As A Storm For Christmas lights up our festive Netflix viewing, we sit down with one of the show’s cast to talk airport delays, the power of saying no and the beauty of Norway
If you want to really understand humanity, just visit the arrivals gate at your nearest airport and watch as the crowds stream through, eager to hug and clasp the loved ones that they’ve long been missing. We all remember that scene in Love Actually, don’t we? And on the converse, if you want to witness the, well, opposite, pitch up at the airport’s departure lounge after a flurry of cancelled and delayed flights have just been announced, with stress, angst and uncertainty in the air…
That’s exactly where we find ourselves for the opening of Netflix’s new festive six-episode miniseries, A Storm For Christmas, shot at the Oslo Gardermoen airport, which sees a mix of Scandinavian actors – Danes, Swedes and Norwegians alike – play a hopeful bunch of holidaymakers keen to make it skywards in time for the big day, who ultimately converge throughout the airport departure zones. Amongst this rabble of random strangers we meet Sara, played by Norwegian actress Thea Sofie Loch Næss, who finds herself stranded, searching for her long-lost father.
Photo: Netflix_ HALLGRIM_HAUG
“She's a bit of a mystery,” explains Næss, “with all the other characters, they are either going somewhere or coming from something… She has more of an inner journey. She's searching for someone, but also a part of herself and an identity.”
Initially inspired by a longing to work with director Per-Olav Sørensen, known for another much-loved yuletide hit Home for Christmas, Næss was hooked when she saw the unusual format of the show with nearly 15 lead characters and multiple Scandinavian languages being used: “It's actually quite like an experiment,” she explains, “Like it's a lot of people to follow. And then also keep in mind: what is my place in the story and how can I help in telling the story?”
But she probably needn’t have worried, after all she’s an old hand, having started acting at the tender age of eight bagging a role on the Norwegian soap opera Hotel Cæsar and plotting her escape to the bright lights of The Big Apple, even finding dream apartments she would want to one day call her own. Now 26 years-old, and with 18 years of experience under her belt, Næss, who divides her time between the US and Oslo, says she’s garnered a few tips along the way, namely on how to deal with the tougher bouts and the inevitable rejections. “The only thing you see is the yes, but there are so many no's and rejections… I do the work and in the end, it really just comes down to what kind of human you are – if you were right for that role.”
Those early years in the industry also taught her not to mince her words much. And even at eight, she recalls how she seemed content to go directly for the jugular: “I was asking everyone how much money they made,” she laughs. This inner nerve has stood her well, particularly when raising questions on certain scripting choices, such as excessive nudity in a project. She remembers a moment, “before #metoo”, when she pushed back after discovering, “I'm the one girl in this entire show and you want me to show my boobs in the first episode.”
“It felt really weird being a 20-year-old and trying to stand up to a 50-year-old director who's like, ‘Don't you trust my integrity?’ And it's like, ‘Yes, of course I do, but, do we have to? I don't feel comfortable.’ And those things, I didn't know then that that was not okay, but now I can put it in perspective.”
Beyond the industry’s challenges, when she’s not focussed on a project, she refuses to sit around twiddling her thumbs, instead, she galvanised herself to take professional acting classes at New York’s William Esper Studio Inc, having never officially learnt the craft. “In school, I was terrified every single day, and so embarrassed. You fail, but it's really nice afterwards. And I think it's important because it's easy to get comfortable in life. And I try to push myself to do things that scare me.”
She also finds comfort in fellow ‘Scandi abroad’ friends, such as Kristine Froseth, who she speaks to most days, and like with all best friends, they don’t actually do a whole lot when they do hang out face-to-face: “When we're together, we usually just lay in bed and talk.” Spending time with family and loved ones, and dog, Violet, is her salve away from the buzz of film sets and rush of the red carpet, and now she’s back on Norwegian soil, she’s looking forward to a “really cosy” Christmas this year. “I was nearly crying yesterday when I was at the airport Gardermoen. I was like, ‘I'm home for Christmas, you know?’”. Oh we know – thank god for clear skies.