http://www.rossanthony.com/interviews/bjork.shtml

Hollywood Report Card  2000-09

By Ross Anthony


"Press Conference Interview with Björk, David Morse..."


Press Conference Interview with Björk, David Morse and Catherine Deneuve


Björk approaches our table bright-eyed, but somehow faintly timid; she 
pauses before sitting as a diver pauses to mentally prepare herself on 
the board. Suddenly, she shakes her head, smiles, and taps a little 
dance, "They were playing jazz -- I was having none of it. I was dancing 
Charleston." 

The Icelander having broken her own patch of ice, sets a silver- 
glittering Kuala bear purse on the table and then comfortably takes a 
seat. 

Press: We had heard you decided not to act again... 

B: Being in that creative environment were the film was I made an 
exception, because of the film I wanted to act. But I should do music... 
that's where I'm at my best. 

Press: So maybe you'll act again? 

B: It's not like I got it all planned out. Things keep happening that I 
thank God, I couldn't even imagine. Right now I feel very strong on 
focusing on music. I get really depressed when I go to Tower records, I 
don't think there are a lot of good records there. [Even my own stuff] 
I'm still far away, I get embarrassed listening to my last CD's and so 
I've got a lot of work to do. 

On Lars:
He'd always be saying, "Please don't act, I hate acting -- feel your way 
through." 

On Selma songs:
I'm very proud. I was really into it at that time... giving my interior 
up to someone else. For someone as obsessed with music as I am, I always 
hear a song in the back of my head all the time, and that's usually my 
own tune, I've done that all my life and then suddenly to have someone 
else's songs in there is like... "AHHHHH" a bit scary! Right? But at 
that time I was ready for it. I was ready to get really craftmanshippy, 
because I did 10 years at classical education as a child, so I was ready 
to go really anal into music. The whole idea of writing the music and 
then going back and hooking up with Lars and getting someone else's 
vision I was really into that. That's a challenge. That's actually 
understated... a harder job than sitting there and thinking of 
something. 

RA: What were the parameters that Lars had given you? Did he give you 
specific ideas for the songs? 

B: I read the script and my immediate reaction was very emotional. So I 
would start writing the songs from a very emotional point of view. More 
like a form of love for Selma rather than anything else. For me to react 
in an intellectual way... I couldn't even though I tried, it's not what 
I'm about. But when it came to arranging the music -- that's kind of 
when I can get maybe slightly clever. That's the part that Lars wasn't 
interested in at all, that's why he contacted me. Me being one of the 
most idiosyncratic people around. I did the music very much how I wanted 
to. 

Press: What was the first song you wrote? 

B: The song that happens on the train. My first question to Lars was, 
"Does she have a boyfriend?" Once [I got that song down], I knew what 
she was like as a woman and the rest kind of...[fell into place]. The 
next was "New World" the title tune, that sort of was her being hopeful 
and really believing that music can save people's lives. 

(Some people, while addressing a group, tend to look around at each 
person, but Björk turns her head to the person asking the question and 
responds only directly to them. Her attention seems very personal - and 
her bluish brown eyes, oddly hypnotic.) 

On taking on the project:
B: My instinct is 50 times more wise than my head for sure. From the 
start my instinct was saying, "Go go go" and my head was going, "This is 
the most ridiculous thing you could do in your life." I had to follow my 
instinct. 

Press: The music was so haunting, I was thinking about it all weekend. 

B: I guess my music is always an emotional thing. I could never sit down 
and decide okay let's do it now. You can't control those things and if 
you want to control them then you got a problem. You're just being 
arrogant. It's not your choice. It's finding strength in being 
vulnerable. I think sometimes discipline is very important [too], but 
you have to be very careful what areas you put discipline into. And when 
I arrange songs I can go with my academic education. Okay, here we have 
something that was just burning... okay just make sure it's got what it 
deserves and then you can sit there with like 500 hours of studio time. 
Some of this music I was 12 to 16 hours in the studio everyday for a 
year. You're definitely not on a high, inspired all the time, you just 
sort of sit there with big bags under your eyes and a cup of coffee. 

On understanding Selma's pain:
B: She experienced a lot more pain than I have ever experienced. I've 
had a lucky life. Some of these songs come from a painful place... but 
it's not mine. This is not my pain. I never felt this pain. But it 
provokes empathy for sure. 

On her terms with Lars:
B: I want to mix my tunes in London with people I normally work with, 
I'm going to do the album sleeve for my album, the record's going to be 
the way I want it to be, I'm going to have a final mix. For example, 
after Cannes I went back and mixed it again. Basically, what I was 
asking for was that I could protect my music... nothing to do with 
acting being too difficult. So I was one day off work, so I came back 
the next day with a piece of paper and for one day they said we can't 
sign that, it's impossible. And then in the evening -- they did. I was 
working from August to May non-stop. All that work I wouldn't be able to 
do that if they didn't sign the paper. It's happened so much, just 
because they were editing something and then suddenly, "Oh, no, now we 
gotta do this" and then they'd like chop a minute out of the song, which 
I don't mind, I actually prefer my songs to be 4 minute songs... it was 
Lars who asked them to be 8 minute long. But it would have to be the 
minute chopped out of it that I had to agree with. I'm ready to 
collaborate, let's talk about it. It's not like I hand my music over and 
go home, I can't do that. After twenty years of doing music, I just 
can't do that. 

