Johan Widerberg, whose private life is not well-known, doesn't take part in either gossip magazines or game shows. It's uninteresting to be seen for your own sake he himself says and only takes part when he's currently in something. At the moment it's The Picture of Dorian Gray, a ghost story about beauty and youth cult. And Johan tells about his views on vanity, celebritydom and love.
by Jenny Lindblom
Most people probably associate Johan Widerberg with film and TV. Just this Christmas we could see him in SVT's big venture Herr von Hancken. Theater is a relatively new experience to Johan who during the spring plays the leading role in the ghost story The Picture of Dorian Gray at Malmö Dramatic Theater.
What's it like to meet an audience every night?
- The audience always reacts differently and that affects the performance. Sometimes you can even become afraid of the audience. When a reaction doesn't come where it usually does. Then you get worried and you freeze.
The play was written by Oscar Wilde in the late 1800's and it's about vanity and youth cult. Are there any similarities to today's society?
- It's fascinating; it's even more of interest today than it was back then. We are living in a time that's so incredibly fixated with youth and beauty.
Are looks important to you?
- I've been gifted with the face of an 18-year-old on the body of a 26-year old. Of course I get a certain kind of parts because of that, which can be a drag sometimes. But at the same time I've been given incredibly good parts.
Uninteresting to be seen in the media
Johan has been in the film business ever since he as a child took part in his dad, Bo Widerberg's films. Even though he's been a so called public person for that long, he's still something of an unknown.
- I never do interviews or game shows if I don't have anything to sell, like now with The Picture of Dorian Gray. To me it's completely uninteresting to be seen as "myself".
Is that the price you have to pay for being an actor, that people are curious about your private life?
- Of course I understand that people are curious. I like to read gossip too. But just like you have the right to ask whatever questions you want, I have the right not to answer.
You don't seem to have any problems with celebritydom. Has it always been like that?
- No, it's taken some time to learn. To be interviewed can be really hard, it can feel like a confession where you're forced to answer. In the beginning I could end up in situations where I told things to a journalist that I hadn't even told my closest friends.
Work inspires love
For some reason Johan's roles have often been in love. Who doesn't remember Didrik's lovesick piano-tinkling in the TV series Ebba och Didrik or the passion between Stig and his teacher in Lust och fägring stor?
How do you look at love?
- Work and love are all that matters. They're side by side at the finish.
How does that work? The one usually excludes the other?
- To me it's the opposite. The one doesn't outlive the other. Work gives me inspiration for love and vice versa.
How do you mean?
- Actors often have problems with their self-confidence, especially when you're out of work. When I've been out of work for a period and the self-confidence crumbles then it's hard to get the energy to devote yourself to love.
How is the love right now?
- Then I'll plead the fifth amendment, as they say in American films.
FACTS Johan Widerberg
Age: 26
Lives: Temporarily in Malmö
Currently in: The Picture of Dorian Gray at Hipp, Malmö Dramatic Theatre until March 24.
Future plans: Date book is empty, but there are dreams of film projects of his own.
Other: TV fanatic, devours American series like the Sopranos and Sex and the City.
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The fifth amendment of the American constitution:
”No man can be held accountable for any serious crime without a presentation or indictment by an indictment jury.” (Ed. note: My translation of the Swedish is probably not the same as the wording in the actual constitution.)
In the 1940's the amendment was pleaded by film workers in Hollywood who wouldn't testify in front of the infamous Committee against un-American activities (HUAC, House un-American activities committee) who accused them of being communists.
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