But while making her big screen debut as near-blind Czech immigrant Selma famously drained Bj?and left her unsure about further acting - "Lars has a way of throwing petrol on your soul," she said last year; playing alongside her husband, she says, was "inevitable". Nevertheless, one fan website has already cited her project with Barney as worrying proof that "she's going a bit Yoko Ono." Did she and her husband have any misgivings about collaboration?"I guess we had some worries," she offers when pressed. "When we first met one of the first things we said to each other was, 'Let's never work together.' We just wanted that boyfriend/girlfriend thing; that was the priority. But in the end it was easier to do a project together than not. We were going to the same places, meeting the same people, and listening to the same music. In a funny way, the soundtrack and screenplay for this movie is based on those shared experiences, but knowing Matthew I'm sure there are 20 other layers of meaning I'm not aware of."Aboard the Nisshin Maru for up to five days at a time, they breakfasted on whale sushi having slept in spartan cabins alongside Japanese sailors (whom Bj?found reassuringly macho) - a challenge for Barney, given that he was initially susceptible to seasickness.
Eventually finding his sea-legs, the artist sculpted a life-sized whale figure from Vaseline. "It coagulated on the deck, and he got the whalers to cut it up as though it was a real whale," says his wife. This ritual flensing naturally found its way into the film.The time spent at sea had a deep impact on Bj?s musical contribution too. "Pearl" begins with the sound of the pearl-diving girls hyper-ventilating; the strident brass arrangement on "Hunter Vessel" was inspired by ship sounds in her native Iceland. "I live near the harbour in Reykjavik, and ships are being repaired all the time outside my window," she says. "I've expressed to Matthew many times that I'm obsessed with ships, and I thought it would be great to make some kind of ship symphony."Perhaps the sea itself has become an obsession for Bj? "Well, it's a big subject," she smiles "Two-thirds of the world is ocean.
Matthew and I are actually thinking about selling one of our houses in New York to buy a boat. It could be our home and our studio and we could travel around and drop the anchor wherever we found inspiration. I don't know why we didn't think of it before."Another reason why living on a boat might appeal to Bj?and Barney is that it would grant them more of the privacy they guard so zealously. For all the flamboyancy of their respective creations, they have successfully managed to shield their relationship from prying lenses. But then, ever since Bj?clobbered a journalist for invading her son Sindri's space at Bangkok airport, Heat magazine and the like have tended to keep their distance.Even now, there are moments when her defences are primed. When I ask Bj?if Barney was pleased with her soundtrack for Drawing Restraint 9, her guard comes up immediately She chooses her words carefully.