B: There were other things... The fact that they put that thing over the 
overture. Because apparently people don't concentrate because there's 
nothing for the eye, only for the ear, and I was like "Uhhggg." First 
the ears please, because listening in the dark is incredible and the 
fact that you need something for the eye, just kills it. But in a funny 
way it supports Selma's argument that people don't trust their ears and 
they don't trust their instincts and the subconscious and mysterious. 
They have to like analyze everything... the eye is very much an 
instrument of logic. 

On seeing herself on screen:
B: I can't really relate to it. I'd be lying if I told you what it was 
like. I just watched it like "blahh" I don't even have an opinion on it. 
I know I gave everything I got and a lot more, I'm proud of the film. If 
I close my eyes I know all my heart is in there. And that's all I can 
do. I sit and watch it, if I don't like something - it's out of my 
hands. I'm not controlling like that at all, my acting or image or 
visual stuff. I wish I was more ambitious... but I just don't care. I 
always knew that when it came to visual vanity... I don't really give a 
shit. And I was right because [just look at the film] I'd like have a 
handicam up my nostrils after I haven't slept for a month and I'd be 
like [ah so what]. But there'd be one wrong note and I'd be like "AHHHH" 
and I'd be running to the studio. 

Choreographer Vincent Paterson, speaks with a deep resonating voice, 
like a choir teacher or Harrison Ford: 

VP: I think that the whole film is really a fable, I think that the 
great contradiction for people is that you're seeing a fable for the 
first time through a very documentary real world sensibility of 
filmmaking. Lars is an amazing director, so much of what Lars does is 
alters his grips and vision to bring out as much of the actor's 
personality... so almost as much as he asks us to be improvisatory, 
he's actually as equally as improvisatory as he's creating. 

RA: Were there really 100 cameras in the dance scenes? 

VP: Yes, we used 100 digital Sony video cameras 

RA: Each rolling their own tape? 

VP: Yes, and actually in some pieces we used over 100, like in the train 
sequence, we would mount 100 on the train and 50 in the landscape, they 
were all cabled together. It was fantastic for the actors... they got 
to go through the entire piece from the beginning to the end. [Actually] 
Lars' original idea was to do it live, vocally live, but the logistics 
of that were too difficult. Lars makes a lot of rules and then breaks 
those rules immediately. Even with the dancing, not a Dogma, this is not 
a Dogma film, but he created his own commandments for the pieces. Part 
of it was, there was no front to the pieces... that you could face 
anywhere. I tried to explain to him that it works better on paper... 
[Finally] he changed that rule and said, "Okay, okay, make it the other 
way." But everything is like that with Lars, I mean the script is 
written out, he told us don't memorize, just be familiar and then we 
would walk into the space and he'd pick up the camera and just say go. 

David Morse stands well over six foot, perhaps 6'4," and though he's 
played several bad guys recently, his face is peaceful and reassuring. 
He sits comfortably, ready, but calm and relaxed. He fields questions 
with a moment of careful thought shown only in his eyes. His answers are 
mindful and often times sown with a subtle, dry, biting humor easily 
missed, unspoiled by his poker face. 

Press: When you first read the script, did you have a sense of the 
potential? 

DM: No. (pause) I thought it'd be potentially something awful. 

Press: Is that how you're choosing roles these days? 

DM: No. (pause) It was really Lars that convinced me. I did question my 
choice, not that what they were doing wasn't good, it was just the 
character... was a really hard one to do... because I did not 
sympathize with him. He chooses to do something I don't get. So how do 
you find your way, believably and truly living that through, if you 
don't get it. So it was a hard one. I tried mightily. But this one was a 
hard one to really feel like I'd done my job. 

RA: Of the wealth of roles you've played in the past of which are you 
most proud? 

DM: Crossing Guard. 

Press: Were you happy to "Get out" of singing and dancing? 

DM: No. (pause) Actually I was really disappointed. I was looking 
forward to it. It would be fun to be up on the tables. 

On possible audience reaction to the film:
DM: It's not a whole lot different than anything you do for love, you'd 
like it to be embraced. In a way there's a satisfaction in doing 
something so challenging that people are going to come down on different 
ends of the spectrum. We have, Lars has, succeeded in making the film 
that he wanted to make. 

On Björk:
DM: She is so alive (pause) and unusual, she has no preconceptions, 
she's not protecting herself - she was living her life as this woman 
Selma. It just brings out things that don't always happen on film. 

David mentions that the gun sequence was a bit frustrating for him 
because the use of a weapon was so foreign to Björk:

DM: She couldn't just do the scene, (pause) but she WAS doing the scene. 

Acting Legend Catherine Deneuve sits donning tint-gradated glasses, she 
pulls the table mic a bit closer, and waves to Björk at the other table. 

Press: Was this acting job hard? 

CD: I don't work hard anyway. That's not my type of living. It's 
difficult, but it's not hard. 

Press: How do you feel when reporters refer to you as legend or icon? 

CD: I find it a little boring. Because it's a way of putting me away on 
a pedestal and watch me and expect me to speak a few lines, but I try to 
always break that strange idea. 

On audience reaction:
CD: Yes of course, you always want people to like it. [But whenever] 
someone special like Lars, takes a normal story and brings it into 
musicals, makes you think differently and see things differently... 
it's not reassuring.