SOFIA HELIN

When you are young you can be a bit nonchalant - it's cool to be depressed, and maybe a bit dark.

I talked to a brain specialist who told me when you think like someone else for such a long time, your brain actually changes.

We tend to be responsible for others' feelings all the time and that's not always good.

I went on holiday with my kids and I had to make the choice - a good vacation for me, or a good vacation for them. A good vacation for them is to be with other Swedish kids, so I chose that, but I had to say, you have to behave, because I can't have a scene in the restaurant.

I was embarrassed this spring when corona came. Everything in life had been so fast and seemed so important and then I realised the kind of stress that I allowed myself to be under, and I was embarrassed.

I just figured, 'I don't want to go to university anymore,' so I went to Stockholm. I went into this teaching school and after one year I got a part in a soap opera in Stockholm. It's called 'Rederiet.'

Tragedy struck the family when I was 10 days old. My eldest brother was killed in a car accident. He was six. My grandmother survived the incident, but the loss devastated my parents. I think they went into shock for a couple of years.

Mystery Road' hadn't been shown in Scandinavia but I read the script and I just had to do it.

When you make a change, it hurts a bit.

I haven't seen 'The Killing'.

I always knew I wanted to have children of my own. I met my husband Daniel when I was 23; we were married when I was pregnant with my first child, Ossian. We've had our ups and downs like every couple, especially when we were younger.

In fact I spent a lot of time in my childhood trying to figure out what other people wanted of me. That made me study other people very much. Then I actually started university and I got quite bored. This is when I found out I wanted to be an actor.

To wear brown and grey things every day, the same clothes, for months, it's quite boring after a while.

Then I had lunch with my cousin who works for WaterAid and she said yes, it's a catastrophe. And another catastrophe is that every day 1,400 children die from poisoned water, so now I'm an ambassador for WaterAid.

When you grow up around sadness, it affects the way you see the world.

It's a myth that all Scandinavians are happy, healthy, outdoors people. It's often more a matter of class whether you can afford to take time to take care of yourself.

I try to shop online. All my food, Christmas gifts, everything.

My husband and I have been married for 15 years. He is a priest in the Church of Sweden. I have a faith, but it's not so formal. We made our peace with that.

Because if I am someone else for so many months, it affects me, physically, in my brain, in my being. So then I have to take care of that, and make myself more like me again.

So I sat down in my student room and thought, when did I have a lot of fun? I realised it was acting. I was 22. Then I slowly started to make small steps.

And then my husband works every second weekend, sermons on Sunday, baptising on Saturdays, weddings.

Acting, when you don't want to do it or you disagree with everything, is almost like having sex with someone you don't like. I had one experience like that on stage, in a terrible version of The Cherry Orchard. I put on a wig, dark-coloured contacts and just hoped no one would recognise me.

My parents taught me broad Christian values. To be kind to one another, to be honest, not to just think about yourself.

But watching characters that are awkward, overcoming their own obstacles and finding some of the hardest criminals in the world is interesting. We like watching losers win because we're all basically losers.

My dad was the 10th of 11 children. My mother has three brothers. My dad was a salesman, my mum was a school nurse.