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![Ruben Ostlund earned directing and original screenplay Oscar noms for Triangle of Sadness.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.hollywoodreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/RubenOstlundHeadshotcSinaOstlund-H-2023.jpg?w=1296&h=730&crop=1)
Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund wants to make films that get people talking, and his latest — Neon’s Triangle of Sadness, the 2022 Palme d’Or winner, now nominated for three Oscars, including best picture — did exactly that. Set on a yacht for the super-rich that sinks and leaves its guests clamoring for survival on an island, the film is a social satire that also happens to include a 15-minute vomit scene.
“I think if the audience goes to the cinema, and they want to watch a Ruben Östlund film, they should be challenged,” the director tells THR. “There should be a risk involved to go to the cinema. Otherwise, the audience gets bored.” Östlund, whose The Square earned a nom in 2018 for best international film, returns to the Oscars as a directing and original screenplay nominee. He speaks with THR about his provocative social satire starring Harris Dickinson, Dolly de Leon and Charlbi Dean, who died in August at age 32 before the film was released globally.
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Triangle of Sadness is your English-language feature film debut. Why did you want to venture into English-language films, and why was this the one that made you do it?
When I was doing Force Majeure, that film had quite a good reputation in the U.S., [so] I was approached by many actors and actresses. When I was doing The Square, I was working with Elisabeth Moss and Dominic West, and I felt that I could handle the English language, also directing, even if it’s not my mother tongue. And then I knew that if I’m making a film that takes place in the fashion world, and on a luxury yacht, it’s really an international setting, so there’s a possibility to do something in the English language without making it seem too constructed. And with films in the English language, you reach a wider distribution, and it gives us a much broader range and possibilities when it came to the actors. But I was really nervous when I was going to direct in English because I was not 100 percent sure that I would catch the nuances and capture everything as a director. I think I’m still a better director in the Swedish language, but I’m improving.
Where did your idea stem from for this film?
It came from the stories that my wife told me. She works as a fashion photographer; she’s from Hamburg, Germany, and the German fashion industry is very much located in Hamburg. When we met, I wanted to hear everything about the fashion industry because I think it’s a scary industry, but at the same time, it’s attractive.
How did you choose Harris Dickinson for the role of Carl? I read you looked at more than 120 actors for the part.
For the parts of Yaya and Carl, I don’t know how many, but 120 sounds like it makes sense. For me, one of the scenes that I really love with Harris is in the elevator when he gets so angry because Yaya had pushed the 50 euro bill down his shirt pocket. And he just freaks out. He dares to explode, he dares to be ugly. For me, it is something that is very important when you work with an actor — that they can’t be vain. They have to dare to be someone that they are not proud of. Harris is such a sweet guy, but when he walks on to the set and he’s an actor, then he’s willing to go to a place where he’s not beautiful at all when it comes to his behavior. Harris also is a person who is so genuine and true, he can’t lie. So as an actor, when he is pushed into a situation where his character is lying, you can tell that for Harris, as a person, it’s hard for him.
What about Dolly de Leon?
We met Dolly in the Philippines, in Manila. The thing about Dolly’s character, Abigail, is that when she arrives on the island, and when she takes control of everything, it’s only three scenes. She’s going from the bottom of the hierarchy to the top of the hierarchy: She arrives, she goes fishing, and then she takes control. I didn’t want to build the feeling that only in the end she takes command; I wanted her to take command immediately. It was just something with the whole performance where I 100 percent believed that she can take command with this group. And that’s the reason that she got the part.
Your movie went from an isolated set on a luxury yacht to an isolated set on an island. What were some of the challenges?
One of them was that the yacht was so extremely expensive. Every day was stressful for everybody dealing with the production, and then you add the pandemic on top of that. When we were shooting every day, we were getting closer and closer to lockdown, and we basically managed to get the last day of shooting before Greece went into lockdown. If that had happened two days earlier, we would not be able to finish the film, I promise you, because we had spent the last money we had on renting that yacht.
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Why did you want to film on the Christina O yacht specifically, which was once owned by Aristotle Onassis?
Every luxury yacht is kind of expensive. I thought it was fun with Christina O because Christina O has such a symbolic value. It’s the elite of the Western world, and [a lot of people] were spending time [on it] in the ’70s. I thought it was a great symbol of value to blow up in the air because then it also has a meta layer to it.
Let’s talk about that 15-minute vomit scene.
We built the interior of the yacht on a gimbal. We were in the studio when we shot the vomiting scene. We spent nine days on this gimbal, and the boat [set] was rocking constantly, like for eight hours a day. Some of the crew got sick, but since I’m from an island [Sweden’s Styrsö], I’m used to being on the ocean. For me, it was complete chaos to shoot because I was not in control. Some of the body fluid you see in the film is real. I will not tell you which scenes contain real body fluid, but one of the actresses, Sunnyi Melles, had the ability to provoke her own vomiting. We also used rose-hip soap and then also visual effects.
I know your next film is a social satire as well. What draws you to films like this?
The main reason I’m doing movies is because there’s something I believe in, some idea about society, some idea about who we are. I want to raise these questions and I want the audience to be confronted with the questions. I love sociology, and sociology is such a beautiful topic because it doesn’t put blame on the individual. It puts the individual, the character, in a context — and we understand the individual’s behavior because of that context. I think we live in a time when we tend to put blame on the individual, but I think it’s the context of the situation that changes our behavior.
Interview edited for length and clarity.
This story first appeared in the Feb. 22 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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