Interview: Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas on Empathetic Storytelling and the Power of Saying “I Love You” in ‘Sentimental Value’
Recently, when asked about his favorite films of the year, filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson chose Joachim Trier’s tender family drama, Sentimental Value. When describing the film he shared, “If you want to see the real best special effect of the year, it’s Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas’ performance.” In thinking about Lilleeas’ nuanced, affecting performance, it’s hard to disagree.
When Sentimental Value premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last May, Lilleaas emerged as a major discovery. Born to theatre performers in Gol, Norway, Lilleaas caught the acting bug early, surrounded by performances at her parents’ theatre company. After studying theatre in Norway and at the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York, Lilleaas made her film debut in Women in Oversized Men’s Shirts, where she received an Amanda Award nomination at the Norwegian International Film Festival for Best Actress. Since then, she’s performed in a number of short films and Norwegian television shows, but Sentimental Value feels like a major breakthrough and turning point for the actress.
In Sentimental Value, Lilleaas stars as Agnes, the younger sister and peacemaker within the complicated Borg family. After their mother’s death, sisters Nora (Renate Reinsve) and Agnes face a dilemma when their estranged filmmaker father, Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård), resurfaces with a desire to cast Nora in his next film. While Nora is stubborn and unwilling to entertain Gustav’s idea, Agnes delicately tries to maintain a relationship with her father and keep things as copacetic as possible within their already fractured family dynamic. At first glance, the film focuses on the dynamic between Gustav and Nora, but soon it evolves, showcasing Agnes’ struggle as a woman trying her best just to hold it all together. I was thrilled to speak with Lilleaas about creating this character with Joachim Trier, how being a mother affected Agnes’ relationship to her father, and collaborating with Reinsve on the film’s emotional climactic scene.
SC: I spoke with Renate [Reinsve], and she shared a bit about what it’s like to work with Joachim. What was it about his process that helped you develop your character?
IIL: I think what was so special about working with him is that he takes so much time to speak to you from the beginning, even in the auditioning process. We had a few conversations before we even did any scenes together, and that was really nice because you really get to know each other in a way, and it sort of takes the edge off of the idea of performance. So that was really nice. And I think he has this way of creating intimate spaces where you feel completely safe, like you’re able to be very emotionally vulnerable, which feels dangerous in a way. Our bodies don’t want that. Our brains don’t want that, so we shut down. So as an actor, you have to cut through all of the defense mechanisms in order to do your job. And sometimes that’s easier than other times. And this time it was really easy because of how he works.
SC: I’m sure that was really helpful for a film that’s working through so many difficult topics and relationships, too.
IIL: Oh yeah, definitely. It was. I’ve never felt so vulnerable and available on a movie set and at the same time, so safe. And it was very interesting. All of the actors were also very interested in that way of working and in being very present and listening to the other actors, and reacting to what is happening. So no one seems to have like a definite plan or idea of how the scene should go, which is oftentimes the case. You know, people have an idea of their character, and they’re fighting for their character, but I think you can sometimes lose some potential in that. You don’t know what the other person is going to do, so you have to have some space for that.
SC: When we see Agnes in one of the early scenes, she’s a child in one of her father’s movies. What do you think made her decide not to pursue acting and not go into the family business in the way that her sister Nora did?
IIL: Yeah, I think deep down, she didn’t really have a good experience on that film. Not in doing the film; I think that was great because her father was present, and it was fun and good. She was able to do a lot of emotional work because he was there and because he asked her to. She would have done anything for him. And then after, I think he disappeared and went off to cut edits and send the movie out, and he disappeared again. So, I think that was sort of a trauma in her life that she’s been suppressing. She’s been sorting through this idea where the story of this wonderful thing that they have together is the narrative. And she’s just been going with that until, at some point, she’s just had enough, you know?
SC: Of course.
IIL: And I think that’s part of why she’s not an actress. Maybe she never was. She could have been, maybe. She does a good job in the movie, but she’s not interested in that in that way. She’s interested in art, and she certainly sees the value of what her sister does and what her father does, but it’s not what she’s interested in, I think.
SC: And thinking about her past a bit. She has a very different relationship and has created a family for herself with her husband and Erik. Did you and Joachim talk about this difference between Agnes and Nora, and how she was able to get to this point that Nora hasn’t been able to find?
IIL: Yeah, we talked a lot about that. We talked about how she’s chosen to have a life, a good life, in the way that she wants to live, despite maybe how difficult that is when your foundation is cracked. And I think she could have maybe easily ended up in the same place that Nora is in a way, but at a certain point, she met her husband. We talked about them maybe reaching a point in the relationship where Agnes would pull away, but because of the person he is, he pulled her back in and confronted her with her evasiveness or stuff like that. And so they developed this relationship, and it’s a very healthy relationship and it’s good. They’re friends and they’re partners and it looks very boring to her sister and her father, but it’s really a very healthy, loving way to live your life. And she made that happen. She’s able to make that happen because she’s had her sister as a protector in childhood. So her foundation is more secure than Nora’s. So, that sacrifice that the older sister made for her younger sister is what makes Agnes able to live a more stable life and be there for Nora in adulthood.
SC: And Agnes has a very different relationship to their family home than Nora does. She mentions a few times that they thought about living there, but they can’t afford to buy out anymore. What do you think that home represents to her?
