"I'm definitely an observer, but I'm not so soft-spoken in my real life," says Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, who plays the gently humane Agnes in "Sentimental Value."
Nora (Renate Reinsve, left) cradles younger sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) in a tear-jerking scene from "Sentimental Value."

Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas was home alone with her preschooler when she got the news of her Gotham Awards nomination.

“I had just made oatmeal for dinner because I was exhausted and being a bad mom that day,” jokes the “Sentimental Value” scene-stealer. “We were going to watch a movie when my publicist texted me the news. That was surreal.”

Lilleaas, 36, has steadily become an early Oscar favorite for her spellbinding turn in “Sentimental Value” (now in theaters), having also won best supporting actress from the National Board of Review. In the Norwegian drama, she brings quiet grace and profound empathy to the role of Agnes, a former child actress who’s caught between her willful older sister, Nora (Renate Reinsve), and their distant director dad, Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård).

Agnes is the peacekeeper and the glue that holds the family together, even as she carries some of her own trauma from childhood. It’s a character that resonates strongly with Lilleaas, who was raised in an “eccentric” household in Gol, Norway.

Her parents ran a theater company, and she was exposed to “a lot of art and different ways of thinking about the world.” She has an older sister and a younger brother, whom she was “fiercely protective” of growing up. Some of her earliest memories are of acting alongside her brother in a youth theater production of “Waiting for Godot” directed by their dad.

“I loved my siblings more than anything until I had my own kid – that opened the love box even more,” says Lilleaas, who’s married to actor Gunnar Eiriksson. “Up until that point, those were the two most important people in my life. I would still do anything for them. That huge love really influenced me with this character; Agnes has tremendous love for her sister. They have small conflicts and disappointments, but there’s no jealousy.”

'Sentimental Value' breakout Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas unpacks that 'very emotional' scene

Lilleaas’ Oscar-clip moment, as it were, arrives late in “Sentimental Value.” Agnes goes to check in on Nora, who’s struggled with depression for years and has recently holed up in her apartment with no contact. Agnes delivers a screenplay written by their dad, and through tears, Nora slowly begins to recognize herself on the page.

The gut-wrenching sequence culminates with the sisters embracing on the bed, commiserating over their family dysfunction and how they’ve always tried to look after one another.

“When the scene starts, you don’t know Nora’s mental-health issues from the past,” Lilleaas says. “But that’s very much present for Agnes. She’s always scared that something’s going to happen, so that just made me very emotional in the moment. And I was still really emotional when Nora starts reading the script, just watching this character from the outside and seeing what this moment means to them.”

Joachim Trier, who directed and cowrote the film, saw more than 100 actresses to play Agnes, but was instantly drawn to the “grounded truthfulness” that Lilleaas brings.

“There’s not a false note with her,” Trier says. “In her close-ups, when she looks at the other characters, you feel her taking them in. There's a lot of compassion in her character and that's not easy to play. Everyone loves Inga because she's such a warm and caring person, so I'm just happy to have found her.”

The Norwegian actress tries not to 'make a fuss' about Oscar season

Before “Sentimental Value,” Lilleaas primarily worked in Norwegian TV and theater. But she’s had many lives outside of acting: At 17, she lived in Brazil as a foreign exchange student. She fondly remembers watching Brazilian series “Once in a Blue Moon” and “Tropical Paradise,” both featuring another Oscar hopeful, “The Secret Agent” star Wagner Moura.

“We met at Telluride [Film Festival], which was really nice,” Lilleaas says. “I used to watch his telenovelas – that’s how I learned Portuguese.”

She firmly believes that actors should experience other jobs outside the industry. Over the years, she’s worked as a dental hygienist (“I was really bad at it”) and a drama teacher (“That’s a lot of fun and very rewarding”). She also found fulfillment caring for senior citizens.

“It was sad sometimes because you don't feel like you get to do enough, but it was a nice job and it has something in common with acting,” Lilleaas says. “In the nursing home, you’re working with people who have lived long, long lives, and for a lot of them, those lives are slipping and they can’t remember. So you’re a detective, in a way, trying to figure out who these people are. That’s what you do as an actor – you’re looking for what’s underneath.”

Lilleaas has nothing specific in mind for what she’d like to do next, other than projects that challenge and “scare me a little.” The endless cycle of film festivals and awards shows is “definitely exhausting,” although she’s tried to make the most of her travels, including taking her family to Greenwich Village and the Central Park Zoo on a recent trip to New York.

“My husband’s my cheerleader and life goes on normally,” she says. “We don’t really make a fuss about it. He goes to work and I go to work, and our son doesn’t really know that much of what’s going on [laughs]. My son kept asking me, ‘Why do you want to go on this trip?’ And I tried to explain to him that it’s not necessarily an ‘I want’ thing – it’s just a job and you have to do it. But it’s nice to come home to real life.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas is the beating heart of 'Sentimental Value'

Reporting by Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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