Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.05.2016, Síða 23

a body is found in
a snowy town in a
fjord and the town
gets locked in. No-
body can get in and
nobody can get out.
Which is, someone
has said, an Agatha
Christie idea. The
mansion whodunit
without the man-
sion. We saw this
as a very strong
concept.
Baltasar, Mag-
nús V. Sigurdsson
and I started RVK
Studios. We knew
a crime show was
something that we
should do. I come
from television.
Baltasar had made
successful Icelan-
dic films and was
finishing ‘Contra-
band’ at the time.
We wanted to do a ten-part series and
we wanted to do it outside of Reykja-
vík. So far, the crime shows I had done
were all set in Reykjavík. They were
like any other city-based crime show.
If we wanted to do something that got
attention we would have to play with
Iceland’s nature thing.
Iceland’s nature is not flowers and
pretty birds. It’s bad weather and
snow.
Once the idea was out there,
what was your role in making
this show a reality?
My job was to bring in writers and
head-write the show. I brought in two
Icelandic writers, Ólafur Egill and
Jóhann Ævar Grímsson. We worked
for months mapping out a storyline.
Then we drifted apart and I was alone
for a while writing the show. We were
commissioned by RÚV and there was
some interest in Scandinavia, but still
we, RVK Studios, knew if we were go-
ing to make this series, we would
need co-producers from Germany and
France, because those are big markets.
Eventually, we succeeded in getting
producers from Germany and France
involved. They came in as pre-buy and
we knew, finally, we had the official
green light on the series.
I started to work with Clive Brad-
ley, the English writer. We formed a
little writers’ room with Klaus Zim-
merman, the executive producer
from Germany and the script editor
from France, Sonia Moyersoen. We
mapped out two episodes at a time.
While we were in pre-production I was
getting scripts from Clive and then
finally the last shooting script was
something I took and translated and
made rewrites. It was a very happy co-
operation.
Trapped is a very Icelandic
show. How was it writing
with foreign writers?
It was interesting to work with for-
eigners on this show because they were
able to bring the perspective of what
is really “Icelandic.” I am so inside it
that there are things I wouldn’t no-
tice. They could see things I never saw.
And vice-versa. When Clive was writ-
ing “He opened his umbrella…” I could
be like “No! No! No! People in Iceland
don’t use umbrellas.” It’s not practical
with the wind here. Also, having long
drinks when you get home. You’d have
to be an alcoholic to do that in Iceland.
We made the lead character drink milk
all the time as a joke, a little detail.
You started your career in
comedy. How is it different
being a dramatist?
When I first started writing drama, I
really felt it was easier than comedy.
My comedy writing had been sketch
shows. I feel drama is writing lots
sketches into one narrative and they
don’t have to be funny. It’s just scenes,
which have to have, as a good sketch
has to have as well, a beginning, a
middle and an end. My education in
comedy suits me very well in drama.
Many of the actors seem
like they were made for
their role. Did you have
which actors you wanted
to use in mind while
writing the series?
We had the lead actor in mind. Baltas-
ar and I, when we were thinking this
through and dreaming about this se-
ries, decided we should choose the
lead. There were a few names being
tossed around and Baltasar suggested
Ólafur Darri, who Baltasar had worked
with on ‘The Deep.’ It was no question.
I could see he was growing as an actor
and I was very excited to work with him.
I always saw the character as this man
with a great beard. It just clicked.
Our casting method was quick and
easy. We had been writing the show
for quite a while and mapped out the
characters, making them three-di-
mensional, and then we had to find
out which actors were these charac-
ters. We typecasted like crazy.
Typecasting is a good thing, actu-
ally. It’s what acting is about. Good ac-
tors reach inside themselves to be able
to perform. The groundwork is already
there. We don’t need someone to pre-
tend. We just need someone to be the
character. That’s why it was so easy
once we went into production. Ilmur
Kristjánsdóttir, we cast as Hinrika.
If you met her right now, you would
probably trust her to do some police
work.
The police have made a few
criticisms about the show,
but shortly after making
the statements, there was
an actual case of human
trafficking in Iceland.
This is what happens all the time—
especially in crime writing. We write
a show, it airs and a little while later
it is found to be happening for real in
the news. It’s ridiculous. The police
have some criticism, but they weren’t
big criticisms. They enjoyed the show.
They just thought they would have
done a better job, if they were in that
situation. It’s like if we made a TV
show about a shitty writer and I, as a
writer, would be like “Ahhh! Writers
would never do that!”
However, I’m not saying the char-
acters were shitty police officers. They
were working in very bad conditions.
There were no forensics people there.
There was no hospital functioning.
There was nothing there you could
turn to for help. There’s just these
three cops. Actually, they are out-of-
town cops. The good thing is Andri,
the lead character, has some experi-
ence.
When writing the show did you
think about catering to an
international audience?
Mostly, you don’t think about that
too much. You just think about being
true to the characters and the setting.
This is happening in Iceland, but it’s
universal. A small town is universal. I
would say that a small town in Iceland
is not that different from a small town
in America. However, the conditions
are extraordinary and there are some
different traditions—but it’s still not a
matter of nationality too much.
Are you working
on anything new?
We are always developing something
new. I’m starting a new series called
Katla. I hope that it will take off, but
it’s still in the early stages of develop-
ment. RVK Studios makes Icelandic
material that can travel. We just focus
on doing good work and that will travel.
I believe in good cooperation between
talented people. That’s what’s worked
throughout the whole of my career.
Creative juices are flowing all the
time and if they are allowed to flow,
positively, the result will be good.
I’ve studied this. I’ve always wanted
to be a showrunner on a project like
‘Trapped’, with multiple directors and
things. I’ve learned one thing for cer-
tain: the happier the writers’ room is,
the better the series will be. And vice
versa. If you have a writers’ room that
is strained, with ego problems and
things like that, the series will suf-
fer. I believe that goes for all creative
work. No matter what you’re doing. If
you want to be creative, you have to be
a good collaborator. That’s your duty.
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FEATURE
STORY:
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“If you
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That’s
your
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