Statuesque Danish beauty Connie Nielsen, believe it or not, has never shot a movie in Denmark, until now. Her first Danish language film Brothers is about a woman whose soldier husband is supposedly killed in the Iraq. Then while grieving at home and taking care of their two young children she eventually falls for his ne'er-do-well brother. Things of course get complicated when her husband gets out of an Iraqi POW camp and comes home.
Check out the official site for Brothers
Daniel Robert Epstein: I was surprised to learn that this is your first Danish film. Did it come to you in the usual way or did someone drop the script off at your parents house?
Connie Nielsen: [laughs] No they didnt drop it off at my parents house. Ive gotten other Danish scripts but this one was the first one I wanted to do. It wasnt just the role because I usually dont want to play the housewife or girlfriend. Ive always been allergic to those roles because they are dramatically uninteresting. In Brothers I had the chance to paint a picture of what a womans life is like in those circumstances and also the chance to explore this part of our reality.
DRE: You live in America now, so when you did your research for this did you do it with Americans or people from another country?
CN: I talked to a friend of mine who was a marine in the first Gulf War. For the movie I asked him what it was like, which is a line I have in Brothers. Just the look on my friends face trying to explain and not being able to was really devastating. I also got this script two weeks after the Fort Bragg wife killings. When the first troops came back from Afghanistan these wives were killed and I remember feeling how tragic that was. These womens husbands had killed and they would not normally have done that if they had not had that job.
DRE: Had you known of [director] Susanne Bier?
CN: I knew of her work but I had never met her before.
DRE: How was it working with her?
CN: Ive always gone back and forth between studio and independent films but this was a bit different to go back home. This was a very pared down production that used a lot of the Dogme principles. We shot on video and had that kind of hyper realism.
DRE: Did you feel freedom since you were shooting on video?
CN: Yes I did, it was just fantastic. I could move anywhere I wanted which is just deliriously free.
DRE: At first I hardly recognized you in this film; did you come up with your look?
CN: I did in conjunction with the director, costume designer and all that. But there was no makeup or hair. We made my hair look that way with extensions. I always try to use the look of the character to create a completely different person.
DRE: Have you ever had that feeling when someone goes away that they might not come back?
CN: Yes, but I really wanted to put that soldiers wife thing in there. This is his job so this is what he does so you become stoic. That doesnt take away her grief when he is reported killed.
DRE: Do you think the film would have been radically different if the soldier and his family were American rather than Danish?
CN: It would have to have a certain kind of director. There are many things in America that are like holy cows that you arent allowed to touch. Even when people are even describing something like a dysfunctional family they make it conform to this almost holy image of that family. Possibly certain things we did do with the family in this film have been very hard to put into an American context such as when we allow the little girl to say something sexual at the dinner table in front of the grandparents.
I have a 15 year old son so working with children comes very naturally to me. I am very maternal. The way the kids in the film are very much our culture. Ive raised my son to speak his mind and respect other peoples opinions.
DRE: Has your son gotten into conflicts because of speaking his mind?
CN: No, not at all. Hes not a blunt person but he is someone who doesnt shrink because he is talking to a table full of adults. He feels that his opinion is just as important as anyones.
DRE: How was going to Sundance with this film?
CN: It was great. We won the Audience Award and it was sold out at all the screenings. At the Q & As it was great to see American audiences love this film.
DRE: Many times after a foreigners Hollywood movies dont do so well they go back home to work. You had some films recently that werent received well critically or commercially, was that a factor in taking this film?
CN: No because you cant plan for this stuff. I didnt time it so that this script came to me after The Hunted didnt do so well. Also to make decisions based on that would trivialize what I do. I never do movies based on a smart move for my career.
DRE: What movie are you doing next?
CN: Im shooting a movie called The Situation with director Philip Haas. Its about a female journalist in Iraq.
DRE: Is there any reason you have done two films so close together that use Iraq in some way?
CN: I think cinema should reflect the world we are living in. When I got the script for The Situation I felt it was a way to explore where humans are right now. What it means when the situation in the world is no longer on TV but part of our lives. The fact that we are at war is not something we should forget so I want to explore what it means for all of us. I prefer to make a human story more than anything else. People are dying over there and the numbers are mind boggling to me. We dont know who they are or why exactly it happens. Like Brothers, The Situation doesnt say whether or not we should be Iraq but what it is like now that we are there.
