Livia Millhagen | |
|---|---|
| Millhagen in 2014 | |
| Born | Livia Maria Millhagen 23 May 1973 Stockholm, Sweden |
| Education | Malmö Theatre Academy |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1994–present |
| Spouse | Oscar Norbeck |
| Children | 2 |
| Parents | |
| Awards |
|
Livia Maria Millhagen (born 23 May 1973) is a Swedish actress known for her roles on stage and screen. She has received various accolades for her work, including the Thaliapriset from Svenska Dagbladet and the Litteris et Artibus royal medal in recognition of contributions to theatre. The daughter of Lars Millhagen and Beate Sydhoff , she grew up primarily in Stockholm. After graduating from the Malmö Theatre Academy in 1999, she appeared in productions at Uppsala City Theatre and made her feature film debut in Miffo (2003), for which she received critical praise and was nominated for the Guldbagge Award for Best Actress. She became a member of the Royal Dramatic Theatre's permanent ensemble, and since appeared in numerous productions. Some of her most acclaimed stage performances were playing Lydia Stille in The Serious Game at Stockholm City Theatre (2008) and Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Royal Dramatic Theatre (2019). In addition to her stage roles, she has appeared in films such as Road to Italy (2005), Fishy (2008), and Love Proof (2022). She had major television roles in Molanders (2013), Veni Vidi Vici (2017), and the first season of Bäckström (2020). Millhagen has also worked as a voice actress, narrating audiobooks and contributing to Swedish-language dubs of Disney/Pixar films.
Livia Maria Millhagen was born in Stockholm on 23 May 1973 to Lars Millhagen and Beate Sydhoff . [1] The family was artistic: her father a sculptor and cartoonist, while her mother was an art critic and writer who also served as director for The House of Culture. [2] She has an older sister and also had an older brother who died shortly after he was born. [3] She grew up in the Gamla Stan neighbourhood of Stockholm, attending Storkyrkoskolan for her primary education. When she was a teenager, her family moved to Washington, D.C. for several years after her mother took a posting at the Swedish embassy there. Millhagen credited this period abroad with building her self-esteem and offering her the creative freedom to seriously pursue acting for the first time. After moving back to Sweden, she attended Kungsholmens gymnasium. [4] She had roles in several Stockholm Student Theatre productions before being admitted to the Malmö Theatre Academy in the autumn of 1995. [5] In May 1996, about a year into her studies, her father died of cancer. [6] During her 1997 internship at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, she appeared in their production of August Strindberg's Fadren , directed by Staffan Valdemar Holm. [7]
After completing her education, Millhagen began working at Uppsala City Theatre. [8] There, she appeared in Rebecca Prichard's play Essex Girls, which was adapted into a Swedish setting by Nils Gredeby and staged with a new title of Ur funktion. [9] The play centred on four teenage girls, played by Millhagen, Alexandra Rapaport, Frida Hallgren, and My Bodell . In preparation for the role, the actresses met with youths from the Uppsala suburb of Gottsunda. [10] It premiered on 24 September 1999 with direction by Birgitta Englin . [11] The following year, Millhagen was a member of the ensemble for Lage, a musical revue directed by Stefan Böhm at Scalateatern in Stockholm. [12]
In 2001, she returned to the Uppsala City Theatre to portray Loretta in Phyllis Nagy's Las Vegas. The production, directed by Dritëro Kasapi , marked the first time the play had been staged in Sweden. [13] Pia Huss of Dagens Nyheter praised Millhagen's performance as "remarkably good". [a] She had a supporting role in another Englin-directed work: Sophocles' Ancient Greek tragedy Electra, which premiered on International Women's Day. [14] Millhagen and Magdalena Eshaya played the title character's best friends, Cissi and Linda. [15] In addition to showings in Uppsala, the production made a guest appearance at the Royal Dramatic Theatre that autumn. [16] She performed at Uppsala City Theatre in Född skyldig, an adaptation of Peter Sichrovsky's book of interviews with the descendants of Nazis. [17] There she played Stefanie, the young granddaughter of a dead SS officer who espouses her own antisemitic beliefs. [18] She also played a supporting role in the television film Beck – Annonsmannen, a thriller installment in the Martin Beck saga. [19]
