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Transcript: Press Conference for Into the White atOslo Film Festival

published March 2012written by RG.us

Oslo Press Conference for Into the White (au…

Moderator: Lachlan Nieboer, Rupert Grint, Florian Lukas and David Kross and Stig Henrik Hoff.So, good morning, everybody. Did you have a nice party last night?

Everyone: Yeah!

Moderator: I will ask Petter: You have been waiting for this dayfor quite a while. If you have one word, or one message today,what would that be?

Petter Naess: Rock on. No, I’m just very happy to finally comeout with this movie, this Norwegian movie in Norway, which Imade for a Norwegian audience. And hopefully and luckily itwill be travelling the world as well, but I wanted to… That wasonly one word? That’s not my strong point. No, but I wantedthe movie to be a different war story in Norway, it plays inNorway, there’s a few Norwegians, but first of all it’s a newangle, a new way of portraying human beings behind theuniforms in World War 2. We have seen a few stories about ourheroes, the story has been told many times, and of course itwill be told again, but we will see something different. That’sabout it.

Moderator: And Peter Aalbeck, you chose to come to Norwayfrom Denmark for the first time. Why were you drawn to do

this story?

Peter Aalbek: Because I have the privilege of selling the Elling movie, which proved to me that PetterNaess has the capacity of making film for an international audience and then, here we have a type ofWorld War 2 movie where there actually was no heroes, but at least there was no villain either, so actuallyfor once we had a story where we could reflect on wartimes, on the relationship in-between human beingsthat sparked through the mirror of the remote cabin in the hillside of Norway. So I thought the story wasextremely exotic in a way and then placed in that – for the rest of the world – quite fantastic landscape.And everyone from the international scene that have watched the movie have said “Wow, does Norwaylook like that?” and I’ve said “Yes. It does, yes.”

Moderator: Cold and freezy!

Peter Aalbek: No, beautiful! And scary.

Moderator: Florian, you play Mr. Horst Schopis, and you methim once – at least once

Peter Aalbek: Once, yeah.

Moderator: Can you describe him? What was he like?

Florian Lukas: He was a real gentleman and he was very kindto me. And he offered me… he said to me: “You can ask meeverything, so please start to ask me questions whenever youwant” So he was very open to everything, so he told me a lotabout this time and yeah, he was a real gentleman and, youknow, like a real old-fashioned officer, in a way. And he had alot of friends here in Norway and it was great to know someonewho was not some old Nazi-officer or something like that, buta very kind person. So we had a great dinner last year, and hetold me a lot about the time and that helped me very much.

Moderator: And Lachlan, you play this Davenport.

Lachlan Nieboer: Davenport

Moderator: How would you describe Davenport as a character?

Lachlan Nieboer: Not dissimilar to Schopis, I suppose. In termsof that they’re both… He perceived that Davenport was a realgentleman. And when I met Horst, I was astonished at howaddressed he was, and how he was a genleman. So Davenport,I suppose, what we have to go on, on the real name he isbased on, and we saw a clip of him, just walking gently down aroad in Norway. And he’s very tall and saw himself as agentleman and that’s what we have to go on. And for me, itwas like he was slightly superior, or at least act like he wassuperior but did not really mention that, just sort of be it.

Peter Aalbek: And you mentioned that you copied a teacherfrom your university?

Lachlan Nieboer: That’s true.

Peter Aalbek: That’s fun to know, that you there was a teacher you used to know and then copying himnow in your professional life.

Lachlan Nieboer: It’s true, I won’t mention his name.

Peter Aalbek: Oh, he’s not Norwegian!

Lachlan Nieboer: No, it’s true, he was my teacher at university and he certainly bore himself like agenleman.

Peter Aalbek: And for those of you who don’t know, Mr. Horst Schopis came to Norway for the first pressconference in March last year and sad to say he passed away in August. Otherwise he would be here today.

Petter Naess: He would have been in his 100th year.

Moderator: Yes. And then I have to ask you, Rupert: What made you to want to do this gunner Smith?

Rupert Grint: I thought it’d be a great challenge and I thought that filming in Norway would be veryexciting, and it would be a complete change of scenery to filming Harry Potter. After ten years of doingthe same thing it was kind of, just refreshing on the mountain for three weeks. I play Smith who’s thisgreat character who’s real force and angry and edgy and, yeah, really really fun playing him, and a greatexperience.

Moderator: And you look like you had a nice time on the mountain and the cabin. And David, what aboutyou? What made you come and do this movie?

David Kross: I thought it was really interesting to get the arm chopped off. No, of course I watchedPetter’s film Elling and some of his other work as well, and I really enjoyed the films and I thought it was agreat story as well, and also to work in Norway, which is a really beautiful place. And also it’s a great cast,which was a really good bunch of people, and I was, yeah, that was the main thing, I think.

Moderator: And Stig Henrik, you spent quite a few weekstogether at Grotli last winter. Could you tell a story from theshooting? The most memorable moment?

Stig Henrik Hoff: The weather. The weather conditionschanging all the time. There were so many things that wereworking against us all the time. It was so difficult to shoot inthe mountains. But of course those guys know that, so whenthe chances. And we had bazookas with kind of smoke withfour or five guys and somebody changing to the other side, andthe wind machines and everything, so… But I have to say themain thing was that shooting in Norway for me which is mycountry, and being together with Petter who is one of the bestdirectors that we have, and also to have this cast is… when wedid the film, we all worked so close together, and we werealways talking to each other even when we were off thecamera. We were always going on. It was a great bunch ofpeople, and I liked that. And also the script was fantastic.

