Renate Reinsve on ‘The Worst Person in the World’ and New Fame E! News UK

At a dinner party during the Cannes Film Festival in July, Renate Reinsve found herself so nervous in the company of famous actors that she instead spent the evening chatting with their bodyguards. When a photographer who was taking pictures of Timothée Chalamet appeared near the group, she said, his new friends waved at him.

“They were like, ‘She’s an actress too,'” Ms Reinsve, 34, recalled in a January interview.

She had flown to Cannes from Oslo, where she lives, for the premiere of “The Worst Person in the World”, in which she plays Julie, a millennial woman in the midst of a quarter-life crisis, struggling with the pressure she wants to pursue a career, find a partner and start a family. This was Ms. Reinsve’s first lead role in a film.

After a few nudges, the photographer pointed his lens at her. “He lifted his camera and then he didn’t press the button,” she said. “I wasn’t worth it. »

Ms. Reinsve won the Cannes prize for best actress a few days later. And in the months that followed, the film, directed by Joachim Trier, made the rounds of festivals, where it collected to rent for Ms. Reinsve’s performance. Louis Vuitton asked her to become a brand ambassador. This week she was nominated for a BAFTA in the Best Actress category.

At the end of January, Ms Reinsve arrived in New York to promote the film ahead of its US release on February 4. Dressed in a simple white dress and her hair in a ponytail for breakfast at Sadelle’s in Manhattan, she paced the tower. of smoked salmon, cucumbers, tomatoes, dill and capers on the table and wonders if she will be able to eat despite her nerves. She had been up since 3 a.m., unable to sleep after finding out she would be appearing on “ Late Night with Seth Meyers ” that night.

“So many things happened,” she said.

Over the past six months, “The Worst Person in the World” has garnered notable admirers, including former President Barack Obama, who has included him in her list of favorite movies of 2021.

In a video interview at the Sundance Film Festival, Dakota Johnson said the film “destroyed” her. “I was crying in a way that was weird,” she said. “I was trying to make it less than it was supposed to be. I was trying not to cry as hard as my body wanted to cry.

Writer and director Richard Curtis called the film a “complete masterpiece” in a chat hosted by Neon, the film’s distributor, and Judd Apatow took to Twitter to say it was “breathtaking”.