“I’d like to think I make films for friends that I don’t know.”

Joachim Trier, Director – The Worst Person in the World

This February, co-writer and director Joachim Trier and actress Renate Reinsve paid a visit to the Angelika Film Center in New York City for a Q&A following the presentation of their Academy Award nominated film, The Worst Person in the World.  The film itself explores what it means to grow up – even if you’re already considered a “grown up”, exploring love and loss through the eyes of Julie, played by Cannes Film Festival award winning actress Renate Reinsve, around the cusp of her 30^th birthday. They cover what it was like to film in a pandemic, the ability to truly connect to your fellow actors, as well as what led them to create both this movie in particular, and films in general. 

Watch the full Q&A now:

One of the most important aspects of such a personal, deeply emotional character study film like this is making sure that the actors are comfortable on set, and encourage them to be able to explore that vulnerability. Trier goes into detail in the Q&A of all the little things that he and the actors were able to experience together in order to make such a vulnerable film work – bonding at rehearsals, figuring out what music to play on set to really set them up for success, and more. Reinsve even described taking her co-star Anders Danielsen Lie to her hometown, disclosing their deepest shames to one another to be able to bring their characters closer together.  

Especially in the past few years, attempting to make a movie has been a thoroughly anxiety-provoking process with the ebb and flow of Coronavirus cases and variants. The cast and crew had to take even more precautionary measures to make sure that everybody felt comfortable on set than before. Even beyond music and conversation, in an unusual turn for Norwegian movie sets, the actors even got their own trailers so that they could isolate to prevent an outbreak in Covid cases. They even explored the pandemic itself in the film, rewriting the epilogue to feature the characters wearing masks. 

In exploring such deeply personal topics – love, loss, and everything in between – the film has a truly timeless effect, while similarly exploring the millennial experience specifically. With its part-based structure, segmenting the stories told to specific moments that left an impression, the film remains a timeless look into adulthood and all that it’s meant to be- and all that it is. It’s clear in this interview that the relationships made between this cast and crew will last far beyond the breadth of the film. 

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About the film: From Director Joachim Trier (LOUDER THAN BOMBS, THELMA), THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD is a Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or nominee and Best Actress (Renate Reinsve) winner rated a note-perfect 100% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Julie is turning thirty and her life is an existential mess. Several of her talents have gone to waste and her older boyfriend, Aksel – a successful graphic novelist – is pushing for them to settle down. One night, she gatecrashes a party and meets the young and charming Eivind. Before long, she has broken up with Aksel and thrown herself into yet another new relationship, hoping for a new perspective on her life. But she will come to realize that some life choices are already behind her. “A sharp and poignant look at how one’s supposedly best years pass by so quickly you barely realize it,” raves Deadline Hollywood Daily, “THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD is loaded with freshly observed intimate moments that make up the things of life.”