Rupert Grint, Seidi Haarla, & Hanna Bergholm on Nightborn, Parenthood Horror, and Finnish Folklore

[SPEAKER_00]: It's easy to hear your favorite artist on WFPK from wherever you are. [SPEAKER_00]: Listen on your smart speaker, live stream from our website at WFPK.org from Louisville Public Media. [SPEAKER_01]: and welcome to another edition of Kyle Meredith with. [SPEAKER_01]: It's the interview series presented by WFPK at WFPK.org.

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[SPEAKER_01]: You can grab us at Spotify, Apple Podcast, NPR, WFPK.org, Consequence, YouTube for the video versions or anywhere you get your podcast from subscribe. [SPEAKER_01]: The Kyle Meredith with, please do give this series a rating, leave a review, where every listening to watching from. [SPEAKER_01]: We've had some great guests drop them by lately, including Tim Robbins and Common and some of the rest of the cast of season 3 of Silo on Apple TV, we hung out with Octavia Spinzer.

[SPEAKER_01]: and Hannah Wattingham to talk about Ryder Die on Prime. [SPEAKER_01]: Kirk Vile and Kevin Morby were here Tory Amos. [SPEAKER_01]: Jane Kez Merrick to talk about returning to Malcolm in the middle after 20 years. [SPEAKER_01]: We had Joel Courtney and Andy Laney here. [SPEAKER_01]: They're behind the movie.

[SPEAKER_01]: 40 dates and 49th Jerry Beckley of the Band of America. [SPEAKER_01]: Suki Waterhouse. [SPEAKER_01]: John Gallagher Jr. Belithore and Chloe Cherry is about poxon. [SPEAKER_01]: Just an example of what you get when you subscribe to the Kyle Meredith with podcast. [SPEAKER_01]: That's me Kyle Mere, today talking with Rupert Grants, Citi Harla, and director and screenwriter Hannah Bergholm about the new movie Nightborn.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's check out the synopsis. [SPEAKER_01]: With Dreams of Starting, a perfect family, saga played by Citi Harla, and her British husband, John Rupert Grants, moved to the isolated house where she spent much of her childhood, deep in the finished forest. [SPEAKER_01]: But as soon as their baby is born, despite the reassurance, all around her, Saga knows something's terribly wrong with her son.

[SPEAKER_01]: As her marriage starts to crack, John struggles to support his wife, but only Saga knows the terrible truth about her newborn. [SPEAKER_01]: Let's see here, Rupert, you of course know as Ron Weesley from the Harry Potter movie series. [SPEAKER_01]: He was also at the cabin, Sidie Harla, finish actress behind compartment number six and icebreaker and writer director Hannah Bergholm, who's debut hatching came out in 2022.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is her sophomore movie here. [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to talk about where this idea originated. [SPEAKER_01]: The first year of parenthood can be very, very tough. [SPEAKER_01]: And there's a lot of crying, and there's a lot of screaming sometimes, and there's a lot of things that's the less romantic part of what people talk about.

[SPEAKER_01]: But what if on top of that's your child was also sort of cursed by woodland trolls? [SPEAKER_01]: So we're going to get into how Hannah arrived at the idea and found it's way to what this movie would become for for a site at Sadie and and Rupert it's really about the emotional dance they play with each other throughout the entire movie the layers of this this parenthood that they're both going through in very different ways [SPEAKER_01]: and how it culminates at the end of the film.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we're going to get into that and a whole lot more. [SPEAKER_01]: The movie is playing on shutter. [SPEAKER_01]: Let's talk about this film called Nightborn. [SPEAKER_01]: It's Kyle Meredith with Rupert Grintz, Sadie Harla, and Hannah Burgholm. [SPEAKER_01]: And well, it's good to see you all, congratulations on this movie, what a story that you all are part of.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hannah, and especially you, I should congratulate you on this on this sophomore release. [SPEAKER_01]: I know it's not easy to get an indie film over the finish line, so really the congratulations to you. [SPEAKER_03]: Thank you. [SPEAKER_03]: Thank you. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, let's start with this because, you know, if you're a parent, I'm a parent.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think any parent can see the truth in this story. [SPEAKER_01]: You can feel where this might have come from, you know, as we get into this whole thing about that first year of parenthood, like what did that offer your story as a starting point? [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it really was a starting point.

[SPEAKER_03]: All these kind of real life experiences. [SPEAKER_03]: I'm a parent myself and it started from partly from my own experience, kind of being confused about all these so-called forbidden emotions. [SPEAKER_03]: Like I was enraged towards my child who was just screaming all the time. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, very weird voice, I like it, cool.

[SPEAKER_03]: and you know being confused about many things and then I started to talk about some other parents that I knew and about their experiences and also something I started to wonder is that you know female body is going through such a [SPEAKER_03]: big changes, it verifies on person but anyway so and it's something that we never really talk about, you should be just okay with it and what if your body breaks during childbirth and and how do you face your new body and accept it and and [SPEAKER_03]: and how do you face that child who you might kind of deep in your mind think that child has broken me?

