Lasse Hallström on "ABBA - The Movie":


"When ABBA first raised the idea for the film, they just wanted to make it for fun, for when they grew old. It was just intended to be a home move on 16mm. But then it grew bigger and bigger, and the next plan was to shoot it on 35mm, and then we decided to shoot it in Panavision as well."

Lasse Hallström simply told ABBA that the film would have two other roles - that of a bodyguard and a disc jockey reporter. He said, "I let these two actors appear as if they were people just doing their jobs.  ABBA knew very little about what I was planning to do. I wanted to have the film as realistic as possible. I told them what was in the script when they got to Australia, but they were so nervous before their first concert that I guess it just went in one ear and out the other."

It was decided to weave a story around the concerts, because, as Lasse said: "I've seen lots of concert films, with long heavy numbers on stage and that just gets boring. I think even the most devoted ABBA fan couldn't stand a full-length film with only music performed on stage. So we added a story about a disc jockey who is doing a radio special on ABBA and keeps trying to interview them. It's nice to involve the group if you can, but there are a lot of dangers in that. Because if you try to involve the group in the story they need to be very good actors, and it could turn out to be corny or unconvincing. So we brought in a guy to play the disc jockey and handle the comedy part."

Lass has confessed it wasn't easy filming ABBA on tour, "We had two film crews plus two extra photographers, and an unbelievable stack of equipment had to be packed, moved, unpacked and re-packed at every concert location on ABBA's tour. In all the inevitable confusion there were times when ABBA's own personal guards lost track of who was who. I found myself forcibly restrained from getting too close on several occasions and I got just a little tired of having to explain that I was there at ABBA's own request!"