Expressen 101205
By: CHRISTER OLSSON
She broke through in “Kristina from Duvemala”. Then she has released feature films, was the number one in the Swedish charts at 278 weeks and right now she stands on stage in “Aniara” at the Stockholm City Theater. But next year Helen Sjöholm will take completely off.
For more than one year ago Helen Sjöholm was asked if she wanted to do a screen test for a role in Lisa Ohlin’s film “Simon and the oaks” on a novel by Marianne Fredriksson. She would play Simon’s mother Karen – a role that required her aged from 37-38 years to around 50 at the film’s end.
– Of course I wanted to do that, Helen says with laughter in her voice. I´m sure they tested a billion girls so I felt that it wasn´t time to jump high at once! But I met Lisa Ohlin, did more filming – and I got the role! It surprised me so much, and it has been an enormous challenge.
It´s the first time, apart from once at the Malmö City Theatre, when she does something completely without music.
– It’s incredibly liberating, but also difficult. To record scenes without chronological order, I thought it was both exciting and “tricky”. I have to be her in every situation. Regardless of what age she is, I must stick together Karin throughout the film. The theater has always struggled with the music on the highest place in Helen’s heart.
– I wanted to be on stage and express something, she says. And when I started in Malmö nudged people to me and thought I would search for a stage school. They thought I had something there. Stage School’s jury did not have the same opinion, and after three attempts Helen gave up and started cultural studies instead. But the singing has always been there. Ever since she sang the chapbook for her great grandfather in his elderly housing and tested the sound and the strength of her voice in her father’s sheet metal workshop.
– I played theater as a child, but my first expression was the song, and it took over!
2010 was a busy year for Helen Sjöholm.
– Very intensive, she says. There has been a terrible lot of work – fun job, challenging stuff. My spring was pretty booked with a lot of concerts when the role as Karen in “Simon and the oaks” showed up and I really wanted to do it. But now I feel I need to be vacant for a while, if it still shall be fun.
She breathes out mentally.
– I’ll be off all next year. We must get out and do a tour with material from the Billy Joel-CD in February, but then I’ll be off. I want to be home with Ruben a little bit more, go to the mountains, meet friends, go and visit people.
Ruben is three and the son of Helen and the man in her life, recording engineer David Granditsky.
– Both my body and my soul want to be with Ruben all the time, says Helen. But the day he arrived, a feeling of great guilt hit me. All you needed to do, but you hadn´t the right time.
She shakes her head almost imperceptibly. Right now she has to finish the Stockholm City Theatre’s 50th anniversary show “Aniara” by Harry Martinson’s epic poem. “Aniara” is a space-age odyssey – written in different verse, including blank verse, free verse, iambic and so-called Kalevala-meter. But with the major difference that the 8000 souls, leaving an earth devastated by nuclear war aboard Aniara, never come back again but are projected into space towards the constellation of Lyra and a certain death.
– We are dying for the last time on New Year’s Day, says Helen with a little smile. It´s quite right.
When she played “Kristina from Duvemala” she died on stage six nights a week for five years. It left marks in Helen’s soul.
– The reason why Kristina did so profound impression was just that we played it for a long time. Then it settles in the body. This show, I had never played it in five years. I hadn´t managed to do it. And she feels the show in her body – though in a different way.
– I get pain in the ass to go at those hard surfaces with flat shoes, she says. But again – Kristina we played on an inclined plane in small china slippers … oh my god, it’s just the body’s decay.
Stockholm City Theatre’s version of “Aniara” has music of the controversial musician Anders Kleerup, and anyone who expects a musical with Helen as prima donna’ll be disappointed. She sings three songs during the show.
– It’s no laughing party, in any way, she says. Though there is both joy, humor, madness and beauty! It’s a tough position on earth, even if we don´t understand it daily. It feels like we are on reserve. When you become mother you begin to think more about the future and how it will affect not only me, but other generations later. I think it’s shit scary! She looks up quickly, the brown-green eyes big and afraid.
– We believe that we control everything, but I think for example that the whole question of nuclear power is incredibly clumsy run. It´s not safe just because we are storing waste underground.
