A Norwegian in Brooklyn: Meet Kristine Frøseth

Kristine Frøseth grew up between two worlds. First there was New Jersey, the quintessential American suburb made famous, or infamous, by Tony Soprano and less-than-flattering reality television depictions. Then there was Ås, the rural Norwegian town characterised primarily by its tranquil beauty and its proximity to the idyllic beaches of Drøbak. She was born in the former, to Norwegian parents, and spent the better part of her adolescence traveling back and forth at the whims of her father’s career.

“I’d have three years to settle in, make friends and then we’d leave again,” she says, on a video call from her apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where she now lives. “I tried to keep in touch on MSN — remember MSN?” she asks me, referring to the online chat service favored by teens in the early 2000s. “Or I’d memorise all my friend’s phone numbers and stuff like that, but we were kids so it was hard to keep in touch.”

Perhaps this recurring dose of culture shock prepared Frøseth, now 24-years-old, for the pick-up-and-go life of an actress, though it is hard to believe anything could have prepared her for this past year. While most of us were baking sourdough or otherwise trying to pass the time, she was filming roles in not one but three standout projects: Lena Dunham’s hotly anticipated film Sharp Stick, star-studded anthology series The First Lady, in which she plays a young Betty Ford to Michelle Pfeiffer’s mature Betty Ford, and Amazon’s ballet thriller Birds of Paradise.

The latter, which releases via the streaming giant in September, was a true fish out of water situation. “I’d never done dance my entire life, not contemporary, none of it,” says Frøseth, who trained nonstop for three months to play a ballerina vying to join the prestigious Opéra national de Paris. “Did you ever dance?” She has the charming habit of asking back my interview questions, throwing us both into a giggly digression. I manage to get us back on track.

“I wanted to be as disciplined as possible and live the life of a ballerina, but three months was just not enough time. It was really fun to kind of… try.” This willingness to throw herself full force into any assignment, no matter how daunting, is what makes Frøseth such a thrilling young talent. “I just want to tap into all different worlds,” she says. “Or explore areas I’ve been scared to explore within myself.”

For Frøseth, it all began rather inauspiciously, in a mall in Norway. It was there, at Viken County’s Ski Storsenter, an unfussy shopping centre, that she was spotted by a model scout (she would later be scouted again, by IMG, at another mall in Jersey). Frøseth’s parents gave her the go-ahead and soon she was working for Prada, Armani and Miu Miu.

“I was kind of a serious kid, so they trusted that I wasn’t going to go to Ibiza and party instead,” she says, noting that the party lifestyle associated with modelling, especially in New York, can be all too accurate. “It can seem super glamorous and fun in the beginning, then you see it’s kind of dark.” A casting director saw some photos of Frøseth and persuaded her to audition for the title role in a film adaptation of John Green’s popular teen novel Looking for Alaska. The film never came to fruition, but about five years later, she nabbed the same role in a miniseries adaptation for Hulu and a star, as they say, was born.

While Looking for Alaska, along with her two Netflix titles The Society and Sarah Burgess is a Loser, have earned Frøseth a massive and fervent adolescent fanbase — reflected in her million-plus Instagram followers — when her forthcoming projects hit screens, the actress is poised to experience a whole new stratosphere of fame. “That really scares me. I haven’t really thought of that,” she says, when I ask about the notion of becoming bona fide, paparazzi snapped, recognised everywhere famous. “What I would hope is that it helps me grow in the path I want to go in and work with the people I want to work with.”

Ruben Östlund, if you’re listening, the person she wants to work with is you. “He’s my number one.” There is, however, another dream collaborator that has already come calling. “I wanted to walk for Chanel since I started modelling,” says Frøseth, who made her debut as an ambassador for the Parisian house at the 2019 Met Gala. “So to actually work with them on a whole different level… I don’t know how that happened but I’m so grateful that our paths crossed.”

Speaking with Frøseth through the computer screen, it seems unlikely that her rising star will warp her delightful, girl next door sensibility. Despite the fact that she has Zoomed with Michelle Pfieffer, the young actress still exudes the same fangirl energy as any other twenty-something. She gushes over J.Cole (“If I met him, I would probably cry”) and the stars of early-aughts teen drama The O.C. When I tell her I once said hello to Mischa Barton at a dive bar in New York, she lights up and exclaims, “Oh my god, you talked to Mischa Barton?! That’s wild.”

Frøseth entered the business right around the time the #MeToo movement was transforming Hollywood. She has experienced firsthand the ripple effects of this reckoning and even had a supporting role in indie sensation The Assistant, which tells the story of the assistant to a Harvey Weinstein-esque producer-slash-predator. When Frøseth was getting her feet wet just five years ago, there weren’t even intimacy coordinators on set to meticulously choreograph so-called sex scenes — instead they were executed off the cuff.

“It would be like, ‘Hey, can you take your shirt off?’ And I’m like ‘No!’ Then you feel like you’re being difficult. There are a lot of things that we’re now talking about, and I’m super grateful for that,” Frøseth says. Still, there are certain expectations and double-standards that have yet to evolve. “If you’re not laughing and having the best time on set, people are like ‘Are you okay?’ And ‘Why is she being so moody?’ I’ve noticed a lot of dudes when they’re preparing for scenes, they have their headphones in and they’re doing the same thing and it’s kind of being applauded in a different way.”

By her own admission, Frøseth is still very much on the journey towards finding her voice. Having powerful role models helps. “Watching Michelle Pfieffer on Zooms with producers and how she communicated — she was so prepared and so smart and so honest but always kind. I’m just trying to observe more and take notes,” she says. It is worth noting, too, that all three of her upcoming projects are directed by women, including Dunham, who has famously challenged the Hollywood status quo, both onscreen and off.

“It was kind of scary talking to Lena and sharing my thoughts and ideas. I was just so intimidated, but she’s the most lovely human being of all time,” Frøseth says. “She just wanted to listen and collaborate, and that’s when the best work happens – when the director creates that space.”

Meanwhile, offscreen, Frøseth’s existence is decidedly lowkey, borderline zen. “I go to bed really early. I’m such a grandma,” she says. She dabbles in meditation – Waking Up by Sam Harris is her app of choice – and spends as much time in nature as possible, even if that currently means heading to Brooklyn’s man-made Domino Park. “I’m so mad about this now, but in Norway, in elementary school, we would always do field trips out into nature and I used to hate it. I just wanted to be in the city,” she says. “Now when I go home I just want to escape into the woods.”

She may have been born stateside, but to Frøseth, Norway is home. These days, her parents and sister, who occasionally helps out with her on-tape auditions over Zoom, live in Oslo. She speaks of going back to visit with a wistful romanticism. “I’d take the tram up to the park that I usually go to and do a little hike there or a little run and then I’d go to Drøbak and swim. I love, love, love the beaches there. The jellyfish are a little intense, but it’s really charming,” she says. “My dad gets the best bread from this bakery near his house so I’d have that with brown cheese. Kind of an easy day — just hanging out with family and being by the beach and nature. Literally the best things.”

For now, Frøseth will have to settle for her little slice of Norway in her Brooklyn neighbourhood: her local coffee shop is called Oslo Coffee.