Moderator: And then we can ask Ole Meldgaard, why did you start writing the story?

Ole Meldgaard: To show that I do now approve of war, and we wanted to show that war is absurd. And weknew that they had this way to go, then, and in the end had to make friends, and we wanted to show thatthey changed, or that they learnt something. And we wanted to show that war is absurd so it’s an anti-warmovie. And we wanted to make it, maybe, a little bit like a theatre play, and when Strunk was shot, withthat shot ringin in the mountains, so we have one shot, just one shot in this movie, so this is not a normalwar movie. It’s not Platoon 2, we’re making, it’s a very low-key war-movie. We kill rabbits.

Petter Naess: We kill rabbits.

Moderator: Anyone has a question?

Press: Petter, you mentioned that this is the filmyou always wanted to make. Would you still allagree with that, and what were your favouritescenes?

Petter Naess: Me?

Press: Yeah.

Petter Naess: My favourite scenes… I think theycome in a very good order. They… I like thescenes, I like all of the scenes, I don’t have any

favourite scenes, but it was very important for me to add a unity to the stuff, to have the drama and theseriousness, but also the humour, the absurdity of this encounter. They try to maintain their authority,they are the vain people there in their uniforms. I like to portray men in situations like that which is quitesilly, so I like all the humour about it. First of all, I like the movie!

Peter Aalbek: One scene, and we have to thank the writer for doing this, is the scene where you see thetwo officers, each in their uniform, and then they undress. Besides the uniform, they had the same type ofunderwear and actually prove that, “here we are, two human beings, you know, in the same type ofunderwear, and now we have to take off our uniforms and we’re here”. And it’s a scene which, you know,probably looks very simple in the script, but that actually proves that mastermind behind the script here,that allows yourself to tell you such a story in such a little scene.

Press: This if for Rupert, and how did you prepare for the rolethis film, like with the accent?

Rupert Grint: Yeah, it was, it was quite a weird accent. And itwas an accent I wasn’t quite familiar with. I always listened toa lot of Beatles and a soap opera that was called “BrooksHide”. But yeah, it was fun to do, I mean, the accent kind ofsuited that kind of crisis and that kind of character. And a lotof the times noone understood what I was saying, so yeah, itwas good fun.

Press: Again a question for all actors: Can you relate to theperson you were playing in any way. Short answers.

Lachlan Nieboer: To some degree, I mean, I’ve never been asoldier, and… yes, I’ll leave it at that. Yes and no. A shortanswer.

Rupert Grint: No, not really. I’m quite a laid-back, kind ofcalm person after all. And that’s not quite Smithy…

Moderator: Well, he had a woman waiting for him… What about you, Florian?

Florian Lukas: Yeah, definitely. Cause that’s so nice about acting, you know, in that moment I’m just theperson I’m playing, so I don’t have to think about all the bad things in that time, and all the horror andthe horrible things that have happened in this time, and just to think what the fuck the the Germans inNorway? And so, it’s still strange to be here and to play in such a story. But in the moment when I act, Ican identify very strongly and I’m very connected to this character, and yes, I am of course Horst Schopisin his time, in this moment, and that’s great, yeah.

Stig Henrik Hoff: I think that’s right fantastic thing, I meanthat’s our job to be a character, and if you don’t love thecharacter, you’re looking down on him and that never makes agood character. I mean I have to love it, or I’m not doing myjob.

David Kross: Well, I think it’s difficult to imaging how it reallywas in war, I mean, to think “What would I do?”. But I think Iunderstood my character, what it was like to grow up with thatideology of Nazi Germany and this is what he thought, so hegot taught all about it, and this is like a brain-wash. And hereally sticks to it, he sticks to it through all this horror whichthey experience in Norway, especially with him and his arm. SoI think I can good relate to it.

Stig Henrik Hoff: And it’s all difficult for us, I mean, we nowknow everything about the war, we know what everybody waslike, and we got the knowledge and we know who were chosento do this or this or that. And when you’re stuck in a situation

like we were, you know, you don’t know how we would be, like, we would be amateurs as they told us atthe beginning. I mean, when you’re playing, you kind of know what you’re doing, but when you’re in thecabin, we’re all amateurs, what you behave like. But that’s the point, that it’s so easy to be clever in2012, to tell how people reacted in 1940, so I think that’s a point as well. I mean, the feelings, they’resimple: Are you hungry? Simple. Are you not hungry? Simple. Are you talking too much? Simple.

Petter Naess: That was the hardest thing for Stig. To be thebig silent guy.

Moderator: So now, for the cast, we have one more questionbefore we wrap this up, okay.

Press: I have a question for Rupert: How do you plan yourongoing career after this?

Rupert Grint: I think I still take it as it comes. It’s still kind ofa strange experience since the last Harry Potter film. I’m justpicking things that appeal to me and, yeah, just enjoying it.And what appeals to me about it is the great story and…

Press: Do you have like a strategy to pick roles that will makepeople think “He’s not Ron Weasley”?

Rupert Grint: Erm, yeah, I don’t really have it planned, it’sjust… I mean, yeah, I’m maybe lookig for characters that arenot wizards.

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