Lasse Hallstrom

“Kevin, as the whole cast is, just wonderful people and great people, and people who are attracted to this kind of material and accepting the idea of going to Newfoundland and knowing the kind of lack of amenities.”

“To see my wife getting inspired from my notes and thoughts, going in the direction I wanted, and have her surprise me with wonderful choices was a real treat.”

“I am always more interested in performance and character depiction, and my direction says as much.”

“I made all their videos, apart from the last two, so if you ever see an Abba video on TV then it's my stuff.”

“I'm on this diet where you're supposed to eat only fish and meat.”

“I discovered the 7th art at home when I was kid, through Charlie Chaplin's movies and those of my father who shot documentaries. He was my biggest influence. So I took his camera and started shooting.”

“My key interest in choosing scripts is character-driven stories, because there are so many stories that sacrifice character for plot.”

“Many of the comedies I had made in Sweden were slightly based on semi-autobiographical experiences, so adapting novels was a very different experience.”

“I love improvising.”

“I was always attracted by the European way of life, but I am deeply Swedish.”

“My films do have characters who have trouble escaping the world around them.”

“Cinema has become a global economy, totally international.”

“I can't go back and label myself as an outcast because I was a pretty well-adjusted kid, but I can certainly relate to the feeling of being an outsider.”

“ABBA: The Movie; I got a lot of grief for working on that.”

“I always need a couple of highlights to really spark the passion for a project.”

“My father was an amateur filmmaker who shot 8mm color documentaries.”

“I love involving actors at all levels - and they have to know that I want to hear their contributions, with dialogue, with story suggestions, with script changes, whatever.”

“I always try to preserve my cinematographic style, even while I work in the US. I wish to always be European.”

“But I notice that there is a lack of darkness in my movies and I don't know where that comes from.”

“I imagined that it might be awkward to talk to your wife about her performance, so going into it I was a little nervous. But doing it was actually a wonderfully inspiring experience.”