00:00I'm Sebastian Stan.
00:02And I'm Christiane Wanjewo.
00:03And we're in Toronto with...
00:06The Hollywood Reporter.
00:16Hi, I'm Seah Rankin.
00:18And I'm here with the director and star of Fjord.
00:22Guys, I first want to ask,
00:25because you are coming off of a pretty big few...
00:27How long has it been since Cannes?
00:29Four, five months?
00:31What does Winning the Palm...
00:33What bump do you notice for this movie?
00:36What that does for you guys?
00:37Well, I was very happy to have had this experience
00:4119 years ago already.
00:43And I know it makes all the difference,
00:46because all of a sudden for, I don't know,
00:49six to nine months,
00:51you travel in the world with the film,
00:53and there's so much respect for this Palm Door.
00:55It is as...
00:57Even you are given the graal of film,
00:59and people want to see it everywhere.
01:01And this brings a lot of attention for the film.
01:05There isn't a better recommendation for a film
01:09than to get the Palm Door.
01:11And getting the Palm Door twice
01:13made people even more curious.
01:15What happened in between these two Palm Doors of mine
01:18is that social media was invented.
01:20So, this time I could benefit of all the sympathy
01:23of everybody who wanted to express, you know,
01:26just their feelings or their thoughts.
01:28And in Cannes, it was very nice to see
01:29that people were stopping us on the street
01:31just for a hug, which is what makes Cannes so special.
01:35And now we started traveling through the world with this film,
01:39and it's a recommendation.
01:41Every time a field plays somewhere,
01:43it's sold out because people are very curious
01:45to see which is the film that got the Palm Door.
01:48Sebastian, when you say yes to something
01:52outside of like, it's a good role, it's a good script, etc.
01:54Do you sort of think about what the life of the movie is going to be
01:58or what kind of stuff you're going to be talking about
02:01for the next year?
02:02Absolutely.
02:02It's definitely so important.
02:04We were just having this conversation
02:05because you're going to want to go out there
02:08and hopefully be passionate, you know,
02:10be passionate enough to be able to talk about it a lot.
02:13And I think I feel that way about this movie,
02:16especially because of the themes and, you know,
02:20this idea that I've been thinking about in my own life for a while
02:23about raising children and how do you do it in today's world
02:26and what works anymore, what doesn't.
02:28How can we arrive mutually, hopefully,
02:31at a decision where they benefit,
02:34where not our own prejudice, our own egos get in the way of that.
02:39And second of all, it's just always a director decision
02:43because it's their film and it's always about the director.
02:48So for me, you know, being able to do his movie was very important.
02:53When you were thinking about those themes
02:56and asking yourself the questions about raising children
02:58and how we can do it, did you come to any answers?
03:03Yes and no.
03:05I mean, I think it's ongoing.
03:07I mean, you know, I mean, obviously I'm at an age now,
03:10I mean, I just had a kid, so it's all very alive and very raw,
03:14even the movie to me.
03:17But one thing I, the one answer I can say I did come to
03:20is that I can safely say that I don't know as much as I thought I did.
03:26I can look to my parents, I can look to the messages that I received,
03:30but I don't know if necessarily I want to pass that on to my children.
03:34At the same time, there's, culture still matters, history still matters,
03:39you know, these family traditions.
03:41Like, how much does it still matter?
03:44You know, I mean, again, it just all,
03:45one of the reasons the movie is so relevant is because I think a lot of people
03:49will come at it and it will resonate different things for each person.
03:53Yeah.
03:53I think that somehow the answer for me is that there isn't just one valid way
03:57of facing your children.
03:59As in general, there isn't just one way of understanding
04:04and seeing the world next to you.
04:05And it's absolutely okay that we all have different values.
04:09It's just important to be more tolerant to the others
04:13and to engage in this sort of dialogue
04:16because sometimes today we all live in these bubbles
04:20in which we share time only with people having the same opinions as us.
04:25And this is leading to the society be split in two different groups
04:30that don't talk to one another.
04:32And you can see this a lot, you know, in a lot of countries starting with the US.
04:36Yeah.
04:37And the film, if you wish, is a trigger for this need of a conversation.
04:40I think this has gone too far.
04:44The hatred, I could say, between these groups have grown too much.
04:48You can see how people behave whenever they meet people that don't meet their same opinions.
04:54And, of course, you can agree about a lot of things and be reasonable,
04:57but it all stops when it gets to children.
05:00When it gets to children and we don't share the same opinions, it's complicated.
