The doe-eyed , baby-faced Swedish actress Christina Lindberg is best known for starring as Frigga in the 1974 rape and revenge classic THRILLER, A CRUEL PICTURE, which was released in the U.S. under the title THEY CALL HER ONE EYE. Born in 1950, the voluptuous Ms Lindberg was an incredibly popular nude model in men’s magazines before beginning her movie career, which lasted from about 1970 to 1975. Her debut was the 1971 hit MAID IN SWEDEN followed by more successful “soft-core” sex dramas such as ANITA THE SWEDISH NYMPH, EXPOSED, CAMPUS SWINGERS, SWEDISH WILDCATS, YOUNG PLAYTHINGS and a dozen or so more. She went to Japan in 1973 and co-starred in SEX AND FURY and SEX IN JAPAN. Otherwise all of her movies were made in Sweden where she has lived her entire life. Christina refused to act in the hardcore sex films that began to dominate the industry by the mid-1970’s and left the movies to pursue a career in journalism. Christina is currently the editor-in-chief of FLYGRUVEN, a popular Swedish aviation magazine.
Despite her cult actress status, Christina Lindberg had never been a movie convention guest before her appearance at Cinema Wasteland in April of 2009 when I interviewed her. Her reception there was very enthusiastic as fans flew and drove from all over the U.S. to meet her, resulting in long autograph lines. She, along with Rickard Gramfors, head of the Swedish film society Klubb Super-8, brought along a 35mm print of ANITA THE SWEDISH NYMPH which was screened Saturday night at a theatre in Cleveland with an introduction by Christina. Seeing Christina Lindberg in her prime on the big screen was quite a treat and it’s clear why she captivated worldwide audiences in the early 1970’s. Still beautiful at 58, Christina, though very busy, was generous enough to sit down for an interview for WE ARE MOVIE GEEKS (Christina speaks in a thick Swedish accent and her English is only fair. This interview has been transcribed word-for-word).
Interview conducted by Tom Stockman April 4, 2009
WE ARE MOVIE GEEKS: Welcome to your first U.S. Convention.
Christina Lindberg: Well, this one is the first one. Three years ago I went to Los Angeles. They showed ANITA THE SWEDISH NYMPH and trailers at the Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard but it wasn’t a convention.
WAMG: Is this what you were expecting?
CL: I didn’t expect anything to be honest.
WAMG: Are you surprised at the number of people standing in line all day wanting to meet you and get your autograph?
CL: Yes of course I’m surprised. I didn’t know that THRILLER (THRILLER A CRUEL PICTURE aka THEY CALL HER ONE EYE) was so popular. It’s strange.
WAMG: We American fans are a little obsessive. What do you think of all the different posters and books and magazines that people are bringing for you to sign this weekend?
CL: I don’t where they find all this good stuff. It’s unbelievable. But you know, when it comes to this big country you can find anything. There is so much people they find their own interests. In Sweden we are so small amount of people that just a few people are interested in cult movies.
WAMG: But you’re very well known in Sweden.
CL: Yes, I am rather well known.
WAMG: So you’re recognized wherever you go?
CL: Almost. I’m well known among people from 45 to 50 years old and up to death.
WAMG: Are you recognized when you visit other countries?
CL: No. I don’t think so.
WAMG: You’ve had sort of a recent resurgence with the Synapse Films people putting out your movies in America on DVD. You’ll probably get invited to other conventions.
CL: Yes. Why not? It’s nice to meet people are so positive and they are so…. they appreciate and they are kind. I love the energy you get from people when you meet them. It’s nice.
WAMG: You were born in Gothenburg Sweden. What was your childhood like? Were you upper class or….
CL: No no, I’m typical working class. My mother worked at cleaning trains. My father went away when I was very small.
WAMG: So you were raised by your mother?
CL: Yes and I had had two brothers and one sister and my mother was working all the time so I took care of them.
WAMG: So how were you discovered then? You were a model first.
CL: I was discovered as a model, you know. You went to the beach and they come up to you. In Sweden we have newspaper and we have some kind of beach girl and they took some photos and I went to some magazine and people saw it and they asked me if I could do some modeling and I thought…….I got some money for it and it was nice and I have no regrets. Not at all. And they sold those pictures to the producer and a well-known director.
WAMG: So you started as a model posing for men’s magazines. You were on the cover of PENTHOUSE June of 1970. How did you get picked for that?
CL: After a while I…. before that I had been on rather many magazines
WAMG: Mostly European magazines?
CL: Yes. Then I went down for LUI (the French version of OUI) and some German magazines.
WAMG: Were you on a lot of covers?