During the autumn, Helen also managed to record her first solo album in eight years, “Euforia – Helen Sjöholm sings Billy Joel”.
– Some of his songs were etched in my memory and they were on the old cassettes that I recorded in the 80’s. There were lots of strong melodies, good songs, which I was super hungry for – though I knew I didn´t want to sing them in English. It was not until I realized I could do them in Swedish that I felt – yes! I want to do this! On top of tours and film and recordings Helen celebrated her 40th birthday.
– I have no problem with my age. Sometimes I look in the mirror and I can see something has happened, but it doesn´t matter for me. However, I feel that it goes too fast, in general. When you have children you haven´t the time to stop, although you always feel you should, because there is so much going on.
Any 40-crisis, she has already passed by.
– It was probably two years ago, she says thoughtfully. We moved, renovated and had a baby – it was pretty intense, I can say. We would never do so now, but we did then. At the same time I started working with “My Fair Lady”. It was tough! Then I sank a bit. I was warn-out, although I have been on leave with Ruben one year. But to move into an unfinished house with a 1 year old child, start working at the same time was absolutely maximum. At times during his career, she has been in therapy.
– I have had two periods when I had to find out the things I couldn´t come up with myself. I felt that I had to talk to someone who doesn´t know me. It has been very good for me. If you have a specific thing you need to solve, which stands in the way, I think it may be good – but the therapy has never been a big part of my life. But I’m no pro at life or being a parent – and I never will be…
She begins to get used to the mother role.
It´s both. Sometimes I the responsibility hits me. But yes, I have got used to it. So far there have been great to go to work. I play four nights a week, and it works just fine.
Ruben is a very thoughtful little guy. A cool, fun person – which is just the best! Of course! He is here and now all the time. There is direct contact with everyday life in two seconds! Helen and David met at an 50th birthday party four years ago. Last time I met Helen, she described David as a little more rock ‘n roll.
– It was exciting when we met, we were gathered from various sources. He represented not the man I had imagined that I would meet. He was a completely different type than the guys I’ve met before – a city guy who wasn´t interested in staying outside the town, go to the mountains, have a cozy evenings with dinners – everything that I thought was beautiful in life. It was oddly enough. And incredibly liberating. I discovered that maybe I was not really the one I thought.
It´s time for Helen to rush. Unlike many of her colleagues she´s never preparing herself before tonight’s performance.
– I would have a panic to walk around at the theater three hours before. To come to work, bringing the spirit of the throat, get make-up and then immediately on the scene would not work for them – but for me it is a prerequisite. If I think too much I just create a lot of unnecessary expectations. I like the feeling that just show up in the middle of something.
INFO
NAME: Marie Helen Sjöholm Granditsky
PROFESSION: Singer, actress AGE: 40
FAMILY: Husband David Granditsky and son Ruben, 3 years
LIVE: House in Nacka
BACKGROUND: Helen started to sing in a choir in Sundsvall. After a period in Malmo, she got the role as Kristina in Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus “Kristina from Duvemala”. Current in “Aniara” at Stockholm’s City Theatre and with the album “Euforia – Helen Sjöholm sings Billy Joel”. Her third film “Simon and the oaks” premieres in 2011.
MY BEST SUNDAY:
7:30 I wake up – feels like real sleep these days.
8:30 Breakfast with no “go to kindergarten-stress”. Sweet!
12:00 We don´t do anything in particular in the morning, but we go to Dieselverkstaden and see a kids movie, we eat lunch at a restaurant.
16:00 Afternoon at the local playground and a jog in Nacka reserve.
18:00 We cook a good steak and drink a glass of red wine – none of us are working tonight. Espresso and dark chocolate.
19:00 Relaxing and watching TV with my family. Charlie and Lola, Rorry a race car, Sysselstad – David and I are guessing Swedish dubbing voices.
20:00 Bath and goodnight. Fall asleep with Ruben in the middle of the night story.
22:00 I wake up and have some time to spend with David – we often see an episode of any TV series (right now, “Dexter”, season 4).
01:00 ZZZZZZZ