Considering her sizzling acting career and Oscar talk for Sentimental Value, it is hard to believe that Renate Reinsve came this close to quiting acting for another job, but it is true, and she explains her existential crisis that led her to that moment on this new edition of my Deadline video series The Actor’s Side.
The Norwegian star actually began acting in theater when she was just 9 years old and tells me it is really the only job she could keep. Everything else usually ended with her being asked to “leave,” and she will explain what that means in this fun and wide-ranging interview. Currently a nominee for Best Actress – Drama at the Golden Globes as well as for Lead Actress at the Critics Choice Awards, there is a lot of buzz for her performance as Nora in Norway’s official Oscar entry Sentimental Value, which is also a strong contender in numerous categories at SAG and BAFTA as well as the Academy Awards.
It isn’t Reinsve’s first time around this block, as she won the actress prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021 for her international breakthrough role in The Worst Person in the World, even though that was the movie she almost didn’t get to make; she had decided just a day before a fateful call came offering it that she was going to quit the business and try something else. She also talks about walking the fabled Cannes red carpet for the film’s premiere absolutely convinced it would be her first and last time, so she tells me what she did to mark the occasion.
In addition to her sterling career on the stage in Norway, we also talk about her English-language film debut in 2024’s A Different Man opposite Sebastian Stan, as well as her hot role opposite Jake Gyllenhaal who is accused of murdering her in Apple TV’s Presumed Innocent. She talks about getting to make that show on the Warner Bros lot, her first experience working in a Hollywood studio and why it meant so much to her.
There is so much more including discussing what the intriguing Sentimental Value (which took the Grand Prize at Cannes) meant to her, and how close playing a theater actress in the film may (or may not) be to the real Renate.
To watch our conversation and get the “actor’s side” of things from Renate Reinsve, watch the video above.
Join me every Wednesday during Oscar season for a new edition of The Actor’s Side, as well as every Monday for a new episode of Behind the Lens.