Anders Danielsen Lie Is 2021s Hottest Actor-Doctor

Picture: Bertrand Noel/Contour by Getty Photos

Anders Danielsen Lie is fall 2021’s primo European heartthrob, having appeared in two romantic motion pictures that just lately screened on the New York Movie Pageant: Bergman Island and The Worst Person in the World. However performing is merely Danielsen Lie’s facet job, secondary to his work as a physician. After capturing Worst Particular person final yr, the 42-year-old Norwegian helped to determine a COVID-19 vaccine heart in Oslo.

Danielsen Lie made his first film, Herman, at age 10, then determined he would “by no means, ever develop into an actor.” Herman was a success in Norway, and the eye he acquired was too daunting. “I wasn’t very snug with it,” he advised the Minimize whereas sipping glowing water at a French restaurant in Manhattan. “Once you work as a movie actor, it’s generally laborious to maintain a distance out of your skilled persona.” Danielsen Lie was lured again to the massive display screen by director Joachim Trier, who forged him in 2005’s Reprise and 2011’s Oslo, August thirty first. They reunited once more for Worst Particular person, a wide ranging dramedy that follows an aimless 29-year-old (Renate Reinsve) as she navigates the intricacies of latest relationships. (Worst Particular person doesn’t but have an American launch date.)

Bergman Island (opening in theaters October 15) additionally positions Danielsen Lie as a young love curiosity, this time reverse Mia Wasikowska. His character exists in a story-within-the-story that the film’s protagonist (Vicky Krieps) tells to her considerably distracted husband (Tim Roth) as they trip in Sweden. Collectively, Bergman and Worst Particular person are poised to make Danielsen Lie one of many web’s latest thirst objects, particularly for anybody who appreciates art-house cinema. (His different credit embody the Kristen Stewart psychodrama Personal Shopper and Netflix’s 22 July.)

Danielsen Lie talked to the Minimize about how medication informs his performing, why he’s immune to decide to the latter career full time, and his favourite ABBA tune.

After making a film as a child, you didn’t act once more for years and years. How did performing re-enter your life?

After I was requested to do an audition for Joachim’s first film, Reprise, I had completely no plans to do any performing. I had one yr left in med faculty, and I had deliberate to work at this psychological facility for younger adults with psychotic sicknesses in Norway that summer time. This was the spring of 2005, and I learn that script. The position I used to be imagined to play was a younger man with a psychotic sickness, so I type of felt that if I’m going to do one thing once more, possibly that is the position for me to play.

Having not acted for therefore lengthy, how did your identify wind up on Joachim’s radar? 

I used to be in all these casting archives, and Joachim did a really thorough casting for that movie. He didn’t simply contact skilled actors — he took in folks from the streets, actually. He additionally wished to take a look at individuals who had been in movies earlier of their life. I’ve at all times been very ambivalent about performing. Every so often, I’ve to get out of it and do one thing else, then I return to it. I’ve tried to have it my means somewhat bit, to be primarily based in Norway and work internationally, if it really works with my life and my household.

It’s uncommon to search out somebody who strikes between two such completely different worlds: the stark actuality of medication and the play-land of moviemaking. Does one really feel like a reprieve from the opposite, or do you discover that they arrive from an analogous place inside you?

You haven’t any concept what number of occasions I’ve tried to investigate this. It’s the least sensible work mixture you possibly can have. They’re each time-consuming. It’s only one huge mess to coordinate. That stated, if I step again and have a look at my life, it type of is sensible to me. I’ve to have one foot in actuality. Worst Particular person is about love, life, and demise — all the main themes which are attention-grabbing to human beings. I really feel that working towards as a physician and assembly folks in generally excessive, very emotional conditions is an efficient place to be. It fills me with inspiration. So after I work as an actor, it’s a means of reflecting on my expertise as a doctor. I attempt to soak up what I see in all my experiences, and I attempt to create one thing from that.

Bergman Island and Worst Particular person each require a sure intimacy and emotional rawness. How did you and your co-stars put together for that and permit yourselves to embrace such naturalism?

It’s vital to spend money on the connection between actors. It’s important to actually attempt to get to know one another. I bear in mind once we did Reprise I had three weeks to get to know Espen Klouman Høiner, my co-star. We frolicked always. That was crucial analysis that we might do for that movie. After we have been in Fårö [where Bergman is set], I attempted to hang around with Mia Wasikowska as a lot as attainable so it could be simpler to create the phantasm of an intimate relationship. And me and Renate actually labored in the identical vogue, making an attempt to get to know one another in non-public. That was particularly vital for the lighter moments and the happier moments as a result of they don’t have as a lot display screen time. If you would like the viewers to get an emotional response, you need to spend money on the connection.

It’s type of like that performing cliché “dying is simple, comedy is difficult.” For no matter this says about humanity, going to a darkish place feels extra accessible than performing lightness. 

That makes complete sense. Some folks may suppose it’s more durable to do darker scenes, however not for me. In relation to intimacy and all that stuff, you simply must have a plan for these scenes. It must be choreographed. Personally, I feel it’s boring to observe intimate scenes if their solely operate is to point out romantic bliss. It’s way more attention-grabbing to point out intimacy that’s damaged or intimacy that has some type of melancholy related to it.

In each Bergman and Worst Particular person, your characters are the one which obtained away. You’re filling a kind of heartthrob standing. Are you acutely aware of that?

Very often, it seems like it’s my job in movies to characterize some type of melancholy or tragedy. We joke about this, me and Joachim. Each time I seem in his motion pictures, folks know one thing’s not going to go properly. It’s laborious to get away from your self as a movie actor. You’ve got sure qualities — you might have a smile, there’s one thing about your face, how the sunshine falls in your face.

There’s one thing about these two characters — they’re good guys, considerate however brooding, introspective, engaging. I feel you’re occupying a conventional rom-com-lead archetype, even when these aren’t simple rom-coms. Did you see similarities between them?

No, I didn’t actually. I noticed them as very completely different characters. Really, the character in Bergman Island to me could possibly be a determine in an previous fantasy. I virtually don’t see him as a personality in a psychological sense. He’s an object of need and a love curiosity, however I believed it was attention-grabbing to get on the character from a barely completely different angle than I’m used to. Particularly with Joachim’s roles, character psychology is normally crucial factor. The whole lot that occurs in Oslo, August thirty first is a direct consequence of what the character goes by means of. In The Worst Particular person within the World, I attempted to not be so involved with my character. I wished him to emerge from the connection with Renate’s character in order that not solely is he seen from her perspective however he’s representing a theme greater than being a personality. He’s representing the theme of melancholy over time passing.

As a result of there’s a fantastic ABBA needle drop in Bergman Island, I can’t go away with out asking what your favourite ABBA tune is.

After we shot that scene, for the primary time in my life, I might really feel the melancholy of “The Winner Takes It All.” You are inclined to take heed to ABBA as occasion music, however when Mia danced and we listened to the tune, it was so emotional. I can by no means undo that now. After I take heed to it, I can really feel the melancholy. I assume possibly “Dancing Queen” is my favourite, however it has to do with the musicianship. I’m a musician, so it’s in regards to the bass line. It’s simply fabulous.