Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value sees a fractured family reckon with its past. The film’s lead actress talks to Screen.
Renate Reinsve has one word for Joachim Trier: yes. Even before she knew the specifics of story or character in Sentimental Value, the Norwegian actress was ready to come on board.
“I will always say yes,” she says of Trier, who previously directed her in a one-line part in Oslo, August 31st and her Cannes best actress-winning role in The Worst Person In The World.
“Joachim and Eskil [Vogt, his co-writer] have good taste in how they write characters. There will always be something really interesting in the characters,” says the actress. “Their process is so open, they are looking also at the dynamic between the actors. It’s such an interesting process.
“I don’t have any say in what they write,” she adds. “But Joachim knows me so well as an actor that he knew [with Sentimental Value] he wanted to challenge me in a different way. So I think I am in their head in the writing process.”
The actress indeed found her character in Sentimental Value a new challenge. Nora is a successful stage actress who, along with her sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), struggles in a fraught relationship with their father Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård). Gustav, who spent decades obsessed by his work as a film director, wants to reconnect with his adult daughters. He tries to cast Nora in his new film, but circumstances lead him to seek an American ingenue (Elle Fanning) for the role instead.
Absorbing a character
Working with Trier, Reinsve is empowered to give robust feedback about her character during rehearsals — three weeks in the case of Sentimental Value — and that collaborative spirit continues during the shoot.
“Joachim is so good in the way he builds a set, of course artistically but also he is a really good leader,” she says. “You don’t get that combination so often.”
Some of Reinsve’s work is more personal and internal: she tries to sit with her character for as long as possible before shooting. “I want everything to seep in subconsciously. You want all the themes and ideas to sink in slowly, so it becomes part of you. I have this feeling right before a shoot that I don’t really know the difference between me and the character. I can tell I’m in deep, because on the last day of shooting I feel myself let it go.”
During the shoot, she explains, “We have kind of an idea of what the scene would be if it was the best version, and we try to go towards it. But it’s very flexible, so whatever comes up will be welcomed.”
That feeling of letting go and exploring was a challenge for Reinsve on Worst Person but something she felt more comfortable embracing on Sentimental Value. “Joachim and I recognise that every time, we both lose control,” she says. “We both don’t know what’s going to happen, then something more authentic will occur.”
Sentimental Value was rewarded with the Cannes grand prix at its festival premiere in May, with further recognition coming from five European Film Award nominations, including for Reinsve in European actress. Neon began a US platform release in November (grossing $1.5m at press time), and Mubi has a swathe of international markets including the UK.
International career
Reinsve is certainly not saying yes to Trier because she is desperate for work. She morphed from being primarily a theatre actress in Norway — who contemplated quitting acting entirely to study carpentry — before making Worst Person, which thrust her onto the international stage after her Cannes win and the Bafta and European Film Award nominations that followed.
Between Worst Person and Sentimental Value, she shot Aaron Schimberg’s A Different Man alongside Sebastian Stan and Adam Pearson; Apple TV series Presumed Innocent in the US opposite Jake Gyllenhaal; as well as collaborating with Norway’s Halfdan Ullmann Tondel on his Cannes-premiering debut feature Armand.
Being so in demand on both homegrown European films and bigger US projects means some tough decisions on what gets her ‘yes’. “My heart lies with someone wanting to make a personal story, and a director that has a vision, so you can all work towards that,” she says. “With some studios and bigger productions, you lose that a bit. So I want to stay in that sphere of authors and directors that have their own specific way of making films.”
Reinsve has also shot Fjord, again co-starring with Stan, directed by Romania’s Cristian Mungiu. She found it “the most challenging technical role I’ve ever done”, with the director doing up to 40 takes and shooting each scene with a single shot. However, she adds: “He is such a special director, and he has found a way of making movies that’s trying to strip down manipulation.”
Also in the can is Norwegian writer/director Itonje Soimer Guttormsen’s second feature Butterfly, which will hit festivals in early 2026. In that film, she plays an experimental artist named Lily, who Reinsve calls “strange in a dark and childish way”. Another one ready for release in 2026 is horror The Backrooms for A24. Director Kane Parsons turned 20 during the shoot. “Someone being that clear in what he wanted and his vision being so young was very inspiring,” she says of the YouTuber’s first feature.
Payne’s gain
Reinsve’s next big project will come in February, when Alexander Payne’s Somewhere Out There starts filming in Denmark. “I’m very excited to work with him,” she says of the US filmmaker. “Everyone says he’s the nicest person on the planet.”
Reinsve adds that she loves the idea of such an established US voice coming to Europe. “I think in Europe, you have more freedom as a director. It will be exciting having those worlds merge. Hollywood has gotten a lot more global in the past few years, so that means a bigger area where I can work.”
The actress wants to find those roles, and directors, who offer her a challenge — just like Trier keeps doing. “I feel like I’m in progress, or in process, that I can still learn new things. I love that feeling on a set, when you think, ‘Oh, I don’t know this!’”
Reinsve says she has learned a lot in the years since she came on board Worst Person. “In theatre, you have a different way of working, where you build the character and you project that onto the audience… Joachim really urged me to strip down, be very open, and give something that no-one has had control over, that came from inside.
“It was a very scary process, but I feel that I’ve changed as an actor because of his method.”
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