J	ohan Widerberg has lie sleepless for a week. The reason is partly because he's jetlagged after his trip to Los Angeles, but mostly the sleeplessness is due to anxiety. Johan lies awake pondering what's

to come, after all the awards, after all the film festivals, after the Oscar nomination for the film "Lust och fägring stor" where he plays the lead role.
   Now a new period in Johan's life commences, when he has to prove himself. The next time he sets about working he knows that he has to have wound down enough from the "Lust och fägring" frenzy to be able to concentrate to the max and accomplish more than just being young and promising. His much-talked about low-key acting style with the ability to shine through the screen with an open, clean face mustn't get clouded. He has to show the world around him and himself that his intentions to, as he says in his typical sports metaphorical way, play in "the major league" are seriously meant and well-founded.
   The actor Johan Widerberg has received his biggest success and recognition with the film "Lust och fägring stor" where he, as mentioned, plays the lead role but also assisted his dad, mega director Bo Widerberg.
   Among the awards the film has got since its premiere in November last year are three Golden Beetles(* Swedish film award), the audience award at Gothenburg Film Festival, awards at Berlin Film Festival and like gold sprinkles on the cream - the Oscar nomination, in the category for "Best Foreign Language Film".
   At the moment, Johan and Bo are being talked about as a unit, but Johan is with his own luminosity unique in Swedish film on account of the extremely long list of merits for his age. Already as baby, he had parts in dad Bo's films. It's said that only Stellan Skarsgård had at the age of 22 played more parts than Johan.
   Johan's breakthrough came with the leading role in the TV series "Ebba och Didrik" when he was fourteen. Since then he's had parts in TV series like "Den frusna leoparden", Rapport till himlen", "Rosenbaum" and "Radioskugga". He's had a part in Stadsteatern's production of "An Inspector Calls" and he has a part in the upcoming film "Juloratoriet". When Johan was fourteen years old his dad left the family for a new woman. Johan broke off contact with Bo, left home and started working to get by - for example at a production company for commercials. With the film "Lust och fägring stor" father Bo and son Johan have reunited. And properly so. They travel together; they're best friends and plan to continue working together.
   I meet with Johan the day before the second trip to Los Angeles in one month. The first time he and dad Bo went to promote "Lust och fägring stor". Now they're going there for the Oscar nominations. Johan Widerberg seems remarkably calm during the interview, but through his girlfriend Amanda Rydman Ultra later learns that he's been jumping up and down on the bed the entire evening, instead of packing his bag. And what director Ulf Malmros said once: "Johan is an old man in a young man's body", doesn't seem to be entirely true.
   What do you think about the environment in Los Angeles"
   - Los Angeles has a really lousy reputation in Europe. I've been there three times, twice as a tourist, and now once to work. And I like it very much! I have the advantage of having been there with people who know the city and have friends there and then it's so much more fun. To just be dropped in that city has to be completely hopeless. You have no idea of where you're going. There's like no Times Square, no core at all. But I think it's a creative environment too. And there are many good people there, actually. Here, people talk a lot of crap about shallow people in USA in general and Los Angeles in particular. Of course there are shallow people there, but there are many with substance too.
   There seems to be a great professional skill gathered there.
   - Certainly. In my business, it's often there in Los Angeles where the best people end up for good and for bad. The major league is there. That's where the "major league" in film is.
   Do you want to be in the "major league"?
   - Anybody who does anything wants that. Again like in my damn sports metaphors; if you play soccer in Sweden, then you want to go to Italy, if you play on that kind of level. Every soccer player can more or less admit that the dream is to come to Italy. But for Swedes in film it's a bit nasty to say that you want to work in the States. Although I think that practically everybody has something pulling them there. Of course there is a lot of crap done there to, but the good films often get forgotten when you're generalising.
   Exactly how does the Oscar nomination feel today, the day before you're leaving?
   - I'll be damned if I know.

I	've got the idea that you are very much of a naysayer. Can you afford to be that in America too?

