Sophia Holmberg - Actress/Performer

An inclusive and inspiring podcast! The goal to give creators from different backgrounds and experience levels a hub to showcase their personalities and work to the world! Professionals, talented students and more.

Welcome to the first episode of season 2! SINGERS, ACTORS, WRITERS and INFLUENCERS!!

Warren Telling Tales, sits down SOFIA HOLMBERG - Actress, published writer, director and producer. 

Description:

A brand new format, introducing exciting guest from all around the world. Creators in locations including, Hong Kong, India, Sweden, The UK, Australia, Canada and the US, will make up the podcast, discussing their journey and work. Their wonderful work will be showcased to you the listener with an opportunity to reach out and connect with these unbelievably talented people. Download, like and share the podcasts to give everyone a chance see it and hear it! Available on all major platforms including, Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google play and Youtube.


Music: Pixabay, Creative Commons:
Music by Kevin MacLeod. Available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
and Liborio Conte No Copyright music.

Performance and scripted work by Sophia Holmberg

Sofia's Contact details:   / pladdermf 

For more details on Sofia's work or to say hi go to...

Sofia's website: https://www.sofiaholmberg.se/

Host Warren Adams - Warren Telling Tales - https://warrentellingtales.buzzsprout.com/ 
IG: warrentellingtales and warrenadamsactor

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

How are you going?

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hi, it's very well. It's early here, but uh I'm feeling good.

SPEAKER_01 0:07

You're feeling good, that's what I like to hear. Yes. So you it it's early for you. It's five o'clock uh Swedish time, which is where I am at the moment. And can you tell everyone? Can you tell our listeners where where you are at the moment?

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Yeah, I'm in Canada, Vancouver at the moment, because I'm here to study. So it's eight o'clock here.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Amazing. Eight in the morning.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Wow, yeah, there's there's quite a time difference, isn't there? Um Wow, that's impressive. Thank you so much for coming on. Um, and I'm sure that everyone is going to be very excited to hear more about you and and what you've been up to. Um, before we get into it and before we talk about Canada and um and what you're doing, your training over there, um I just want to mention to everyone how we know each other.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

So um, well, we were working on a uh on a theater project which is in development at the moment. Um, I was directing it and you were acting in it, and you did an absolutely brilliant job. Um, one of the easy, like one of the easiest um actresses to work with. You're just like super professional on time, you had a great positive attitude and energy, and I'm really excited that you know we can collaborate uh again and and work together on on this podcast. Um so yeah, so you are in Vancouver, is that right?

SPEAKER_00 1:27

Yeah, yeah, that's right. Well, thank you very much for that, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Oh no, you're welcome. You're welcome. No, no problem at all. I mean it. I mean every word. Um, it's not every day that you can uh you can rely on people in that way. So uh I it was much appreciated.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

Um yeah, but it was funny also because I got very inspired by your writing as well, because I thought it was really good and it gave me a lot of ideas for things I done like after that.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Okay, well that's that's very nice to hear. I appreciate it. Thank you. Um yeah, so you're you are well you're you're doing so many different things at the moment. I mean, you're you're an actress, you're uh a writer, you have a book that's been uh published recently, which we will talk more about um in a little bit. Um but firstly I suppose we should we should we should jump into this Van Vancouver journey that you're on. And uh can you tell us what's what what what you're doing there and how long you're there for and what inspired this this uh this journey to jump from your because I should mention that Sophia is actually from uh you're from Gothenburg, is that right? In Sweden? Yeah. So you're from Gothenburg, uh, you've lived, you've worked in in London as well, you've worked in Gothenburg, and now you've jumped halfway across the world to to be in Vancouver to to do some training.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

Yeah, that's right. Um, but I find it kind of funny because I always move to rainy places for some reason. Uh Gattenbury is very rainy, as you know.

unknown 3:01

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

Familiar with it, yes.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Yeah, and then London as well, very rainy. And here it's famous for the rain as well.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

Interesting. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Yeah, so I don't know why I do that, but next time I will go somewhere suddenly, I think.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

You you you're drawn to rain, Sophia.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

Is that yeah, for some reason, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

Oh the idea.

