Shriver-Rice: We’re here as academic scholars who are putting together the first book that focuses on your body of work. We’ve noticed that other prominent Nordic directors have had multiple books written on their work. Is there anything in particular that you would like us to address about your work that you feel may have been ignored, or even misconstrued by popular press?

Bier: I’ve been approached about my work before, and I haven't really wanted to collaborate for a number of reasons, mostly because it hasn't been that serious or it hasn't been sufficiently convincing. But also, I think one of the reasons is that I think I sit somewhere in a place where I’m too popular. In Denmark, I’m too commercial to be considered arthouse, and obviously, in the English language I am pretty arthouse. So I’m sitting somewhere in a space where it hasn't been scholarly at a level that I’ve been sufficiently interested in.

Shriver-Rice: And is there anything about your work that you feel has been misconstrued?

Molloy: … by the popular press? Have you read any of the scholarship on your work?

Bier: I don't tend to read too much about myself. Because this is an industry where your vanity is being fed like nowhere else, and I don't particularly want to get into that. And I’m fairly narrow-minded about wanting to work without being disturbed and then having [the time] to be with people I’m close to, my family and all that, and I don't really want to mess it up. I read reviews sometimes by reviewers I respect a lot just because it can be very educational, but I don't tend to read, in general, press about myself. And I don't tend to look too much at images. I don't want to be outside of myself. And I really don't want to feed that intrinsic vanity that I suppose we all have. You have to try to control it, doing what I’m doing.