Facts: Erika Wasserman
Age: 44.
Producer behind films such as “Man thinking sit”, “Avalon”, “Bluebird”, “Under the pyramid” and “Gräns”.
The pandemic has caused many to reevaluate the balance between career and happiness, and during the summer the expression “Quiet quitting” began to reach Sweden from American financial magazines.
By that is meant the wage slaves who do not quit their office work, but on the other hand turn down the ambition level and do no more than the absolute minimum, in order to make the puzzle of life fit together.
It could also describe the moral of “The year I stopped performing and started masturbating”, a drama-comedy about Hanna (Katia Winter) who, just weeks before her 40th birthday, suddenly finds herself without a job as well as a partner and a home and needs to re-prioritize her life.
— It was interesting when that expression started to appear because we shot this film a year ago and now there is a term that we had not heard then, says Erika Wasserman.
“God, what a pain”
In Hanna’s case, the path to happiness is to think less about her career and more about her own pleasure. For Katia Winter, it was an interesting challenge to play Hanna, even if she was a little hesitant about the title of the film.
— Instinctively, I felt “God, how difficult”, but that was also what drew me to it. I like that feeling, when it feels hard.
Katia Winter plays Hanna in “The year I stopped performing and started masturbating”.
But first they had to change the title. Katia Winter says that she had difficulty talking to her older relatives about the film. At first it was just called “The Year I Started Masturbating”.
“During the financing and development, it was very rewarding, because people became very embarrassed and embarrassed, and then there were interesting meetings right away because you started talking about life,” says Erika Wasserman.
— But we added the beginning of the title because the title shouldn’t stop anyone from seeing the film.
Erika Wasserman wants to compare Hanna to Helen Fielding’s novel character Bridget Jones, who Renée Zellweger has played in three films.
“It’s a good thing you didn’t say it before, then I would have felt incredible pressure,” exclaims Katia Winter and laughs.
Katia Winter.
But Erika Wasserman hopes that the film reaches an audience so that there can be several sequels.
— I had great fun, so I would love to do this again. I didn’t have a real plan, but the plan was just to make the film as good and funny as possible and now that others seem to think so too, I hope people want to see more of Katia in new challenges in the role of Hanna or as someone else.
Lasse Åberg gave advice
Erika Wasserman is best known as a producer behind several major Swedish films (“Avalon”, “Gräns”) in the 2010s, but is now making her debut as a director.
— I would find a director, but I had all the scenes in my head. So I thought I’m not going to find someone who’s good enough to do comedy, but also put up with me having a thousand opinions. So I had to try doing it myself, she says.
With her network of contacts in the industry, Erika Wasserman was able to consult other directors. She herself mentions Ali Abbasi, Jesper Ganslandt, Tarik Saleh and Hannes Holm who gave tips and especially highlights another person who gave valuable advice – Lasse Åberg. They had lunch together and she pumped him for ideas.
TT: What did he say?
— “Erika, you must choose a topic that touches as many people as possible”. Then I felt that since the movie is called “The Year I Started Masturbating”, I must have something there.