She made her feature film debut in Miffo (2003), directed and written by Daniel Lind Lagerlöf and Malin Lagerlöf, respectively. Millhagen played Carola, a wheelchair user living in a run-down flat with her alcoholic mother, who meets and begins a relationship with Tobias, a sheltered and upper-class minister played by Jonas Karlsson. Millhagen's performance garnered critical praise; both Eva af Geijerstam of Dagens Nyheter and Jens Peterson of Aftonbladet found her first screen performance to be excellent, with Peterson praising her command of the Scanian dialect. [20] Gunnar Rehlin of Variety regarded her as the film's "real find". [21] Millhagen was nominated for a Guldbagge Award for Best Actress for Miffo. [22] In an academic analysis of disability in Swedish cinema by Josefine Wälivaara and Karin Ljuslinder, Millhagen's Carola was noted as an exception to the standard depiction of disabled characters, because of her portrayal as a fully realized woman with sexual experience. [23]
In the autumn of 2003, Millhagen returned to the Royal Dramatic Theatre to perform in Anders Paulin's experimental staging of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children on the Målarsalen stage. She played Kattrin, the mute daughter of Stina Ekblad's Mother Courage. The production received a mixed review overall from Ingegärd Waaranperä of Dagens Nyheter; she found the experimental direction unsuccessful but wrote that Millhagen's portrayal was convincing and impactful. [24] Millhagen played Siri von Essen in Ellen Lamm 's 2004 staging of the Henning Mankell play Valpen at Strindberg's Intimate Theatre. For Expressen, Margareta Sörenson wrote that the characterisation of Millhagen's Siri as a cold and calculating figure was bordering on caricature. [25]
In the short film Rubinbröllop (2005), she and Henrik Rafaelsen played a young couple who agree to pretend they are still together for a parent's anniversary celebration. [26] She collaborated again with Lagerlöfs for Road to Italy (2005), where she played the lead role of Ylva, a woman who learns about her husband's affair right before taking her choir group on a trip. Her performance was commended by Rehlin in Variety and Peterson in Aftonbladet. [27] She played Isabella in Yannis Houvardas's production of William Shakespeare's Measure for Measure at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, which was translated into Swedish by Göran O. Eriksson . [28] Anna Swärdh, a scholar from Karlstad University, noted a distinctive performance choice she made during the play's notoriously ambiguous ending; rather than conveying opposition to the Duke's marriage proposal, Millhagen's Isabella turned toward the audience to display a "beaming smile". [29] Her performance was negatively received by Leif Zern in Dagens Nyheter. Suggesting she may have been miscast, he argued that her vocal delivery obscured the character's emotional depth. [28]
She played Greta in 27 sekundmeter snö , a two-part miniseries based on Kjerstin Göransson-Ljungman 's mystery novel of the same name, which was released on DVD in December 2005 followed by a SVT broadcast the following January. [30] In Mästerverket , which premiered in November, she co-starred as Sara, the wife of an idealistic young priest whose idea to commission a church ceiling painting upends their rural community. [31] Millhagen also participated in two productions at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in 2006. First, she played Gertrud in I skuggan av Hamlet by Irena Kraus . [32] Second, she played the title role in Frank Wedekind's Lulu , translated into Swedish by Ulf Peter Hallberg and directed by Ole Anders Tandberg . Her performance was described in a review for Dagens Nyheter as a "strong, modern" (stark, modern) character interpretation centred on a "longing for a lost self" (längtan efter ett förlorat jag). Waaranperä credited her performance as a core strength of the production, as her character transitioned from an object of sexual fantasy to a victim of violence. [33] In November, she received the Gunn Wållgren Award, an annual scholarship given to dramatic and lyrical performers. The award justification praised her portrayal of varied types of roles. [34]
