Cinema

Fragments: An Interview With Alicia Agneson text Natalia Muntean photography Peter Gehrkefashion Jahwanna Berglund “People keep saying I was brave, but I think I was just precocious,” says Alicia Agneson. Her story is one of determination and courage. Growing up on a farm in Eskilstuna, Agneson was always passionate about the stage – and as a child, she remembers seeing her dance teachers more than her parents at one point. They were the ones who inspired her to seek a more international career. At just fifteen years old, she moved to London to pursue her acting dreams and chase after bigger stages. It was not an easy path for her, but she never gave up. Her breakthrough role came several years later when she played Freydis, a queen in the hit TV show Vikings. Since then, she has starred in various TV and film projects, such as Little Kingdom, Clark, and The Courier, venturing into different genres and subjects. Beyond her acting career, Agneson is deeply committed to making a difference. She actively works with Hope for Justice, an organisation that fights human trafficking and assists victims of modern slavery. She also wears another hat as Breitling’s Scandinavian Ambassador, bringing her passion for storytelling and dedication to the brand. Whether on screen or off, Agneson continues to inspire. “I believe that I always keep something from all the characters I play, locked away somewhere,” she reflects on the characters she has portrayed and the projects she has been involved in. While her recent focus has been more on acting in front of the camera, Agneson thinks that she will go back to her first love – the stage. As she playfully says, “they’ll have to drag me off it!” Natalia Muntean: What inspired you to pursue a career in the entertainment industry?Alicia Agneson: I think it wasn’t that much of a choice. I was just drawn towards that like there was nothing else. And I started doing ballet when I was three, and then I think my parents kind of tried to stop me from going into it so much. By the age of nine, I was probably taking as many dance, singing and stage lessons as I could. Then I started doing musical theatre, moved to London, got into TV and film and onwards. NM: You moved to London when you were 15. How do you think this experience changed your path?AA: At that point, I’d done a lot of shows already across Sweden, so I was already working, which was probably quite unusual for a lot of people my age. I think I would be in a completely different place if I wouldn’t have done that. In this industry, it’s very much learning by doing, at least that’s how I developed. And it can take a while, you have to work. So for me, it’s the greatest gift I’ve ever been given, first of all, to get the allowance to move away so young, and start working so early. But there were, of course, challenges. I think, in my head, I was very driven and I didn’t understand that I was that young. Moving to London was a big change for me, as I had to adjust to a different way of life. My parents drove me all the way to London, and I’ll never forget taking the tube to Piccadilly Circus, coming up and seeing the lights, dress Zamina Scillasdotter the West End and Shaftesbury Avenue. I remember standing there and feeling more than ever that I was in the right place! NM: Was there a specific moment when you realised “Oh, I want to be an actress?”AA: I always wanted to be in musical theatre, I had always loved it and that is what I worked towards. When I came to London, I got the opportunity to perform in a show called Cinderella where I played the lead role. I became very close to a fellow cast member who suggested that I should try my hand at TV and film. I thought it sounded like fun and decided to give it a go. I started doing more TV and film work, including commercials, with my agent at the time. However, I quickly realised that acting on the screen was very different from what I was used to. It was a more introverted style of acting, with a greater focus on emotions and drama. I found this fascinating and decided to pursue TV and film further. When I approached my musical theatre agent about my interest in TV and film, they said I had no experience or education in that area and they could not help me. It wasn’t that long ago, but back then we used to post our CVs, so I sent letters to every agent in London and one out of a hundred, probably, picked me up. I was still very young at that point, probably 18 when he started sending me to castings. After a couple of months, I signed Vikings. NM: What was it like being part of such a popular show?AA: We had an amazing time on the set of Vikings. It was an incredible journey for me, as I started with a very small role and had no prior experience in TV and film. I wasn’t supposed to come back, but the writer felt that I had amazing chemistry with my screen partner and wanted to bring me back as a queen. It was a surprise, but I was excited to learn and grow. On my first day on set, I had to learn basic industry terms by doing. It was a challenging but fun experience from the first day until the last. I was very shocked when they called me and told me that they wanted to make me queen. I think many people often overlook the fact that I was still very young at the time, even if I had been working incredibly hard for many years in London, trying to get that one chance. I remember calling

