Lina Leandersson is a Swedish actress who gained international recognition for her role as Eli in the critically acclaimed Swedish horror film “Let the Right One In”
Background info
Leandersson was born on September 27, 1995, in Falun, Sweden and is of Swedish and Iranian descent.
From a young age, Leandersson developed a passion for the performing arts. She engaged in amateur theater productions, attended drama courses, and showcased her talent in street and jazz dance.
One of her initial acting endeavors involved portraying a mother in an amateur theater performance, portraying a character who embodied the desires of a spoiled girl yearning for new jeans.
In 2006, Leandersson assumed the role of a jury member in the renowned Swedish song competition, Lilla Melodifestivalen. Additionally, out of a pool of five hundred applicants, she was chosen as one of the five participants for Nickelodeon’s programledarskola, a televised program that aired in October 2006.
Let The Right One In
“Let the Right One In” is a Swedish horror film released in 2008. Directed by Tomas Alfredson, it is based on the 2004 novel of the same name by John Ajvide Lindqvist, who also wrote the screenplay for the film.
The story is set in the early 1980s and follows the friendship between a 12-year-old boy named Oskar and a young vampire girl named Eli, played by Leandersson.
Oskar is a lonely and bullied boy who lives with his mother in a suburban apartment complex. One night, he meets Eli, a peculiar girl who moves into the same building with her guardian.
As their friendship develops, Oskar discovers that Eli is a vampire who survives by feeding on human blood. Despite the dark nature of her existence, Eli and Oskar form a strong bond and support each other. Oskar finds solace in their friendship, while Eli finds a connection that goes beyond her vampiric needs.
Leandersson was cast in the lead role of Eli when she was just eleven years old. She got the part after applying through a web-based casting service.
She auditioned for the role three times before finally being selected. Interestingly, she was initially unaware that the role she was auditioning for was that of a vampire.
What did she do after Let The Right One In?
After her breakthrough role in “Let the Right One In,” Lina Leandersson continued to pursue her acting career, primarily in Sweden, however she only acted in 2 additional movies.
- “Broken Hill Blues” (2013) where she played the character Zerin. The movie set in a small mining community in Northern Sweden. The story revolves around a group of youngsters who are on the verge of adulthood. They grapple with their personal issues and the world around them, while the ground beneath them literally trembles, a reference to the unstable nature of their mining town.
- “The Arbiter” (2013) where she played the character Ronja. The film revolves around a scientist who spirals into madness following his girlfriend’s abortion. In his disturbed state, he begins a mission to weed out those he deems ‘genetically incompetent’.
Between 2011 and 2014, she pursued her studies in theater at Kulturama, a renowned performing arts school located in Stockholm, Sweden.
In 2015, Lina Leandersson made her debut at Dramaten in Henrik Ibsen’s “The Wild Duck” on the Little Stage and played the role of Hedvig.
The play revolves around the intertwined fates of two families. The fathers of the two families had a joint firm. One emerged from the partnership as a victor, the other as a loser.
She would follow that up with a performance in “The Birds”, based on the 1957 novel by Norwegian writer Tarjei Vesaas.
In 2016, she acted at the Royal Dramatic Theater of Sweden for Ivan Turgenyev’s Fathers and Sons.
What is Lina Leandersson doing now?
According to an interview, Lina Leandersson says she took a break from acting to write her own material and start a podcast and said she plans to return to acting in the future.