How did the director Sebastian Schipper and cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grøvlen prepare the cast for the shoot?
I spent two and a half months in Berlin beforehand. We rehearsed over 12 days before the first take, but we didn't do a huge amount of hours. We would rehearse a specific scene in a specific set location, and the transition to the next scene. It was as much about talking and trying to find out about the character. I remember Freddy (Frederick Lau) who was playing Sonne, was questioning all the time why his character was doing what he was doing, and the same for me, and talking to Sebastian and Sturla. It was very nice, like a creative workshop together. We did the first take and then two more. I had ten days holiday break in between the process - we weren't rehearsing every single day. It was a very soft process, easy to get into it, and to go through it. And suddenly, I was already another girl, you know. It was very nice; sometimes in movies you don't have that time to rehearse at all. This movie is very specific though - one shot, one take, so of course you need to rehearse it beforehand.
Given that the film was shot in one take, in real time and in 22 locations, between 4:30am and 6:48am, how much technical preparation went into filming in Berlin?
If you are the set designer, you will have in mind the locations and a clear idea of where they are and how they are used in the film. The process is very different for the actor, so at the time I wasn't aware of how many locations we were working with. We all needed to know a certain amount of technical detail, for example in a particular scene where is the blood? I would need to take the fake blood from behind the tree and put it on my stomach, or when I’m getting in and out of a car to be aware that the camera guy is entering with me, so I can’t just shut the door in his face, you know... We worked on a lot of the emotional process, but everything was improvised. Like the piano scene - no two piano scenes are the same, as the three takes that we filmed were are all different.