Hjlp!

Scandi men dont do brights

Sathnam Sanghera, The Times Published at 12:01PM, May 4 2013 Cool, distant, moody? Pilou Asbk, star of Borgen, says Nordic men are actually fun and flirty (and not afraid to wear yellow shorts) If you approach Pilou Asbk in the hope of meeting a version of Kasper Juul, the troubled political spin doctor he plays in Danish TV series Borgen, youll be disappointed. There are signs of Kaspers obsessiveness: to prepare for his recent role as a ships chef in the film A Hijacking, a drama about Somali pirates, the 31-year old actor reveals he worked for a couple of months in a restaurant. And the good looks are in evidence, of course. But they are rather obscured, when he arrives for his photoshoot in East London, by an extravagantly scruffy beard. (I hate it Its for a thing Im doing.) In the place of brooding darkness, there is a general air of cheerfulness and banter. And although he has a PR in tow, Asbk exhibits none of the controlling behaviour that drew parallels between Kasper and Alastair Campbell instead swearing when he spots the garish

outfits the stylist wants him to model (Are you f***ing with me?) and remarking, You have carte blanche to make things up. Just make me sound intelligent. As for Kaspers compulsive infidelity well, it is hard to tell about anyone these days. But you would guess from the fact Asbk spends the make-up session gushing about his new baby daughter and fiance, the playwright Anna Bro, that he is not exactly putting it about. I have been with same girl for six years now, he says, speaking English in an accent that veers between London, Hollywood and Copenhagen and is the result, he says, of watching Prime Suspect and US comedy series Family Ties at a formative age. Kasper is a liar and a cheat and that is not me. So he hasnt taken advantage of his pinup status? I dont dig that side of fame. I like acting and staying with my family. Life is pretty boring. He may dismiss it as mundane, but it is mundane in a Scandinavian way, which means, by definition, Brits will be fascinated. The wild popularity of Borgen and The Killing and other Nordic dramas has left many obsessed with Danish, Swedish and Norwegian culture, from their knitwear, to the way some of them have bedrooms that lead off kitchens, to the fact that the Danish for spin doctor is spindoktor. And, sure enough, when Asbk explains that he has been off on paternity leave for the first four months of his babys life, enjoying equal parenting responsibility with his fiance, that it was she who asked him out when they met at the Danish National School of Theatre and Contemporary Dance, and that he is planning to act in a feminist play written by her (I came up with idea of a man playing a woman it will be colourful and dangerous), he highlights the most intriguing aspect of all: the equality between the sexes in Scandinavia. But just when it seems Asbk couldnt make us British men look worse in comparison, he hesitates at the question, are you a feminist? That is a strong word. He strokes the bad beard. Maybe there is a difference between the English and Danish meaning of feminist? In Denmark it means fighting for female rights. I dont fight for female rights. I love women. I will always hold a door for a girl, pull out a chair, pay the bill. But Im not a feminist. Oh. But does he believe women can make better leaders than men? That, after all, is the message many foreign viewers took from Borgen. Well, in fiction they are. A laugh. I think that women, when they become powerful, have to become more like men than men, and that takes away the attraction, the spark. Look at Thatcher: she had to be more cynical and more male than even Reagan. And the thing about strong women is that they die alone. He picks up my tape recorder. I didnt say that! He laughs into the microphone. Erase!

The Danish spindoktors English spin doctor casts an anxious glance in his direction. There are further nervous glances as Asbk dishes out laddish dating advice, things he learnt from being the youngest of three boys (lessons such as: dont sleep with your mates ex-girlfriend). Research revealed two schools of thought about Scandinavian men one, fuelled by programmes such as Borgen, that they are super-sensitive souls who will, if asked by a spouse if they look fat in a skirt, say that the drycleaner must have shrunk it. And another, propagated by foreigners who have dated them, that they are cold and gruff and would say the woman had got fat, feeling she should be able to deal with such brutal truths as an adult. Asbk seems to be an inscrutable mix of both. One thing is comparatively clear: he has nothing in common with the tortured character he plays in Borgen. The youngest son of gallery owners Patricia and Jacob Asbk, he enjoyed a blissful childhood among Denmarks most cultured people. He wanted to be a writer, but, being dyslexic, took up acting instead. His parents still run their gallery, with the art on Birgittes office walls in Borgen loaned by them. One brother is an art consultant; the other is an art dealer. Asbk says he sometimes feels the black sheep of the family for having become an actor. But success has redeemed his choices. When I got the role in Borgen, the director said, It will change your life in Denmark, but it is never going to a different country. It has been sold to 71 countries. There will, he adds, never be a fourth series, but this doesnt mean we wont see him working with those actors. The running joke about Scandinavian drama is that the same actors appear again and again; sure enough, A Hijacking sees him acting alongside his Borgen co-star Sren Malling and directed by Tobias Lindholm, who wrote several Borgen episodes. The success of Nordic drama has led to many actors, including Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Alexander Skarsgrd, finding success in Hollywood, but while Asbk is working on some US productions, he prefers acting in Danish. Hence the beard. For what turns out to be a historical TV series called 1864. Its about a war between Germany and Denmark. Did Denmark win? We lost. Will we Brits like it? I dont know. A smile. But then we didnt think you would like Borgen. A Hijacking is released on Friday Fashion credits Image 1: metallic trench coat, 1,995, Burberry Prorsum (burberry.com).

Image 2: lime coat, 339, Ferragamo (020-7838 7730); sweatshirt, 460, Givenchy at Harvey Nichols (020-7235 5000); shorts, 405, Herms (020-7499 8856); trainers, 65, New Balance (asos.com). Image 3: jacket, 520, Raf Simons (mrporter.com); shirt, 210, Paul Smith at Harvey Nichols; shorts, 245, E Tautz (etautz.com). Image 4: pink sweatshirt, 90, A.P.C. (mrporter.com); trousers, 150, Replay (0207287 8192); loafers, 390, Gucci (020-7235 6707). Image 5: crewneck, 1,530, Herms; trousers, 459, Ferragamo Stylist: Jane Taylor Hayhurst