Not a typical Danish woman

All days are long for Danish actress Trine Dyrholm , now working hard to play a Danish woman for director and screenwriter Benedikt Erlingsson . The only time to chat was in the evening and Dyrholm and I met at a hotel in the city center after a long day of work on set. Dyrholm is well known in her home country and beyond, as she has starred in numerous films and TV shows since 1990 when she was only eighteen years old. Icelanders probably know her best from the show The Legacy and films such as Margrete: Queen of the North , where she played opposite the Icelandic actress, Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir . Dyrholm had only been to Iceland once before, three years ago at RIFF, Reykjavik International Film Festival. Then she only stopped for four days, but now she has lived here for three months.

"I have always been fascinated by Iceland. I don't have much free time, but I've been to the Golden Circle, to Hvammsvík several times, and to the hot stream in Reykjadalur," she says.

"I've had to learn a little bit of Icelandic because the Danish woman is such a wild character who learns languages," she says and adds that she got help with the learning, but finds the matter extremely difficult.

"It's impossible to learn Icelandic!"

Said yes right away

We discuss her character in The Danish Woman.

"I play a Danish woman who worked for the Danish secret service but decided to move to Iceland to relax. I don't know what to say," Dyrholm says with a smile.

Asked if the shows are comedies, she answers:

"I would say they are in the spirit of Erlingsson. There is a lot of humor in the episodes but with a heavier undertone. He is such an interesting artist and likes to discuss important issues in his art, but does so in an original way and with humor. It's a very special part that I've been waiting for for years," says Dyrholm, who was offered the role four years ago.

"I read the unfinished script and had seen Erlingsson's pictures, so I said yes straight away. I have never received another offer like this before. It's huge and very challenging. My character is so multi-layered that it's hard to describe. She is the Danish woman," she says.

"She can be quite extreme, but she has a complicated past and has experienced war," she says.

"She is not a typical Danish woman."

Filled with enthusiasm

Dyrholm says the collaboration with the Icelandic actors and other staff on set is very good and rewarding.

"I had met Dóra when we worked together on The Queen of the North. I didn't know all the actors, but some I had seen in movies or shows. I have had great pleasure working with all these people, and actually, Benedikt has the credit for all of this, because the script, which he wrote with Ólafur (Egilsson), is so good and the tone of it is so special. He is such a generous person and open to people. You are inspired to work with him and it is fun. We're busy because we're shooting six episodes in three months and I'm in almost every single scene. I can feel now that the second half is coming, that I'm getting a little tired, but until now it's been incredibly fun and crazy and wild," she says.

"When you're my age, just over fifty, it's an honor to still get such a challenging and cool role. I was so excited to come when filming finally started after funding was secured because I had been taking time off for years in a row for this role. So the day before the shoot loomed over me and I thought, "Can I do this?" I've always had a motto of being brave and throwing myself into things where there's still some uncertainty, but there the day before I looked at the stack of scripts, partly in Icelandic, and found it overwhelming," says Trine.

“So after the first day of shooting, it started to flow. There have been hard days and then easier days, but I'm so happy that I stuck it out," she says.

"The script, or the content of the show, is very important, but the people you work with are even more important. It's not about having fun, it's about daring and being filled with enthusiasm. I need to have my "gulag buddies" so we can have fun with the stuff. Playing in this now is my life and it's very important to use my time well."

Are there fewer good roles for women over fifty?

"Yes, it's still like that, but I can say that I've gotten the most interesting roles after 40," she says, adding that more and more good roles are now being offered to women.

"It's now becoming fashionable to be a woman," she says with a smile.

Go into the moment curious

You've said that you often try to surprise yourself when you play a role. Is that something you always do?i

“This is my approach to acting and my belief in life; that we should be in the present as much as possible. We are always creating moments. Of course, I get a script and I'm surrounded by all the technical things on the set, but I'm creating the moments with the other actors. My role is to create moments, here and now," she says.

"If the roles are emotional, you are allowed to be more daring; to explore reactions, because you don't always know what emotions arise in a scene. This of course depends on the material, but that's how I approach a role. When someone calls "action" I always think that now I don't know what will happen. I go into the moment curious," she says.

“I try to take the pressure off myself of having to be a good actress; I don't care about good acting. I try to be in the moment and react, and that's why it's so important to play against good actors," she says.

"I've learned over the years not to have a plan. Someone else has the plan; the director and cinematographer. I can't decide exactly what I'm going to do. Then I get in touch with the unknown and experience a place between consciousness and subconsciousness."

Will miss the mountains

Dyrholm's stay in Iceland is coming to an end, and after the holidays and film festivals she plans to attend, she will return home to Copenhagen, where she likes to travel by bicycle, as is the Danish custom.

"It's the only way to get around in Copenhagen. I like walking here, but I live in the center. I'm starting to recognize people here, actors I met now, and the last time I was here. I have a little social life here, but I don't have much time because I have to study and remember a lot of texts. And then there's a lot of practice," Dyrholm says adding that she really enjoys being here.

"I've seen the northern lights twice from my balcony and I was completely fascinated. They were perfect! Then I saw the eruption, from a little distance. But just looking at it from the seaside was enough; it was so amazing," she says.

"Here on this volcanic island, man somehow has a special relationship with nature. I also feel it in people and I also feel it a little bit in myself. This is not an easy country to live in; here it is dark in the winter and the forces of nature are hostile. It is such a great privilege to get to try working abroad and live there for a few months because then you get to know everyday life and not just be a tourist. I love going to the Vesturbærlaug swimming pool in the evenings and watching families who are there with their children who then immediately change into their pajamas after swimming, and it's fun watching the young people chatting in the tubs. It's a wonderful culture and you get so much out of going into the hot and cold water alternately. I have also tried sea swimming, although I don't really swim, I immerse myself in it. In Hvammsvík it is also good to go out in the sea. The nature around there is absolutely crazy! The mountains all around. I love mountains, but we don't have any mountains. I'm going to miss them a lot! Every morning I go out to the balcony with my coffee and say hello to Mt Esja, who is never the same," she says.

"It is so beautiful."