   - It didn't even occur to me to make a fuss and question whether the things I would take part in were serious. I was on an entertainment show called "Extra". I was out with a girl who's in the film "Clueless", where she plays a caricature of an American teenage girl type. The idea for the segment was that she would show me, the foreigner, the town. Then it was just like the segments you see sometimes, that we were in a shopping mall and I was going to buy shoes and then we went rollerblading on Santa Monica Beach. And it was really fun.
   But you wouldn't go rollerblading on "Adam"?
   - No!
   Why do you say no to so many things?
   - It's very simple. If you work as an actor you only have one face. If you work a lot, like I've had the opportunity to do and sit on every TV couch, then people get sick of you after twenty minutes. Just like I myself do when faces are used up. I don't have a need for being a celebrity in that way. There are people who become depressed if they can't read about themselves or see themselves on TV. There are cases where people have become really nuts when they've been public for a while and then it ends. It's a combination of me not wanting to sit there and it not being good. Then when you've done something that you want people to see it comes into a different light.

L	ust och fägring stor" has received quite an amount of awards. Can you enjoy the success and settle down with it for a while?

   - Yes, for twenty minutes.
   Doesn't it feel nerve-racking to start everyday work after that?
   - Yeah, it's a different situation now. From having been young and maybe a little promising, I suddenly have a lot to prove.
   How have you planned to focus again?
   - I do that more or less all the time now. I haven't been able to sleep at all since I came home last time. It's partly because of jetlag, but also because I lie awake worrying about things I'm doing in June. I lay and think about scenes and those kinds of things.
   In the papers you and your dad are presented as a unity. Doesn't that annoy you?
   - No, not anymore. In having those years when we weren't a unity, we were as far from a unity as can be, so I don't care that it's like this now. I think it's pretty nice, actually. We have very fun together. But if we hadn't had those years, we couldn't have made this film.
   Is it entirely healthy to work with your dad and to be friends with him?
   - I really don't know.
   I for one think it seems to be pretty unusual. Most guys I know can't talk to their dads and they don't have the least bit in common. Do you think that the "father and son thing" is important to people?
   - Yes, of course. If you're going to talk violent criminals, sex offenders and that kind of thing, it's documented that it often is about an absent dad. So you can damn well believe that it's important.
   When do you know that you're good and when do you doubt yourself, in your work?
   - I always have doubts, actually. When you're sitting in front of the camera it's about thinking as little as possible. But after the take I think that "what the hell did I do now". And then when you see the result it's the same thing, why didn't I do this and that?
   Does your self-criticism torment you? Is it like a handicap?
   - It's both good and bad. But because I'm very self-critical, I often think that I'm doing too little in my job as an actor. The self-criticism causes me to be afraid of overacting and putting on a show. That in turn leads to me often being afraid of underacting.
   But that's exactly what you've got so much praise for. You can at least admit that! Where do these demands come from?
   - I don't know. I guess it's my parents' fault like everything else. I think that environment is what shapes you to a much greater extent than heredity.
   Are you saying that they wanted you to be something, or have you observed how they are?
   - No, they've never pushed me in any direction so to speak. Which is good. Except for one thing. And that was with the soccer. One day I came home saying that I was going to quit playing soccer. And it was strange to watch my parents' reaction. They couldn't deal with it at all. It was interesting. They were really torn up about it.
   Why, do you think?
   - It wasn't damn now he won't make any Juventus millions that we can live on, it was more of a social story, that thing with going to my games was a big part of their lives.
   What relationships are most important for you at home?
   - That's the relationship with my girlfriend and a best friend. And to the remote control. That probably sounds bloody boring, but that's how it is. If you work a lot then you fill up the social part - this need for hanging around, sitting and drinking beer - in full measure when you're filming. All day it's like a big cocktail party. I like it. You work and then you continue to hang out at nights, especially if you're working away from home. You hang out round the clock and then you sleep for four hours and then you see each other again. Then it's nice to come home to some kind of peace.
   You haven't been spoiled with a nuclear family that you've lived safely with until you were twenty. What are the advantages and downsides to that?
   - Now I can only see the advantages with me leaving home. It was necessary. Everybody has to liberate him or herself. I had to do it quite extremely, but that's the same impulse as with many others.
   Would you try to stop your own child, if you have children one day, from leaving home when he or she is fourteen?
   - Probably. But somewhere you've succeeded if you've raised someone for fourteen years who you then can't stop when he wants to take off. But of course I'd try and get the guy or the girl to stay.
   When you and Bo separated
   - That sounds so funny, like a partnership.
   Wasn't it contradictory to then want to work with film, the thing that Bo did?
   - I didn't want to at the time. But I did do Ebba och Didrik and around that time I moved away from home and decided that I'd never be in front of the camera again. But it wasn't that much the rebellion; it was more that I couldn't stand monkeying about in front of the camera. But then it happened that I started in commercials anyway. That was because I'm so incredibly fond of film.