Reykjavík Grapevine - 13.09.2019, Blaðsíða 21

in the audience's hearts. So if I had
to pick—and I have picked!—I would
put theatre out of my life because it's
so time-consuming and it can easily
take over your life. I value family over
work, so that's why I said goodbye to
the theatre." Even shooting films will
afford actors long periods of down-
time; contrary to popular belief, being
on a live stage is far more demanding,
in Ágústa’s estimation. "In theatre,
I was working every day and night,
weekends, too. I only had Mondays off.
It drains you, your family and social
life. It's not remotely worth it for me."
However, one of the people who saw
her perform at this theatre—Gaukur
Úlfarsson—would prove helpful in
launching Ágústa onto the interna-
tional stage with a new project: Sylvía
Nótt.
“Congratu-
lations, for I
have arrived”
"She was quite the puzzle,” Ágústa
reflects. “We had a lot of mini-Sylvías
in our society. And in that year, 2004,
we were building up to an explosion
in our money-crazy society, everyone
had a new car, so the party was getting
pretty tiring for us. We were getting a
bit sick of people's shallow attitudes
towards life. We had TV characters like
Sylvía at the time. Just before Gaukur
and I made Sylvía, in 2004, I had quit
my job as a kindergarten teacher, and
was asked to front a TV show; like
sitting on a couch with a young stud,
the two of us together talking about
music and famous people. With my
amateur theatre character-building
background, I wanted to bring that
into television, so I asked Gaukur to
help me. We started to make a char-
acter gallery, and the network picked
Sylvía, saying they wanted to make
a show revolving around that girl. It
was a nice choice by [former television
station] Skjár 1."
This satirical take, embodying
Iceland’s nouveau riche culture, had
several layers to her. But was she based
on any one person?
"The way Sylvía talked, and the
foundation of her before the philoso-
phy came in, that character was based
on two really good people who are close
to me,” she says. “One, who acted pretty
much like Sylvía when she was drunk,
and the other was a child. Then we
layered her up. For example, everyone
was saying 'skiluru' ("y'know") and I
was really annoyed by that so I decided
I'm going to put 'skiluru' with every
other word I say. I was just trying to kill
the word."
She and Gaukur played the media
masterfully in the cultivation of this
character, at points contending that
Sylvía was the daughter of the director
of Skjár 1, reflecting the often nepo-
tistic nature of the Icelandic brand of
success. Sylvía Nótt’s television show,
Sjáumst með Sylvía Nótt, was a sort
of cringe-comedy series, featuring
awkward interviews driven by Sylvía’s
seemingly boundless self-confidence.
It was a huge hit, and it wasn’t long
before a songwriter approach Ágústa
and Gaukur about Sylvía competing in
Eurovision 2006.
"Gaukur and I would make every
decision based on 'Would Sylvía do
this?' and of course, she totally would,”
Ágústa says. “It wasn't a plan, it was
just something that happened. Which
is in keeping with how Sylvía devel-
oped. And what does Sylvía do when
she's actually in the competition, how
does she talk to others? People were on
needles, this timebomb on live televi-
sion. It was very bold of the nation to
vote for her. Huge punk move.”
When the
satire is too
convincing
Nonetheless, the satire was lost on a lot
of people overseas. Even some Iceland-
ers were fooled by the character.
“It was really brain-frying for a lot of
people, even people who went to school
with me," she says and recounts being
in a bar, running into a former class-
mate. "He grabbed me with both arms
and asked, 'Ágústa, what happened
to you?' and I was like 'What do you
mean?' and he said 'What did they do to
you? You were always so nice.' When I
figured out he was talking about Sylvía
I was like 'I was acting!'"
The response to Sylvía Nótt’s
performance of her Eurovision song,
Congratulations, not to mention her
behind-the-scenes antics, rankled a lot
of people. Ágústa admits the backlash
got to be too much, “but I was having
so much fun I didn't even notice it. But
after Eurovision was done I slept on the
beach for two weeks." She had gone on
tour as Sylvía through the Balkans and
Scandinavia, with only a two-day pause
between Eurovision and the tour, film-
ing the whole time. "But it was a lot
more fun than it was tiring."