DRE: What else are you doing?
CN: Ive got The Great Raid coming out directed by John Dahl. Its a big Second World War 2 epic about the last couple of days of the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. I play Margaret Utinsky who was an American organizer of the Philippine resistance in Manila.
DRE: How was it working with John Dahl?
CN: He was fantastic. Hes a decent Midwesterner like Jimmy Stewart.
Im also in Harold Ramis first independent movie called Ice Harvest.
DRE: One of my favorite roles of yours was in Permanent Midnight. Did you get to meet Jerry Stahl?
CN: Yes I did. That scene I did in the movie was very disturbing and it was even more disturbing to pretend to shoot up in my vagina. I asked him if the woman really did it and he was like, yes. Im the least druggie person you will ever meet.
DRE: I asked Jerry what that director, David Veloz, was up to and he doesnt even know. Do you?
CN: I dont know. He was so good and I hope hes preparing to do lots of stuff.
DRE: Was he nuts?
CN: No, just a nice and sweet man.
DRE: Do you have any tattoos?
CN: No sorry. I just got my ears pierced for the first time.
DRE: How was that?
CN: It was five oclock in the morning and I was severely drunk. I went and got three holes in each ear.
DRE: Youve done nude scenes in movies very early in your career. Have you gotten to the point where you can refuse to do them and still keep the role?
CN: I try to put in my own two cents about what I do and do not feel comfortable with. If I feel that its dramatically warranted but if I dont and that its gratuitous then I dont want to do. I think it was dramatically relevant when I did in The Devils Advocate. That was my sacrifice.
DRE: Is there more of a tendency nowadays in Hollywood for them to ask women to take their clothes off?
CN: This has been around since the beginning of movies. The first nude scene was in a Tarzan movie. But its becoming almost usual that if you see female nudity you also see male nudity. Thats great and Im happy to see some male bottoms onscreen.
DRE: Anyone in particular?
CN: There are some that are better than others.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Check out the official site for Brothers
Daniel Robert Epstein: I was surprised to learn that this is your first Danish film. Did it come to you in the usual way or did someone drop the script off at your parents house?
Connie Nielsen: [laughs] No they didnt drop it off at my parents house. Ive gotten other Danish scripts but this one was the first one I wanted to do. It wasnt just the role because I usually dont want to play the housewife or girlfriend. Ive always been allergic to those roles because they are dramatically uninteresting. In Brothers I had the chance to paint a picture of what a womans life is like in those circumstances and also the chance to explore this part of our reality.
DRE: You live in America now, so when you did your research for this did you do it with Americans or people from another country?
CN: I talked to a friend of mine who was a marine in the first Gulf War. For the movie I asked him what it was like, which is a line I have in Brothers. Just the look on my friends face trying to explain and not being able to was really devastating. I also got this script two weeks after the Fort Bragg wife killings. When the first troops came back from Afghanistan these wives were killed and I remember feeling how tragic that was. These womens husbands had killed and they would not normally have done that if they had not had that job.
DRE: Had you known of [director] Susanne Bier?
CN: I knew of her work but I had never met her before.
DRE: How was it working with her?
CN: Ive always gone back and forth between studio and independent films but this was a bit different to go back home. This was a very pared down production that used a lot of the Dogme principles. We shot on video and had that kind of hyper realism.
DRE: Did you feel freedom since you were shooting on video?
CN: Yes I did, it was just fantastic. I could move anywhere I wanted which is just deliriously free.
DRE: At first I hardly recognized you in this film; did you come up with your look?
CN: I did in conjunction with the director, costume designer and all that. But there was no makeup or hair. We made my hair look that way with extensions. I always try to use the look of the character to create a completely different person.
DRE: Have you ever had that feeling when someone goes away that they might not come back?
CN: Yes, but I really wanted to put that soldiers wife thing in there. This is his job so this is what he does so you become stoic. That doesnt take away her grief when he is reported killed.
DRE: Do you think the film would have been radically different if the soldier and his family were American rather than Danish?
