Reykjavík Grapevine - 01.03.2019, Blaðsíða 22

“You’ve got to be really good at being
bad,” says María Thelma Smáradóttir.
Over the course of 10 years of studying
and auditions, María has experiences
her fair share of rejections. But hear-
ing thousands of no’s for every callback
only developed her resilience.
In her final year at the Icelandic
Academy of the Arts, María was tasked
with presenting a 20-minute play as
part of her final project. Not knowing
what to create, María consulted her
mother and older sister over a cup of
tea. “My sister asked me if I ever won-
dered where our mother was born,”
María says. “I felt so ashamed that I
hadn't even looked into my other heri-
tage.”
This kitchen table conversation led
to María creating ‘Welcome Home’—a
spoken word performance of her moth-
er’s immigrant story performed at the
National Theatre of Iceland.
Where you’re from
María’s mother, Vala Rún, was born
during monsoon season in the middle
of Thailand’s rice fields. Having lost
her parents at a very young age, coming
to Iceland felt like a homecoming. “My
mother’s journey is something I’ve dis-
covered only recently,” María says. “At
a certain point in your life, you just get
curious about who you are and where
you came from.”
Growing up as a child of a Thai
mother and an Icelandic father, María
felt no different from her peers. “My
childhood felt normal because I didn't
know anything else than coming from
a biracial home.”
But she did have to grow up fast,
helping her mother navigate daily
hurdles, such as bank visits and
doctor’s appointments. “My mother
speaks broken Icelandic,” María says.
“She's a human being who speaks a
language, but she doesn't speak the
same language.”
Gifts and sacrifice
During her play, María addressed the
obstacles that immigrants face when
trying to build a life for themselves.
“It’s so rude when people start to speak
louder to my mother, or speak to her
like she’s deaf, articulating e-ve-ry syl-
lable, as if she's stupid or something,”
she says. When María and her sister
were children, their mother always
spoke to them in Thai, giving them the
Culture
Caught Between
Two Cultures
María Thelma Smáradóttir, the star of ‘Arctic,’ on a theatrical childhood,
working with Mads Mikkelsen, and navigating the film industry
Words: Aliya Uteuova Photos: Art Bicnick
Movie
See ‘Arctic’ at your
nearest Sambíó
movie theatre
A movie star in the making
Getting connected to her roots