Following this, Ágústa took a
completely different approach to her
career, eschewing even any aesthetic
trappings that might remotely resem-
ble her former alter-ego. "I was just
covered in wool clothes. I didn't even
want to wear mascara. I'd never been
exposed publicly as myself. I have
many sides. I have a lady side, a bit of
punk in me, and a bit of a hippy, like
many people have. So at that time, I
really exaggerated my Icelandic hippy
side."
The silver
screen
While the sun may have set on Sylvía
Nótt, it also rose upon a new film
career for Ágústa. This included some
serious, even heavy, dramatic roles in
films such as Baltasar Kormákur’s Jar
City and Olaf de Fleur Johannesson’s
crime drama City State. When asked
which is more challenging, comedy or
drama, Ágústa took the opportunity to
reflect on the state of Iceland’s acting
world.
"Comedy is way more scary,” she
says. “A lot of our greatest actors are
our best comedians, who then develop
into drama. But they've had a hard
time, because the hierarchy of acting
is such that it's really hard to get into.
Even if you studied abroad and come
back to Iceland. But it's changing a bit,
with stand-up comedy kind of levelling
the game a little." In Iceland, she says,
you have to go to the one acting school,
and then only two or three people are
selected. But is it changing? "It's still
very much like this. I would love to see
more than one school."
Vikings: not
just for nerds
anymore
Ágústa’s latest project, HBO’s Befor-
eigners, has been getting very positive
reviews. Set in Oslo, Norway in the near
future, it features characters from the
Stone Age, the Viking Age and the 19th
century turning up in the modern-day,
with complex results.
"It gets into people coming from
other countries, not speaking the
language, not having your family,
being traumatised and lost, and how
we accept each other, and how we
decide—or not—to understand each
other and live together,” she says. “That
was very appealing to me. With HBO
connected to it, I felt I could trust this
project. And my character [a Viking
woman named Urðr Sighvatsdóttir]
is so well-written and I can reflect on
many things in my character. At times
it felt like it was written for me."
There’s a good reason why Ágústa
would feel such a strong connection to
the character, given her family back-
ground.
"My father was one of the first guys
of this generation to pick up our Viking
heritage as a cool thing,” she says. “I
grew up in a Viking village (Ásgarður,
in south Iceland), and he was making
Viking souvenirs and such. And at that
time, it wasn't cool to be into Viking
stuff. It was considered nerdy! It's only
recently become a cool thing, where
young people have become proud of
their Viking heritage."
The magic
of play
Ágústa believes that in any project she
has taken up, there has been a recur-
ring theme of the roles seemingly writ-
ten for her, even when they weren’t. Jar
City, for example, was based on a book
of the same name by Arnaldur Indriða-
son and written years before Ágústa
became famous.
"In every assignment I do, the
connections reflect my personal theme
or what's going on in my own life,” she
observes. “It's ridiculous. Everything is
so close, always. And it was no differ-
ent with Beforeigners. I have no expla-
nation for this, and I don't want to dive
into it because I think I would go crazy."
When I point out that this seems
to be a running theme in her career—
following one’s heart and being driven
by the desire to have fun—Ágústa is
philosophical, with closing words that
could almost be words of advice for
aspiring artists anywhere.
"The magic happens when you're
playing,” she says. “That's the thing
we all strive to have. We all want to
be happy, we all want to have magic
in our lives. I think that makes a good
perspective in creating things and
touching people's lives. Having fun is
the core of it. If you take it too seriously,
or think you're not enough or have to
be a certain way, that's when you get
nowhere in your career and unhappy in
your life. I think you'd be much happier
digging holes for a living than being an
unhappy creative person."
21 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 16— 2019