{"id":439463,"date":"2026-02-22T10:36:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T10:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/439463\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T10:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T10:36:14","slug":"meet-renate-reinsve-the-norwegian-actress-whos-tipped-to-win-an-oscar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/439463\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Renate Reinsve, the Norwegian actress who\u2019s tipped to win an Oscar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last month Renate Reinsve took her sister as her plus-one to the Golden Globes in Los Angeles, where she had been nominated for best actress in a drama. \u201cLeonardo DiCaprio stepped on the train of my sister\u2019s dress, he smiled at her and apologised,\u201d Reinsve recalls. \u201cShe lives deep in the Norwegian countryside, she\u2019d never been to anything like this in her life, and she had this really deep impulse to touch him. I had to stand between them and say, \u2018Please, don\u2019t do it, be cool. Step away!\u2019\u201d Did it ruin the night\u2019s vibe? \u201cOh no, the two of us had so much fun that night. We got so drunk!\u201d<\/p>\n

For Reinsve, 38, plus sibling to be attending the glitzy Globes and \u2014 now she has a nomination \u2014 the Oscars next month, certainly wasn\u2019t anything anyone from their tiny village of Solbergelva, near Oslo, foresaw. Yet now Reinsve is one of Hollywood\u2019s hottest properties, in the past four and a half years collecting two best actress awards at Cannes, first in 2021 for her performance in the joyously original The Worst Person in the World<\/a>, directed by the Danish-Norwegian film-maker Joachim Trier.<\/p>\n

\"Renate<\/p>\n

Dress, \u00a33,395, Givenchy by Sarah Burton. Shoes, \u00a3820, Louis Vuitton. Knee socks, \u00a346, Comme Si. Scrunchie (throughout), Renate\u2019s own<\/p>\n

OLIVIA MALONE<\/p>\n

\"Renate<\/p>\n

Silk jacket, price on application, Louis Vuitton. Tights, \u00a310, Calzedonia.Phillipa ear cuff, \u00a322,120, Ana Khouri. Ring (under daisies), \u00a310,800, Tiffany & Co<\/p>\n

OLIVIA MALONE<\/p>\n

Then last year came the darker yet equally affecting Sentimental Value<\/a>, also by Trier. When the film premiered at Cannes in May, it received a 19-minute standing ovation. \u201cMy cheeks were really stiff from smiling for such a long time,\u201d Reinsve says. \u201cWe were very prepared that statistically it shouldn\u2019t be possible to repeat the success of The Worst Person in the World. But the noise around Sentimental Value has been going on for months now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, the film has received nine Oscar and eight Bafta nominations, with two best actress nods for Reinsve (she was previously nominated for a Bafta for The Worst Person in the World). How does she rate her chances of winning? \u201cDon\u2019t talk about that, let\u2019s not jinx anything!\u201d<\/p>\n

Tall (she\u2019s 5ft 8in) and make-up free, in a beige wool hoodie (\u201cyou need wool in Norway\u201d), baggy jeans and Dr Martens (\u201cfor the ice\u201d), Reinsve is sitting in the restaurant of a five-star Oslo hotel eating a chicken salad. Smiley, with an engagingly light-hearted manner, even when making thespian-like statements about \u201cthe craft\u201d, she\u2019s just back from the European Film awards in Berlin, where \u2014 naturally \u2014 she accepted another best actress gong. After all the partying she\u2019s also feeling under the weather and is relieved to be spending a few days doing the school run for her six-year-old son and making his dinner.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so crazy and my son is going a little crazy with it all. You just want to stay home for a bit and have some sanity. You keep going and going so far, and then once you get home your body\u2019s like, I need a break after all the craziness. Then I mobilise again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Renate<\/p>\n

Dress, POA, Louis Vuitton. Vest, \u00a349, Hanro. Knee socks, \u00a346, Comme Si. Phillipa ear cuff, \u00a322,120, Ana Khouri<\/p>\n

OLIVIA MALONE<\/p>\n

\"Renate<\/p>\n

Dress, POA, Louis Vuitton. Socks, \u00a327, Comme Si<\/p>\n

OLIVIA MALONE<\/p>\n

Yet Reinsve\u2019s not whingeing about the whirlwind that has recently engulfed her. \u201cI feel so honoured, because I come from a really, really small place. So the trajectory of our journey, the fact that people are even talking about our film, is such a big win. Where I grew up, Hollywood was so far away I didn\u2019t dare even dream about working there, so to know I\u2019m part of that world now is the best feeling \u2014 it\u2019s like I finally belong somewhere I\u2019m at home, with people who share my values and interests, who have curiosity about the same things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reinsve grew up \u201con a road with some houses, deep in the forest. There was a lot of conformity, people in my life all wanted the same thing.\u201d She had friends, but they worshipped the Backstreet Boys. In contrast, she was devouring philosophy books, David Lynch films and listening to Pink Floyd. \u201cNo one else I knew saw the magic of these things or shared my curiosity of how such worlds could be created.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her screen idols were kooky legends such as Diane Keaton and Gena Rowlands. What is her take on the cookie-cutter, size-zero starlets who far outnumber such originals? \u201cHollywood definitely contains that, but that\u2019s only one side. The actors I like had a fierceness and coolness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NINTCHDBCOMP000046257607\"<\/p>\n