An Interview With Swedish Actress and Singer Hanna Björn text Emelie Bodén photography, post production & fashion Olivia Artesweater Henrietta Frihammar Hanna Björn is a Swedish actress and singer, born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden. She plays the female lead role in the current NETFLIX series “CLARK – Based on Truth and Lies” directed by Jonas Åkerlund, with Bill Skarsgård as Clark Olofsson. Have you always envisioned a career in acting, or were there particular experiences or moments that solidified your passion for this art form?Since I was 3, I’ve had a great passion for acting and singing, and I’ve always known that it is what I want to dedicate my life to. Growing up, I didn’t have a lot of friends, so a strategy I often tried was that I wrote and directed plays, hoping the children in my class would like me. It didn’t really work, hehe, but at least I had fun? Acting and writing was also a way of keeping yourself company. When I was 10 I got accepted to Adolf Fredriks Musikklasser, where I finally met some friends who shared the same interests. A year later, I got the dream job to sing in the children’s choir at the Royal Opera in Stockholm. This reeeeallly mesmerized me, with the enchanting world of an opera house. The scent of stagemakeup and powder, standing on a stage, costumes, the lights.. It was everything I ever dreamed of and that experience really solidified my passion. Since your debut movie Min så kallade pappa, how do you feel your acting technique and approach to your acting have evolved?Haha.. The short answer is that I’ve really started to trust myself as an actress and I’ve learned how to play the situation instead of playing an emotional state. Acting is like languages, you have to practise and exercise it. It’s a never ending education in which one can never become considered “done”, which also makes it so exciting and fun!! It’s an artform where everything is about being a human, and you can really take your broken heart and make it into art (Carrie Fischer). Through the years I’ve studied at various schools and tried to take advantage of every lesson and make the most out of it. But I must say, something really clicked for me in 2019 when I was studying at Stockholm University of the Arts with an acting coach named Matthew Allen. He really made me understand things that I had read about but never fully understood until then and how to practise those things on stage/screen. And as a good teacher should be, he was always reminding us about how we/I was the one doing the job, not him. I’ve also learned how patient you have to be, how persistent and almost.. a little bit crazy not to give up in this business. Do you have any unique methods or rituals that you employ to prepare for your roles?These are not unique methods / rituals but.. It all starts with the text, so first I learn the lines, really, really well. From that, with the scene analysis, I start asking and answering a lot of questions. The five w:s I think I do mostly because it really gets your imagination going. I try a lot of things, for the purpose of trying to figure out Why I say these lines, in What context, What is that saying about my character and mostly; What do I want from the person I’m talking to? What do I want to change in the other person? I can do this for hours because I think it’s so fun!! Creating backstory, and doing exercises like for example: if I (the character) was saying this as a shark / cat / cow, how would I be saying it? Your role in the Netflix series Clark garnered significant attention. Could you share your experience working on this project? How did this role challenge you as an actor, and what did you find most rewarding about bringing this character to life?Working on Clark was one of the most exciting experiences I’ve ever had…It’s always fun to be able to work with a character for such a long time. To do research, listen to all the music, dive into that period of time..To create an arch for my character,  thinking about how these years were affecting her, why things were important to her, why she stayed with a person like Clark… How to justify her letting him disappear, being a notorious cheater, and constantly lying to her. Sometimes I just decided ”She knows but she’s so tired of being lied to / she’s too much in love and lets him get away with it. I remember at one point I thought, maybe Maria thinks ”Everyone wants to lock him up, put a ring on him and tell him what to do, but that only makes him run away even more, so I’m not gonna do that”. Also working with a visual genious like Jonas (Åkerlund, director), and Bill (Skarsgård, leading co-star), who is one of the most brave and dedicated actors I’ve met. They’re both really, really good and inspiring, and they were also the ones making me step out of my comfort zone sometimes. Like, I wouldn’t say I’m a dancer, I’ve not portrayed one before, and I definitely don’t have political monologues going on during… you know what I mean 😉Mostly I learned what’s working for me and what’s not. Also that the lines can change on the same day but I can still do it, the character work is done. I don’t always have to be a perfectionist. sweater and boots Henrietta Frihammar dress Elvita Ismayilovaboots, rings and earrings Stylist’s Own You are also playing one of the lead roles in the upcoming movie Järnridån in which you speak russian. How challenging was it to undertake a role that required you to perform in a different language? Could you describe the specific difficulties you faced and the strategies you employed to authentically portray

