Following her stunning Cannes appearances, we speak with Icelandic actor Elín Hall about her Chanel looks and standout performance in When The Light Breaks
As soon as Elín Hall set her eyes on the shimmering golden Chanel dress with its plunging neckline, she knew it was a winner. It happened in the middle of the night in the Majestic Hotel on the Boulevard de la Croisette in Cannes, where Chanel had set up their headquarters during the Cannes Film Festival. Here, where red carpet appearances are as celebrated as the films themselves, a breakout star like Hall, who hails from Reykjavik, can do a little role play as a model while she promotes her film, When The Light Breaks. And thus, she turned to the celebrity stylist Brillant Nyansago who turned to Chanel. When she arrived in Cannes, the Chanel lounge was her first stop.
“I immediately knew that it would be the right dress for the occasion because to me, the gold is such a thread throughout the film,” says Hall, noting that the Rúnar Rúnarsson-directed film happens “from one sunset to another sunset”. “The light in Iceland is like gold. And in the summertime there is a golden hour the whole night. There is something ethereal and spiritual about it in the film, so I just knew the gold dress would be perfect.” Iceland’s only contribution to this year’s festival, the film showcases the singular beauty of its country.
Photo: Getty
Though Hall was dead set on the golden dress, the Chanel team were a little hesitant; it would require a lot of alteration to be red carpet-ready in time for the premiere. The seamstresses worked until sunrise hit the French Riviera to make it happen. “The stylist Brilliant told me how to do all the poses, because I was not allowed to pose in certain ways,” explains Hall, who demonstrates how one should not be posing by pressing both her hands on her hips. “And I was not allowed to pull the dress up. I basically had to learn to do the proper Chanel poses.”
Hall closed out her festival experience in postcard-print dress – also Chanel – featuring a sheer cape. It came with a directive from her stylist: swing the cape. “When the photographers see this happening, they go crazy. And that is exactly what happened,” she says. “They immediately started screaming ‘Chanel’ when I came in.”
Photo: Getty
Initially, Hall had a different approach to her Cannes aesthetic. “When I first got the news that we were going to Cannes, I wanted something very easy and classic and I did not want to draw too much attention to myself,” she says. “But then I ended up making a statement and I just had fun with it.” She describes this alter ego as “a version of me in Cannes, that I could leave in Cannes”.
Hall’s character in When the Light Breaks, is not nearly as glamorous as her red carpet persona. Una is a drama student, whose life is turned upside down, when her boyfriend – or rather secret lover - Diddi (Baldur Einarsson) gets in a car accident. His girlfriend Klara (Katla Njálsdóttir), is on her way to Reykjavik to deal with her loss, where they are thrown together by their sense of mutual loss.
Photo: Getty
“To me the film is about grief but also about friendship,” says Hall. “It was very easy working with Rúnar, because he is such a sensitive artist, but finding Una and finding the grief was not easy. I believe your emotions are stored in your body so it was about finding the emotions inside the body and finding the music that works and breathwork that works instead of thinking.” The role required full days of “smoking and crying at a bus stop”. “It is hard to cry all day,” she says. “You just have to do it.”
Having broken out as a trouble teen in acclaimed Icelandic film Let Me Fall, Hall has been acting steadily for about a decade. On the side, she’s a celebrated musician – an alt-pop star beloved in her home country. Why do Icelanders have so many creative talents? “It might be something in the water,” she says. Or perhaps it’s in the light.