Just back from her first official trips to Japan and California, Sweden’s 24-year-old crown princess has given a series of candid interviews in which she shares her thoughts on everything from the pressures of being a future queen to how Hollywood is laying scripts at her feet.
In interviews with Sweden’s Aftonbladet and Denmark’s Billed Bladet, Princess Victoria admits that she feels the pressures of being a famous figure, and sometimes wishes she could step out of the spotlight. “At times, there are situations, naturally, in which I would prefer people not to recognise me,” says Europe’s only female heir to a throne. “There are days in which I would like to just wear any old thing. But at the same time it’s marvellous to feel the enormous response that I receive from people.”
The young princess also says that the responsibility of her role as future queen preys on her mind. The only thing that helps is “to think that I have to do it anyway and that there is no possibililty of abandoning my duty, or falling back on phrases like, ‘No, this is too difficult’,” she says.
“The prospect of becoming queen,” she continues, “is something I can’t get out of my head, even though it’s in the future. It isn’t pleasant to think that when that day arrives, when I take the throne, something bad will have happened to the king.”
Victoria’s father, King Carl XVI Gustaf, helps his daughter cope by making light of the subject. “My father usually says, ‘Why do people always think about when Victoria will be queen? I don’t see why that’s amusing!’.” The princess’ friends have a similar approach: “They tell me I’ll end up like Edward Scissorhands,” explains Victora, referring to the amount of ribbon-cutting she has to do at official events.
However, “I don’t stop focusing on the job with which I’ve been entrusted,” insists the princess. She cites her father, whose own father died when he was just one year old, and her mother Queen Silvia, as her main guiding lights. “My parents are always there for me. To have them in my life is incredible… My father never had that opportunity.”
It was the king and queen who briefed their daughter prior to her recent visit to Japan. Victoria, who describes herself as “very impulsive”, had to study Japanese customs carefully so as not to do anything that might cause a misunderstanding. “In Japan, you don’t touch when you greet, you don’t sit with crossed legs and you must never show the soles of your shoes,” she explains. “Those are actions we wouldn’t think twice about in Sweden.”
Soon after her visit to the East, the princess made an official visit to Los Angeles, California, where she had a chance to drop by some studio landmarks in Hollywood, such as the clock tower from Back To The Future and the set of Jaws. She did keep some distance, however, from the mansion featured in the thriller Psycho. “I don’t like scary movies. They’re not for me,” she confesses. “But my sister Madeleine, she loves them.”
Though Victoria enjoyed her LA trip, the lure of Hollywood doesn’t tempt her. “I’m not going to be actress… not even in a guest spot,” she says firmly. But it is true that, after American producer Jason Schultz offered her a role in a romantic comedy, she received a flurry of offers. “Yes, scripts came,” she admits. “I said no, and thank you each time.”
Back from her international travels and too busy with her official duties to take a rest, Princess Victoria can’t visit her younger sister madeleinelondon until Christmas, though it’s “dull not to see each other every day”. And regarding others with whom she might be spending time in her private life – particularly Prince nikgreece – Victoria gives a straightforward response: “I’m single.”
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
