Eili Harboe was only 23 years old when she singlehandedly defeated heteronormativity
Interviewer:“Now, it’s worth pointing out that your character, Thelma, falls in love with another young woman.”
Eili:“I have to say, especially male journalists often ask me a question like ‘How did you prepare for that character?’ and it’s just, to be honest, ridiculous. You know, I just wanna say ‘F*ck you’. Like, my go-to answer is that I hope we get to the point where you don’t have to ask me that question, where it’s not a matter of how did I prepare? First of all you know nothing about me and my sexuality, personally, so you know nothing about my preparation, that’s not something that I’ve stated. And that’s also not something we, me and Joachim, the director, talked about when preparing for the part. We had a lot of conversation about the character and the story development, how to prepare for the part both emotionally and physically - there were a lot of physical challenges with underwater scenes and seizures that Thelma experiences in the film. If you were to say, you know, ‘Remember you’re portraying a gay character here”, I would not consider that a great thing at all. But he never mentioned it, I never mentioned it, it’s just something that’s a natural part of the story. We’re all humans and we all have different personalities and a different way of expressing them. And for me personally, it’s very fluid.”
Interviewer: When Cate Blanchett was doing press for Carol, she got frustrated with the number of journalists asking her about the ‘challenge’ of playing a lesbian, when she herself is straight.
Eili: And I haven’t stated that [I’m straight]. Male journalists ask me, ‘How was it to portray a lesbian?” and I’m like, ‘Have I said, by the way I’m straight, I’m bi, I’m a lesbian? You know nothing about me in that sense.’ That’s not a statement I have ever told anyone. I hope that we come to a point where people don’t have to ask those questions.