CL: Yes.
WAMG: Did you meet Bob Guccione (publisher of PENTHOUSE)?
CL: No I didn’t. It was in England (the Pet of the Month photoshoot)
WAMG: That was the first year of PENTHOUSE. It was a young magazine then. You were one of their first cover girls.
CL: I didn’t know that.
WAMG: How did you get into acting? Did you take acting lessons?
CL: No no. I wasn’t an actress. Those kind of movies they chose me because of my appearance of course and they wanted to sell the movie and they thought it was a bright idea that I took off my clothes of course. But the funny thing is those movies that were made between 1970 and 1974.It was a very special period because our famous actors and actresses in Sweden didn’t make much money so they thought it was a good idea to say “Yes Thank You” to be in those kind of movies and the movies were produced as good and big movies with the songwriters was very famous, the director and photographer were very good. All the staff… ¦ I worked with the same staff that worked with Ingmar Bergman.
(Christina’s point here is that her films may have been Sexploitation but they used the same crews and had the same budgets as the more prestigious Swedish films of the period such as the films of Ingmar Bergman)
CL: The same actors as well so it was a very special period and they showed those movies on big theatres so it was not small porn or something like that. And they made it for three months so it took it’s time to make those movies.
WAMG: They’re good movies. Do you have clear recollections of that period?
CL: Oh yes.
WAMG: You don’t have a lot of dialog in those movies.
CL: No but it’s natural you know. I was no actress.
WAMG: In fact you play a mute in several films. In THRILLER and the Joe Sarno films (SWEDISH WILDCATS and YOUNG PLAYTHINGS) you don’t have any dialog.
CL: It’s true. You are right. But after a while when I had played in 20 movies I was a little bit more….. relaxed.
WAMG: Did they have big premieres for your films?
CL: Some of them, yes.
WAMG: Did you go to those?
CL: No, you know it’s funny but at that time I was extremely shy.
WAMG: That comes across in your films. Did you like to watch yourself on screen?
CL: No, I didn’t and I didn’t like to go among a lot of people.
WAMG: Did you see movies at the theatre as a young girl. Were you a movie fan?
CL: No, I’m not. Not at all. To be honest it took many many years before I look at my own films. Some of them I have not seen yet. …………….
WAMG: What did you think when you finally saw them?
CL: Well, then I remember. It’s good to see, then I remember that period. It was a nice period in my life.
WAMG: Did you ever have the desire to go to Hollywood and break into movies there?
CL: No, I wasn’t asked. It’s not my world.
WAMG: But you did get invited to Japan to make movies there.
CL: Yes, you know I was small and I was shy and the Japanese people they are small and they are shy and we got along very very well. And they asked me if I could work. They have their own Hollywood in Japan. In Kyoto with the Toho Company I made those two movies (SEX AND FURY and JOURNEY TO JAPAN). They had like an old Hollywood with studios and so on and they shoot a lot of movies. So of course they wanted me to stay to make more but they work 24 hours a day. I was so tired after a while so when they called me (from Sweden) to make ANITA THE SWEDISH NYMPH, I said yes thank you.
WAMG: How long were in Japan?
CL: Three months making those two movies.
WAMG: Well, the reason You are here at Cinema Wasteland is your film THRILLER A CRUEL PICTURE also known as THEY CALL HER ONE EYE. How were you cast in that for director Bo Vibelius?
CL: I don’t remember exactly but at that time I was well know. I was well known for my nude movies and when he came to me with this manuscript I was tired not to have the real parts. I would like to have played something different. When I read the manuscript I though well, it’s a lot of violence. I don’t like violence but it’s a real part.
WAMG: Was the character Frigga mute in the script?
CL: Yes she was and I thought that was a good idea then I could concentrate on myself and express myself with my eyes and my body so well I thought it was a good idea to take the part.
WAMG: Well, it’s a great film. Quentin Tarantino said it is the roughest of all the 1970’s rape and revenge films. He’s very influential. If he says he likes an old movie then everyone has to go out and see it.
CL: That’s good for me!
WAMG: Yes that is. Have you been in contact with Tarantino?
CL: No I haven’t but when I was in Hollywood three years age he actually paid the traveling expenses, but I never met him. It sounds strange but he had his own festival in Austin so after we showed ANITA THE SWEDISH NYMPH at the Egyptian, we sent the movie to his festival. I’ve never met him but he’s a friend of Sweden I’ve heard.
WAMG: And he based, in part, a character in KILL BILL on Frigga. Have you seen KILL BILL?
CL: No. But he was influenced by SEX AND FURY I think.