SPEAKER_00 3:23

It's very cool to be here though. I'm here to study for a year. I'm going to a acting for film and television program.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

And yeah, I was always curious curious about Canada, so I just felt like it was the right next move for me.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

Nice. And had have you looked, had you looked much into the drama school before uh going out there? Or you you I mean it has a really good reputation, and I'm I've heard plenty about it as well. And uh if if I could, if the opportunity arose, that would be that would be would have been something I would really love to do. I mean, I I have uh children and all sorts of commitments, my end at the moment, so I it's still it's quite tricky for me to do that, but it's um it just sounds amazing. But yeah, had you had you actually researched into that?

SPEAKER_00 4:15

Is it somewhere that you've wanted to go to for a while or or did you just sort of for a couple of years now because I went to a workshop in Gothenburg, they came over there and they did a two-day workshop with us, and we had to film stuff and get to know the teacher, and I just fell in love with it right away. So since then I had the idea in my mind, and now I was like, I have to do it.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Because you have to like take the moment and just go for what you want.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

I love that attitude. That's brilliant, that's um inspiring for many other people out there, I'm sure, particularly at the moment in the in a in a time where you know we're all facing a lot of uh challenges, and um it's it's impressive that you've you've taken this this year and just gone, you know, why not just go for it and see where it takes you? I mean, is it some is Canada do you see yourself potentially you know uh staying there afterwards for for some time or or is it just gonna be for the course and then come back? Or are you sort of hoping that maybe you know you could you could go out there again at some point? Or have you even thought about that yet? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

Yeah, it's in my mind, but I don't know yet. But I've been here for almost two weeks now, but I've been in quarantine, so I haven't really seen much. But my experience or like the vibe I got from the city so far, I really love it. So I could see myself staying here.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

So for those that are watching this on uh on the the video format that uh that that we'll have on on the uh YouTube channel, you can probably see a very impressive skyline behind you. Um uh which it just and you're in downtown, is it downtown Vancouver?

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Yeah, so that's why it's potentially like noisy and loud.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Might hear some some honking of of horns and yeah, for sure. No worries, that's cool. Um, it's a brilliant backdrop, it's much more exciting than mine, which is uh a wall. So uh I do have a couple of picture frames up there to be fair, but um okay, so good. Uh so uh I wanted to ask you. I mean, you're you're a performer, you're a writer, you've directed, you've produced, you have a book that's published. I mean, seems like you have many skills in many areas, and um which is something that everyone dreams for, I think. Uh what out of all those art forms do you prefer? Do you have a preference at all? Do you prefer acting to writing, directing? Do you prefer writing to the others, directing, producing? What's your what do you enjoy the most, or do you like them all the same?

SPEAKER_00 6:58

Oh wow, that's hard because I feel like they are like they go together. And I like variety. So I think at some times I like acting is oh, it's my favorite. But then at some points in my life I feel like writing is the best and producing, so it yeah, from time to time it's different. But I like them all very much.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

Okay. And have you have you been doing them all for a similar amount of time, or is has acting taken up most of your time, or is writing something that came came around recently, or have you always been writing?

SPEAKER_00 7:35

No, I think writing is more recent, act actually, and acting has been with me since I was a kid, so but it's nice to kind of like take on new adventure and try new stuff. And yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

Okay, nice, nice, nice, nice. Um, no, I mean that's it's uh writing is something that I've always been interested in doing as well. Um I've as you know, I've done written a few little little bits for theatre and stuff, but um it's definitely an area that I would like to explore more in, and uh it's nice to see that there are other people out there that are just going out there and publishing books and things like that. It's very cool. Um so uh if you couldn't be a performer or an artist or in the creative world, where would you see yourself? What would you see yourself doing? If you couldn't do writing and acting and all that all this lovely creative stuff that we enjoy so much, what what where would you see yourself? Where what what other skills do you possess that that that you know could lead you to it into another job?

SPEAKER_00 8:42

I want to say nothing, but uh no, no, surely not. I think that it's hard when you are a creative person, it's like your mind is so much in that world, and it's so hard to think outside that because it's not for me, it's not like I chose to get into the creative world. If I feel like it chose me.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

Um but yeah, if I had to, I think.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

If you had to, if if if if Warren just said you can't do any of those things, not possible, it's off the table. Um, you have to pick one other job, what would it be?