IIL: Yeah, I think she sees that house as sort of something that connects the family throughout time and throughout the generations. And she’s the type of person who sees value in that. And I think her memories of the house are linked a lot to her sister and to the good times that they had together. Because she’s younger and I don’t think her memory is the same from those years before her father left, when it wasn’t good. So she doesn’t associate the house with this prison, which I think Nora maybe does, or this place that’s not safe because she associates it with her sister being there for her. So, that’s very interesting, I think, how a home can be a safe space and a protector and a family member in a way for some kids, and for others, it’s the opposite. It’s very interesting.
SC: Thinking about that family history, I think one of the best moments in the film is when we see Agnes going to the archives to learn more about her family history for her father’s movie. What do you think she realizes about her family and her father in that moment?
IIL: Yeah, I mean, I think she sort of thinks, “Why doesn’t she know more about this?” I mean, she knows some stuff, but she really doesn’t know the details. And they never talked about it. She knows that she died by suicide. She knows that she was in the camps and in prison during the war. But she maybe hasn’t thought about it in detail and reflected on how it’s affected her father. So, I think she realizes a lot about her family history, about her grandmother and who she was, but also what her father is, which is, I think, a small child looking for his mother in adulthood, which is really moving and sad. And I think she realizes that in that moment. So yeah, I think it makes her see him differently. She has more empathy towards him and more understanding, but at the same time, she also understands that he is very immature and very manipulative. And yeah, she sees her own son and how they sort of mirror each other a little, and does not want that for her son. So, later on, when it comes to this sort of confrontation between them, it brings stuff up that she’s been suppressing that she’s finally able to acknowledge.
SC: It’s interesting that you say that, too, about him realizing that he’s still a boy looking for his mom, because your character has another layer: her son, Erik, is playing that boy. How do you think she felt about that connection?
IIL: Yeah, I think she doesn’t want him to do it because she’s been in that situation. She has been an actor on his set as a child. And it’s not until later, after reading the script, and probably having a lot of talks with her sister about it, after those scenes are done, and deciding that it’s the right thing to do. Because she’s there, she’s present for it. So, it’s not the same thing for him because he has a present parent. And she knows that eventually, and decides that making the movie is a way of bringing them together. I think that’s how she sees it like, okay, this is how we can glue ourselves together again through making this movie.
SC: There are so many beautiful moments between Agnes and Erik, I think. She’ll be crying and will suddenly snap out of it around him, or when we see her looking out the window at him. How do you think her own experience as a mother was affected by what she learned at the archives?
IIL: I think being a parent, she has more empathy towards her father because just knowing what a child is and knowing what it would take for her to leave her own child. And so I think that maybe she has a more nuanced and more generous view of her father and her grandmother than her sister does. I think seeing her father and her son makes her realize that her father is stuck in that state in a way. And when she’s in the window looking at him playing outside and later looking at her father playing with him and teaching him how to make movies, it emphasizes what it would feel like for a seven- or eight- or nine-year-old boy is and what it would be like for her son to lose his mother. I think she has a lot more understanding and empathy after being there.
SC: I think so, too. I’d also love to know more about how you and Renate came together for the scene at the end when Agnes brings her the script, and they have that emotional conversation. What did the two of you do to prepare for that scene? Was there anything outside of the script that the two of you felt comfortable bringing in to that moment?
IIL: We had rehearsals in advance before we started shooting, so we went through all of the scenes, and we went through that scene as well. I remember we weren’t sure about the lines; we maybe needed to tweak a little. So we tried out different things, but we didn’t do it full on. We didn’t plan anything. And so on the day, I mean, Nora is in a very different state of mind than Agnes. So Renate and I didn’t talk at all that day. And we’re not supposed to have had any communication since the birthday. So, it was kind of interesting to just go into the room and see her. Renate was very into her emotional state, and that was kind of disturbing to see and very sad. And so I think it was a very emotional day, and I reacted to it in a different way than I thought. It was a much deeper emotional reaction than I was prepared for, I think.
SC: I can imagine it was probably pretty heavy. There are so many things that your character does for Nora, but one of my favorite touches is how she starts tidying up her apartment. You can really feel that catharsis when they hug too.
IIL: Yeah, it does feel like a catharsis, and it was really nice because I wanted to go up and hug her. It wasn’t in the script, but I had this thought about it before. I certainly felt it in the moment, but I was kind of scared to do it because I didn’t know where Kasper Tuxen, our cinematographer, was. I didn’t want to ruin the very good take we just made, but then right on top of my thought, almost, Joachim said, “Go. Just go hug her.” And I did and we hugged, and it felt really good and really true. It felt like a gift to these characters in a way that they got to do that. So I felt like I wanted to say, “I love you,” and I did because I felt like he had given me the confidence that my instincts are right in the scene, you know? So, I said that in Norwegian, and we don’t say that very much. It’s not like the American “I love you,” which has a lot of different meanings. We have a different version, where the “I love you” that I say is reserved for your husband, basically. I think it’s changing a little because I’m certainly taking it and saying it to my kid and my husband, but it’s a very emotional and very intimate thing to say to someone. But I felt it was really truthful and it felt like what these characters deserved.
SC: They really do. Thank you so much, Inge! It was lovely speaking with you.
IIL: Thank you, Sophia. This was great.
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