Interview With Wilma Lidén and Edvin Ryding text Jahwanna Berglund photography Marcus Askelöffashion Jahwanna Berglundmakeup Jessica de la Torrehair Khaddy Gasama / Swedish Hair Mafia Wilma wears, checked set Baum und Pferdgarten jacket Stina Randestad jewellery Ole Lynggaard Edvin wears, shirt COS trousers Stina Randestad watch Cartier shoes Kevin Nilsson “Edvin is one of few people I can be completely transparent with.” – Wilma Lidén Wilma Lidén and Edvin Ryding are two of Sweden’s pioneering young actors, both starring in two of the most talked about TV series at the moment. In this two parted interview with Odalisque Magazine, Wilma and Edvin open up about their long time friendship, finding love both on a personal and a professional level, and on how to support one another and finding inspiration in the ever-changing character world of acting. JB: Can you please tell us how you both got to know each other? WL: We got to know each other in 2014, in an apartment in Flemingsberg in Stockholm for a test shoot for the short movie “If everything was real”.Both of us later during the production fell in love with each other without knowing that the other one also had a little crush. ER: Yes, they were looking for an actress to play the role of Linda, and luckily Wilma got the role. We shot the movie that whole summer and had the time of our lives. It’s a pretty dark story but we would laugh between takes and act like the kids that we were. It went almost two years later, we got to play against each other on the 3rd season of “Gåsmamman”. :WL: I will never forget this! After all the film festivals with the short film, the first thing I had to do was to shove chocolate into Edvin’s mouth and beat him to the ground. It was a fun contrast to that summer we had two years earlier. Although I did that scene pretty aggressively ten times, but we still remained best friends and had a lot of fun during that shoot too. ER: Haha yeah, I had to brush my teeth for twenty minutes afterwards because of all the chocolate. W: After that we met again when we were shooting “Julkalendern” in 2018(the Swedish Television Christmas calendar show) and that brought us closer than ever. This was a way happier story than the ones we had done together before. Only cute things and snow and glitter. JB: Both of you started your acting careers at a very early age. When did you know you wanted to work with film? ER: Both me and Wilma started our careers as actors at a very young age. I always had a passion for acting and thought it was very playful and I used to act a lot just for fun. I ”played” in that sense until I was about 11 years old. I used to set up all different kinds of acts both when I was alone and for family guests. like the soccer World Cup final, putting up goals in the backyard pretending I was a football player, winning and doing winner interviews with myself. When I was a kid, I used to set up small acts for the dinner guests at home as well as using a doll house meant for puppetry. The ones with these small windows and curtains you could open up. This was perfect for me since I was so small, I could have my tiny shows from there. By coincidence I came into an industry where you kind of get to play everyday with likeminded people. Realizing that this actually was a job around 14 years old It went from this is fun to I want to continue doing this and I knew that this was what I wanted to work with in some way for the rest of my life. WL: My first role was for a commercial. When I was around 5 or 6 years old I told my mom “I’m going to be an actress” and obviously she didn’t really believe me and responded “ooh but you wanted to be a dolphin trainer a year ago” and thought it was just a phase. E: But it wasn’t, luckily! WW: No, luckily!I’ve always liked to study people, explore ways to implement character traits and play other characters. When I was younger I used to reflect a lot like“if you can live this way, what would happen if I try that for a day?”. And I did.My acting created a bit of a mess at pre-school I’ve heard. Then when I was old enough, I kind of forced my mom to write me up for a casting site for actors and shortly after that I got my first commercial job.It was for IKEA, and I have very few memories from my childhood but I specifically remember fragments from this day.My mom drove me to the set where we were going to shoot the commercial  and when we came there, there were all these cranes. We thought they were construction cranes and I remember my mom said “Oh, it looks like they’re renovating here, how will you be able to film” and when we came up to the set we realized that all these cranes were for the lights. It was very exciting for me as a little kid to see all the effort and work behind the cameras and the only thing they expected in return was for me to play around and eat Kinder eggs and hide in IKEA furniture.How could I even consider a different work environment than this? “I always knew I wanted to act. I’d set up performances for family guests even as a kid.” – Edvin Ryding JB: Do you think that you would have been drawn to each other and developed a friendship like this if it wasn’t for acting? And do you get support from each other in matters concerning your work? WL: We will never know the answer to that question. But the odds are low!Edvin is one year younger than me and we are from completely

