Tobias Santelmann told Zavvi: “It’s a strange thing to play a character that so many people have known from before. I used to say that the most difficult character I’ve ever played was Santa Claus for my brother’s kindergarten, because the children knew him better than I did, which meant that the job became more about convincing them that I was the real deal.
“I’ve always said that was the hardest task of my career, and this feels similar. Millions of readers have so many different opinions of and relationships with this character, and this series is a mixture of several perspectives on who Harry is, both mine and Jo’s, and those of the directors too.”
Jo Nesbø's Detective Hole is a nine-part series largely adapted from The Devil’s Star, the fifth Harry mystery published in Norway back in 2003, although we don’t immediately jump into that serial killer case. The author knew that this is the novel that would serve as the best entry point for newcomers, but being the fifth in a long-running saga meant it couldn’t exist as a straightforward adaptation.
Nesbø told Zavvi: “When we decided that it was time to tell the story of Harry, I decided that The Devil’s Star was the right book because that is when it has all come together. That is when Harry is established as a character and Oslo feels like a character within this universe – so the TV series offers a recap of the two previous novels before jumping into the serial killer on the loose.
“The Devil’s Star was quite simply one of my favourites of my novels, and I knew I wanted to start with it. But there’s no advantage in being a novelist writing for the screen, as you must throw out your way of writing and learn from scratch, as there’s always the tendency to get too wordy and forget you’re telling a story via images, not dialogue.
“You must strip things back and trust the directors and the actors rather than over-explain. One advantage was not having to deal with a difficult author looking over my shoulders telling me what to do with the source material – which is lucky, as I have no respect for this author or this material!”
The author has previously described his creation as his “soulmate”, but revisiting material from over 20 years ago whilst writing the latest novel in the series proved a difficult task – especially because Santelmann’s performance redefined how he perceived his creation.
“I was a bit worried that my bias towards Harry would influence either this new take on the character, or how he’s evolving in the book series”, Nesbø continued. “I was being a showrunner and writing a new novel in the thick of it, so I had to keep those two iterations of the character separate, which proved impossible.
“Tobias has influenced my Harry in certain ways. In the next novel, he’s moving into the same apartment from the TV series – although he isn’t influenced by Tobias too much, he hasn’t started supporting Newcastle!”
In an extra twist of fate, the new apartment Harry lives in is just down the hallway from one that Santelmann almost bought a decade ago, further shaping the decision to remodel the character after the actor.
“No matter how you address it, any character I play will be formed partly out of who I am”, Santelmann continued. “As actors, we adjust our qualities and tone our personal characteristics down, and alongside that, I was gifted with so much in the books that I could steal as I developed this characterisation.
“I was lucky to be working with the man who has been living with Harry in his head for 30 years and innately knows his every thought and movement; how he sits and looks at people, what he thinks about in the shower, or his feelings in the intimate moments where he’s heartbroken or can’t connect with other people. Jo knows Harry like the back of his hand, and he was always there for me if I had questions about him.”
The serial killer investigation is led by Harry’s colleague Tom Waaler, a dirty cop long suspected to be an arms dealer; with Harry regarded as an alcoholic at this part of the series, his claims are to be considered those of an unreliable narrator. Here, Harry’s adversary is played by Joel Kinnaman, who explained to Zavvi that as much as he has long loved playing a villain, he will always be most drawn to finding their glimmers of humanity.
“We understand that Tom has had a traumatic childhood, but the story he tells is a different one; he’s fully convinced himself of a different reality. I think Jo has captured something very emotionally complex, which conveys the number of different, opposing things circling someone’s head at the same time.
“I think that Tom is very much ruled and governed by his sexual appetite and his sexual drive, but he’s also sexually confused, and that eats into the way he strives for power. At the core of it, he is a broken little child who was violated at a young age and it just kind of tilted him in a way; Tom isn’t clear why he’s behaving in a certain way, but his inner emotional trauma is reacting for him, pushing him in different directions and making him a slave to his worst instincts.
“As an actor, I have to find a way to love him, and that’s finding the child at his core whose life was damaged. So when he’s cutting people’s d***s off and kidnapping children, I go searching for that core of his humanity, remembering the wounded place that drives him in so many wildly different directions.”
Kinnaman has starred in several high-profile adaptations, from 2014’s Robocop to playing Rick Flag in the DC Suicide Squad movies. As a result, he’s used to having to meet high fan expectations as he portrays beloved characters.
“I hope the fans will be happy, but whenever you set out to do anything creative – especially with a performance like this – you can never start by thinking how it’s going to be received. You want to be aware of the story you’re telling, but not committed to it to the point that the need to fulfil certain expectations overpowers you.
“You want people who are fans of the book and have relationships with these characters to feel like you’re honouring this material. But at the same time, you hope that you’ve made something which will surprise them.”
The Swedish actor has predominantly been working over in Hollywood in recent years; Detective Hole premieres just ahead of the fifth season of his hit AppleTV series For All Mankind, the main project keeping him firmly in the States. Returning to Scandinavia was an eye-opening experience.
“I find myself comfortable in so many different circumstances, the size of a production doesn’t matter; I just did a movie with a budget less than a million dollars and it was one of my favourite experiences. But my main surprise here was how much fun I was having playing in Swedish, something that I haven’t done in 15 years.
“I thought I’d since achieved the same level of ease acting in English that I had in Swedish, but a couple of weeks into shooting, I realised I’m a little bit looser in Swedish, which allows me to be more creative. I feel like I’m more playful in Swedish, which was a big realisation for me, and what I want to do for the rest of my career.”
Back on the right side of the law – well, the non-corrupt side of it – is Harry’s colleague Beate Lønn, blessed with a rare condition where she can recognise every face she’s ever so much as glimpsed at. Actress Ellen Helinder realised very early on that she didn’t need to research this hyper familiarity, as the author was always on-set as a one-man fact machine.
“Jo was very open to my suggestions, and it was a real collaborative process”, she told Zavvi. “But it was amazing to me that he had an answer for any question he posed him about this super-recogniser he’d written over 20 years ago, right down to the smallest details.
“He’s a very detail-oriented writer, which makes his characters so fun to play. She’s about justice and getting the job done, and even the way she styles herself is designed for maximum practicality; she sits up straight when she works and has extremely straight bangs as that’s how her hair can cause the fewest problems.”
She contrasts sharply with Harry; she’s a details-obsessed striver, he’s an alcoholic always on the verge of handing in his notice.
“I wouldn’t call them opposites, as they both have a dark side, and can clearly see that they’re on what they both consider to be the right side of justice. But she is the more structured one, whereas he’s all over the place, needing her to help keep the team on track, just a little bit.”
