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Jannicke, Morten Tobias, Eirik, Mikael and Ingunn are on a snowboarding vacation in Jotunheimen. They are forced to take shelter in an abandoned hotel when Morten Tobias breaks his leg and their car is too far away for them to reach within nightfall. They quickly discover that the hotel was closed in the seventies due to the disappearance of the managers' son. Unknown to them, someone is still living in the hotel, and getting home, or even surviving the stay, isn't as easy as they believe.
 BLOODY DISGUSTING: Firstly Ingrid, can I just say thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to do this interview for Bloody-Disgusting.
Ingrid Bolsø Berdal- No, problem - I'm honoured!
BD: Now onto the fun part, the questions.
IBB: Shoot.
BD: In my opinion, the performance of the “final girl” in any horror movie can make or break the film. She needs to be instantly likeable and the audience truly needs to believe in her and empathize with her. I think the best example of this would be Jamie Lee Curtis’ portrayal of “Laurie” in the original “Halloween” and I really feel your performance of “Jannicke” in “Cold Prey” is right up there with the best. Did you research any other female protagonists of horror movies before you began the shoot?
IBB: Wow, thanks for those nice words.
No, I didn't research any horror movies. In fact I haven't seen many of the classic horrors simply because I'm such a chicken. Horror films leave me so scared and I can't sleep for days. I’ve seen many action films though and they’ve taught me a lot about the importance of maintaining the intensity and the inner rhythm of the character throughout the film.
Cold Prey is a typical slasher film but the script is very action driven and even though the script doesn't contain the inner drama of a Chechov play, I decided early in pre-production to try to think about Cold Prey as kind of a drama-film because the horror, the rhythm, the suspense etc are all made in the editing room and we all know how important the music and the sound design for Horror films are. The post-production of a horror “makes” the film and this is perhaps exclusive to the genre - so because of this it was important for me to “trust in my story”.
BD: Did you think about her as the “Heroine” of the movie?
IBB: I didn't think about Jannicke as a “heroine” no. She's just a girl put in an extreme situation and I tried to play that out. I think you're in trouble if you're thinking on set: “Now... how would a hero do this? And how should I say this line in order to make it sound hero-ish”? The audience wants to see characters fight both psychologically and physically in despair against dreadful circumstances and it’s interesting for an audience to watch how the characters deal with this. The worse the circumstances are, the more fun it is to do as an actor because you can make sharper choices. Even though the script didn't give me an enormous amount of stuff to play on, in that it's not character driven, we're talking horror and getting chased by a murderer brandishing a pick axe here. However it really gave me the possibility to play a sharp process. “Jannicke” goes through hell throughout the film and she makes some heavy choices. That's a fun task for an actress.
BD: Was the role of “Jannicke” offered to you or did you have to audition for it? Can you tell us something about that?
IBB: Yes, I auditioned for it. Actually I met the director Roar (Uthaug).. by-the-way isn't that the coolest name for a horror director ever? He was casting the role but he didn't think I would fit for the part at the time. I had blonde hair when he met me. Then one of the producers of the film saw me do a Russian play called “Black Milk” at the theatre I worked in and he asked the casting director to get me in to do an audition for the film. Some time went by, I dyed my hair dark for another part, went to the audition and I guess the rest is history. It's really funny sometimes how dyeing your hair can make such a big difference. It's kind of frustrating too, because directors often have a clear view of how the characters should look and that can make the audition for us a bit tricky from time to time but we can only try to do our best, right?
BD: Right! “Jannicke” is a resourceful character and you strike me as someone who is very instinctive with your performances. At one point in the movie she seems to have a very realistic breakdown before quickly gathering her wits to face the killer. Did you have any control over how your character was played?
IBB: Yes, indeed and at the same time, on set, no. I'm very fond of the pre-production stage. I really love analysing scripts, searching for the turning points, creating little stories in order to make the circumstances affect me directly on set.
