December 28, 2000–January 4, 2001

movies

Olin the Family

Lena Olin on Chocolat, working with her husband and playing un-sexy.

by Sam Adams

After roles in such steamy art-house flicks as The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Romeo Is Bleeding, the last you’d expect is to see Lena Olin playing the frump. And even less so when her husband, Cider House Rules director Lasse Hallström, is doing the casting. But in Chocolat, the glossy farce which opened last weekend, Olin plays dowdy Josephine, a timorous French villager stuck in an abusive marriage to the oafish Serge (Peter Stormare).

The casting against type, Olin tells a somewhat smitten roomful of journalists, came about almost by accident. She and Hallström had already planned a different project for their first onscreen collaboration when it "fell apart five days before we started shooting." Hallström moved on to Chocolat, but Hallström didn’t think of his wife for the decidedly unglamorous role until a Miramax executive made the suggestion. Olin was hesitant to accept at first, simply because she "didn’t see it as one of the characters I would normally be cast for." But of course, that was part of her appeal as well, though Olin admits her wardrobe was a little tough to deal with. "I loved the part, except for the fact that everyone [else] was running around in high heels." She fakes a pout: "I wanted lipstick, too!"

It’s not surprising that Olin would have kind words for her husband’s direction, even if it did take them ten years to end up working together. Mostly, she praises his on-set work with the actors, and his humbleness: "I’d heard actors rave about him, go on and on, and [I’d wonder,] My God, is he that fantastic? But I’d watched him on the set of Cider House Rules, and it was like watching him in the kitchen in the morning. There was no pretension that was put on. Knowing Lasse, he has a true respect for the human being, with all the flaws and shortcomings, and that’s what he really appreciates and loves. You can see that in his movies, but he really is that way."

The same can’t quite be said for Olin’s other 2000 collaborator, The Ninth Gate’s Roman Polanski. "Roman wants it his way," she recalls. "It’s not even like he doesn’t accept [other opinions;] it’s like, ‘This is the way we’re doing this,’ and you have to get into it and appreciate him for who he is and what he does. There’s no point — it’s like," she pauses, "arguing with a 4-year-old who’s throwing a tantrum: Just forget it, and go with him or quit. Not that I’m comparing him to a 4-year-old, but it’s nothing like give-and-take. You can listen and try to understand what he wants and try to do it, and then he’s wonderful and appreciative, and he’ll give you credit. But it has to be his way."