Swedish-born Lena Olin already had a successful career as an actress
before she came to Hollywood. She acted at the Royal Theatre in
Stockholm and was directed by
Ingmar Bergman.
She was born in Stockholm to actors Britta Holmberg and Stig Olin,
who appeared in six of Bergman's films. She also belongs to the Bergman "family".
As a young actress, she played in the great classics of
William Shakespeare,
Henrik Ibsen, and
August Strindberg. She made her
international debut as a movie actress in
Nach der Probe (1984)
(aka "After the Rehearsal"), directed by Bergman. In western Europe,
she became well-known in the political movie
Die unerträgliche Leichtigkeit des Seins (1988)
as "Sabina", in a story about the Prague spring (1968). After coming to
the US, she played mostly distinguished, exotic temptresses,
intelligent women, and crude vamps. Bergman had developed Lena's
artistic gift to play different human emotions and express them in a
subtle way. Sydney Pollack, director of
Jenseits von Afrika (1985), rewrote the
screenplay for Havanna (1990)
especially for her. This explains why this film recalls associations
with the classic Casablanca (1942),
starring Ingrid Bergman, also
from Sweden. Olin received an Academy Award nomination for Best
Supporting Actress for her role in
Feinde - Die Geschichte einer Liebe (1989).
She went on to have a choice role in
Chocolat... ein kleiner Biss genügt! (2000), which received a Best
Picture Oscar nomination, and received a Screen Actors Guild Award
nomination. She made a move to the smaller screen and played the role
for one season as the deliciously evil "Irina Derevko", the mother to
Jennifer Garner's "Sydney
Bristow" in the series Alias: Die Agentin (2001).
Olin received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in
a Drama Series.
