a computer screen] before [the edit was locked]. They wanted me to see it, at least, but I gave up because I didn’t see a thing, it was too small. So, then I didn’t see it and then I really saw it for the first time, maybe a month before Cannes and on my own in a cinema because the cinema was still closed. I was in shock by how… I never think that one of my movies will be bad, but it’s always a surprise and this one was such a positive surprise. I couldn’t believe it myself, really.
What surprised you about it the most?
What surprised me about it the most is again, what surprised me about the first movie I saw of hers. That it was so clever, the way she puts the things together and that they really work. Especially, I think it was also because making of the movie was so difficult and in many ways painful because 2018, you couldn’t imagine, it was kind of like my first movie after “Phantom Thread.” And I was in a place where I was very lost and there was a lot of loneliness because I had done this crazy Hollywood movie with Paul and the minute I came off it, I was missing it. It was like a great love story I had left behind and I had to re-find myself after this. This was not easy. And then I went to this island and again, I was there without a husband and it was again complicated and I had my children. To make this work was not easy to take them there. It was all a big mess also. Then having to do it over two years and not knowing if we find an actor, then finding an actor then when this actor [Tim Roth] came along, it was difficult too, because he was again, his own thing. He was like from a different planet. So because making the movie was so difficult in so many ways, I think me and Mia both, when we watched the film, we cried because we cannot believe we made it.
I was able to see “The Survivor” at TIFF and I was so impressed with that film and the performances, in particular. I’m guessing you shot that one after “Bergman Island”?
Yes, yes.
Did going through what you did on “Bergman,” in terms of how rough it was after “Phantom Thread”, did it make it easier to make that one?
Definitely. It was really like a catharsis. Going to this island and especially being there on my own, I had to find myself on my own. I had to find my voice back. “Who am I as an actor now, after having done ‘Phantom Thread’?What is my voice?” And going on this island alone, meditating around the question of this woman who tries to find her story, it was almost Vicky also trying to find her story or trying to find who she is. I really think that “The Survivor” and “Bergman Island” gave a piece back to me that I had lost somewhere in a way. I think “Survivor,” again, represents the first movie I could embrace me being an actress and not having to hide or not having this imposter syndrome many actors have. Like, who am I to play this person in this movie? Am I good enough and everything? So I think it really helped me to do “Bergman Island.”
I think you’ve also either shot or you’re filming the “Three Musketeers” films? Has that been a fun experience?
Yes. Of course! And because as I told you, I like to leap into the unknown. So “The Musketeers” is again, something very different, I’ve never done before. It’s definitely a lot of fun. You can imagine the French actors, if you know which ones are cast, like Vincent Cassel, François Civil, and Roman Duris? Imagine them being the Musketeers, it is a lot of fun.
“Bergman Island” opens in theaters October 15.