Veteran actress & director Liv Ullman talks 'Miss Julie'
Renowned actress and filmmaker Liv Ullmann discusses her role as director of tense period drama, Miss Julie.
Liv Ullmann is acknowledged as one of the most acclaimed and influential faces of Scandinavian cinema. Having collaborated with the iconic writer, producer and director Ingmar Bergman on eleven films, Ullmann was recognised as one of the Bergman’s muses leading her to critical and worldwide acclaim. Ullmann’s performances in Persona (1966), Cries and Whispers (1972) and Scenes From a Marriage (1973) to name a few has distinguished her as one of the greatest actresses of her generation.
The Norwegian actress received Academy Award nominations for her roles in Bergman’s Face to Face (1976) and Jan Troell’s The Emigrants (1971) for which she won a Golden Globe – the first of five nominations throughout her career – as well as two BAFTA nominations.
However, as well as starring in over fifty films, the veteran actress has also taken a seat in the director’s chair directing the biopic drama Sofie (1992), Kristin Lavransdatter (1995) and romantic drama Faithless (2000).
Ullmann returns as a director for the first time in fourteen years with the adaptation of August Strindberg’s 19th Century drama Miss Julie. Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain stars in the title role as an unsettled daughter of an Anglo-Irish aristocrat that attempts to seduce her father’s valet. Chastain stars alongside Irish actor Colin Farrell and British actress Samantha Morton in this naturalistic adaptation of Strindberg’s prestigious play that premiered at the 2014 Toronto Film Festival.
Ullmann arrived in London to present her latest release ahead of a premiere screening and Q&A discussion at the Curzon Mayfair. The filmmaker was keen to discuss her lead female character: one that has been widely misunderstood over the years. “I was asked to do a movie about a woman, and I said: ‘what about Miss Julie?’” Ullman continues, “People would think of her as unlikeable because no one would listen to her – but I did.”
The filmmaker first discovered Strindberg’s play in her teens growing up admiring the work of playwrights like Henrik Ibsen. Always keeping it at the back of her mind, the actress rekindled her love for Miss Julie back in 2009 when she directed Cate Blanchett in a Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire. “Tennessee Williams loved Miss Julie”, she recounts, “and he was very much influenced by it when writing Miss Julie.”
After adapting Strindberg’s play into a script, Ullmann was certain to modify Miss Julie for an English-speaking audience. “I didn’t want to film in Sweden and have the actors speak in English: that’s a lie”, says Ullmann. “Ireland and Norway share a lot in common to which they have suffered in more recent times. I felt a whole atmosphere: everything said yes to Ireland.” Filming took place at Castle Coole in County Fermanagh with just a week set for rehearsals and a premature production finish. However, despite a tight filming schedule, the director deemed it a wonderful experience as a result of her actors. “Because they knew their lines, we had no difficulty”, she states, “they were just incredible.”
Ullmann was adamant that Chastain would portray the title character of Miss Julie from the start. “When I met her, we started talking and I knew immediately that it had to be her: she was very much Miss Julie”, she asserts. The same was said of Chastain’s co-star Samantha Morton, even creating more screen time for the supporting character. “I said to Samantha ‘I want you to know that you’re a genius and if you say yes I will make that part much bigger’ and she said yes!”
The process was a reverse for Ullmann’s leading man with Colin Farrell convincing the director that he was right for the part. “I had a phone call with Colin and, after I heard what he said, it was incredible.” Ullmann continues, “We did very long scenes with him because I wanted to show him listening: he was a knight in shining armour with wonderful ideas.” Ullmann was so impressed with her lead actors for Miss Julie that she remembers the three of them never coming out of character. “I don’t know how good friends they were in private because they were so dedicated to their roles, it was amazing!” she laughs.
The complexity of Miss Julie is what distinguishes her as one of the greatest female characters in 19th Century theatre. Ullmann asserts that she is one that is fairly misinterpreted but undeniably admirable. “I always want people to understand me; to know that I’m trying to see and understand them.” She adds, “I’m so desperate to communicate with people because there is so less of it today. It’s the same with Miss Julie: for a little while she felt loved and for a little while she was loved.”
The film features a rather unsettling scene between Miss Julie and John (Farrell) in the film’s main setting: the kitchen. “It was horrible filming it; I wanted to scream”, remembers Ullmann. “I’ve never seen anyone react like that. It was incredible, and that’s Jessica is as an actress. I wanted to say ‘cut’ because I was scared, but I kept it on her, and it was amazing!” Despite its Irish setting and the complexity of these roles, Ullmann was adamant about staying true to Strindberg’s characters. ”It’s a picture; one I feel is both a film and theatre piece, which is everything that I like about the medium.”
With over fifty films and five decades as an actress to add to her name, Ullmann asserts that it is her onscreen career that has helped shape her role as a director. “I understand actors more so by having bad directors”, she says, “as an actor you’re so open to everything: if they walk on your fantasy there is no way you can adapt to that.” Ullmann adds, “A bad director could ruin an actor’s performance by interrupting them: I would never do that because a fantasy world you must leave in peace, and that’s why who you select has to be the best.”
Liv Ullmann is one of the lasting cinema greats: an iconic actress, writer and filmmaker that has influenced many in the film business. With female filmmakers considerable lacking in the industry in comparison to their opponents, Ullmann is a figure that revitalises and subverts the mainstream system. “The more films women make, the more people will see”, she says. “We will come to our right: just be patient and respect that we are women; it’s easier to be a man than a woman. If you choose a woman, trust her.”
However, the filmmaker asserts that many men, as well as women, have influenced her over the years. “Ingmar [Bergman] influenced me greatly having done eleven films with him, but also Jan Troell and the director of three of my favourite movies: Vittoria De Sica.” Growing up in a conservative household, Ullmann found rejoice through movies changing her outlook on acting, writing and filmmaking. She encourages and personifies the power of cinema and its powerful impact made on so many over the years: “Artists really can change us in a way that politicians and generals cannot do.”