Photo: Udo Salters/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
Of all the acting nominees at this year’s Academy Awards, nobody is less of a public character than Sentimental Value’s Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas. That’s mostly because the Norwegian actress was a virtual unknown prior to her breakout year, especially in America. But even her recent Instagram posts are just benign “thank you”s to various bodies that supported her film, so she’s not seeking celebrity. In a new Variety interview, it became clear why she’s not bothering to “play the game”: She’s genuinely much, much cooler than this whole awards rigmarole.
“My value as a person is not reliant on me being nominated for anything or being snubbed,” she said in the conversation. “It’s such a constructed reality. It’s not a real competition. We made something months ago, and now we’re putting it in a pot, and somebody’s going to choose one.” Hey — tell that to campaigners like Timothée Chalamet or Bradley Cooper. Lilleaas even laughed at the terminology built into the scene. “‘Snub’ is also a new word,” she said. “I think it’s insane.”
In other interviews, Lilleaas seems altogether skeptical of the process, even if she’s enjoying the accolades. “It certainly has given me some sort of confidence that I’m sure is gonna be my enemy also in a way,” she told Entertainment Tonight on the day of the Oscar Luncheon. “I’m gonna lose it at some point. It’s gonna switch and I’m gonna think, Oh my God, now I have to live up to that.”
However, one good thing about being too cool for the American film industry’s awards-based hobnobbing is that she isn’t spending her time in fancy rooms desperately networking. “I want to work with people who want to work with me,” she added to Variety. “I’m not the kind of person who scratches at people’s doors. I will go where I’m wanted.” God, there is something so refreshing about a Scandinavian with a healthy dose of disdain.
Related