Q: The movie Smilla has been on it's way for a long time. Tonight is
the big night. Did you sleep alright last night?

A: Worse than usual. Just the thought of 1500 people or so watching the
movie makes me want to take a deep breath and I have to wear a tuxedo
for the first time in my life.

Q: Are you satisfied with the movie?

A: Yes, I am.

Q: Then Bille's Smilla is also your Smilla?

A: I don't have a Smilla. The Norwegian author Jan Kaerstaad once said:
"I've never met a real person in a  book".  That's pretty deep. A book
consists of paper with letters on it. There are no people in it. There
is a mood.  To me, Smilla is a voice. I can hear her speak, but I've
never invisioned her. Julia Ormond's Smilla is a  fullfilling physical
version of what that voice may look and act like.

Q: Has Bille understood your Smilla?

A: I think so. The idea was not for Bille to make an exact copy of the
Smilla I have portrayed and I'm not sure  that is possible, because to me
Smilla is words while a movie has an extra dimension, the pictures. One
of the first things Bille and I discussed four or five years ago, when
we first met was that Bille shouldn't feel obligated  to translate the
book into a movie. That story has already been told. If he could, he
should find inspiration in the  book and then make his version of the
book and that's what I think he has done. There are a lot of things in
Ormond's Smilla character that I recognize. The combination of fragility,
bitterness and female sensuality in her portrayal of Smilla, which has
made a great impact on me.

Q: Explain the emotions you had when you saw the movie for the first time.

A: I can tell you some things, but something has to be between me and
Bille.  There is a risk in this situation,  because I am a cinematic
illiterate. I watch one movie a year, that's it. And every year I am
amazed by the  progress in filmmaking. I still rate movies by the standard
of the late sixties, because back then I watched  movies more often. So
in many ways I'm the worst person you could ask about this, because I
don't know  anything about movies. But at the same time I'm involved
in the movie and I like Bille and his earlier work.  So  naturally I'm
biased. I saw the raw edit of the movie with my publisher, my girlfriend
and Bille last summer. I felt amazed by the monumentality of the depiction
of Copenhagen and a sense of awe by what was made out of  the modest
things I wrote and that it was possible to blow these things up to
that size. I also felt a fascination by  and enjoyment in the Smilla
character. The combination of bitterness and female sensuality really
impressed  me. But at the same time I was a bit concerned by the size
of the movie. It dawned on me how expensive and  risky this movie was. I
see the movie as something in itself, not as something that has to have
a certain loyalty  towards my book.  I think it's dangerous to go see
the movie with the book in mind, because then you've created  your own
images in your mind and if you go see the movie and look for something
in particular, then your mind  is closed and that's dangerous. Bille
is taking a risk because his popularity in Denmark is so immense that
it  can only be compared to that of the national soccer team. It is not
enough that the national team plays well or  even wins, but they have
to win in a certain way and win with a certain amount of goals. If they
don't fulfill  these standards, people are filled with an instant rage
as great as the combined expectations of the nation.  These  expectations
are unrealistic and unfair to soccer players and also to Bille. The anger
and hate this movie has generated is totally out of proportions, but that
is because of what people expect of Bille and when they feel he doesn't
deliver exactly what they want the enormous expectations turn into anger.

Q: Why was "Smilla" made into a movie?

A: What happened was I got a lot of offers from America in 1992, when
"Smilla" had been translated into  English. The book had been sent to
Hollywood without my knowledge even before it was available in book
stores and when I began getting offers from film companies I informed my
publicist that I wasn't interested. I felt it would be too risky. Then
my publisher arranged a meeting between Bille and me. He liked the book,
he wanted to turn it into a movie and suddenly it felt right.

Q: Would you do it again?

A: I have felt from the moment I made the deal with Bille that this was
something I should only do once.  Because no matter how successful the
movie is it's just too turbulent a situation. There are a lot of hard
artistic and business decisions to make and I feel like it's something
I should only do once.

Q: You've worked on the character Smilla for years. Do I sense correctly
that she in some ways came to you in a  dream?

A: "Smilla" is the only book that was written because of a dream. Or
rather two dreams. I'd known for a while  that I wanted to work on a
plot that stretched over an entire book and I wanted a main character,
who could hold an entire book. Those were the technical boundaries,
which I had created. I also wanted to work with the  thriller element
and a plot.  I had imagined a male, Danish lead character, but then I
had these two powerful  dreams about Greenland. In the first one, I saw
the fur from a polar bear which covered several mountains and  had a
certain glow, and in the dream I knew that this was about a book that
it was possible for me to create.  There was a tiger inside the rug,
but that's a long story. For the first and maybe last time in my life,
I decided to follow a dream and the fact that Smilla is Greenlandic and
female was a part of this dream. The dream set the  tone of the book
and from there I worked on the story.

Q: It took four different screenwriters to write the script. Why didn't
you do it yourself?

A: I didn't think I would be able to do it. Bille asked me if I wanted to
and my first reaction was to say no. I'm a cinematic illiterate, I had no
knowledge of the work process and I felt exhausted by Smilla. I had just
finished "Borderliners", so I had just been in another world and I didn't
feel distanced enough to Smilla.  But when I saw the movie I could see
the similarities between the work of an author and a screenwriter, because
both has to  know how to build suspense, create scenes and end story lines
and at that moment I felt I could have written the  screenplay.  I also
then realized that I'll probably never write a screenplay. I love the
written language and the one thing that truly fascinates me is books. I
can get really jealous, when I read something I wish I had written.
Movies will never be my world. So the answer to your question is, I
believe I could have done it, but I don't  think I'll ever write a script.

Q: Before you became an author, you were an actor. I would have loved
to see you in this movie.

A: One of my friends said that to put my mark on the film I should do
like Scherfig in Den Forsvundende  Fuldmaegtig, where in a scene he is
a prisoner in jail. But I never asked Bille if I could be in the movie.