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Linda pg 3

In an article for Amelia magazine:

"My Childhood was chaotic."

2004 picture from article where Linda speaks about

her life growing up.

She spoke with the director and got a small role in her ABBA father, Björn Ulvaeus' (and Benny Andersson's) Kristina från Duvemåla. The year was 1995 and she

was 22 years old.

"I would never have done something like that today."

she says.

(Her father didn't know she was applying for the role!)

2 years later she got the role of Chava in "Fiddler on

the Roof", in Malmo.. And when Linda got the role of

the farmer girl Lena, in "Under the Sun" 2 years later,

she was already a student at the Theater School in Stockholm and people stopped comparing her to her father, and her mother Agnetha Fältskog.

Now she's 31 and finished with her theater studies in the summer of 2003.

She finally feels liberated.

"You're not accepted into stage school because your parents are famous,

I hope, because I have worked very hard to achieve the goal of being an

actress on my own merits. I'm the kind of person that takes everything seriously, but it's been nice to sometimes flip out."

But there won't be much flipping out when she enters the stage tour of Edward

Albees incredibly funny "Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"....Linda plays Honey,

who dreams of a perfect marriage and pretends to get pregnant to get married,

but who is actually afraid of really becoming pregnant.

Do you have anything in common with Honey?

"It hit me when I became pregnant how tuely lost I felt. It happens with things you can't control. But I wasn't scared. It was cool! At least until the delivery, which ended up a cesearian after 20 hours of labour. My daughter had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck several times and couldn't get out! And I thought I was made for giving birth!"

What do you mean..made for?

"I'm physicaly strong and I have a big bottom. I thought I was the kind of

woman that would just stand up, scream, relax and pop..out comes the

child. It didn't happen that way, but I have the finest daughter at least."

The perfect marriage, do you think it exists?

"Yes, (laughing) I have it! ...( Linda is not married to Jens

but they are engaged )

"Seriously, I have found the perfect man. He buys and

sells companies and is perfectly normal. He's very nice, especially when I'm crazying around, never keeping to a steady schedule. It's sort of an irregular relationship, built upon the thought that having a regular relationship wouldn't add anything to our bonding. I can't lie either, I'm scared

to promise things I can't keep. But we are still in love after

10 years. 100% honesty is what it takes. Jens knows that I often "fall in love" with my co-actors."

What does he think about that?

"It doesn't mean anything, he knows he's the right one for me.

Jens has a deep, grounded assurance, something I lack."

Why is that?

It's alot to do with my childhood. Probably genetics too. I'm completly

worthless when it comes to seperations. My parents were never home."

And when you were growing up?

"It was chaos, and it was my own fault! I was a real mess, completly

outrageous in school. I started my big disaster period when I was 13

years old and started going to "rave" parties. I would come home early

in the mornings, put on my white riding pants and then go to riding compititions. That was my life, raving at night and riding during the days."

And your parents had nervous breakdowns?

"Sort of, but because my parents divorced when I was 5, and I lived mostly

with my mom, dad having moved to England after a few years, so mom

had to take most of my clashes when I was a teenager refusing to be controlled."

Sounds like the big"mother/daughter drama.

"You might say that. We both have a "hell" of a temperment. We fought and were terribly bad friends, so that we finally decided to live seperatly. When

I had become drunk after a school party and got a ride home with the police,

I started to ask myself what was I doing? I was only 14 at the time and moved away from my mother and little brother on Liningö, to one of mothers friends out on Ekerö. (1987)

Mother was strong and knew this was the right thing to do. It was necessary

for me to break the bad cycle and start new in a new enviroment. I had my

horse on Ekerö. And I started to take school seriously and was accepted in a theater prgram."

And these days?

"Mother and I have a wonderful relationship! These days we are really close, there's no one like her! Now we live on the same estate on Ekerö, but in seperate houses, of course."

What will you do when your own daughter becomes 13 and wants to be like her mom?

" I hope she will have her father there for her and that he will also be prepared

to share the responsibility. It's important for children to have both parents

even if they don't live together.

My father disappereared for a few years, probably when I needed him most,

but we have talked through all that and now I feel like I have a father. Today,

that is."

What are the pro's and cons of having world famous parents?

"There's certainly pro's, but the con's have been more prominent in my case. I've spent alot of my life trying to get rid of "friends" who were mostly

interested in celebrities. It was hard to never be sure if I was sombodys friend or girlfriend for real, and have to struggle to be liked. I always worried about

so many things. Was it really about me? On the other hand, I have become

good at understanding people, and that's something."

Are you good at singing?

"They say I am, but I've never thought about walking in my parents shoes.

My friends would play"ABBA" but it never crossed my mind. I wanted to be

an actress at an early age. It's a cool job that lets you experience so many

lives through your roles."

Or a "fail safe" if you don't want to deal with your own life?

"No, on the contrary, you have to deal with yourself all the time. Actors are interesting people. You can wonder if there are certain spelcial people that

enter that proffesion, or if you become special as an actor."

What have you done in the last 20 years?

"I've been in the theater during several periods in my life. I alternate theater

and movies with being a bit of a farmer, driving a tractor and dealing with animal manure. I imagine doing different things from time to time also,

because I need to do that."

Is it realisric?

"No. I see the problems. But I recognize that this is a dream,

and I want to keep it!

Are you an optomistic person?

"No, unfortunatly I'm not."

By Nenne Wålander (interviewer)