That scene you mention: A classic dramaturgical turning point. I can't remember how it was written in the script originally but Roar and I agreed really quickly that it would be good if “Jannicke” had some sort of a break down right there.
My analysis was that “Jannicke” should break down, get an idea and change radically. The bigger distance between the two mind sets there is, the more interesting it is both to watch and play, I believe. But no, I didn't want to know totally what it would look like before I did it.
BD: What was your favourite scene in the film and why?
IBB: Oh that has to be the end scene. SPOILER ALERT!
I was nervous about that scene for many reasons. It took several days to do it and the temperature a couple of days before we shot it was around (Celsius) 20 below. The producer said “if it's that cold tomorrow, we have to delay it” but when we woke up that day it was sooo nice! It was still cold, maybe 5-10 below zero, but the sun was up all day and was warming us a lot. When the sun went away it became freeeezing, though..
It was technically challenging. We practised the scene beforehand with our wonderful stunt coordinator, so I knew exactly what was going to happen. But an axe is an axe.. We replaced the axe with just a fake light one, which was so light that it just made me laugh. I needed to handle it in a way that it looked heavy, which is not as easy as it sounds! Roar and the cinematographer (Daniel Voldheim) of course wanted lots of angles and wanted to use many different types of lenses, so as usual we needed to do the same stuff over and over and over again… it was quite exhausting and in the middle of it all? - remember to act!
But I love to do scenes like that. I like to work technically with the stunt coordinator. It's all about trusting each other and planning it well. If you do that, you get more “free space” in your head to be able to focus on the acting at the same time too. In that way it doesn't feel so technical, although that's what it is in scenes like that, really.
BD: It’s a very physical role, especially that scene we just discussed. Did you do your own stunts?
IBB: Stunts? Does that count as stunts? Haha, in that case - yes I did all of my own stunts! Hey, that sounds pretty cool. Well, I love to move. I like dancing, I’ve trained a bit in kick-boxing and Tae Kwan-Do in the past, so working with a fight choreographer wasn't too scary, I really think it's great fun. As long as I feel it's safe. I nearly wrecked my knee and bled from both of my hips… because of sliding my body on hard snow and ice towards the glacier edge a hundred times in a row. Roar would be like “Just a bit further Ingrid”.. “yes, but a bit faster”!, “one more time”!, “nearly got it now”!… At the end so much adrenaline was pumping through my blood… So I ran as fast as I could, threw myself on the ice… almost slid off the edge and nearly fell on top of the cinematographers’ head. I would have wrecked the camera… but other than that I felt fine.
BD: Speaking of the Director Roar Uthaug, we’re gonna interview him about the movie later but can You talk a little about what kind of a director he is?
IBB: Roar is a very good Director. He is very visual but that doesn't make him any less interested and careful about the characters and the acting. Roar spoke a lot about how important it was that these five friends were real people, he didn't want two-dimensional characters. So he gave us a lot of room and time to prepare and I really trusted him. Also he is very calm on set. He knows exactly what he wants and has good taste. I really enjoyed working with him and I really hope I get the chance to work with him again.
BD: Throughout the movie there is such a powerful dynamic among the five friends. I honestly believed that these people were true buddies, to such a great degree that I really felt for them when things go horribly wrong. Did you all bond like friends behind the scenes?
IBB: Roar really wanted to emphasise the friendship between the characters. Thanks to that, the audience tend to feel that they like these kids and they get upset when they are killed. We all got close during the shooting and we had a great deal of fun. The whole crew lived in the hotel for like 7 weeks or so, we were there day and night! I'm glad I like them all so much or else it would’ve been dreadful to be there. We were totally stuck in the middle of these mountains during the shooting. I think it helped the scenes that we got to know each other so well. And I do keep in touch with them still.
BD: The exteriors were shot in the snow and I remember reading that it was something like –25 degrees Celsius! That must have been very difficult. Can you tell us something about that?
