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Scripps Howard News Service
June 11, 2003
Film, TV beauty Lena Olin holds on to Swedish roots
by Luaine Lee
Actress Lena Olin isn't exactly psychic, though she plays one in her
newest movie, "Hollywood Homicide" in which she co-stars as Harrison
Ford's squeezable aide and comfort.
But Olin (best known as Sydney's long-lost, mysterious mother on
ABC's "Alias") says she depends more on her intuition than her
intellect.
"I find that in my life, I use those powers more than anything else,"
she says. "It's so natural to me it's not even anything I think
about. I've never gone to a psychic or paid money to have somebody
else tell me something.
"But I listen more to intuition and a sixth sense and a notion, in my
every day life ._ with major decisions and with small decisions."
Olin, who was born in Sweden, the child of actors, is married to
Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom ("The Cider House Rules"). They have
a son, 17, and a daughter 8. Hallstrom has a 27-year-old son from a
previous marriage and Olin was also married before.
Olin's first work was with great Swedish director Ingmar Bergman,
with whom she's still in contact, though they had a falling-out when
she refused to accompany his theater production of "Miss Julie" to
Sweden because her daughter was in school.
"He's not somebody I like to argue or fight with," she says. "I was
afraid for a couple of years to call him so we didn't talk for some
time. Then when I was coming home to Sweden I called him up, and he
was great.
"He said, 'It's all out of love. I want to have my instruments, my
tools around me.' He hates when people go to other parts of the
world, it's hard on him. He's just an amazing, amazing man."
Though they were both born in Sweden, Olin and Hallstrom didn't meet
until they were in the U.S. She was here making "The Unbearable
Lightness of Being." Hallstrom was here with his charming tale about
a mischievous 12-year-old, "My Life as a Dog."
"People would say, 'There's another Swede here. Have you seen "My
Life as a Dog?" ' "she says. "People kept talking about it. I
said, 'I've seen "My Life as a Dog," ask me something else.'
"Then we met and got together and since then we've been a couple.
It's been fantastic. We know what's going on here and are familiar
with that and understand that aspect of our work. And we also have
the Swedish roots and it's important for us to keep those and go back
every summer, and we know we have the same references."
When Olin, 47, was cast as Irena Derevko in "Alias," the reaction was
almost instantaneous. Though she's been acting since she was a kid,
and received an Academy Award nomination for "Enemies, a Love Story,"
she was astonished by the reaction.
"It's funny just being on TV," she says. "It's strange. I've been
doing this for so long, but I'm getting so much more attention now
and things to choose from. It's ridiculous.
"It's good, but it is ridiculous the way it works."
She has two other projects she would like to do next season, but
hopes to be able to continue - at least part of the time -
on "Alias," she says.
© The E.W. Scripps Co. 2003
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