SPEAKER_00 9:18

I think I would be a therapist or something like that. Because I'm very interested in the human mind and like stories and like listening to people. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

Okay, very nice. And you know that obviously drama is used a lot in in forms of therapy as well. Yeah, there might be something there for the future, who knows? Um, a drama therapist in the making, possibly. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

You don't know.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

You never know. Um cool. So what are you hoping to learn from your your trip in in Canada? What what sort of skills are you gonna be focusing on? Is it is it more acting? Is it directing? Is it uh what is the the the makeup of the course do you know at this point?

SPEAKER_00 10:02

Well, it's mostly like focused on film and TV. Okay, so we will be doing a lot of like those kind of stuff, like we will do sitcoms and green screen work, and it's like so my focus is very much like film acting.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

And before I've been more interested in theater, so this is kind of a shift for me.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

Yeah, but I want to do like I wanna do everything.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

Yeah. Nice, I love it. Um, all right, so let's talk about let's talk about 2020 very briefly. Um, as I briefly mentioned earlier, it's been uh it's been a tricky year for for a lot of people. Um but I've also noticed and observed certain individuals that have taken this opportunity, you know, some have been in lockdown, some have not been able to do their normal jobs, you know, various things have closed down. You know, it's been a tough time, particularly in the art world. Um what I've noticed also is that there are people that have embarked on new journeys, new pathways, like yourself going over to Vancouver. You've got people that have um been into various forms of training, uh online seminars, you know, they've decided to build on the skills they have and and really almost embrace this this time and and use it to their advantage. How how has 2020 been for yourself?

SPEAKER_00 11:33

Yeah, I I would say I'm one of those people that kind of uh embraced it. Uh because I've been doing a lot of new stuff, like publishing my book, and I was supposed to go earlier to Canada, but it was cancelled two times before. So I had to kind of like while I was waiting, do something else. So I started to like pick up other projects and do other things and learn new things, and I think like you can't control what's happening, so you have to just um accept it and make the best out of it.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

Yeah, yeah, okay. I I am a big admirer of your uh your mindset, Sophia. You have a very uh positive and go get it attitude, which is uh which is brilliant. Um all right, so let's let's let's briefly move on then and uh and let's have a look at your um so for our listeners out there, there's going to be uh two extracts that I'm gonna play, um which are which have been written by yourself, Sophia. Is it Home Holmberg? Am I pronouncing that right?

SPEAKER_00 12:42

Yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

That's the English way of pronouncing it anyway.

SPEAKER_00 12:45

I think so. You would know better than me.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

Yeah, I think that's the the sort of international way of saying it. I know it's slightly different in uh in the Swedish accent, but I won't embarrass myself um at the moment. Um so uh yeah, we're gonna look at two two short extracts. You've you've you wrote both of them. Can you introduce, can you set up uh the two different extracts? What they are, what they're about, what they what inspired them. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

Yes, uh the first one is about my grandpa uh that sadly passed away this year, actually.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

Sorry to hear that.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Thank you. Uh so I wrote that about him this year because yeah, I wanted to sum up, because I've I don't know how much I can say now because I'm gonna spoil it, but I'm gonna say it anyway. Uh, because when I talked about my grandpa, I always used to say that he was a pirate to my friends. So I thought that I have to write something about that, because he's uh he was a very special person, he very cool grandpa.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

Okay, and why why was he uh why did you see him as a pirate?

SPEAKER_00 13:57

Because he's been out at sea, he's been working on ships and he had tattoos and he was so it's very much like uh the writing. He was like, Yeah, he he looked and acted like a pirate.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

Oh, I love it, I love it. Did he have a hat as well? A pirate's hat.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

No, I should have bought him one, but yeah, that's oh that's lovely.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Um and you said he worked on ships. Where whereabouts did he go to? Was he all around the world or in specifically?

SPEAKER_00 14:30

Everywhere. Um so I just recently looked at old photographs and I could see pictures from all over the world, and a lot of places like at that time you couldn't gone to because it was too dangerous, and uh like no tourist areas for sure.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

Um but yeah, like everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Amazing. Um, okay, so that's that's the the first piece that we're gonna play. Um, and I'm looking forward to hearing that, and uh I'm sure sure our audience will enjoy it too. Um and it's performed by yourself as well?