IBB: Well sometimes it was so cold that I could hardly speak. I remember I read about the film in a blog somewhere and someone had written something like… “it's sooo stupid that they have added fake frost breath afterwords”... I wanted to yell in that kid's ear… “It's not fake you little rascal, I was freazing my bloody ass off”!!
Haha, I just remembered… Due to some continuity issues we suddenly needed to run outside one day and do an exterior scene by the hotel. It’s the scene when the friends first arrive there. It was very cold since the sun had just disappeared behind the mountains. The guy that breaks his leg, played by my good friend Rolf Kristian Larsen had just got a message from the producer that we would NOT do more out-door scenes that day. So he had made the costume lady, for reasons yet unknown wash his character's scarf.
We rushed outside and got ready for the shooting - it was dreadfully cold - and all of a sudden the lady from the Costume Department came running down the hill with this totally soaked scarf. Rolf Kristian screamed ”Am I supposed to WEAR that now”?! Because of continuity he of course HAD to wear the scarf and it froze on the spot. He had to have it around his neck and he was freezing like hell. Between every take Rolf Kristian was swearing and shouting.. He knows some very nasty words, that boy… I just had to laugh even though I felt bad for him.
I remember getting very frustrated about the cold sometimes, and to be honest, at times that frustration helped me in front of the camera. The producers were very aware of the cold weather and had arranged good ways of getting us warm between the different takes, so I was happy about that. Also I had a bath-tub in my room, I would jump in that and stay there for almost an hour every night… that helped!
BD: So it was a real hotel you filmed in and not a set built especially for the shoot?
IBB: That's a real hotel, yes! It's called “Leirvassbu” and it’s a very nice winter hotel. It's just as “abandoned” as it seems, situated in the middle of the “Jotunheimen” Mountains - but it's a tourist paradise. People go there by skis in wintertime or by foot during summer. It's incredibly beautiful. All the helicopter shots were made just there or near by.
We actually lived there while shooting too. It was kind of weird filming in the same hallways we were living in... The Art Department did a very good job in making the hotel look old and worn down, though it looks better in real life!
And about not being able to use cell phones… It's a horror film cliche of course… but in these mountains it's actually true. We had ONE little spot in the hotel where some texts might tick in now and again so all the crew's phones were lying on top of each other on that very spot. But it was actually nice not being “online” for a while, we should try it more often.
BD: Did you find the movie suspenseful when you first saw it?
IBB: Yes, I did. But seeing a film you've participated in... it's a weird experience. You're busy looking at yourself, how things work technically, you care about scenes that didn’t make the cut, about things you could have done differently - all sorts of things. It's not always a pleasant experience. But it was when I saw Cold Prey - I thought it looked awesome and I also thought the story worked rather good. It was a very nice experience all in all.
BD: Lets talk about “Cold Prey 2”. It continues directly after the conclusion of the first one. As a Make-up Artist on movies I know it can be a continuity nightmare and a real challenge when I have to, during re-shoots pick up something months later and make an actor look exactly as they did for a previously shot scene. The sequel was shot something like 2 years after the original one wrapped. Did Make-up and Hair have to alter your appearance dramatically to return “Jannicke” to her exact state for the opening of the sequel like cut your hair short or re-colour it?
IBB: Yes, they needed to cut my hair and re-color it. We meet “Jannicke” a few hours after the first film ended and she is now very cold and in a psychological state of shock. The Make-up Artist made me look very cold, so no “direct continuity” was needed when it came to make-up. We DID remove a bruise “Jannicke” got from the first film when she got hit over the head though because we would be forced to keep that during the entire sequel and that would’ve been a drag. Nobody has mentioned that, so that was successfull!
BD: How has the character of “Jannicke” changed from the original? Is she really pissed off this time around?
IBB: She's incredibly tired and traumatised. As I did with the first one I tried to think about the second film in terms of a drama film too, not as a typical horror flick. “How would I honestly be if all my friends were brutally murdered in front of my eyes”? It’s uncertain if that “approach” on such a film would work. Sometimes taking the circumstances “too seriously” wouldn't work within the genre but I feel we managed to make it work. All the other actors wanted to take it seriously too and that was nice. I need to mention though that there’s lots of humour in this one also, it's not all depressing! Not at all!
