{"id":16816,"date":"2022-05-10T08:50:29","date_gmt":"2022-05-10T12:50:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev2.worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2022-05-11T09:13:44","modified_gmt":"2022-05-11T13:13:44","slug":"black-sands-steinunn-olina-thorsteinsdottir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/black-sands-steinunn-olina-thorsteinsdottir\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Sands’ Steinunn \u00d3l\u00edna \u00deorsteinsd\u00f3ttir"},"content":{"rendered":"

A murdered tourist. A 30-year-old detective forced to leave the Reykjavik police force and return to her small hometown and try to reconnect with her abusive mother. A series of deaths that weren\u2019t accidents. And the eerily scenic black sands desert in Iceland. These elements are the backdrop to the Icelandic TV drama Black Sands<\/em>. Actress Steinunn \u00d3l\u00edna \u00deorsteinsd\u00f3ttir talks to TV Drama\u00a0<\/em>about the series\u2019 themes; Icelandic writers\u2019, directors\u2019 and actors\u2019 desire to tell unconventional stories; and the country\u2019s vibrant production industry and support of gender equality.<\/p>\n

\"***Image***\"TV DRAMA:<\/strong> What appealed to you about the project Black Sands<\/em>?
\n\u00d3L\u00cdNA \u00deORSTEINSD\u00d3TTIR: <\/strong>What appealed to me was to work with Baldvin Z [director Baldvin Zophon\u00edasson] because he\u2019s unconventional. He\u2019s not scared of going out of the box. We\u2019re seeing so many detective series that are formulaic; all of them are a bit the same. There are different settings, different characters, but the market demands the same kind of TV series. We\u2019re all somewhat sedated in that way\u2014audiences and actors alike.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m always happy to work with Baldvin because he refuses to go along with convention: [There have] to be so many cop scenes, so many dead bodies, so many naked women. He fights that. He also has a deeper message to convey, so that\u2019s always interesting. In Black Sands<\/em>, it\u2019s toxic relationships and toxic families, which are a special interest of Baldvin\u2019s! That is what was exciting. And the role I play, the mother of the lead character, was a blank canvas when we started, but with Baldvin, you always have the opportunity of being very creative. We conjured up this woman together, and it was such fun because I didn\u2019t want her to be any old mum. I wanted to be a parent of my generation, kind of an old punk rocker or someone who has become stuck at the age of 20 because of the shitty life that became hers. That was a lot of fun.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA: <\/strong>What are some of the themes that the series explores?
\n\u00d3L\u00cdNA \u00deORSTEINSD\u00d3TTIR:<\/strong> I believe Black Sands<\/em> is very true and authentic to Iceland. We\u2019re talking about a very incestuous, small community, where everybody knows each other, which makes things really complicated in terms of an investigation. This is the truth of Iceland. Everybody is interrelated, even through our politics. It\u2019s impossible to be incognito in Iceland, and it\u2019s even impossible to do something without it affecting someone you know closely or a family member. So the complexity of something happening in a community touches everybody.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> Is another theme the debate of whether human beings are destined to be the individuals they were raised as, or can they overcome some of the trauma they experienced?
\n\u00d3L\u00cdNA \u00deORSTEINSD\u00d3TTIR: <\/strong>I think some people are lucky. Through their surroundings and life experiences, they get the audience they need from somebody that sees them so they may prosper and flourish. A lot of people are subject to difficult childhoods or authority figures at school who make them feel like losers from a very young age. It only takes that one person to see the opportunity in somebody or see their talent for the person to grow. It doesn\u2019t need to be a parent. It can be a teacher or a neighbor who can save a person. The lead character in Black Sands<\/em>, the detective An\u00edta, had a bad hand from the beginning, so she makes a lot of bad choices. She hasn\u2019t had adults who are role models.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> Tell us about the character you play, El\u00edn. Is it more challenging to play El\u00edn than a character like Gabr\u00edela, a detective in Case<\/em>?
\n\u00d3L\u00cdNA \u00deORSTEINSD\u00d3TTIR:<\/strong> No. El\u00edn is just a part of me that thankfully never got to be! I\u2019m just a more privileged person than she is! I think we all have these kinds of people inside of us. That\u2019s why it\u2019s important to tell the stories of people who are unfortunate in life because it can be a close call\u2014make or break what happens to you in life.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> Had you already worked with Aldis Amah Hamilton, who plays An\u00edta and is one of the creators and writers of the show?
\n\u00d3L\u00cdNA \u00deORSTEINSD\u00d3TTIR: <\/strong>Not to this extent. We got to know each other during the shooting of the series. It was an absolute joy. She\u2019s full of energy, and she\u2019s very intelligent and talented. I am in awe that she has gotten her first show on its legs so early in her career. She\u2019s shown great talent as a writer and creator, but she\u2019s also a very good actress.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA: <\/strong>From a viewer\u2019s perspective, it seems as though the backstories and development of the characters in Black Sands<\/em> are as important as the plot, maybe even more so.
\n\u00d3L\u00cdNA \u00deORSTEINSD\u00d3TTIR:<\/strong> I think we were all trying to stay away from stereotypes. Baldvin makes demands on the audience and gives them something to think about. You cannot quietly know from the get-go, Oh, that\u2019s the police, that\u2019s the murderer. Baldvin doesn\u2019t want to make it easy. He wants us to stop and question. And the behavior of An\u00edta as the hero of the story in the first episode is very unconventional for a hero; she\u2019s not even that likable. And you\u2019re wondering, What\u2019s she all about? That makes it interesting for me because if she\u2019s just a beautiful young woman who\u2019s going to solve the crime, what\u2019s the fun in that? We\u2019ve got tons of those TV shows. It\u2019s far more interesting that we start to think about why people behave like they are behaving. We have to continue telling interesting stories and breaking rules.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA: <\/strong>You\u2019ve had a lot of experience in theater. What different challenges and satisfactions do theater and television offer?
\n\u00d3L\u00cdNA \u00deORSTEINSD\u00d3TTIR:<\/strong> I was raised in the theater. My mother worked in the theater, and I\u2019ve been acting since I was a kid. I really love working in the theater, and I\u2019ll admit I love rehearsing. I love rehearsals very, very much\u2014that time when you are with a group of other actors and you\u2019re exploring stuff. That\u2019s the most fun part of it, getting the opportunity to not be yourself. It\u2019s really overrated to be yourself! It\u2019s much more fun to be somebody else!<\/p>\n