SPEAKER_00 15:08

Yeah, yes, that's correct.

unknown 15:10

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

Uh do you have a plan for these particular s scripts? Is it part of something bigger or is it is it just um is it just as it is, like a standalone uh extract of text?

SPEAKER_00 15:23

Yeah, uh the one about my grandpa is in the book.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

My uh yes, we're gonna come on to that very soon.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

Yeah, but it's my book is in Swedish, so I translated this to English.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

Ah, very nice. Very considerate of you, thank you.

unknown 15:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

Um oh that's okay, so that's from the book. That's that's brilliant. Um let's look at the other one then as well, the other extract. Can you talk to us a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_00 15:50

Yeah, I wrote that when I lived in London actually.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

And it was now, yeah, it was some time ago, so that is not a new piece. And I was working on a I w wanted to do like a one-woman play.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

But it never turned into that. So I have like the writing from it, but it never became something.

SPEAKER_01 16:13

But I still hold on, so hold on. You have you have the whole makings of a one-woman play just waiting to be shown to the world. Is that what you're saying?

SPEAKER_00 16:23

Maybe someday. That's something I really want to do at some point, because it would be cool, I think. But yeah, I don't know yet.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

What is it about?

SPEAKER_00 16:33

It was a lot of uh like personal struggles and like going from a place where you gone through like a lot of dark stuff, and getting through that and getting to a point where you realize um like why you've gone through that, and you come out on the other side.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

Okay, wow, it sounds deep and uh it's also sounds um it sounds very moving as well. Um I well, I'm I'm excited and I'm very excited to hear that piece also. Um so the the One Woman play potentially is something for the future. Um would that be performed in Sweden? Would that be performed in is it fully it's fully in Swedish, you said, right? So it would probably be No, that's in English. That's that one's in English, okay. Oh, so yes, yes, of course, yes. Um okay, nice, very exciting. Um, we're gonna play those uh at the end of the episode, so uh we'll we'll come back to that very shortly. Um let's just um let's I want to do a little game with you uh before we before we w wrap up. Um and Sophia does not know about this, it's a little uh would you rather game. Um bit of fun uh right at the end. Uh but before we do that, um where where is the best place for people to reach out to you, to contact you if they like the work that you've done, if they enjoy your writing, if they just love you as a person and they want to say hi, um what's up, you know, uh all of those good things. Um, yeah, where's the best place for people to find you?

SPEAKER_00 18:23

Well, I'm always up for people coming and saying hi, so feel free to do that. And you can find me on Instagram. That's probably where I'm the most. But I'm also I also have a website that you can check out.

unknown 18:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:37

Can you tell us what they are?

SPEAKER_00 18:39

Uh my Instagram is cloud.mf.

SPEAKER_01 18:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:44

And my yeah, you can probably. Yeah, that's probably the easiest.

SPEAKER_01 18:51

For anyone that uh that doesn't understand uh that that sounded very Swedish to me.

SPEAKER_00 18:55

Um and your your email email address is uh my email address is uh Sophia Hollenbey MF.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

And yeah, you can you can link it.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

I think that's I'll put the links down. That's probably easy.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

And you can always Google me, uh Sophia Hollenbey.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

Oh, there we go. The beauty of Google. Um, nice and easy. That's great. Uh yeah, as I as I said, as Sophia said, there will be a link to all of her contacts and her website. Um ah, before the game, we should really talk about the book, which is uh can you can you give us the title for the book that's when did when was it published as well?

SPEAKER_00 19:34

Uh in uh October. So very recently. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

Wow, this is beautiful. Um, I love it. And yeah, so that that that came out in October. Is that something you've always thought about doing, or did that just come about recently?

SPEAKER_00 19:47

Or yeah, that was really not my plan at all. So I just had a lot of text that I've been saving up for like a couple of years, and I've been looking like when I've gone to the library and looked for like Swedish monologues, I could couldn't find anything. It's just old stuff, it's like Stringberg and stuff like that. And I felt like that was something that was lacking. And yeah, so old old monologues. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:21

So it's not like much temporary stuff out there when you go to the library in Sweden or to the bookstore, I think. So yeah, and this year, like I had to try new stuff, and I'm like, why not? Why not do it?

