What interested me was these questions about Björk in ‘Dancer in the Dark’
"Vice: In an interview some years back you described the presence of a black president in 24 as sickeningly politically correct. PWND!
Lars Von Trier: Yeah, I didn’t see that one coming, but I think it’s a very nice development. As long as they don’t go and elect a woman.
V: Right on.
LVT: I’m joking, of course.
V: Of course you are, but you do seem to like bullying women and you broke Björk. For God’s sake, man, what’s wrong with you?
LVT: Maybe it’s because I was never much good at talking to women, but when they work for me they have a contract and they have to listen to me and do what I say.
V: A revenge-of–the-nerd kind of thing?
LVT: Seriously, it’s true that I pushed Björk a lot, maybe too far, but I was also very happy with her performance. She gave everything she had. As a director you do what you can to get the performance you want, that’s your job, and sometimes you have tap into people’s past experiences and memories to bring that out. I usually have very good relationships with my actresses, but Björk and I didn’t get along.
V: And now she’ll never act again.
LVT: Yeah, and that’s not all, she even wrote Nicole Kidman a letter telling her not to do Dogville.
V: Really? What did she say?
LVT: She said I had destroyed her soul.”
Sure she cried a lot, and had to dance and sing (get up and do her thing) but I wonder what Nicole’s reply would have been after the ordeal of being abused, raped and shackled?
“Bitch…are you serious”
Now I must watch ‘Antichrist’. I get the feeling Charlotte has been but through more. Does he torture his actresses more and more as his film’o’graphy grows?
