
Sara Sommerfeld grew up in a large family consisting of her
mother Bea, her father Victor and four strong-minded sisters.
To shout loud was the only way to be heard...
As a child, Sara was very active: she learned how to ski downhill
at the age of four, as a six-year-old girl she started taking
ballet and violin lessons and in first grade she started going
to a swimming club three times a week.
Her dream was to become a prima ballerina and in third grade
she applied, against her parents' will, to the Royal Swedish
Ballet School. Her parents, who both are physicians, thought
ballet might be damaging to her young body. That year she was
not accepted by the school but stubborn as she is, she practised
on her own for a whole year and was eventually accepted as only
student in fourth grade.

The ballet school meant very long days for her. In her family,
Sara was the first to leave home in the morning, and after hours
of dancing practise and rehearsals she was the last one to come
home. Besides acrobatics and historic dancing they had classical
ballet scheduled six times a week (including Saturdays). Besides
all the hard work this was her first opportunity to enter the
stage. Her first performance was as the queen's page in the
ballet "Swan Lake" at the Royal Opera. For Sara this
was an amazing experience. She now had the opportunity to, in
close-up, see the ballerinas sweating behind stage. Her stage
experience developed from this point by dancing performances
at the Opera, The Globe Arena and the City Hall.
However, Sara now also dreamt about the theatre and acting.
As a child she often called to the Swedish National Television
(SVT) asking if they did not need "a freckled eight-year-old
for any movie". When she was ten the chance suddenly appeared
when the author and director Marianne Ahrne advertised in the
local newspaper for girls in different ages, similar enough
to play the same part in a movie. The Sommerfeld sisters ran
to the audition and together Sara and her sister Maja managed
to impress Marianne Ahrne enough to get the parts.
During the summer 1988, Sara and Maja read the script with Ahrne
and during the autumn same year the most exciting months in
Sara's life so far was about to begin: the production of the
movie "Maskrosbarn" ("Dandelion Children").
During these months, Marianne Ahrne became one of Sara's greatest
inspiration sources for her future choice of profession. She
had her first look into the wonderful world of movies, and she
thought she would never experience it again. She did not know
how wrong she was...
Sara's strongest memories and impressions from her childhood
come from the different performances as a child actress. She
also remembers the parts she did not get and she took both the
successes as well as the setbacks very seriously.
In sixth grade, Sara was still a student at The Royal Swedish
Ballet School in Stockholm, and as if this was not enough for
her, she also performed in an August Strindberg play at The
Royal Dramatic Theatre, directed by Peter Stormare (Prison Break,
Fargo, Armageddon). She also did several parts in different
movies, such as "Kaninmannen" (The Rabbit Man) and
Ingmar Bergman's "The Best Intentions", some voice-overs
for Disney movies and last but not least, a number of radio
plays for Swedish Radio.
In seventh grade, Sara got a part in the musical "Annie
Get Your Gun" at China Theatre in Stockholm. Sara now had
to make a very tough decision since combining theatre with ballet
was impossible. There was not enough time. Sara loved dancing
but the desire to act was stronger and she chose to change schools
and instead of ballet she stood on The China Theatre stage several
times a week for a whole year. The theatre became like a second
home to Sara.
Sara's parents hoped she would choose a more academic profession
but as earlier mentioned, she is stubborn as a mule and she
has always known best herself what to do with her life. Hence,
she applied to the three year long theatre education for upper
secondary school at Södra Latins Gymnasium, from where
she graduated in 1996 with an average grade of 4,7 (on a scale
from 1 to 5, where 5 is the best).
When upper secondary school ended she took 20 credits teathre
science at Stockholm University and worked in different independent
theatre productions, such as Stig Larsson's "VD" (CEO)
and "Fiddler On The Roof". At the same time she applied
to the governmental Theatre Academies in Stockholm and Gothenburg,
coached by the great actress Margreth Weivers, whom she had
met during the shooting of "Maskrosbarn". She was
accepted as one of seven students among 1500 applicants at the
Theatre Academy in Gothenburg.
Ironically, when Sara's dream had come true, other things in
life attracted her more. Just before she was about to begin
her education at the Theatre Academy she moved abroad for a
couple of months. She got a job as a waitress on the beach in
Eilat, Israel, and took the opportunity to educate herself as
a Divemaster (dive guide in scuba-diving). At that moment, Sweden,
the Theatre Academy and the theatre itself felt very remote...
However, finally Sara decided to go back to Sweden and begin
her education. But since that time in Eilat, she has always
considered it important to have a life off stage as well. Travelling,
diving, meetings and impressions from other persons and different
cultures is something that has high priority. She thinks it
is a good way to find inspiration for her acting and her profession.
During her four years of concentrated acting studies at The
Theatre Academy Sara developed to a more mature and independent
actress. The course included half a year of practical training,
and during her trainee period at Stockholm City Theatre she
met another person who would become a great source of inspiration
for her. The director Reza Bagher, gave Sara the leading part
in the feature film "Wings Of Glass" together with
Alexander Skarsgård (son of Stellan Skarsgård).
This was a big challenge for Sara, a chance to try her wings
as a grown up actress, and it became a big breakthrough. Among
many awards on International film festival (see CV) she won
the award for best actress at The Nordic Film Festival Haugesund,
Norway.
Another director who has meant a lot to Sara is Magnus Bergqvist.
He was the one who guided her through the rehearsals for the
part of her dreams: Juliet in Shakespeare's "Romeo and
Juliet". This play was staged at the Dramatic Theatre of
Malmö in 2002.
Since Sara graduated from the Theatre Academy in 2001 she has
had many different roles at theatres like the City Theatre of
Gothenburg, Göta Lejon and Storan. She has also done some
more voice-overs for Disney, contributed in feature films and
starred in films and shows produced for TV.
Today, she is still dreaming about a future filled with challenges
and encounters from which she can get more inspiration.