There is a scene early in the new Swedish drama Live Life that is breathtakingly sad, sentimental and sweet all at once. It captures the overall complexity and cohesion of director Susanne Thorson’s approach to character and storytelling.
Nora (Hanna Ardéhn), a 24-year-old aspiring journalist ready to take life on at relentless speed is shaving her head in a tiny bathroom. She is accompanied by her tearful but encouraging friends, Doris (Tina Pour Davoy) and Alina (Doreen Ndagire), as her glossy, dark mane tumbles into the sink.
Faced with losing her hair to chemotherapy, Nora has taken the reigns - when circumstances have robbed her of so many choices - to control when and how she will lose her own hair. She is in a battle with a cyst the size of a handball on one of her ovaries, a discovery that she initially tried to keep secret. When it is diagnosed as cancer, she confides in her friends who are just as unprepared as Nora to know the “right” way to live with cancer.
Nora (Hanna Ardéhn) is eager for the life of a journalist ahead of her. Credit: FLX / Viaplay
“We couldn’t do it again. [Hanna] only had one head of hair and she shaves her hair off, for real. You could touch the air in that room, it was so tense and so focused during filming.”
Live Life is the latest series, written mostly by women (Karin Aspenström, Felicia Danielsson, Vera Herngren and Carl-Petter Montell), to present a nuanced exploration of friendship and the many ways that the worst time of our lives can eventually prove to be the catalyst for honing our resilience, perspective and faith in one another.
Thorson admits that in her extensive career as an actor, she had only seen fifty percent of the director’s job, but she adds, “I was ready to direct actors. I couldn’t wait to do it, it was the thing I’d been practising for, in a way.”
She ekes generous, compelling and vulnerable performances from her cast, a feat only possible from actors who trust the director and one another.
Everything changes for Nora (Hanna Ardéhn) very unexpectedly. Credit: FLX / Viaplay
The chemistry between Nora, Doris and Doreen is charged on screen, and their friendship is the sort of deeply loyal, quasi-familial love and dedication that most of us lack in our work-focused, digital-first world. Now 42 years old, Thorson admits it is the sort of friendship she was nostalgic for and thoroughly enjoyed bringing to life on screen.
“Nora is a girl who has everything in front of her, and everything seems possible,” Thorson explains. “She’s driven and she has these high expectations of herself. The cancer diagnosis turns everything around, so the question is ‘how do you handle that?’”
Nora (Hanna Ardéhn) takes matters into her own hands. Credit: FLX / Viaplay
“This is the magic with life,” sighs Thorson, who has evidently given it a lot of thought. “You can’t predict what will happen or who is gonna be there for you.”
The origins of Live Life are both magic and unpredictable, too. In the middle of the pandemic, Thorson had been at home, scrolling Instagram, when she came across a four-minute video in which a 22-year-old woman had posted about her cancer diagnosis.
“I felt everything you could feel in those four minutes. I was crying because it was sad and unfair that she had cancer, but I was also crying because she was so mentally strong. I was so inspired by her friends and her family who were determined to celebrate every moment that they could. For me, that pure friendship was what I wanted to show.”
Nora (Hanna Ardéhn) bravely forges ahead. Credit: FLX / Viaplay
“It’s dark,” concedes Thorson, “but I wanted to provide a perspective that inspires people to want to live.”
Understandably, Thorson’s real-life inspiration (who was a creative consultant from the beginning and throughout the series) entrusted the long-time actor to bring her story to the screen. To scroll through Susanne Thorson’s extensive acting CV might take you hours, but it is illuminating. The broad diversity of drama, comedy, and thrillers – many projects involving cross-border collaborations – point to a creative woman with a curiosity for storytelling that defies genre, and narratives that champion idiosyncratic personalities.
Friends like family. Credit: FLX / Viaplay
“Representation is always important to me because that’s what Sweden looks like. In the end, it’s about the acting, of course. After all the auditions, I cast the actors who were all my first preferences because they are the best. I would never have picked actors who didn’t do the cast justice, and the balance makes me really happy.”
Thorson has just completed filming the second season, so that is good news for fans of the first. Like Thorson, we will be able to revisit the characters and open ourselves to feeling everything as we (fully) live life.
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Live Life - season 1 episode 1