[SPEAKER_03]: And also, you know, what this kind of first year, that is very kind of challenging in this case, in this couple's case, what it does for the relationship and how other people grandparents and so on are putting their involvement into the story. [SPEAKER_03]: So that's where it came from.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, after I watched it, I was thinking like it's almost surprising to me that I hadn't seen someone tackle this story in that sort of way because when you go into genre, or thriller or anything like that, like to make it work, like you need a special idea to make that work. [SPEAKER_01]: And you found the special idea, I mean, just that idea of like, how you feel towards, you know, this baby, you're in that first time.

[SPEAKER_01]: But then you took it further, you found it how to get there, like when did that part of the idea arrive? [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, well, what I did want this to also to place this story in this, it's kind of in the middle of old Finnish mythology that involves trolls or some other preachers that live in the forest and it was partly because trolls are something that we well, you know, [SPEAKER_03]: new situation that they find scary in some way and so yeah that's why I wanted to bring on this kind of old mythology into this [SPEAKER_01]: It was a great marriage in the story.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sadie, you play this mother and you've got to play a really complicated different layers emotionally of this mother. [SPEAKER_01]: What was it like for you to tap in because it's not just, you know, you're changing body and the baby, but you have the forest to deal with as well the whole time.

[SPEAKER_04]: I was grateful, Illya Rao to who wrote it, that they wanted to explore the motherhood and having a baby so thoroughly, motherhood has been the most important role in my life, what has taught me most, and it's like day after day, giving me more, like more questions, [SPEAKER_04]: uh... um... boring to grow like you meet your uh...

[SPEAKER_04]: where you are lacking something and you are facing the shadows in yourself and also maybe in your relatives and lignages and also and I think it's it's just super interesting and it was also therapeutic to me to to let them [SPEAKER_04]: let those sides also be seen in me. [SPEAKER_04]: Of course, I have them also, even though that's not my story, or like straight experiences, but I'm a human being, and I also carried them, like also those emotions, and it was wonderful to get the opportunity to explore them.

[SPEAKER_01]: and just seeing how she changes throughout the entire film. [SPEAKER_01]: Like, it looks like it would be emotionally exhausting to carry the... [SPEAKER_04]: It was also that, but mostly it's because filming is so, and when we are dealing with babies and then with robots and different kinds of animatronics and blood stuff, it's the repetition is the things that is taking most of the energy and not the experiences or [SPEAKER_04]: feelings.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's tough. [SPEAKER_01]: And we'll be right back right after this. [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back. [SPEAKER_01]: It's Kyle Meredith. [SPEAKER_01]: We're talking nightborne with Hannah Bergholm, City, Harla and Rupert Grint. [SPEAKER_01]: Rupert on on your side. [SPEAKER_01]: He has to play sort of like everything's normal.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like I would love to hear, you know, your take from from how he's seeing all of this because because he's not exactly [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, no, I think that's something definitely that was in the back of my mind, because I mean, so he's almost in a different movie, really. [SPEAKER_02]: He's trying so hard as well to pull everything together.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's moved into this very different environment and new country doesn't have the language, but I think he feels very isolated, almost lost in translation. [SPEAKER_02]: So that is playing part of it. [SPEAKER_02]: And obviously he's, [SPEAKER_02]: This mania that's kind of gripped his wife, this person who loves his...

[SPEAKER_02]: He doesn't really know how to deal with it or communicate with her in this way and he just wants everything to be normal and get the house done and just live like a normal happy life. [SPEAKER_02]: But there's just so many forces that are stopping that from happening. [SPEAKER_02]: And nature as well is this kind of invisible force that you can kind of feel that's kind of creepy on in the house.

[SPEAKER_02]: Not a John's ever aware of this. [SPEAKER_02]: It's a really interesting kind of dynamic and big in the house as well as a very immersive sex. [SPEAKER_02]: It was the built that's kind of all of the rooms in the studio and it really kind of felt like a place. [SPEAKER_02]: And it was all ever changing as well because we were doing kind of renovations on the house so it kind of had very different kind of looks obviously the whole and the living [SPEAKER_02]: very trippy and for me as well, I just found out that I was having another baby in real life.

[SPEAKER_02]: I was expecting my second so it all felt kind of very metter and interesting, but it was it was very fun. [SPEAKER_01]: Then the back of your mind when this baby comes out like, ugh, it could be, it could be, you just never know. [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it's such an exciting, juicing time, I think.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm actually remember my first one, the fontanella, the giraffes soft spot on their head. [SPEAKER_02]: And my daughter's when used to like pulsate and this kind of really weird way and it really is this kind of alien creature and that's completely normal I found out later but no I really tell you these kind of weird things so it is it's a scary time but yeah it was it's a fun world to play in.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I want to, you know, hang with you and Sadie here because because the two of you all as dance partners, like I'd love to know what it was like, I mean, you're tapping into each other's heaviest acting, especially as that story goes along, like, you know, and we can say with you for a second, but what was it, you know, dancing with Sadie in that sort of way?

