When I made '101 Reykjavik,' people talked about 'Almodovar on ice.' When I made 'The Sea,' people referenced Bergman.

Real acting is about giving people an insight into a person, letting the audience in.

People talk about Hollywood as a myth, but in reality, when you make Icelandic movies and you want to get them distributed in the U.S., you're not really working with Hollywood. The movies I've been making, the first one I made, I made it with Working Title, but it was financed through Universal, so it became a Hollywood production.

Throughout the history of Iceland, men have been lost at sea; every family in Iceland is connected to that kind of story.

The thing about Iceland is that we are trapped there anyway, all of us. We have been trapped there for thousands of years.

Vikings were pretty brutal, but also very educated people. They were salesmen, businessmen who started raiding when business wasn't good. That's why they had such great boats.