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Norway is a small country, about half the size of Sweden, but it has a very good film climate because they have municipal cinemas, so even in the smallest towns you have a cinema that shows art house films from all over the world.
I grew up in a working class neighborhood in Sweden, which, during my teens, gentrified and is now completely middle class and even upper middle class.
I haven't lived in Sweden since I was a teenager. We lived in southern Sweden, about two hours north of Copenhagen, where my family's home base has been since 1970. Our parents bought a schoolhouse in preparation for self-sufficient living. They wanted to create a place to do all the things they believed in.
I don't live anywhere. I have always dreamed of moving out of my country because Sweden is boring.
I come from a family of pacifists, so it's not like I was going to join the war. Sweden is not like the States or England where you might get sent to Afghanistan next month.
We need more extreme movies in Sweden. Personal projects that are necessarily made for a bigger audience. I think it creates a creative lock-up to have the audience as a goal.
Northern Sweden holds a special kind of magic. It's cold, lonely, and the people are tough and silent, or so the stereotype says. This is Asa Larsson's home turf and I find as much joy in reading her closely observed descriptions of the environment, as in following her intriguing plots.
There's racism everywhere in the world; it's not just Sweden, it's everywhere, but other than that I had a pretty okay upbringing.
Every time I'm in Canada I feel more Swedish, and every time I'm in Sweden I feel more Canadian. I belong in both places and I love them both equally. It's funny because the Swedes claim me as their Swedish pride and the Canadians call me their Canadian girl. I'll take it all.
Sweden was once a very homogenous society, but no more. For decades, people have been coming into Sweden from all over the world, and that's changed the way we cook.
I think the power of Stieg Larsson's stories is that he has the guts to show the hidden spots in the side of Sweden. That gave us a push to say that for the first time. That they can't have with the American version.
It was a big surprise when I started to get attention in Sweden, going from biochemistry studies to touring and living from music only. There were a couple of years while I went to university when I was OK with thinking of music as just a nice recreation.
Sweden is a good country to raise a family in because there is an equality there I don't feel in the States.
Where I am from in Sweden was on the beach, so I love the sound of the water hitting the dock.
Dignity is like a perfume; those who use it are scarcely conscious of it.
In Sweden, if a player has the ball, and you're running across the line of vision, you would never call for the ball. In the United States, if you're open, you're screaming.
I've always loved to perform in front of people, but it became pretty serious when I participated in 'Sweden's Got Talent.' I thought it would be a fun thing to do, and I was just like, 'OK, why not?' And Mom was like, 'OK, sure, sure, do this!' So I did, and I won it!
It's frustrating when you come over here [Hollywood], especially from a position that I was in, in Sweden, where most people know who you are, but then you come here.
I'm such a spiritual person and in Sweden it's a bit taboo to be too open with your spirituality; they always think it's a bit weird.
Food has always been in my life. Being born in Ethiopia, where there was a lack of food, and then really cooking with my grandmother Helga in Sweden. And my grandmother Helga was a cook's cook.
What Stieg Larsson was up to - it was the Swedish guilt over World War II. All of our neighbors had the most terrible experiences with the bad forces, but Sweden didn't. I think we use the thrillers in a different way. We never write a thriller like 'Who is the murderer?' The big question in most of our thrillers is... 'Why?'
I'm not saying everything in Sweden is perfect, because it's not. But it is interesting having grown up in a social democratic country such as Sweden and then watching what's going on in the U.S. and the income disparity.
The problem in Sweden is that, when the players are younger, they are not allowed to develop their own style and skills.
In the U.S., my whole life, I felt like I had to be the best and score more goals and run with more fitness so I could be the one in the limelight. I think that when I went to Sweden, I found the joy of being part of a team and contributing to everybody's success.
Could you imagine being from Siberia? Like, a small part of Russia, where it's like, 'When was the last time Russia was having a super big international pop star in the U.S.?' I don't know, but I can name a few from Sweden. I think that gives us a lot of confidence in being pop stars because we're like, 'Oh, we actually can. We know we can.'
The north of Sweden is very socialist and poor. They feel left out and despise Stockholm in many ways because Stockholm has become new liberals and much more Americanized.
We have a lot of indie artists coming from Sweden, not so much soul. The closest thing we had was Robyn when she came out, but it's a different kind of R&B.
I came into this environment where there was so much love, so much positive energy. I never heard my parents say, 'We have adopted kids.' The minute my sister Linda and I landed in Sweden, we were their kids.
There's something I love about how stark the contrast is between January and June in Sweden. In a way, I feel that time doesn't exist in LA. Sometimes I don't know if it's February or April or October, because you're always sitting outside on the same patio, and it's 70 degrees.
I played as a 10 and, in Sweden, they let me take as many touches as I could. All of a sudden, I come to Arsenal and I have to play one and two touches - it was a little bit alien to me.
When I started playing in Sweden, there was nobody watching. No one knew who I was, so I was just playing for the love of the game. And after my first season, my coach came up to me and said, 'Of all the people you're the one who smiles the most on the field,' and that was the biggest compliment I ever received.
I think that in Sweden and a lot of European countries, there's this whole mythology of the wounded artist: that you can't really do any great art unless you're suffering.
I actually got signed when I was 14 with Sony Sweden. Things didn't really work out with that, but I'm glad I had the opportunity to be exposed to the industry at a young age.
There are so many times there could have been a left turn instead of a right turn in all people's lives. I think mine are pretty crystal clear, because of being adopted, being born in Ethiopia, being adopted to Sweden.
The system in Sweden is great because you get free healthcare and free education; someone who doesn't have a lot of money can become a doctor or lawyer. There's good paternity and maternity leave - the U.S. is probably the only civilised country in the world that doesn't give parents anything.
In Sweden, there's a lot of talk of gender equality. That discussion isn't as prevalent in the U.S. I feel that successful American women are tougher than Swedish women - they create their space.
I have both Swedish and Iranian cultures ingrained in me, so that's always there. Plus my love of the U.S. began early on. But growing up in Sweden as one of the few people of color around was not easy by any means.
All of our colleges are free in Sweden, but this acting program is the second most expensive education for the government. It's difficult to get in. There are around 1,500 applicants, and 10-12 applicants are accepted each year. I was accepted, and I studied there for five years.
We have a huge immigration population in Sweden, but when I was younger, I grew up in a small town and, at one point, I was the only foreigner in my class. I really felt different, and I thought I looked different. Sometimes it was a good thing, sometimes I felt insecure.
In Sweden, I went to an English school, where there was a mishmash of people from all over the world. Some were diplomatic kids with a lot of money, some were ghetto kids who came up from the suburbs, and I grew up in between. There's a community of second generation immigrants, and I became part of that because I had an American father.