One of the undisputed highlights of Blow Up s cinematic year, in 1999, was the unforeseen emergence of Iben Hjelje, female lead in the vastly under-appreciated Danish flick Mifune, which lasted for a couple of weeks in the IFC but generally passed without notice.
A feisty mixture of knockout Scandinavian beauty and spiky intelligence, Hjelje was obviously destined to go on to greater things, and has now landed one of this year s most enticing roles in the film version of Nick Hornby s much-beloved novel High Fidelity. With the hero played by none-better-suited everyman John Cusack, Hjelje portrays his on/off/on-again/off-again girlfriend Laura. She does more than justice to the role, and it will almost certainly kick-start an A-list career.
And so it comes to pass that Hjelje sits opposite yours truly in a twentieth-floor Hollywood suite, the setting marred only by the presence of another dozen international journalists , the majority of whom work for women s style magazines, speak halting English at best, and have come to fire all manner of dull and meaningless questions along the lines of When did you get your hair cut? and What do you do to keep in shape?
However it isn t everyday that you get to exchange even mild pleasantries with one of cinema s hottest prospects so I guess the pleasure is all mine. And the somewhat scattershot nature of the exchanges notwithstanding, Hjelje emerges positively from her brief encounter with the press.
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A career actor with an established reputation on her home turf in Denmark, Iben Hjelje trained at the State Theatre school in Copenhagen for four years.
I graduated in 96, and basically I ve been working on theatre in Copenhagen and doing a few movies in Denmark, she explains. Then Mifune got in competition at the Berlin Film Festival last year and I went and I met Tim Frears there was a party after the award ceremony, and that s when I met him and he asked me to come and work with him on High Fidelity.
I didn t believe it, I thought I d never hear from him again but he called me a couple of days later and said y still interested? I m the three-headed monster from Britain! So he sent me the script and I loved it I still can t believe it.
Nick Hornby afficionados will be disappointed to know that Hjelje hadn t encountered the great man s work before she was approached about the movie.
I d never, ever heard about the book before, but I really thought that the honesty of these characters was worth giving a shot, she reflects. John s character is kind of the typical male in our society, but I think that a lot of women will be able to relate to his character too. I don t know about American women, but Scandinavian women, I guess, will identify. What I m trying to say is that it s not completely a guy thing. Dumping people and treating them shitty the commitment-phobia and all that.
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It s been a while since any Danish talent has emerged into the Hollywood mainstream. The reaction to Hjelje s success to date has been supportive rather than begrudging.
They ve been soooooooo nice, she coos. One could have expected a lot of envy or stupid remarks, but people have been fantastic all my colleagues have been wishing me all the best, and I really appreciate that. They ve been really nice to me.
A mother of a young child, she s relatively fortunate that her family situation allows her a level of flexibility in work. But it won t always be that way.
Well, it was summer when we were shooting this movie, and I had to stay away for 8, 9 weeks so I had my baby out here, and basically my whole family could come and look after me, she recounts. The baby s almost two-and-a-half. But I think it s hard for parents of both genders, dealing with it. My husband s a musician, he has sort of the same working hours and the same schedule as I do so we try and juggle the whole thing. And the privilege is from time to time we can take a lot of time off . . .
As for privileges, how was it working with John Cusack? Wonderful, fantastic, Iben says, two weeks, and he was like my big brother, slapping me around and pulling my hair and stuff like that. He has a great sense of humour and he s a lot of fun to be around. We ll keep in touch.
Finally, where does Iben Hjelje go from here: with a key role in one of the most interesting movie successes of the year behind her, the world is her oyster. Or is it?
I have a huge sack of scripts that I m gonna go back home and read, she testifies, and I ll just let my agents know what I m thinking. But I know of people who have been trying to get some kind of breakthrough here, and it is really hard work. It s intimidating. But there s a lot of great stuff happening right now in the Danish movie business. All my family and friends and colleagues are there, and I have my own personal publicist and agent and lawyer. So we ll see.
We will indeed. Time expires, far too quickly. Blow Up heads downtown while Iben Hjelje makes a graceful exit. Keep your eyes peeled High Fidelity opens here in mid-June.