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, the choice of really interesting exercise, something I was quite skeptical when I had [SPEAKER_02]: routine. [SPEAKER_02]: I wasn't sure how that was kind of play currently and I'm not a dancer at all. [SPEAKER_02]: I can't move in many, many ways. [SPEAKER_02]: But it was actually a really once we kind of got into the kind of [SPEAKER_02]: Well, this out two weeks before we started filming, it was a really good way of immediately kind of getting close and establishing some sort of intimacy, because it was really kind of especially the dance of the beginning, which kind of mirrors their relationship, the going into the kind of more violent kind of fight sequence.

[SPEAKER_02]: And just the physicality of it and just kind of getting close and touching, it was [SPEAKER_02]: It really helped for, and in some of you could kind of draw on throughout the whole filming. [SPEAKER_02]: So it was, yeah, it was really interesting kind of character kind of exercise that, yeah, I learned a lot from that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, say to what was that like from your point of view, because for much of this, I mean, it's almost a two-hander, you know, it's just you and, and, and, and, and, and rooper, I mean, even if we, you know, have the baby sort of animatronic that we don't see, it really is just focusing on this one person and how they're reacting to you.

[SPEAKER_04]: I think the getting to know like the first touching and to looking at each other's eyes, it's the most important part of building any kind of relationship and as Rupert said, the rehearsals in Helsinki were super important of getting to smell each other and sweat. [SPEAKER_04]: sweat on each other's faces like the first week.

[SPEAKER_04]: It gives you a lot to always to go like back and you know that there is a human there even though you are facing some challenging stuff. [SPEAKER_04]: Like every time you are filming, there is something that is super difficult, but then when you have chosen to trust and be there, then it's really nice.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we'll be right back right after this. [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back, it's Kyle Meredith. [SPEAKER_01]: We're talking nightborne with Hannah Bergholm, City Harla and Rupert Grint. [SPEAKER_01]: And Hannah, I mean, as your sophomore record, a sophomore record, I do a lot of music too. [SPEAKER_01]: As your sophomore film, having that debut behind you, like, what did you notice that you were able to bring into this one?

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, does it work like that? [SPEAKER_03]: um you mean that i feel that own well what i had learned clearly from the first film hatching into this one was the well just technically the use of animatronics and uh that means the animatronic puppets because the baby was partly made with puppets [SPEAKER_03]: and since I knew so well, all the requirements are the how to do it, it actually helped a lot because this was really kind of a puzzle how it was designed because we wanted to show certain things of the baby but not the face and and so so it needed very careful choreography and planning and short designing.

[SPEAKER_03]: And it helped that I kind of knew already how this SFX and visual effects, how they work. [SPEAKER_03]: So that was kind of technical thing that helped. [SPEAKER_03]: I also, from hatching, I got many great people that I could work with again. [SPEAKER_03]: And that is always a wonderful thing, because it's the best thing is to, you know, do it with this.

[SPEAKER_03]: with everybody, all the great people, and I admire everybody's professionalism and craft, and she'd been skillless so much, so it's always a joy. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, not showing the baby's face. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, what a great way to kind of push the story for because it just builds that mystery throughout the whole thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, like, and that's why I didn't know it was like, I wondered if it was a financial choice or an actual story choice. [SPEAKER_03]: Well, it wasn't actual storage or it's not to show the baby's face because baby's face is that very cute and but also that babies because they are just them they don't act within the scene they don't act with the with a grown ups at all so it's kind of always a little bit confusing especially if the baby is supposed to be expressing some certain thing but they are not they are just like I'm hungry and mommy so it's kind of so [SPEAKER_03]: And also, I wanted the audience to keep wondering, like, saw guys doing that, is there something wrong with the baby or not?

[SPEAKER_03]: And so that was the reason. [SPEAKER_01]: It's such an interesting story. [SPEAKER_01]: You all did it beautifully. [SPEAKER_01]: I loved watching the whole thing. [SPEAKER_01]: And it's been seriously such a pleasure to talk to all three of you. [SPEAKER_01]: So congratulations again and thank you so much for taking the time.

[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you. [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you. [SPEAKER_03]: Bye. [SPEAKER_01]: My thanks to Rupert, Sadie and Hannah. [SPEAKER_01]: You can find Nightborn on Shutter. [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks to you for checking out the episode. [SPEAKER_01]: If you're not already, do hit that subscribe button before you get out of here to keep up with all the interviews that I put out every single week at Spotify, Apple Podcast, NPR, WFPK.org, consequence, YouTube for the video versions or again anywhere.

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Rupert Grint, Seidi Haarla, & Hanna Bergholm on Nightborn, Parenthood Horror, and Finnish Folklore

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