Interview: Pihla Pohjolainen
Pihla Pohjolainen: “The wonderful thing about being an actor is working with your own body and with people.”
Actress Pihla Pohjolainen has had a successful year. Last spring, she graduated with a master’s degree in theatre and drama from Näty, after which she was hired by the Helsinki City Theatre. Stalin’s Sweet Whip is the first play of the engagement, and next autumn there will be a musical comedy My Day as a Groundhog.
The Helsinki City Theatre is already a familiar place for Pohjolainen. He completed an internship there in 2017, when he participated in Finland’s Funniest Man. “I knew which house I was coming to, and I knew some of the actors,” Pohjolainen says. In addition, there are many childhood memories associated with the City Theatre, as Pohjolainen went there most often to see performances.
However, as a child, the dream of becoming an actor had not yet awakened. Pohjolainen was passionate about dancing and choir, but it wasn’t until he was in high school that the idea that they could be combined struck him. He says that he would not perceive himself in a “nine-to-five” sedentary job. “What I love about this profession is working with my own body and working with people,” Pohjolainen explains.
The character is built in rehearsals
in Stalin’s Sweet Whip Pohjolainen’s character, Lieutenant Zhenja Chizhikova, is the youngest member of the Control Commission settling in Hotel Torni and a breath of fresh air in the performance. Pohjolainen sees the young lieutenant as an ambitious, naïve and fragile person, who reveals sensitive issues related to his personal life through the story. The character is fictional, unlike many of the other characters in the play, so the approach to the character was found in the rehearsals.
The rehearsal began last autumn with getting to know the script and learning the lines. That’s when things related to the character began to unconsciously brew in my mind. “At home, you may have a hunch that this is a significant method for the character, but the biggest decisions are only made during rehearsals,” Pohjolainen says.
Because the acting is bare, Pohjolainen tries to find things in the character that differentiate herself. Then he feels that he can be brave in the training situation. “For each character
There are my own kind of tunings that are out of my mind. They are the kind of physical elements that happen unconsciously. For example, the narrow pencil skirt worn by the character makes the walk shorter than it really is,” Pohjolainen explains.
She also says that building emotional pathways and a certain kind of pattern clarifies one’s own work. Not every emotion in a performance can be as big or similar in its experience.
Good team spirit boosts the performance
in Stalin’s Sweet Whip Pohjolainen works alongside many veteran actors. “The best thing is when you get to work with the very best. That’s when you develop,” Pohjolainen says. He says that the production has been wonderful and safe, even though director Kari Heiskanen has pushed until the last point and taught a lot at the same time.
“It’s easy for an actor to start performing a character and doing things on stage for their own sake. What I’ve learned in this production is that even less is enough and bears.”
During the training season, the days are long and the pace of work is intense. Pohjolainen considers it a great resource to be encountered as people at work. “I think a good team spirit is what drives the performance. I believe that if there has been a good working atmosphere during the rehearsals, it will show in the performance,” Pohjolainen says.
Pohjolainen is happy to now be able to work in the same work community and to be able to carry out her profession in a variety of ways. “How else would you develop than by getting to do different productions with different directors. This mortgage is the best possible fit for that,” Pohjolainen says.
“At the moment, I’m terribly hungry to do things and have a strong desire to work as an actor. Some inexplicable need to do this. After all, this is such a passion profession.”