Actress Sanna Stellan says that she got the idea for her last name from a Swedish star.
Sanna Stellan studied at a theater school in Britain. Jussi Eskola
Actor Sanna Stellan moved to Britain at the dawn of adulthood. He also studied acting there. Having created a career abroad, Sanna also decided to change her last name during her studies. He had no intention of returning to Finland.
– Stellan is an invented name. I really thought I would stay in the Brits. My maiden name is Lehtonen, and no one there can pronounce it. If there was only one universal way to say it wrong, I would have gladly accepted it, Sanna says and demonstrates the versions of her maiden name she has heard.
Changing the name was recommended by the school. In fact, the school encouraged you to change your first name as well. Susan Smith was the suggestion.
No thanks, replied Sanna politely.
– We discussed the name issue with mother over the phone. Changing the name seemed terribly dramatic to me.
– I saw the Swedish actress Stellan Skarsgård’s first name. I thought that it is pronounced the same way in Finland and everywhere. It sounds Nordic. It was important to me that it’s not quite an English name. That’s where it came from, Sanna says.
Skarsgård is known for, among other things Will Hunting, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and Mamma Mia – movies.
Now Stellan is Sanna’s official surname. The name feels like her own now, but Sanna says that it hasn’t always been like this.
– For a long time I felt that I had a fake name. It felt like taking on a stage name, but it was purely for practical reasons. In Britain it was really common to change one’s name at a theater school. We are much more stuck with our name here, Sanna describes.
When Sanna returned to Finland after living in Britain for 11 years, she could no longer be anyone else. She had also worked as an actress as Stellanina for almost as long.
– Now it’s just me, Sanna smiles.