It takes some time for Jannicke to “wake up” but when she does, she really does. I mean, “it’s all happening ALL OVER AGAIN”?!? How the f*** are you supposed to react to that?! I struggled a bit on that one… but finally I found an ok solution, I think.
BD: I’ve read in reviews that your character in the sequel is comparable to Sigourney Weavers’ character of “Ripley” in “Aliens”. Do you feel this is true?
IBB: Hmmm, I don't know - it's been a long time since I saw “Aliens”. People have been talking about it, but I never thought about that. “Jannicke” has never handled guns before so it was important to me that we didn't try to make her more skilful than she is. She still is “just a girl next door” so to speak, she's no tech-wiz or gun expert but she knows how the killer works now. And that’s what she uses. She is determined. That she is.
BD: I remember you told me before that the sequel was a lot more difficult to shoot than the original. Was this mainly because you had to endure food poisoning during the shoot?
IBB: Haha. No, definitely not MAINLY to do with that but it's true, I was very sick during a short period of the shooting. We were working nights one week… working until 5-6 am in the morning or something and I was puking up, running outside, screaming in front of the camera, running inside, Puking, sleeping for five minutes, running outside again, screaming a bit more, freezing, running inside, shivering a bit, running outside again.... and on and on. After one of these nights I drove back to Oslo, it’s like a 4 hour drive and went straight on stage at The Norwegian Theatre, doing a physical theatre piece. That's an evening I won't forget… The main reason it was much harder is because of Jannicke's mental stage. We meet her when she is very traumatized. And it only gets worse during the film. In the original there were some “fun scenes” to do, where I could relax and enjoy the scenes. In Cold Prey 2 there aren't many “fun” scenes for “Jannicke”.
BD: I also read that the crew would dress up throughout the shoot and jump out to scare you. Can you shed some light on this?
IBB: Whaahahahat?! Where did you read that?
BD: Wikipedia I think.
IBB: No, that's not true. In fact, I made a deal with both directors that I didn't want them to scare me “for real” on the set. I get terribly scared if someone does that, I can get very angry too.... and I didn't want that to happen!
But I remember at one of our parties yes, someone dressed up, so that's true...
BD: Was it important to you that “Cold Prey 2” was as good a movie as the original and not some cheap attempt to cash in on the success of the first one?
IBB: Yes, of course. I wouldn't have done the sequel unless I was sure that the producers wanted to make a good film and I'm very happy it turned out well.
BD: Do you see a “Cold Prey 3” in the future? It would be nice to round off the series as a trilogy.
IBB: I don't know… both of the “Cold Prey” movies have been hugely successful in Norway and maybe there's room for one more. I'm not sure. Also I know the producers won't make another one unless they come up with a really good idea. If you have got one, pass it on to them!
BD: Maybe I will. Would you do more horror movies?
IBB: Right now I feel I've done my share of running and screaming in dark hallways... But a good script is a good script even if it's in the horror genre. If it contains something I haven't tried before or I'm offered to do a character that's got something to her that I find interesting, then yes I'd consider doing more horror. Especially if it's more psychological: I like films such as “The others” and “The sixth sense” they have nice stories in them.
But as of this moment I'd like to do a film from another genre, I must admit that :)
BD: Finally, Do you have a favourite horror movie?
IBB: As I've said... I get sooo scared, so I try not to watch them. But I must say “The Shining”. When I saw the Danish “Sidste time” (A “Twilight Zone” type slasher film also known as “Final Hour” where kids get locked in a high school with a killer) some years ago, I got incredibly scared. Also “The Blair witch project” gave me one sleepless week. I don't like the gory ones but the ghosts and the monsters really freak me out...
You can find out more about Ingrid and view “behind the scenes” photos of “Cold Prey” at her official website
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