WAMG: Oh definitely, the fight scenes. You should see KILL BILL.
CL: Oh, I have it at home. Both parts, but I don’t like violence.
WAMG: Of all your movies you made, what is your favorite?
CL: I think THRILLER is my best and the one called THE DOG DAYS.
WAMG: I haven’t seen that.
CL: No. It’s my second movie and it hasn’t been released on DVD.
WAMG: I’m sure it will.
CL: Hopefully, for all the people that want to see it, I hope they will.
WAMG: You cut a 45, two songs.
CL: Pardon?
CL: You recorded a record album with two songs, and on the sleeve of the record there are nude photos of you.
CL: They made the record because I was famous. At that time you sing and you screamed, and they did nothing to, what you say, they couldn’t.If you sing very badly like me they couldn’t….
WAMG: Cover it up?
CL: No. Today I should probably be a singing star and dancing, you never know.
CL: Did they film you singing these songs?
CL: Just photos. Not like today. Not at all.
CL: Did you eventually take acting lessons?
CL: I did. In the middle of the seventies I did. But because I thought if I was to go on I would like to get†¦the directors told me you are well known for those kind of movies where you are taking off your clothes and if you want to go on we want you to wash your name. But we like you so if you go to drama school you are welcome to have parts in other movies so I tried to get into drama school and I almost managed but I failed…¦ I failed. So I thought well, I had to do something.
WAMG: You found other careers.
CL: Yes, then I educate myself as a journalist.
WAMG: Right. Let’s talk about your journalism career. You’re currently the editor of FLYGRUVEN magazine, an aviation magazine.
CL: Right.
WAMG: But before you got into FLYGRUVEN you were an advice columnist for men’s magazines?
CL: Yes I did. I wrote articles for example and then they picked an idea from your American magazine HUSTLER where they put famous people in sauna.
WAMG: Rickard showed a photograph of you nude in a sauna interviewing a man wearing nothing but a towel.
CL: Yes, a famous Swedish man. But it was my boyfriend taking the photo so it was all right, but I wrote the articles and I wrote for a lot of Swedish magazines at that time.
WAMG: Who were these men you were interviewing in the sauna?
CL: Football players, singers, one was a wrestler… TV personalities.
WAMG: Any Americans?
CL: No, just famous Swedes.
WAMG: Rickard said you got fired from that job.
CL: Yes, it’s a funny story because I was rather shy at that time and when I had to ask those questions I couldn’t, you know….. how you say?
WAMG: The publishers wanted you to talk dirty?
CL: Yes, but I couldn’t.
WAMG: It wasn’t you.
CL: It wasn’t me. So they thought I wasn’t good enough and said this isn’t a good idea for you and I thought I did the right thing.
WAMG: And then you met your long-time boyfriend Bo Sehlberg. Was he an aviator?
CL: He was a pilot and he was a photographer and he was a journalist. We started FLYGRUVEN together and he thought I could write for that magazine and it was nice to work together and I did not stop modeling because he was a photographer.
WAMG: Were there photos of you in FLYGRUVEN?
CL: Yes. When I wrote an article there was a small photo of myself but no nude pictures. I was on the cover of an aviation magazines. I took some flying lessons and that’s why I was on the cover.
WAMG: You are to this day still the editor of FLYGRUVEN.
CL: Bo died five years ago and I though it was a good idea to run the company.
WAMG: How did you get involved with animal rights and environmental issues?
CL: Yes I write articles about animal rights for the daily papers and so on.
WAMG: Is that something you’ve always had a passion for?
CL: Yes, since I was very very small. You get close to life when you are among animals. And I think when you are shy and you feel hurt inside and you are insecure sometimes you have difficult to relate to people. You can’t trust people and you relate to animals. And that’s the thing I have done. And I have to say thanks you to the animals because they have saved me in some ways.
WAMG: They showed a pilot movie you made recently here last night, your first acting in many years.
CL: Yes. It’s thirty minutes and it was shown at the festival in Gothenberg in Sweden. They who had produced it were looking for money to make three movies. And they will probably get the money. In Sweden you can ask the government for money if you make serious suggestion. So probably they can get the money. I told them I could do that part but it depends on my company. I have to run my company.
WAMG: What are your future plans?
CL: I have no plans. I do things that I like. I love to be here. If I have time. You know, I’m alone now days and I don’t ask anyone. I made my own life in the countryside. I do whatever I want. I like that.
WAMG: Good for you. Good luck with your future plans and thank you for sitting down and talking with me tonight.
CL: You’re welcome.
Many of Christina’s great films are available on DVD from Synapse Films.
