Maria Bonnevie biography

Maria Bonnevie

Biography

Born 1973 in Västerås, Västmanlands län in Sweden

Maria is the daughter of Norwegian actress Jannik Bonnevie and Swedish actor Per Waldvik. She lived with her mother in Oslo in Norway until she was 18. Maria is an only child, but she has three cousins whom she regards as her brothers. Before her acting career she took classes in classical and modern dancing.

Already at age 16, while she went to the drama section at the Nissen High School in Oslo, Maria got her first film part in Hrafn Gunnlaugson’s action adventure The White Viking (Den hvite viking) in 1991. That same year she played the main part in Ola Solum’s The Polar Bear King (Kvitebjørn kong valemon), based on a classic Norwegian fairytale. Then followed her first stage appearence in August Strindberg’s "Easter" ("Påske").

Maria did not like school very much, and because of all the shooting she decided to do the last two years of high school in one year at a private school. That did not work though, and she never finished her high school exams. That did not stop her from becoming a great actress though.

The media attention around her at this time became a problem for her, so she left Norway at age 18 and went to Ærø in Denmark where she did a half-year course in drama and music at a "folk high school" (school having general cultural courses not leading to a degree), even though she was not sure whether she wanted to become an actress. Here she met Danish drama professor Jan Vogt who were to give her new inspiration. Having ended this course, she spent six months in Copenhagen where Vogt gave her private drama lessons.

Thanks to him she was in summer 1993 accepted at The National Swedish Theatre Academy (Scenskolan) in Stockholm. This suited her all the more well since her father is Swedish and lives in Stockholm. Earlier that year she did a small part in Erik Gustavson’s The Telegraphist (Telegrafisten).

Her international breakthrough came with her part in Bille August’s Jerusalem (Sweden 1995-96), based on Selma Lagerlöf’s epic novel by the same name (1901-1902). Here she plays the young Gertrud who, after having been betrayed by the man she loves, leaves for Jerusalem along with several of her fellow villagers to devote her life to Jesus. The film had a fair success, but the critics were ecstatic about Maria’s performance.

After the shooting of Jerusalem, in November 1995, Maria had two small parts in Ingmar Bergman’s very successful staging of Witold Gombrowicz’s play "Yvonne" at the National Theatre of Sweden (Dramaten).

In Erik Skjoldbjærg’s thriller Insomnia (Norway 1996-1997) Maria portrays the young receptionist Ane who provides some human relief to the guilt-ridden police inspector played by Stellan Skarsgård. The story is set in the small town of Tromsø in Northern Norway. She speaks the northern Norwegian dialect with great ease. The fact that she speaks fluent Swedish in Jerusalem is easier to conceive, given her father’s nationality and her four years at the theatre academy in Stockholm. – If you ever see The White Viking, which is in Icelandic language, you may start to believe she is a language genius, but she was in fact dubbed into Icelandic for that film.)

Maria has also done a few short films: In For a Handfull of Love (For en neve Kjærlighet, dir: Kjersti Paulsen, NRK, Norway 1992-1993) she plays a potato chip-munching kiosk girl. Her second short was Halfdan Egedius’ Last Days (1993) by the musician Torstein Bieler Østtveit (his first). The third short was directed by the same Østtveit: Maestro (Gjestedirigenten, 1996) where she is a cellist in a symphony orchestra that falls in love with the visiting conductor.

Maria finished acting school in summer 1997 and went straight on to Canada for the shooting of Disney’s Eaters of the Dead (dir: John McTiernan) where she plays opposite Antonio Banderas. An adventure based on Michael Crichton's bestselling novel: When a royal emissary (Antonio Banderas) is abducted by a band of rogue warriors (vikings), he is forced to help them repel a scourge of mysterious invaders that consume every living thing in their path. After a lot of post producton mess, the film was premiered two years after and was very badly received by the critics. Maria has a few scenes as Banderas’ love interest.

Maria has been employed at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm (Dramaten) since she finished acting school in 1997, and has already done several classics. From October 1997 to April 1998 she played the imaginary girl Ylvali in the family play "Sister Dearest" ("Allra käraste syster"), based on a book by Astrid Lindgren. Jointly she had a part in Anton Tchekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard” (Körsbärsträdgården) (January-April 1998).

Maria then played the part of Petra in Dramaten’s staging of Henrik Ibsen’s "An Enemy of the People" ("En folkefiende"), directed by the well-known Norwegian director Stein Winge. (Premiered on April 18^th 1998).

Maria worked with Ingmar Bergman again in January 1999 when she had a part in a radio version of a play by August Strindberg.

April 1999 saw the premiere of Maria’s first monologue on stage. Together with director Eva Dahlman she adapted the short story “Miss Eva” (1924) by the Austrian writer Alfred Schnitzler. It is about a 19 year old girl who is asked to undress for a wealthy man in order to save her father from bankruptcy. It is a heartbreaking tale of pride and shame which Maria mediates with great passion and genius. Her performance is unsettlingly strong, - which the critics did not fail to see. The press has focussed a lot on the fact that she actually undresses in the performance. But it comes as a natural and compulsory part of the monologue. It is heartbreaking, rather than a turn-on (if there ever was ever any doubt). “Miss Eva” runs, on and off, at least until the end of 1999.

In summer 1999 she again played the part as Gertrud in “Jerusalem”, but this time it was an outdoor staging at the Ingmarsspelen in Nås in Dalarna where the story really took place. She will do this again in summer 2000 (July 5^th-9^th).

Again Tchekhov: “Three Sisters” this time, which was premiered on Sept 4^th 1999. Maria has the part of Irina, the youngest sister. The last performance is for the time being set to February 9^th 2000.

In 1997 Maria struck up a relationship with the actor Jonas Malmsjö who also worked at the Royal Dramatic Theatre. Like Maria he as actor parents: Jan Malmsö and Maria Göranzon. The two of them shared an appartment at Södermalm in Stockhom for a while. But in summer 1998 Maria got engaged to fellow actor Mikael Persbrandt, who was voted Sweden’s most sexy man by the newspaper Expressen in 1999 (Maria was voted Sweden’s 2^nd most sexy woman in 1999 by the Café magazine). Persbrandt has done mostly film and tv stuff, but now he too is employed at the Royal Dramatic Theatre.

Maria has not done any movies since summer 1997. She is tired of being type cast as a Nordic princess, and waits for a more challenging part. However, she did a small supporting role in the Swedish family film Tsatsiki (dir. Ella Lemhagen, 1999) where she is some sort of fakir (at least she was not type cast…).

On November 16^th 1999 Maria was awarded a grant of 25 000 Swedish kroner (about £2500) from the Gunilla Wållgren Memorial Fund.

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