In 2007, Millhagen appeared in Sam Shepard's Buried Child, known in Swedish as Hem till gården, which premiered at the Elverket stage of the Royal Dramatic Theatre. The production marked her first of many theatre collaborations with director Stefan Larsson . [35] In 2008, she played Lydia Stille opposite Gustaf Skarsgård's Arvid Stjärnblom in Lagerlöf's stage directing debut of The Serious Game at Stockholm City Theatre. [36] Although the production itself received mixed reviews, Millhagen's performance was praised by critics. Jenny Aschenbrenner of Dagens Nyheter wrote that it was her "accurately portrayed rebellion and vulnerability that cuts through the game and makes it serious". [b] In Expressen, Nils Schwartz criticised the direction and Skarsgård's performance but felt that Millhagen had excelled in her character interpretation. [38] On screen the same year, she played Li in the SVT drama series Häxdansen , which centred on a women's football team in a small community where accused witches had once been burned at the stake. [39] She then had a supporting role in Maria Blom's black comedy film Fishy (2008), as the protagonist's best friend Mio. [40] Hedvig Weibull of Borås Tidning said that Millhagen "[brightened] up the film like a bold red lipstick". [c]
The Royal Dramatic Theatre added six actors, including Millhagen, to its permanent ensemble in May 2009. [42] Later that year, she and Jonas Karlsson starred as Marianne and Johan in a Larsson-directed production of Ingmar Bergman's 1973 miniseries Scenes from a Marriage . [43] Bergman had simplified the story while adapting it for stage during his time in Munich. This play version had thus not been previously shown in Sweden before the premiere in August 2009. [44] Expressen theatre critic Sörenson praised the performances of both Millhagen and Karlsson. [45] After 60 sold-out showings at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, a touring production was announced, featuring Karlsson and Millhagen, in association with the National Swedish Touring Theatre. [46] Later that year, Millhagen again appeared on the Royal Dramatic Theatre's main stage in a production of Ingmar Bergman's Autumn Sonata . The production, which was directed by Larsson, marked the first time the 1978 film had ever been presented as a play in Sweden. Millhagen played Charlotte's disabled daughter, Helena. [47]
Millhagen returned to the Royal Dramatic Theatre in 2010 to portray Karen in a staging of Tracy Letts's family drama August: Osage County; the production was reported to be Larsson's farewell directorial effort at the venue before taking over at the Aarhus Theatre. [48] The following year, she played Célimène in Molière's The Misanthrope at the Royal Dramatic Theatre. [49] Millhagen was next involved with Sveriges Radio Drama 's two-part adaptation of Stendhal's The Red and the Black . Lars Ring of Svenska Dagbladet praised the production and singled out Millhagen's performance as the protagonist's first and last lover. [50] She appeared in a stage adaptation of Fanny and Alexander by the Royal Dramatic Theatre. It had an American premiere at the Kennedy Center from 7–9 March 2013, as part of the Nordic Cool Festival. [51] She had a leading role as cardiologist Fanny Molander in Molanders (2013). The series, which focused on the titular family moving from Stockholm to Alingsås, received strong viewership and good reviews but was not renewed for a second season. [52] Near the end of the year, she was one of several recipients of the Carl Åkermark Award , given to artists involved in Swedish theatre. [53]
She played one of the lead roles in Jane Magnusson 's Cupcake, which won Best Short Film at the Warsaw Film Festival in 2014. [54] The same year, Millhagen starred as Rebekka West opposite Jonas Malmsjö in Henrik Ibsen's Rosmersholm at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, directed by Larsson. Theatre critic Maria Edström found the minimalist production initially compelling, but concluded the performances ultimately failed to build effectively toward the play's tragic conclusion. [55] In January 2015, Millhagen was awarded with a Litteris et Artibus royal medal by King Carl XVI Gustaf, in recognition of outstanding contributions to theatre. [56] Next month, she played the Comtesse de Saint-Fond in Madame de Sade at the Royal Dramatic Theatre. [57] After about a week, Millhagen replaced Maria Bonnevie in the titular role. [58]
