17/01/2007

Thrown into the limelight in Berlin last year with A Soap [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lars Bredo Rahbek
interview: Pernille Fischer Christensen
film profile] in which he played a transvestite, David Dencik is used to changing roles, countries and languages. A graduate from Stockholm’s National Academy of Acting, he has been working for the last three years between the Swedish and Danish capitals. Sweden gave him his first breakthrough with a TV series; Denmark his chance to make a first feature film (Reconstruction) and to become famous internationally with A Soap.

Cineuropa: What did A Soap change for you as a professional actor?
David Dencik: The film was my first big feature film. It gave me a lot of insight into movie making, how your mood can swing as an actor during the shooting. I felt very responsible because although Pernille F. Christensen had a vision, she wanted me to create my character. I was never told the story in full and had to find inspiration in three women that had been important in my life. Pernilla makes actors perform better and I felt I grew technically during the shooting.

You’ve made two feature films with Swedish filmmaker Daniel Espinosa…
We have a good creative relationship. I played in his Swedish film Babylon Disease in 2004 and did the lead role in his first Danish film Ghetto [+see also:
trailer
film profile] last year. The story (written by my elder brother Daniel) focuses on a Jewish widowed man who falls in love with a Pakistani woman. It’s a story I can relate to because it is inspired by my background, growing up at a Jewish school in Copenhagen. Now I’ve just finished shooting Jacob Thuesen’s new film Erik Nietzsche in which I play Zelko, a schoolmate to the lead character who attends the Danish National Film School.

You work as much in Sweden as in Denmark. Why do you think Danish films are more successful than Swedish films?
The Danish film industry is very creative. They experience a lot, try and explore things like a science. I don’t sense the same thing in Sweden. So I work on many many short films in Denmark but never in Sweden. Also many Swedish filmmakers rush into shooting without a good script, whereas a Danish film like A Soap had 19 script drafts. But things are changing in Sweden. It’s a question of time.