On the other hand, you do all the groundwork before you go on set in TV and film, and when the director is satisfied, it\u2019s no longer in your hands. You know you\u2019ll never repeat it, and you know that from now on, it\u2019s in the director\u2019s and editor\u2019s hands to do whatever they want with your performance. I don\u2019t know if I like theater over TV or vice versa. It\u2019s just a very different world. It all depends on the actors you\u2019re with and the director you have. If there is a consensus of working toward a goal that everybody can put their minds to, that\u2019s a delicious setting and a privilege at that.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA: <\/strong>There is a lot of talent and skill in the Icelandic television industry. It also offers quite a lot for international producers.
\n\u00d3L\u00cdNA \u00deORSTEINSD\u00d3TTIR: <\/strong>We have at least two or three big service companies here, and they are very busy. We have a lot of big movies coming into the country and shooting parts of their movies here. Our industry personnel have gotten so brilliant in the last ten years because they\u2019ve had the opportunity to work so much. I don\u2019t remember a time when we shot more films and television than we have during the last two years of Covid. Somehow, we managed to do that. That is brilliant, and Icelandic TV series have started to travel, which is great.<\/p>\n

I think we have stopped trying to follow the Nordic noir trend. We\u2019re getting more confident in telling our own stories. I believe stories in TV travel better worldwide if we\u2019re authentic and telling real stories because, in the end, it\u2019s people and their relationships that will travel. Fortunately, we have stopped trying to create American TV series. I think we\u2019ve found that we have to be truthful to who we are here, and that will be our strength. We have tons of good series that came out this year, which I\u2019m sure will do really well. We have started documenting eras in the history of Iceland that I am sure foreign audiences will love because they are universal stories.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> I\u2019m reading Iceland\u2019s First Lady Eliza Reid\u2019s book, The Secrets of the Sprakkar<\/em>, about gender equality in Iceland. Do you find there are sufficient opportunities for women in front of and behind the camera?
\n\u00d3L\u00cdNA \u00deORSTEINSD\u00d3TTIR:<\/strong> I think every actress in the world will acknowledge that it\u2019s been the era of the middle-aged actress. Producers and buyers have realized that women watch TV! And women want to see stories about other women. They have also found out that they want to see ordinary faces on TV. We\u2019re not all glamorous and beautiful; we\u2019re a bouquet of mad faces! I\u2019m 52; it\u2019s been a great time for me, and I can see from my friends in England and my actress friends worldwide that we\u2019re all working now, which wasn\u2019t the case 30 years ago. At the age of 50, you were getting all the small parts in the theater, but there were scarcely any movie or TV roles. So that\u2019s good. We have very good female directors and prominent young female directors doing fabulous things here in Iceland. On the production side, we have a lot of women working here. And there are a lot of female writers writing for film and TV.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> You\u2019ve written, you\u2019ve acted, produced, you\u2019ve hosted a TV show and you\u2019ve raised four children. I won\u2019t even ask how you\u2019ve been able to do all that! Is there any area you enjoy the most, and what upcoming projects are you working on?
\n\u00d3L\u00cdNA \u00deORSTEINSD\u00d3TTIR: <\/strong>I love to do a lot of varied stuff. I ran a newspaper for almost eight years; I loved doing that. I\u2019m a news-aholic, so I love working in news. I took 13 years off from theater and didn\u2019t do any acting for 13 years, so it\u2019s fun to be back doing that. I really don\u2019t have a preference; it all depends on what I\u2019m doing. I\u2019m happy with what I\u2019m doing now. I\u2019m working in the National Theatre on My Brilliant Friend<\/em>, with the fabulous world-renowned director Ya\u00ebl Farber from South Africa. I\u2019m also rehearsing a new Icelandic play by a young playwright. It\u2019s a terrific play, a satire on Icelandic society. I love cross-stitching. I love caring for my cats and children! I just like being busy, I guess!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Actress Steinunn \u00d3l\u00edna \u00deorsteinsd\u00f3ttir talks about the drama series Black Sands; Icelandic writers\u2019, directors\u2019 and actors\u2019 desire to tell unconventional stories; and the country\u2019s vibrant production industry and support of gender equality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":289,"featured_media":16817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,70],"tags":[4990,4989],"class_list":["post-16816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-interviews","category-top-stories","tag-black-sands","tag-olina-thorsteinsdottir","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nBlack Sands' Steinunn \u00d3l\u00edna \u00deorsteinsd\u00f3ttir - TVDRAMA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/black-sands-steinunn-olina-thorsteinsdottir\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Black Sands' Steinunn \u00d3l\u00edna \u00deorsteinsd\u00f3ttir - TVDRAMA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Actress Steinunn \u00d3l\u00edna \u00deorsteinsd\u00f3ttir talks about the drama series Black Sands; 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