In 2016, she played the titular role in Medea at the Royal Dramatic Theatre. Maina Arvas of Dagens Nyheter characterised Millhagen as the driving force of the production. [59] Next year, she again played the titular role in Tobias Theorell 's large-scale production of Anna Karenina on the main stage of the Royal Dramatic Theatre, based on Helen Edmundson's stage adaptation. Ring called Millhagen's portrayal "magnificent" (magnifik) but felt that the production could not overcome a fragmented script. [60] Meanwhile on screen, she had roles in Helena Bergström's dramatic comedy film Mending Hugo's Heart and in the series Veni Vidi Vici. [61] In 2018, she appeared in the miniseries Sisters 1968. [62] The same year, she starred as Ann in Larsson's production of Lars Norén's Höst och vinter on the Royal Dramatic Theatre's small stage. Co-starring alongside Alexandra Rapaport and Ingela Olsson, Millhagen played the younger sister, who blames her parents for her neuroticism, and serves as a catalyst for the play's family conflict. Reviewing the production, Ring praised the play and noted that Millhagen's performance successfully conveyed Ann's lingering bourgeois roots despite a working-class job. [63]
Millhagen played Blanche DuBois in Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire, which premiered on 29 March 2019 during a period of turmoil at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, as the theatre's artistic director faced allegations of domestic violence. Because A Streetcar Named Desire involves themes of spousal abuse and rape, Millhagen felt it was a difficult situation but also one that encouraged a sense of camaraderie amongst the cast. The production was ultimately a critical and commercial success. [64] Leif Zern of Dagens Nyheter, who felt it was one of the best performances at the theatre in years, highlighted Millhagen's performance as "continuously captivating and gut-wrenching". [d] A Streetcar Named Desire earned her the Thalia Prize from Svenska Dagbladet. [66] The same year, she appeared in Richard Hobert's Faroese drama The Birdcatcher's Son (2019). In a generally negative review for Dagens Nyheter, Johan Croneman praised Millhagen's "brilliant" (strålande) depiction of a "lively and domineering innkeeper" (livliga och dominanta värdshusvärdinnan). [67] She also lent her voice to play Shenzi in the Swedish dub of The Lion King. [68]
In February 2020, Millhagen reunited with Larsson for another Williams play, starring as Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof . [69] Dagens Nyheter critic Per Svensson regarded her performance as a "masterpiece". [e] During theatre closures associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, Millhagen recorded audiobooks before returning to performing in front of a live audience with a reprisal of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Maximteatern. She reprised her role as Maggie opposite Linus Wahlgren's Brick. [70] In November of the following year, she appeared in another Maximteatern production, this time playing Hedda in Lars Norén's marital-strife drama Så enkel är kärleken. It featured Millhagen and Larsson as a self-involved couple whose relationship problems surface as they comment on an alcohol-fueled argument between their friends (played by Mikael Persbrandt and Ingela Olsson). [71] She appeared in the first season of the crime drama Bäckström as prosecutor Hanna Hwass. [72] She also had a minor role in the first season of Young Royals in 2021, playing Felice's mother Smysan. [73] She starred opposite Rolf Lassgård as a divorcing couple clearing out their summer home in Love Proof (2022). In a review for Svenska Dagbladet, Karoline Eriksson panned the film, noting that while Millhagen and Lassgård were both capable actors, the script held the film back. [74]
She portrayed Rita in a production of Little Eyolf at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in 2024. [75] In a somewhat mixed review for Dagens Nyheter, Maina Arvas highlighted Millhagen's performance, writing that her Rita was "absurd, jealous, shameless, human, and funny, an example of what can be done with Ibsen's female roles". [f]
In 2025, Millhagen appeared alongside French actor Denis Lavant in John Skoog's Cold War drama film Redoubt . The film, which follows an eccentric Scanian farmer fortifying his house against a perceived enemy threat, premiered at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. [76] The same year, Millhagen appeared in two Royal Dramatic Theatre productions. First, she was in Alice Birch's [BLANK]. The play includes 100 scenes about the women interacting with violence in various ways. Director Maria Åberg selected 24 for the performance, which marked the first time it was staged in Sweden. [77] Then Millhagen appeared in Pelicoträttegången, a four-hour theatre performance about the Pelicot rape case trial directed by Milo Rau. [78] She and Melinda Kinnaman were situated in front of a large ensemble, with Millhagen reading stage directions and Kinnaman performing multiple court-related parts. [79]