From top: with Stellan Skarsgard in Sentimental Value; and with Anders Danielsen Lie in The Worst Person in the World<\/p>\n

Hers sounds like a challenging childhood. Her parents split when she was very young, \u201cthen they had new relationships and then they split up again\u201d. The family (she has two sisters, one half-sister and two stepsisters) moved frequently. The constant in her life was her childminder: \u201cSo I had a lot of love and care around me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reinsve questioned everything. \u201cAt school, when I was nine, which is when [Norwegian] kids stop playing and you\u2019re supposed to sit still at a desk, I remember looking around and thinking, this is not good for anyone. It\u2019s going to ruin my creativity, to break something in me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her contrariness led to a theme of her being constantly thrown out of things. Everyone in her family worked at the hardware store her grandfather had established, but Reinsve was asked to leave. \u201cI just didn\u2019t care enough to show up on time or do the tasks I was supposed to do.\u201d The Girl Scouts kicked her out after she refused to build a birdcage to specifications. \u201cBut they suggested I did acting instead, so\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

She joined a theatre group and found her calling. Her first role, aged nine, was as a fox. \u201cMy friends were messing around but I was serious. I was like, what has this fox eaten today? Where has it been?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Renate<\/p>\n

Dress, \u00a31,610, and headscarf, \u00a3950, Calvin Klein Collection. Socks, \u00a327, Comme Si<\/p>\n

OLIVIA MALONE<\/p>\n

\"Renate<\/p>\n

Dress, \u00a35,000, Louis Vuitton<\/p>\n

OLIVIA MALONE<\/p>\n

Aged 16, Reinsve moved out of the family home. She\u2019s reluctant to expand, simply saying, \u201cI was too difficult for my mother, although now she\u2019s proud of me.\u201d Living alone, \u201cI just wasn\u2019t good at taking care of myself,\u201d she says. She couldn\u2019t get up in time for school and so ended up being expelled. \u201cI decided, since I had to go away, I\u2019d go as far away as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flights to Edinburgh were on sale for \u00a31, so she headed there. After a week her money ran out. \u201cThe hostel where I lived felt so sorry for me they gave me a job. But it was so hard at first \u2014 especially understanding the Scottish accent. I had a little sign when I worked in the bar that said \u2018I\u2019m from Norway, I don\u2019t speak English very well.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Two years later she returned to Norway, briefly working in a grocery store in Oslo (where she was also sacked because she didn\u2019t put items on the shelves in the order the boss wanted). Things finally started improving after she enrolled in theatre school, going on to become a well-regarded actress in the city\u2019s buzzing theatre scene. Yet, just before Covid, Reinsve decided she\u2019d had enough. \u201cI\u2019d done theatre for so long. I really loved it but it\u2019s hard physical work, you don\u2019t get any vacations and I couldn\u2019t find a way into cinema as I wanted because in Norway that\u2019s impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plan was to start a new life with her partner (her son\u2019s father, now her ex), working as a carpenter. \u201cHe had a dream to work with wood in Italy. So we were moving there. It was so weird, I remember lying on my bed, having made my choice, feeling so relieved, and just then I saw a message from Joachim saying, \u2018Can we have lunch?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

\"Stellan<\/p>\n

Skarsgard, Reinsve and Joachim Trier, the director of Sentimental Value<\/p>\n

CARLOS ALVAREZ\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

It turned out that Trier, with whom she had worked before but didn\u2019t know well, had been puzzling over how to give Reinsve the higher profile he knew she deserved. He had decided to write Worst Person specifically for her to play the lead, Julie. The \u201cworst person\u201d, Julie is also one of the most engaging heroines in contemporary cinema in her unending, mercurial \u2014 and very relatable \u2014 pursuit of love and fulfilment. \u201cI had the feeling making the movie that it was not about me, it was about universal things, making choices \u2014 often terrible ones you can\u2019t go back on \u2014 and identifying who you are, creating your life for yourself, and how difficult all that is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Audiences certainly identified: Reinsve had to deal with both women and men endlessly stopping her to tell her, often emotionally, \u201cJulie is me.\u201d Barack Obama named Worst Person one of his favourite films of 2021 and overnight Reinsve became the hottest name on every casting director\u2019s list, rapidly winning roles in, among others, Apple TV\u2019s Presumed Innocent<\/a> alongside Jake Gyllenhaal and the film A Different Man<\/a> opposite Sebastian Stan. Next up she\u2019s working with the acclaimed director Alexander Payne (The Holdovers) on his latest film, Somewhere Out There, set in Denmark.<\/p>\n

