Casting Insights: ‘Sentimental Value’ and Yngvill Kolset Haga on Oscar-Caliber Casting

When you talk to casting director Yngvill Kolset Haga, she’ll mention this “little Norwegian film” in Oscar contention against all these bigger studio movies, like One Battle After Another and Sinners. But this little movie she’s talking about is Sentimental Value, from Oscar-nominated writer-director Joachim Trier, the man behind 2021’s brilliant The Worst Person in the World.

This equally brilliant little movie, which features that Worst Person’s star, Renate Reinsve, as well as Stellan Skarsgård, Elle Fanning and relative newcomer Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, might just crash the Oscars with a whole passel of nominations, including, potentially, acting nods for each of those four actors.

It might also garner one for Haga in the very first year that Casting will be an Oscar category. When the Academy’s shortlist of 10 films was announced in mid-December, Haga’s name (as well as American casting director Avy Kaufman) was on it, meaning she’s got an even money shot now to make the final five, and become one of the first casting directors ever to receive an Academy Award nomination.

In anticipation of this possibility, she spoke to us from Oslo, slightly jetlagged after a quick trip to LA for the Casting Branch Bake-Off, where she and the other shortlisted artisans met voters.

Key Insights

• Yngvill Kolset Haga’s collaboration with Joachim Trier is rooted in long-term trust, openness, and a shared belief that casting is the foundation of every film.

• Sentimental Value blends established international stars with carefully discovered new talent through an intentionally patient and director-driven casting process.

• The film’s awards momentum coincides with a historic moment for casting directors as the Academy introduces Casting as an Oscar category.

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You’ve been working with Joachim for a while. How did you first connect?

It was some years ago. His producer at that time reached out to me, “Do you want to take a coffee with Joachim Trier?” It was about his new film that didn’t have a title, and [when] we met, it was instant chemistry. He is that kind of person.

He has good chemistry with a lot of people, because he’s very open and he loves what he does, and he really cares about who’s going to work on his projects. He hadn’t worked with conventional casting directors before, and for this movie, [2017’s] Thelma, for some reason, the producer mentioned me.

And you’ve worked with him ever since.

Yeah, and you can never take it for granted, right? You see that people work on projects, [for] years and years, they work with the same actors or the same people behind the camera, and they build up a strong work connection, but also I believe that it is good to work with new people.

When I work with new directors, I learn so much with how I want to do things. I take with me the pros and cons with everyone, and I really think that I learn from everyone.

I think it’s very healthy that we work with different people. Also, we work on more projects than directors do, and a director like Joachim, who only does his own projects, does one every third year or so. Of course, I was glad when he asked me again. I love working with him. And this project for me, this is my favorite of all his films.

Really? More thanThe Worst Person in the World?

Yeah, it is. It’s because it touches me personally in a way.

I know he worked with Renate on Worst Person, so I’m assuming he wrote the part for her.

He did. He also had Stellan in mind for Gustav. When I came on board, he was about to go to Sweden to talk to Stellan. He also didn’t know what to do with the [role of the] father if Stellan were to say no (laughs), so I knew then, obviously, that it was the [role of the] sister that I was going to start out with.

Well, that’s a perfect segue to talk about Inga Lilleaas, who is remarkable as Agnes. I’d never seen her before.

This age group of female actors in their 30s … I’m a bit older myself, and I know a lot of them, so it’s just a very fun group to dig into, and it’s a very good role. It’s like, everybody’s gonna say, “Yes, I want to come and audition for this role,” so sometimes you have some easier days in the casting room, because you work on a project and [there is] a role that is gold for an actor to come and audition [for].

Joachim knew a bit about her. She had filmed some things and done theater, so he was a bit curious about her, and I knew her quite well because I was part of the casting team when she did her first lead just after finishing theater school, many years ago.

So you remembered Inga after all these years?

She had been doing theater here in Norway, and had also been shooting things. Joachim is good in seeing the quality and bringing it out. Inga was in quite early, and I checked and saw that she first came in to audition in August and she officially said yes in March. That’s the fun thing with Joachim. When he’s made up his mind, he’s made up his mind.