She is married to Oscar Norbeck, a psychiatrist. They have two children. [80]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Miffo | Carola | Main role | [21] |
| 2005 | Rubinbröllop | Helena Persson | Short film | [81] |
| Road to Italy | Ylva | Main role | [82] | |
| 2008 | Fishy | Mio | [40] | |
| Everlasting Moments | [42] | |||
| 2009 | Wallander – Prästen | Åsa Nordström | Direct-to-video | [83] |
| Oskar, Oskar | Sonja | [84] | ||
| 2014 | Cupcake | Karin | Short film | [54] |
| 2015 | The Good Dinosaur | Voice (Swedish dub) | [85] | |
| 2017 | Mending Hugo's Heart | Hugo's mother | [86] | |
| 2019 | The Lion King | Shenzi | Voice (Swedish dub) | [68] |
| The Birdcatcher's Son | Livia | [67] | ||
| 2021 | Raya and the Last Dragon | Voice (Swedish dub) | [87] | |
| 2022 | Love Proof | Marie | [74] | |
| 2025 | Redoubt | [88] |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Beck – Annonsmannen | Television film | [19] | |
| 2005 | 27 sekundmeter snö | Greta | Television miniseries | [30] |
| 2006 | Mästerverket | Sara | [89] | |
| 2008 | Häxdansen | Li | [39] | |
| 2013 | Molanders | Fanny Molander | [90] | |
| 2017 | Veni Vidi Vici | Jonna | [91] | |
| 2018 | Sisters 1968 | Ulla | Miniseries | [92] |
| 2020 | Bäckström | Hanna Hwass | Season 1 | [72] |
| 2021 | Young Royals | Smysan | Season 1 | [93] |
| Year | Title | Role | Venue | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Skuggan av Mart | Teater Blå at Folkkulturcentrum | Stockholm Student Theatre | [94] | |
| 1995 | Woyzeck | Teater Blå at Folkkulturcentrum | Stockholm Student Theatre | [95] | |
| 1997 | Fadren | Royal Dramatic Theatre | Målarsalen stage | [96] | |
| 1999 | Ur Funktion | Uppsala City Theatre | [9] | ||
| 2000 | Lage | Scalateatern | [12] | ||
| 2001 | Las Vegas | Loretta | Uppsala City Theatre | [13] | |
| Electra | Uppsala City Theatre | [97] | |||
| 2002 | Född skyldig | Stefanie | Uppsala City Theatre | Small stage | [98] |
| 2003 | Ett litet drömspel | Royal Dramatic Theatre | Lejonkulan stage | [99] | |
| Mother Courage and Her Children | Kattrin | Royal Dramatic Theatre | Målarsalen stage | [24] | |
| 2004 | Valpen | Siri von Essen | Strindberg's Intimate Theatre | [25] | |
| 2005 | Measure for Measure | Isabella | Royal Dramatic Theatre | [28] | |
| 2006 | Iskuggan av Hamlet | Gertrud | Royal Dramatic Theatre | Lejonkulan stage | [32] |
| Lulu | Lulu | Royal Dramatic Theatre | [33] | ||
| 2007 | Buried Child | Royal Dramatic Theatre | [100] | ||
| Fördold | Metta | Royal Dramatic Theatre | [101] | ||
| 2008 | The Serious Game | Lydia Stille | Stockholm City Theatre | Small stage | [37] |
| Den ömhet jag är värd | Sanna | Royal Dramatic Theatre | [102] | ||
| 2009 | Scenes from a Marriage | Marianne | Royal Dramatic Theatre | Small stage | [103] |
| Autumn Sonata | Helena | Royal Dramatic Theatre | Main stage | [47] | |
| 2010 | August: Osage County | Karen | Royal Dramatic Theatre | [104] | |
| 2011 | The Misanthrope | Celimène | Royal Dramatic Theatre | [49] | |
| 2012 | The Red and the Black | Sveriges Radio Drama | [50] | ||
| 2013 | Fanny and Alexander | Emelie Ekdahl | Kennedy Center | Nordic Cool Festival | [51] |
| 2014 | Rosmersholm | Rebekka West | Royal Dramatic Theatre | [55] | |
| 2015 | Madame de Sade | Multiple | Royal Dramatic Theatre | [105] | |
| 2016 | Medea | Medea | Royal Dramatic Theatre | [59] | |
| 2017 | Anna Karenina | Anna Karenina | Royal Dramatic Theatre | Main stage | [60] |
| 2018 | Höst och vinter | Ann | Royal Dramatic Theatre | Small stage | [63] |
| 2019 | A Streetcar Named Desire | Blanche DuBois | Royal Dramatic Theatre | Small stage | [65] |
| 2020 | Cat on a Hot Tin Roof | Maggie | Maximteatern | [69] | |
| 2021 | Cat on a Hot Tin Roof | Maggie | Maximteatern | [70] | |
| 2022 | Så enkel är kärleken | Hedda | Maximteatern | [71] | |
| 2024 | Little Eyolf | Rita | Royal Dramatic Theatre | [75] | |
| 2025 | [BLANK] | Royal Dramatic Theatre | Main stage | [106] | |
| Pelicoträttegången | Royal Dramatic Theatre | [78] |
| Year | Award | Work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Guldbagge Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role | Miffo | Nominated | [107] |
| 2006 | Gunn Wållgren Award | Won | [108] | |
| 2013 | Carl Åkermark Award | Won | [53] | |
| 2015 | Litteris et Artibus | Won | [56] | |
| 2019 | Svenska Dagbladet Thaliapriset | A Streetcar Named Desire | Won | [66] |