SPEAKER_01 20:38

And how was that process, like getting a book published in in Sweden, I presume? How was that a difficult process or uh an easy one? Or I mean if you've not done it before, I can imagine it must be I wouldn't know where to start, to be honest, to publish a book. Um yeah, tell us about tell us about your journey with that and uh if there were any challenges or whether it was very straightforward.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

Yeah, I would say yes and no, that it's been a difficult process because I always go in with the mindset is like I'm gonna do this, this is gonna be so easy. Uh it's gonna take a week and then I'm done. But and it wasn't that easy, but um because there's always when you do stuff, you find out that it's so much more to think about than you had in mind first. And but it's it's not as difficult either because there's so much tools out there now, nowadays, like there's a lot of on demand uh publishing like tools out there. And so it's not that difficult as people would think, I think. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Well, that's good to know. Maybe I can uh try and publish something one day. I have no idea what I would publish at this stage, but uh maybe something for the future. Um Okay, awesome. So uh I will also put a link to uh what was the title? Can you tell us the reminders of the title?

SPEAKER_00 22:07

Yeah, it's uh Swedish title, CNN Adin.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

Cien and Nadine, okay, very nice. And it means in English?

SPEAKER_00 22:14

Take the stage.

SPEAKER_01 22:15

Take the stage. Oh I love it. Um, all right, so let's get to it. A bit of fun before we finish. Um, I've got five questions and I want you to answer them. Uh don't give it too much thought. The first thing that pops into your head, and uh let's go for it. Are you ready?

SPEAKER_00 22:38

Yeah, I'm ready.

SPEAKER_01 22:39

All right. Uh would you rather go into the past and meet your ancestors or go into the future and meet your great great grandchildren?

SPEAKER_00 22:50

Oh wow. I think I would go meet my ancestors.

SPEAKER_01 22:53

Ah, very nice. Okay. Number two, uh, would you rather have more time or more money?

SPEAKER_00 23:01

More time, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

More time. I'm learning so much about you, Sophia. Uh, would you rather have a rewind button or a pause button on your life?

SPEAKER_00 23:15

Pause button.

SPEAKER_01 23:16

Oh. Would you rather be able to talk with the animals or speak all foreign languages?

SPEAKER_00 23:25

Speak to animals.

SPEAKER_01 23:27

Speak to animals. Uh we have a house. Would you rather, and this is the last one now, uh, would you rather win the lottery or live twice as long?

SPEAKER_00 23:41

Uh live twice as long, I think.

SPEAKER_01 23:44

Ah, yep. I that's uh that's uh there's some very nice answers there. I appreciate those a lot. All right, Sophia, I'm gonna let you go because I know when you when do you start your course before we leave? When does that all kick off?

SPEAKER_00 23:59

In a couple of days, so uh very soon.

SPEAKER_01 24:01

Are you excited?

SPEAKER_00 24:03

I'm so excited.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

Yeah, amazing. Well, I want to thank you very much uh for joining us and taking the time and uh apologies for the early start. It's difficult with this time difference. Um, but you I think you uh you did a brilliant job and uh it was lovely talking to you.

SPEAKER_00 24:19

So uh thank you. Thank you so much for having me. It was really fun to be a part of this.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

You're very welcome. Um, I will put all of your your details down in the biog. If you want to reach out to Sophia, oh, one more thing before we go, is there anything that you would like to say to our audience? Anything that you would like to leave with them, uh a lasting message, uh anything that you haven't said already that you would like to say to our audience? Uh it could be about um uh things you have coming up in the future, um, about life in general. It's a very broad one. Um, is there anything that you would like to say?

SPEAKER_00 25:01

Oh wow, that's that's a big one.

SPEAKER_01 25:03

Big one.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

That's a big one, yeah, for sure. Uh I don't know. It's just uh if you want to do something, then just go go for it and just don't wait for the moment to arise. Just seize the moment.

SPEAKER_01 25:16

And I think you are a perfect example of of that mindset and attitude. Um, it's been a delight, Sophia, and I will uh I will uh we're gonna stop this now. And thank you so much. Goodbye. Bye.