I love close-ups. To me they are a challenge. The closer a camera comes, the more eager I am to show a completely naked face, show what is behind the skin, the eyes; inside the head. Show the thoughts that are forming.

To work with Ingmar is to go on a journey of discovery within my own self. To be able to realize all the things I dreamed of as a girl.

Discard the mask and show what is behind it.

The camera comes so close—and there is much of myself that is captured.

Closer to the audience than in any other medium—the human being is shown on the screen.

The camera meets me more exposed than the lover who thinks he has read my thoughts.

Even when I tell myself that I am expressing a role, I can never completely hide who I am, what I am.

The audience, at the moment of identification, meets a person, not a role, not an actress.

A face which confronts them directly:

This is what I know about women. This is what I have experienced, have seen. This is what I want to share.

It is no longer a question of make-up, of hair, of beauty.

It is an exposure that goes way beyond.

When the camera is as close as Ingmar’s sometimes gets, it doesn’t only show a face, but also what kind of life this face has seen.

Thoughts behind the forehead, something the face didn’t know about itself, but which the public will see and recognize.

Privately we long for exactly this kind of recognition: that others should perceive what we really are, deep inside.

To make a film with Ingmar is, for me, to have this experience.