05:05So it's good to enter into this kind of dialogue while we still can.
05:08And this is what the film does.
05:10It's an invitation to be more tolerant.
05:11The point of watching this movie is to sort of be pushed to the edge of your own,
05:15like, beliefs and opinions and things like that.
05:17Is there anything that you guys have seen recently that you felt pushed you?
05:22Well, I could say that every day you need to make choices.
05:26And you also need to make choices about what the children understand from your choices.
05:32Because as a parent, as much as you believe that the children will do what you tell them to do,
05:39they, of course, this is not important.
05:40They just observe how you act and they learn way more from the things,
05:46from the decisions that you make.
05:47I was having this situation that I was telling when I was doing this graduation film about raising children.
05:54You know, every day when I'm taking my child to school, I have this option.
05:59Either I stop in front of the red light and then all the other cars passing are going to just
06:05block the intersection,
06:07or I will block them to be able to take my child to school.
06:11And in this very, very little decision, you pass to him in what kind of society you wish him to
06:16live.
06:17If I wish that my children live in that society, I need to teach them to be, you know, winners
06:22with the weapons of that society.
06:24If I want to change a society for a better one, well, I mean, they will need to suffer while,
06:30you know,
06:30they manage to change enough people so that they create the mess so that things progress.
06:36I think one thing that really pushes my buttons, I mean, there's many things.
06:41It's easy to have your buttons pushed.
06:42It's just this negativity that, like, we are unfortunately getting normalized with at the moment.
06:50And the most blatant example is online.
06:53And it's just so lazy and it's so unfortunate because you see people just react.
06:59They don't know what they're talking about.
07:01They're not reacting, you know.
07:03Half the time, they don't offer a solution to it.
07:06They don't offer a counter argument.
07:08It's all just judgment.
07:10And you know where it starts, obviously.
07:13I don't want to go back to take time to point the fingers at anybody, you know.
07:19But it starts, unfortunately, at the top with this invitation to be negative.
07:25And it's like we're so fucking special as people, you know what I mean?
07:30Like, and it's like if we can just be curious and start, then just be curious about it.
07:35It's just, you have the option to have an opinion, form your own opinion.
07:39There's no encouragement for that, seemingly, to me, when it comes to, especially young people.
07:43Like, go ahead and be different.
07:45Don't be like everybody else.
07:47Everything seems to be about how you can just fit in and the whole looks maxing of it all.
07:53I mean, I can go on and on.
07:54It's all in the same kind of spoon-feeding thing of just fall in line and be like everybody else.
08:01God forbid that you raise your hand and go, can I just ask why you feel that way or whatever?
08:06And there's no encouragement for that.
08:08And it's all we should be doing is encouraging that.
08:11Do you ever feel like you want to, like, get rid of your iPhone?
08:15I think we have to.
08:16I mean, why are people so, do you see how many nostalgia there is for the 90s?
08:21Like, see in the magazines or whatever?
08:24Okay, well, why though?
08:26Like, why is that, you know?
08:27Yeah.
08:28Yeah, absolutely.
08:29Okay, last question before you guys wrap.
08:31I want to know, how easy was it to get back into the Romanian?
08:36Do you speak Romanian really regularly or that was?
08:39I do with my mom who has a very strong accent, so that was kind of helpful.
08:45But not as much as I was able to do when we were on set because it was, the large
08:52part of our crew was Romanian and, you know, we were very isolated.
08:55So it was kind of, it's kind of all the time.
09:00But, no, it was really fun.
09:02It was really good.
09:04We don't use coaches.
09:06We're not in this kind of industry.
09:08I told Sebastian, I'm going to be your coach.
09:12And he did this well in the film that when we screened the film back home, people said, well, you
09:16know, probably he speaks everyday Romanian with his folks.
09:18He said, well, not really, but he could have a lot of nuances in Romanian, which we were all very
09:25proud of.
09:26And, you know, at the same time, what was important is that the rest of the crew was trying to
09:30encourage him all the time.
09:31And this is how we managed to, you know, combine the three languages.
09:35He even spoke Norwegian, which is way more difficult.
09:38Very hard.
09:39Do you still have any of that Norwegian?
09:42No.
09:43No.
09:44Yeah.
09:44You worried about it.
09:45Renata would be very, you know, would be not happy.
09:49Yeah, yeah, yeah.
09:50We'll save you on that.
09:51Well, thanks so much, guys, for coming.
09:52For chatting.
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