CN: It would have to have a certain kind of director. There are many things in America that are like holy cows that you arent allowed to touch. Even when people are even describing something like a dysfunctional family they make it conform to this almost holy image of that family. Possibly certain things we did do with the family in this film have been very hard to put into an American context such as when we allow the little girl to say something sexual at the dinner table in front of the grandparents.
I have a 15 year old son so working with children comes very naturally to me. I am very maternal. The way the kids in the film are very much our culture. Ive raised my son to speak his mind and respect other peoples opinions.
DRE: Has your son gotten into conflicts because of speaking his mind?
CN: No, not at all. Hes not a blunt person but he is someone who doesnt shrink because he is talking to a table full of adults. He feels that his opinion is just as important as anyones.
DRE: How was going to Sundance with this film?
CN: It was great. We won the Audience Award and it was sold out at all the screenings. At the Q & As it was great to see American audiences love this film.
DRE: Many times after a foreigners Hollywood movies dont do so well they go back home to work. You had some films recently that werent received well critically or commercially, was that a factor in taking this film?
CN: No because you cant plan for this stuff. I didnt time it so that this script came to me after The Hunted didnt do so well. Also to make decisions based on that would trivialize what I do. I never do movies based on a smart move for my career.
DRE: What movie are you doing next?
CN: Im shooting a movie called The Situation with director Philip Haas. Its about a female journalist in Iraq.
DRE: Is there any reason you have done two films so close together that use Iraq in some way?
CN: I think cinema should reflect the world we are living in. When I got the script for The Situation I felt it was a way to explore where humans are right now. What it means when the situation in the world is no longer on TV but part of our lives. The fact that we are at war is not something we should forget so I want to explore what it means for all of us. I prefer to make a human story more than anything else. People are dying over there and the numbers are mind boggling to me. We dont know who they are or why exactly it happens. Like Brothers, The Situation doesnt say whether or not we should be Iraq but what it is like now that we are there.
DRE: What else are you doing?
CN: Ive got The Great Raid coming out directed by John Dahl. Its a big Second World War 2 epic about the last couple of days of the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. I play Margaret Utinsky who was an American organizer of the Philippine resistance in Manila.
DRE: How was it working with John Dahl?
CN: He was fantastic. Hes a decent Midwesterner like Jimmy Stewart.
Im also in Harold Ramis first independent movie called Ice Harvest.
DRE: One of my favorite roles of yours was in Permanent Midnight. Did you get to meet Jerry Stahl?
CN: Yes I did. That scene I did in the movie was very disturbing and it was even more disturbing to pretend to shoot up in my vagina. I asked him if the woman really did it and he was like, yes. Im the least druggie person you will ever meet.
DRE: I asked Jerry what that director, David Veloz, was up to and he doesnt even know. Do you?
CN: I dont know. He was so good and I hope hes preparing to do lots of stuff.
DRE: Was he nuts?
CN: No, just a nice and sweet man.
DRE: Do you have any tattoos?
CN: No sorry. I just got my ears pierced for the first time.
DRE: How was that?
CN: It was five oclock in the morning and I was severely drunk. I went and got three holes in each ear.
DRE: Youve done nude scenes in movies very early in your career. Have you gotten to the point where you can refuse to do them and still keep the role?
CN: I try to put in my own two cents about what I do and do not feel comfortable with. If I feel that its dramatically warranted but if I dont and that its gratuitous then I dont want to do. I think it was dramatically relevant when I did in The Devils Advocate. That was my sacrifice.
DRE: Is there more of a tendency nowadays in Hollywood for them to ask women to take their clothes off?
CN: This has been around since the beginning of movies. The first nude scene was in a Tarzan movie. But its becoming almost usual that if you see female nudity you also see male nudity. Thats great and Im happy to see some male bottoms onscreen.
DRE: Anyone in particular?
CN: There are some that are better than others.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
missy:
Statuesque Danish beauty Connie Nielsen, believe it or not, has never shot a movie in Denmark, until now. Her first Danish language film Brothers is about a woman whose soldier husband is supposedly killed in the Iraq. Then while grieving at home and taking care of their two young children she eventually...
hyperboy:
she is a timeless beauty, her brains as sharp as her wit and features