He wanted Renate, he wanted Stellan, but if he has not made up his mind [yet], he’s totally open. That can be frustrating for us (laughs), but we love it, too, because we want to be part of digging into a role and finding the piece that we need, and then he takes his time.

But that also holds up casting other parts, right?

Yeah, sometimes you feel, okay, we need to get things going here. We can’t decide her partner, for instance, or her son, until you cast her. You start maybe to stress a little, but for him, casting is the most important part of the film, right?

So I like that he takes his time, and it’s his way of also getting ready to go into the audition room again, because he hadn’t been in the audition room for several years, and he joins me in the callbacks. There were six Agnes candidates that he ultimately met before we cast Inga.

What about Elle Fanning? I thought she was an interesting choice to play the American actress Rachel Kemp, and she’s excellent in the role.

Avy has been talking more about the casting of Elle, the complexity of it being this famous actor. I think Rachel Kemp is searching for something different than she has been doing in her career, but then still going with her gut that this role is not right. It makes the character also quite complex. I was kind of on the sideline for this, though.

I was the first to say when I got on the project that we should collaborate with someone in the U.S. and someone in France, because I know the level of quality of what Joachim needs, and I think it’s good that we collaborate so much internationally now and use each other’s research, versus resources where we live.

I mean, I know Norwegian actors mostly, but I had the chance to come to an acting rehearsal with Stellan and Elle in the house when they rehearsed the rehearsal scene. It was very meta. (Laughs)

What about putting the rest of the pieces of the puzzle together? The smaller roles? For instance, I got a kick out of seeing Jesper Christensen from the Bondmovies, but there are also a bunch of others, like Lena Endre, Anders Danielsen Lie, and Andreas Stoltenberg Granerud and Øyvind Hesjedal Loven as Agnes’ partner and son, respectively.

Joachim asked Jesper and Anders directly, because he had relationships with them. But the others, for me, it was many very fun roles to work with. Many guys came in for casting, for the Even part, and we did a lot of improv, because in this script, many of the roles didn’t have dialogue, and some just said small words here and there.

Then I made up improv situations to make the character come alive. I followed Andreas for many years, since he went to theater school, and I’ve tried to cast him, and now, finally, I managed it. I was very happy that Joachim chose him.

What about the little boy?

With casting a child in Norway, you always start more or less from scratch. We don’t have professional children. We don’t have agents [for children], anything like that. But when we saw Øyvind, we kind of fell in love with him and pushed extra for him. When Joachim made the decision in a meeting, I cried, because I was so happy that he picked him and that we had finished that. (Laughs)

This is a big deal. After years and years of lobbying, Casting is now a category in the Academy Awards, and you are on a unique and very short list of people who may get that first nomination. When that shortlist was announced and your name was on it, what was your reaction?

Oh, my God. Well, I tried to not think much about it at all. I have another director I worked with recently. She’s Oscar and prize crazy, she follows all the prediction lists and everything. So in the autumn, I was at IKEA and she texted me to call her, and she was so excited because my name was on a prediction list. On the 16th of December, the day of the shortlist announcement, I went to a student play in the evening, I figured someone will tell me if it happens.

And when the play ended, your phone was blowing up?

Well, yeah, for a mid-aged woman, yeah, a bit. (Laughs) Another friend that actually has been Oscar-nominated for a short film many years ago, she also follows this a bit, and she called and said, “You have to go into the first bar and take a drink.”

So we celebrated a bit. But I’m trying not to think about it. I want to schedule a casting for when they announce the nominations, and someone will tell me after if I got it. (Laughs).

Key Takeaways

• Strong director-casting relationships are built over time through shared values, creative curiosity, and mutual respect.

• Giving casting the time and space to evolve can unlock unexpected performances and career-defining roles.

• The recognition of casting by the Academy signals a meaningful shift in how the industry values the craft behind performances.