“What I do outside of work is super private”: Actor Tuva Novotny on her disinterest in fame and her extreme interest in her new series, ‘Allt och Eva’

Tuva Novotny doesn't do this too often. An interview, I mean. Though the Swedish actor-writer-director has been working more or less nonstop since she was an adolescent, she’s shied away from the other so-called requirements of the business – press, red carpets, social media – as much as humanly possible. “For many years, I wouldn’t do interviews, I wouldn’t watch my own stuff,” says Novotny, who insists a great performance ought to be able to speak for itself. “I was like, ‘I did my job, now I’m done’.” She is the rare actor who has no interest – perhaps even a disinterest – in being famous. “I don’t see myself as a public person,” she says. “My job is public and then what I do outside of work is super private.” She had a work-promotion-only Instagram for a bit. She deleted it.

So why, then, is Novotny curled up on a sheepskin Bröderna Anderssons armchair in the Vogue Scandinavia office having a long and honest, on-the-record chat with me? That’s the power of her latest project, Allt och Eva, a Swedish-Danish dramedy in which the actor stars as the titular Eva, a woman who gets pregnant via sperm donor and then winds up in a romance with the unwitting father of her unborn child. “This is a project that I had fun with, that I want people to watch,” she says. “So of course I’m going to go out there and make people aware of it.” Though she’s dressed in a characteristically unassuming manner – denim and a sweater, hair up in a messy bun, no-makeup makeup leftover from our photoshoot – Novotny still has the distinct aura of a movie star.

Related: Director Sigge Eklund and breakout talent Felicia Maxime divulge details on buzzy upcoming film ‘En del av dig’

In fact, Allt och Eva, which lands on Viaplay on April 21st, has had this sort of seismic power over the 44-year-old actor ever since she read the script, courtesy of writer-director-showrunner Johanna Runevad. “Working at the moment was not happening for me, because I’d just had a baby,” says Novotny, who had recently welcomed a child with Alexander Skarsgård. “And then I read the script and was like, ‘Oh f***’. I was kind of hoping for the script to be not-so-good, because then I could say, ‘I don’t have time’. But it was so f***ing good’.”

Though she leapt back into work a bit sooner than intended, balancing motherhood with her career is nothing new for Novotny. She has two teenaged children and has “always worked through parenthood”. “It’s super important that you keep yourself intact, and that’s difficult being a parent,” she says, adding that she's just speaking to her own experience. “Work for me is a place where I feel inspired and I meet people – there’s that social aspect. Bringing that back home is a good thing for parenting – for me, at least. Only being a parent sometimes can be claustrophobic.”

Related: “It’s important to show that not only guys can be the heroes”: 15-year-old Kerstin Linden on stepping into the role of Ronja

Despite Novotny’s ambivalence towards her own celebrity, she has always been instinctually drawn to working in film, even if she “wasn’t really interested in performing at all” (aside from her very first performance, standing on the kitchen counter, singing Carola). Instead, as a child, she would direct her five siblings in plays performed for their family. The daughter of Czech writer-director David Jan Novotný and Swedish artist Barbro Hedström, she’s a product of an environment that found her “listening to Tchaikovsky at three years old”, “painting every day” and “sitting in on rehearsals at the theatre”. “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” she says, adding, “I wasn’t pushed, I was inspired.” Today, Novotny’s IMDb boasts 70-plus acting credits that range from beloved Swedish series Dag to Eat Pray Love and a handful of writer and director credits.

Today, the celebrity experience – for a woman, specifically – is much different than it was when Novotny was a teenaged actor getting her feet wet in the mid ‘90s. “It was a different time,” she says. “It was sexy times, and they wanted me to be sexy.” There were no discussions surrounding mental health, no discussions surrounding consent.

She recalls one experience in particular, in which, at 19 years old, she was named ‘Sexiest Woman of the Year’ by Swedish men’s magazine Café (the magazine has since become more progressive). A self-described punk at the time, Novotny and her stylist created a Joan of Arc-inspired image, in which the actor wore a tattered shirt that read: “I love the Czech Republic”. Café was unimpressed. “They just died, they refused,” she says with a smile. “They were so pissed off.” In the end, she appeared in jeans and a T-shirt.

Related: The 16 biggest Scandinavian Netflix releases to look out for in 2024

Eventually, Novotny had simply had enough. She gave up editorials for 15 years. “The sad thing is, I was always super interested in fashion,” says Novotny, reminiscing about one “crazy f***ing Vivienne Westwood outfit” she proudly wore to a Swedish awards show.

Unsurprisingly, Novotny has “never” cared for red carpets. For years, she stuck to her comfort zone of a slick Saint Laurent tux (a look she pulls off with panache). When she went to the 2016 Oscars, however, she opted for a gown. Novotny, who was promoting her film Krigen, which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, changed outfits last minute, settling on the black, low-cut dress with saddle-inspired shoulders by Danish brand Staerk. “I was supposed to have this white tuxedo because I always do a tuxedo,” she says. “And I got my f***ing period. And I was like, ‘I’m not going to do the Oscars in a white tuxedo with my period’.” In the end, she loved the l look, but recalls struggling to take it off without assistance at the end of the evening.

These days, Novotny has created her own definition of the public part of her job, one in which she “has fun with it” and stays true to herself whilst still holding her cards pretty close to the chest. She’ll walk the red carpet for Allt och Eva, TBD on if she’ll be wearing a tuxedo. I turn off my recorder and Novotny heads directly to her next interview… at Café.