Photo & © Fredrik Sandberg/ TT
ETC 161011
By: SIGNE LIDÉN
Helen Sjöholm, currently starring in Bullets over Broadway, about her inner diva, the political commitment and her dream role.
When we meet Helen Sjöholm is a couple of weeks into the performances of Bullets over Broadway. The fatigue after the rehearsal period has started to drop and the production has received good reviews.
– Now it’s very pleasurable, she says.
Bullets over Broadway is about a screenwriter who gets his play produced with the help of mafia money. Counterclaim? To hold a role for the talentless Olive, played by a critically acclaimed Shima Niavarani.
– She is a world of her own. I just stand in the wings and… I’m a bit in love with Shima Niavarani.
Almost all musicals that are staged in Sweden are Broadway blockbusters, famous movies or both. Bullets over Broadway is no exception, it’s based on Woody Allen’s movie of the same name.
Where are the Swedish stories?
– I had the good fortune to begin with a truly Swedish story, Kristina från Duvemåla. I wish there were more new things written. There are demands here and there, but does not make it to the big stages. There is a fear among the producers.
Helen Sjöholm says that not only cinemas but also performing arts have got competition from streamed entertainment, such as Netflix.
– When I started we did six shows a week – now the private theaters are playing four. It seems there is not audience enough for more.
And then successes are choosen before bold bets?
– There must be some famous names and titles that the audience already know, Helen Sjöholm says, who in Bullets over Broadway both is such a big drawing card and plays one, the magnificent Helen Sinclair.
She is an alcoholic, superannuated star. How does it feel to be offered such a role?
– I’m soon there, ha ha ha. My character’s a great actress, but there is much you can empathize with. Like trying to get better lines or a greater part, ha ha. I wanted to explore if I have some sort of diva in me that I can pick up.
– Sure, I can understand an aging artist, I am one too. I’m not that old, but there are a number of roles I cannot do anymore.
For once you don‘t play a major role. Sad?
– Not at all! I’ve rarely worked with this type of comic actors, so the gameplay itself is a main role for me. I have no ambition to play the main roles every time.
“Have to help people fleeing”
Kristina från Duvemåla, based on Vilhelm Moberg’s Emigrants Series, had a revival in Helsinki in 2012 and came via Göteborg to Stockholm last autumn, at the height of the refugee crisis. Unlike the time that Vilhelm Moberg depicts Sweden has now become a country people are fleeing to instead of from.
– We thought about it already 20 years ago when we did Duvemåla. And now the situation is much more acute. Now this is a rich area in the world – and a safe place. It’s easy to forget that it has not always been that way, and may not always be like that.
I think of that choir at the end of the first act: “So come, we open all the gates. Yes, we are paving the way”. It doesn‘t feel like that anymore.
– Oh no. It’s also so different. At that time the United States cried for people to till the soil.
At the same time we need people both to take care of the 40’s generation and to replace them in the labor market.
– Yes, but we need to find a good way of doing it. Those who come here have to get an education or use the skills they already have.
Helen Sjöholm’s husband is a trustee for an unaccompanied boy, which has given her an insight into what it means to immigrate.
– It’s big and difficult issues. But we need to help people fleeing for their lives, that’s quite clear.
Not as ashamed anymore
Helen Sjöholm has repeatedly praised culture schools and would like to see those lifted from the municipal level to the state.
– It should be the same conditions everywhere – “this is what we will offer our children”. Then you might not have the same selection of choices in the village far up in northern Sweden as in Stockholm, but everyone should get the chance. It’s dreadfully important that children and the young people have access to culture.
– Culture school has a super important mission. It’s tougher to be young today on all levels. Then the community or the discovery of an instrument might be purely vital.
How did it affect you to find the music?
– The choir music meant a lot for me because I got an identity that I didn’t have in school. In music I found a place where I felt that “here I can be”, Helen Sjöholm says.
There was no scene or music college for her. Instead she has called the five years with Kristina från Duvemåla her education.
You said in an interview a couple of years back that “We who don‘t have an education probably feel a bit like amateurs throughout life”. How do you feel today?
– I still feel that way, but my God, I still have an experience that I can lean against. Now I begin to trust that I can take on the material in my way. I’m not as ashamed as before that I can’t get a note and just sing directly from the sheet.
Do you have any dream story that you would like to see as a musical?
– There must be drama in the story. There are exciting people that you could build it around, like Ingrid Bergman or Greta Garbo. Or the events in Ådalen in 1931. They did a musical performance about it in Kramfors.
She also mentions Åsa Lindeborg’s book “Nobody owns me”.
– That can be good on stage. But there is something that is dangerous about musicals, it can easily become pathetic. You need to find so damn right in the tone for the music to carry the story forward.
At the same time it must be balanced the other way, so it‘s not just tap dance and nothing serious.
– I saw “The flying baby” at the Orion Theatre, with Vanna Rosenberg. It was among the most moving things I’ve ever seen. So it is possible. But there are few who dare.
To a large extent, it‘s women who go to the theater, buy books and carry the cultural world. Although they are often depicted shallow, dull and remarkably often as supporting roles to men.
– Yes, unfortunately not even the musical stage is full of feministically described women. Most are traditional boy meets girl-stories.
Where is there a type of Bridesmaids on stage?
– On the other hand isn’t that a bloody good proposal for a musical? You said it yourself!
– It’s still a step, albeit small, that the women in our show take place and play on all sorts of emotions.
Helen Sjöholm is an ambassador for the Vi-forest, working with small scale and climately adapted agriculture in four countries in East Africa.
– There is much I could get involved in, but the climate is such an evident threat. Many just cover their eyes and ears and think that it will be solved, but it won’t.
She wants to see vigorous action from the politicians.
– They have a huge responsibility that they are not capable of. They must dare to be uncomfortable – and be able to sell such politics.
“Can dig when someone does something wacko”
You recorded a nice cover of Ted Gärdestad‘s Come give me love with the a cappella trio Solala. Have you then forgiven them for recording “Du måste finnas” bossa nova style?
– Benny has probably not forgiven them, ha ha! But I have, you cannot find any more charming and well singing guys. You have to cherish your expression, but there is a danger in taking everything too seriously. I can dig when someone does something totally wacko.
Helen Sjöholm on…
…who are her role models in singing:
– Tommy Körberg was my big idol – and he still is. He is the best singer I’ve heard. You can hear he doesn’t sing with his head. It just comes out, his feeling – and that’s not very common. Marianne Mörck I have always looked up to, both as a person and as an artist. Both her and Tommy I’ve had the privilege to work with, learn from and get to love close up.
…what happens next:
– I would like to do another solo album, but since I don’t write myself I have a bit of a hard time to figure out what I want to do. And I’ve had so many fun jobs that I’ve never really had time to think that much. And it would be exciting to continue acting. To rehearse something from the first collation to what then becomes, it’s the best thing I know. It’s so exciting.
…which song she never tires of singing:
– Honestly – none. You always tire – and you fall newly in love sometimes. It comes in waves. But Gabriella’s sång from “Så som i himlen”, I have always found new entries into. It’s magnificent. The Kristina music I can always return to with pleasure, it has a special place in my life.
…which musical that is her favorite:
– Among the best I’ve seen – and I saw it several times, both in the United States, Finland and in Stockholm – is Next to Normal. It’s a fairly unknown story, but very poignant.
…where she finds inspiration:
– I’m an observer and I like to watch people and can easily feel their… aura, I was close to say. I see if people fall in love or so. I easily feel human emotions. Sometimes it’s a hassle, but it’s also a formidable asset.