It’s not every day that you see a disaster flick from Norway but Roar Uthaug’s The Wave is far more effective than many of the gigantic studio movies made in this country, even though it was made for a fraction of the cost. Nestled in Norway’s Sunnmøre region, Geiranger is one of the most spectacular tourist draws on the planet. With the mountain Åkerneset overlooking the village — and constantly threatening to collapse into the fjord — it is also a place where a major disaster could strike at any moment. After putting in several years at Geiranger’s warning center, geologist Kristian (Kristoffer Joner) is moving on to a prestigious gig with an oil company. But the very day he’s about to drive his wife, Idun (Ane Dahl Torp) and their two children to their new life in the city, Kristian senses something isn’t right. The substrata are shifting. No one wants to believe that this could be the “Big One,” especially with tourist season at its peak, but when that mountain begins to crumble, every person in Geiranger has about 10 minutes to get to high ground before a tsunami hits, consuming everything in its path. Those 10 minutes are some of the most nerve-rattling you’ll experience in any movie this year, but as The Wave continues, the stakes only get higher. Acclaimed Norwegian director Roar Uthaug keeps things hurling forward in a state of high anxiety until the very end, giving Hollywood a true run for its money. I sat down with Roar Uthaug and actress Ane Dahl Torp to discuss this high-adrenaline film.
Danny Miller: I was on the edge of my seat throughout this movie and felt immediately bonded with this family.
Ane Dahl Torp: Roar has such a great director’s instinct and he loves his characters. But he also loves putting his characters in jeopardy. I remember watching his face as he was looking at some of the early rushes and he’d have this weird happy expression that said, “Oh, it’s so awful how miserable they’re all going to be in a little while!”
Roar, I guess all directors are kind of in a God-like position on a movie set but in this case you really got to play God, deciding who will live and who will die.
Roar Uthaug: I think I may have changed it a little bit throughout the writing process but it was pretty clear to me who was going to live. I guess that is a little bit like playing God!
It’s weird to say this as someone who lives in Los Angeles and could be killed in an earthquake at any second, but throughout the film I kept thinking, “Why the HELL does anyone live in this part of Norway?” It does seem crazy with that kind of danger lurking over their head.
Ane Dahl Torp: Oh believe me, as a child growing up in Norway I used to think the same thing. But then, like you know as someone who lives in L.A., you just don’t think about it that much. I used to work very close to this district and I remember standing on the shore once and someone said to me, “One day a gigantic wave will come!” It was crazy to think about. I think many people living in places like that are in some kind of denial.
I’m guessing that the Geiranger Tourist Board wasn’t that thrilled about the movie. How was the film embraced by the local community?
Roar Uthaug: There were some skeptical voices in the community when we started but now I think they’ve all come over to our side in terms of what they know can happen.
Did the film help to change any policies about readiness and preparing for such a disaster?
Yes, it brought a lot of awareness to the issue and the film is being used to raise money for research and better monitoring. There are people there, like Kristian, who are monitoring this crack 24/7. I think they’re no longer building houses there below a certain line.
You must have done a lot of research about the science to make the story seem very plausible?
Oh yes, we spent a lot of time with geologists, tsunami experts, and the people monitoring this fissure. We visited their facilities and took helicopter rides over the fjord to see it from every angle and get a clear idea of what could happen.
The visual effects in the film are extraordinary. I’m guessing you accomplished all that with a budget that would be considered tiny for similar films here.
For Norway it was a lot — 50 million Norwegian kroner which is about $6 million. But we shot the film in a very short period of time — 37 days — with a pretty small crew. And our Norwegian actors don’t have big trailers or anything like that!
I was at Sony the other day which used to be MGM and they still have that enormous tank in one of the soundstages that was built for all of those Esther Williams movies and used for more recent films that have a lot of underwear scenes. Do you have facilities like that in Norway?
We shot a lot of the movie in Norway by the fjord but then we moved the production to Bucharest, Romania, where they have these huge stages with tanks.
Ane, I assume it was a pretty grueling shoot since you had to be in water so much of the time.
Ane Dahl Torp: Oh God, we were in the water all of the time. But Roar was kind to us, most of the time the water was heated! We rehearsed those scenes in Norway in these freezing cold pools and Roar was so sweet, I remember him saying to me, “Ane, I heard it helps keep you warmer if you have a little more fat on your body.” That was a new one, a director encouraging me to gain some weight — usually they are panicked that their actresses aren’t skinny enough! (Laughs.) He was very concerned about our comfort levels in the water.
What’s it like shooting in the water all day long?
It was pretty hard, I felt I was close to growing gills. I remember talking to my husband by Skype at night and he thought I was drunk or something because I looked all swollen and was just incredibly tired at the end of the day. It’s really exhausting spending whole days in the water. It’s very hard on your system.
Were there ever any scary moments on the set?
We had to rehearse holding our breaths for longer and longer stretches because there were certain shots where they had to cover the set so we couldn’t come up for air! Also, it was very dark down there and one time I got completely lost.
Roar Uthaug: Yeah, she came up at a totally different place than we expected, we had a moment of panic!
Were you already a good swimmer?
Ane Dahl Torp: To be honest, I knew how to swim but it wasn’t something I ever enjoyed that much. I think the one bathing suit I owned was from when I was 14 years old!
I really enjoyed your rapport with Kristoffer Joner who played your husband and the actors playing your kids. Did you spend a lot of time bonding as a family?
Kristoffer and I had played a couple a few times before this so it was easy to get back into that. With the kids, it was hard for me imagine having such a grown son so I kept asking him things about his relationship with his mother.
Have their been any episodes in Geiranger that come close to what we see in the film?
Not as big as that, obviously, but there are quite a lot of small incidents with roads being damaged and houses falling down.
Roar Uthaug: We have floods and rock slides in Norway all the time. The price you pay for living in such beautiful surroundings, I guess!
I wish we got more Norwegian films in this country — the ones I’ve covered in the past few years, films like Happy Happy and Kon-Tiki, have been really excellent.
I’ve been lucky since all of my features have gotten distributed internationally but I know that’s unusual. I think it’s because my movies tend to be genres that are more familiar to American audiences.
Can you both imagine making films in this country?
Absolutely, I would love to make a movie here.
Ane Dahl Torp: Me, too. I’m working on my American accent, I still need a little more work!
I hear this film was a massive blockbuster in Norway?
Roar Uthaug: Yes, we were the top-grossing movie in Norway last year which was very exciting. The film made more than Jurassic World and Furious 7 combined which is just crazy.
And then you got chosen as Norway’s official entry to the Oscars.
Yes. They chose three films and then we met in front of a committee for about an hour to make our case. We were thrilled to be chosen even though we didn’t end up making the Academy’s short list.
Has a Norwegian film ever won an Oscar?
We’ve had five films nominated for Best Foreign Language Film but no wins yet.
Ane Dahl Torp: But the Norwegian documentary Kon-Tiki did win an Oscar in 1951. Everyone knows that since it let’s us always say, “Yes, we won an Oscar!”