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Lena Olin is Sweden’s gift to cinema. From the free-spirited Sabina in The Unbearable Lightness of Being to the inscrutable spy-mother Irina in Alias, she’s not the kind of actress who simply slips into a role. Over the decades, she’s perfected the art of playing layered, fearless women who defy easy labels. Now, as Nine Perfect Strangers season two unfolds, Olin shares with MEGA her take on the chaos behind the calm of wellness culture, the art of fearless acting, and what it really means to heal.
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The Wellness Mirage
Olin plays Helena, a wealthy scientist marooned in a wellness resort. But for those who’ve watched, doesn’t it feel more like a microdosing madhouse? Season two dives deep into the modern obsession with “cures” sought by nine strangers from the city. It’s arguably similar to the real-life Pilates obsessives, Kami No Ken disciples, and cold-plunge cultists, scrambling for salvation like it’s on sale.
Talking to MEGA, Olin cuts to the chase: wellness promises growth, but the show reveals how it can become a scenic detour from real problems.
“The strangers…avoid their problems and search for wellness, but they don’t want to face their problems with themselves,” she shares. “[It] can be sort of deceiving, because it helps us go around it, and you think, ‘Oh, I’m taking care of the problems,’ when you’re not. That’s an interesting aspect of the show.”
But she’s not a wellness skeptic—in fact, she’s for it. “Self-care and wellness can never go too far, but the danger is when it turns into a business,” she says. “So when we start piling on vitamins, meditation, and all that, it’s great—but it becomes dangerous once it turns into a business, I think.”
We argue this is the show in a nutshell, but kidding aside, it makes us wonder: how sharp are we at walking the line between genuine healing and a pretty, well-packaged exit route? The answer’s up to us, but turn to the show and you’ll find a gilded cage where science, wealth, and human longing collide—and Helena’s right at the tangled center.
No Such Thing as Pre-Playing
She doesn’t do character pre-cooking. Instead, she goes headfirst into the chaotic soup of creation. It’s refreshingly chill.
“I like to just throw myself into a project and try not to bring so much… I prepare, you know, the way you should, with the lines,” she says. But the magic happens when she comes on set “as a very curious and open person.”
She truly believes you don’t have to figure out every part of the character before filming. “You don’t have to understand every bit of the character,” Olin further explains. “You just have to play it and play with it, and things will appear as you’re doing it.” Helena, with her tangled web of wealth, scientific madness, and family legacy, could’ve been a monster to unravel—but Olin? She made it dance.
The Strangers, the Satire, and Saint Dolly
Nine Perfect Strangers hits a nerve, especially for Southeast Asian viewers. One, this obsession with “healing.” Two, the rise of the satirical wellness genre. And three, this cast of fearless, complicated women, Nicole Kidman and Dolly de Leon included.
“It’s great; it’s really good,” Olin says of working with a mostly female cast. “I find that, in male actors who have gotten to a certain level, they need to be very fearless, which is amazing to work with.” But with the women? There’s camaraderie, unpredictability, and a kind of shared hunger.
And despite not being one of the titular strangers, she never felt like an outsider. “I was very much included in the strangers gang,” she laughs, recalling the cast’s off-screen bonding in Austria—breakfasts, hotel chats, and the whole lovely cliché.
But what caught her off guard, in the best way, was being asked about her co-star, Filipina actress Dolly de Leon, who plays Agnes. Her reaction was immediate—and loud.
A big, fat “I love her” is what we heard.
“Me and my whole family love her,” she continues, referencing de Leon’s acclaimed role in the Rudolf Östland film. “She’s just such a force of humanity…Whenever she appears on screen, you’re brought in because she brings reality or authenticity. I love her.”
It seemed like such a genuine joy. “There was a room where I was introduced to the other cast members, which was full of fantastic actors,” she says, “but I just ran into the arms of [Dolly] and I told her how much my family and I love her!”
“When I heard that she was involved, that was a big, big plus for me.”
Yes, it’s just a show—dark, satirical, sometimes funny, sometimes scary. But maybe we’re hooked because we see ourselves in those strangers, all tangled in our own wellness mania. We’re hooked because Nine Perfect Strangers is a mirror, reflecting the messy, desperate ways we chase healing. But maybe the real question isn’t how far we’ll go, but whether we’re brave enough to look inward instead.
Stream Season 2 of Nine Perfect Strangers now on Amazon Prime. Special thanks to VERO PHILIPPINES.
Featured Image and Photos: NINE PERFECT STRANGERS and HULU (via Instagram)