Alba August: “I decided I was going to be the last man standing” text Natalia Muntean Alba August has had a busy few months. Two years after her debut album “I Still Hide,” the artist returned in October with a new EP titled “I Wish I Was Someone Else,” earning her the title “Swedish rock queen” from a music critic. “It was surprising because I didn’t see the EP as rock, but I relate to this idea in a way. I wanted it to be less polished, more raw, and I enjoyed being a badass in the music videos,” says August. Besides the developments in her music career, the Danish-Swedish artist graces both big and small screens, starring in “Stockholm Bloodbath,” a new movie by Mikael Håfström, and the Danish series “Bullshit.” Born into a family of cinematic royalty, August has been forging her path with a sense of self-assurance, introspection and a pinch of mischievousness. In this conversation, Alba reflects on her artistic evolution, navigating the complexities of creativity, self-discovery, and balancing her music and acting careers. Natalia Muntean: This is your second EP after your debut album. How do you see the musical journey that you’ve been on between these two releases?Alba August: With “I still hide“ I wanted more energy. During production, I was constantly pushing for more—choirs, layers, you name it. But this time around, I remember talking to my producer and saying, “Take away, take away, take away.” I wanted this to be different. The first album was me wanting to be excessive. Now, I craved something stripped down, more raw. These albums are like a showcase of where I am in my personal journey. Back then, I was in a different place, I had a more extroverted lifestyle, with a lot of partying. But now I’ve come to realize how sensitive I am to sounds and people. I’ve always been that way, but I’ve only just realised the source of all the anxiety. I needed to pare things down in my music. I needed to be more direct. It’s, for sure, a way of processing what’s going on in my life and my mind. Even with what I’m working on now, it will have even fewer elements. I always want to do things that I haven’t heard before. And I want to push myself in directions where I’m a bit uncomfortable. NM: What I understood about “I Wish I Was Someone Else”, the whole EP, is that it has hints of empowerment, self-discovery and living with one’s decisions. You’ve also turned 30 this year, so I wonder if that impacted the stories you tell or the music you put out in the world.AA: This EP focuses on some things I was struggling with. Trying to understand more about myself is something that I have always liked since I can remember, maybe since I was five years old. I’ve always been super anxious and felt very lonely but I didn’t realise that the feeling I felt was loneliness. Now, as a grown-up, I understand it. And then I realised that I always felt weird. All of these things started to resurface as I was writing this. So “I wish I was someone else” was absolutely a way to allow myself to be the weirdo I am. But it’s also about wishing I was normal. That’s what’s so amazing about being an artist and working with art – only when I am being creative I can fully be myself. It’s the only time when I’m really happy and Zen with being in this world. NM: You mentioned that you have social anxiety, however, you are an artist in the public eye and you expose yourself to the world. How does it work then?AA: In a way, being an artist it’s a bit like a persona. I think in private it’s harder to cope with being me compared to when I’m performing. NM: So is there a split between Alba in your personal life, so to speak, and Alba, the artist?AA: There’s a word in Swedish, hudlös, which means skinless and that’s how I feel in private, like I have no skin, more vulnerable, as if everyone can see inside of my body and I have no protection. But when I’m in character, when I’m acting or on stage, I feel strong and I feel like I have control over the situation. NM: Do you feel that on stage you have more freedom to do whatever you would like to do without being judged?AA: Yes, on stage I feel I have power over the audience. It’s clearer what my role is when I’m performing. Everything is decided: I’m going to be on stage and I’m going to do this and they are going to sit and watch. And in my private life, everything is uncertain, and I have a hard time coping with that. NM: In the video for “The Summer of 99” there’s a lot of footage from your childhood. How does it feel to revisit those memories, and how does it impact your music? Does reconnecting with your younger self shape the stories you want to tell?AA: I have mixed feelings about looking back. In a way, it’s a bit sad watching those videos when I was feeling so free, so unaware of how people perceive me. But I also just love the early 2000s. There’s something about that time. Life was so much about dreaming about what it was going to be when I got older. Looking back I also realised how creative life was. My sister and I were always rehearsing a dance or a play. There was always a project we were working on. And there was so much lightness, silliness and humour in the things we did. And it’s hard to find time and space for that as an adult because adult life is so much about achieving, making money and doing boring things. I feel like there’s not that