Hilma cast "did a seance with a psychic" to get to know their characters
Lily Cole and Maeve Dermody explain how they used Swedish artist Hilma af Klint's own practices as part of their preparation for the new biopic.
Swedish artist Hilma af Klint is considered one of the first abstract painters in Western art history, and now she's the subject of a new biopic from Academy Award-nominated director Lasse Hallström – which saw the cast use some rather unorthodox research methods.
Hilma was part of a group of female artists known as The Five, who incorporated spirituality and seances into their work, and according to cast members Maeve Dermody and Lily Cole – who play Sigrid Hedman and Mathilda Nilsson respectively – they used similar methods as part of their acting process.
"There was not much information at all, there were a few images but very little information [about Sigrid and Mathilda]," Dermody said during an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com.
"So early on, we did a seance with a psychic. We met with him and for about two hours Hilma was present with him – and she gave us a lot of information."
"A lot of information!" Cole agreed. "And it felt to me very respectful to the women's beliefs and to the women's tools, the way that they worked – because they used psychic work and communicating with spirits.
"So it felt really respectful to kind of honour their beliefs and use this process to get a lot of information that we would never otherwise find. Because, you know, the emotional dynamics, the relationships – all the important stuff when you play a character wasn't documented."
Cole added that she was surprised at how little she'd known about Hilma given how influential her work had been, and said she hoped the film would encourage people to dig deeper into her story.
"I keep mentioning the fact that I studied art history at university and we didn't learn Hilma," she explained. "I find that so relevant, because I know that we all grew up in a time where we felt like everything was very open-minded and liberal, but actually there are still these huge blind spots.
"And I feel like films like this will make it harder for those blind spots to continue. You know, if you were studying art history next year, I would assume that Hilma's name has to come up.
"So yeah, I'm hoping that not just this film, but also there has been a book written about her, there's an exhibition at the Tate next year – she's having a real kind of revival in interest in her and her story. And hopefully, that will stick."
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Hilma is released in UK cinemas on Friday 28th October and from early 2023 will also be available on Viaplay UK, Viaplay’s streaming service set to launch in the UK this autumn.
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Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