Trier, meanwhile, rapidly wrote another script for his muse: Sentimental Value, with Reinsve playing Nora, an acclaimed stage actress (no coincidence) navigating a fraught relationship with her selfish, absentee film director father (Stellan Skarsgard). So is Reinsve more quixotic Julie or damaged Nora? \u201cI\u2019m both. I\u2019m like Julie in that I contemplate a lot but I\u2019m quite playful. With Nora it\u2019s about exploring how extremely dark it can get when you don\u2019t understand parts of yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet in many ways playing Nora has freed Reinsve to loosen up. She used to shun schmoozing at parties and the fashion side of the job. \u201cI just wanted to be recognised for my work.\u201d Now, however, she has realised fun can be had from both. She has collaborated with Louis Vuitton and wore a fringed gown sewn with 800,000 beads by Nicolas Ghesqui\u00e8re to the Globes. \u201cIt was so heavy, I felt like I was flowing around. When you have something like that on it feels like an armour. I wasn\u2019t into fashion before \u2014 I was earning no money, I didn\u2019t have access \u2014 but now I really understand the difference between clothes that make you feel grounded and clothes that make you feel elevated, and how they can alter how you feel about yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Read more film reviews, guides about what to watch and interviews<\/a><\/p>\n

Her chief fellow mischief-maker is Skarsgard, one of the few Scandi actors \u2014 along with his son Alexander (Succession) \u2014 with an illustrious career both in their home country and internationally. \u201cStellan\u2019s so fun at parties. We have this tequila challenge: whoever buys tequila first, the other has to drink it. We\u2019ve been such a bad influence on each other. That\u2019s why I need my rest now. But I\u2019m going to visit him in Stockholm, whether he wants it or not, because I\u2019m going to miss him. He\u2019s saying to me \u2014 he says it to all the people, he\u2019s protective \u2014 \u2018Stay in Sweden, stay in Norway, even though you work abroad.\u2019 He\u2019s been able to do that his whole life. It stops you losing your mind, because you can lead a pretty normal life here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reinsve is following that advice, not least because she doesn\u2019t want to uproot her son permanently. She\u2019s on excellent terms with her ex, who runs a construction company. They co-parent 50:50, and when she\u2019s away for long periods, father and son join her wherever in the world she\u2019s filming. \u201cHe\u2019s my dream ex! He can work anywhere. Without him all this wouldn\u2019t be possible. So much of the stress of my work is around logistics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Renate<\/p>\n

Jacket, POA, and heels, \u00a31,080, Khaite. Knickers, \u00a328, Cou Cou Intimates. Tights, \u00a310, Calzedonia<\/p>\n

OLIVIA MALONE<\/p>\n

\"Renate<\/p>\n

Bra, \u00a354, Cou Cou Intimates. Skirt, POA, Acne Studios. Mules, \u00a3125, Femme LA. Necklace, \u00a379,500, Tiffany & Co<\/p>\n

OLIVIA MALONE<\/p>\n

Still, it\u2019s not lost on Reinsve that she\u2019s busily promoting a film about someone who\u2019s so busy with promotional tours they become estranged from their children. She had intended to take this year off to help her son settle into his first year of school. \u201cBut too many opportunities came up. I am scared of not being present enough, or of him feeling I love something else more than him. So I really, really make an effort to make him feel involved. I give him all my awards and he\u2019s been with me to some events so he can see what they\u2019re like and doesn\u2019t feel totally on the outside. When we\u2019re at events I only talk to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

So if Leo comes up to her at the Oscars she\u2019d diss him if she\u2019s with her son? \u201cYes, I\u2019d say, \u2018No, sorry, I\u2019m with my son. I\u2019ll talk to you next time.\u2019\u201d In fairness, the way Reinsve\u2019s career is going, there probably will be many, many more next times.<\/p>\n

Sentimental Value is streaming on Mubi now<\/p>\n

Styling Karla Welch Hair Jenny Cho at A-Frame Agency Make-up Emily Cheng at The Wall Group Set design Daniel Horowitz at 11th House Local production Noted Collective Booking Karla Shield<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last month Renate Reinsve took her sister as her plus-one to the Golden Globes in Los Angeles, where…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-439463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}