Reykjavík Grapevine - jul. 2021, Side 22

Out Of The
Ashes
GDRN catches the actin! bu! on Netflix’s ‘Katla’
Words: Andie Sophia Fontaine Photo: John Pearson
You might have enjoyed ‘Trapped’
as a great addition to Iceland’s Nor-
dic noir catalogue, but now the na-
tion is ready to spread into other
genres, with Baltasar Kormákur’s
Katla taking the leap into science
fiction. We spoke with Gu!rún "r
Eyfjör! Jóhannesdóttir—better
known by her stage name, GDRN—
who stars in the film as Gríma, a
young woman living in the ashes of
a devastating eruption of the volca-
no Katla. It turns out this death-de-
fying and inexplicable feat is only
the beginning for a sleepy Icelandic
village—more thrills await them,
like it or not.
The thrill of a challenge
When Gu!rún was approached
by Baltasar’s casting director and
asked if she wanted to audition
for the part she embraced the op-
portunity, precisely because of the
challenge it presented.
"It was a surprise, but it was
something that I found that I re-
ally wanted to do, so I was really
stressed,” she tells us. “I don't re-
member much about the audition
because I was so stressed about it. I
really love doing things that do not
come easy for me. I want to have a
little bit of the unknown, this feel-
ing of 'I don't know if I'm going to
pull this off'. I love doing things
that are challenging."
Another big part of the draw for
her was the freshness of Katla’s
concept in an Icelandic context.
"I don't think the Icelandic
film industry has done something
like this before,” she says. “This
is something new. It has a young
woman in the leading part, which
is unfortunately not that common.
But it's also a sci-fi thriller and
that's not something I've seen in
Icelandic movies, either. So it just
felt new and exciting and that was
what really made me think this is
something that I really want to do."
Camera as audience
As someone who’s performed on
stage since she was five-years old,
Gu!rún felt she was able to apply
a lot of her skills to acting as well.
“When I got in front of the cam-
eras, I just realised that when I'm
on stage, my whole point is to get
the feelings that I'm experiencing
within the song to the audience,”
she tells us. “And this is exactly
what you're doing as an actress.
You're just trying to get your emo-
tions through the camera to the
audience, so it has kind of the same
tone to it. So that was not some-
thing new for me and I got it really
quickly.”
That said, performing for a soli-
tary camera rather than a cheering
crowd presented its own challeng-
es.
"That was the difference be-
tween a live show and acting on
camera,” she says. “No live show is
the same, because you always have
a different audience, setting and
mood. It's a conversation between
you and the live audience, whereas
the camera is not giving anything
back. So it's just up to you to keep
the conversation going."
Send her scripts!
After the experience of Katla,
Gu!rún feels she has caught the
acting bug.
"I definitely hope I will do more
acting, because this was such a fun
experience,” she says. “I felt that I
got to see a bigger picture of what
art can be. It was so rewarding and
it gave me so much, I actually felt
like it helped me a lot with the mu-
sic, too. It gave me a bigger perspec-
tive of arts in general. So I really
hope I'll get to do more acting."
Katla debuted on Netflix on June 16th.
A still from 'Katla'
GDRN, fresh out of dealing with the catastrophic eruption of Katla
Film
“I don't think
the Icelandic
film industry
has done
something like
this before.”
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