Iceland review - 2013, Síða 20

18 ICELAND REVIEW
ACTING
roManCe anD reaLiTy
Darri seems to be drawn to the ocean. He has twice played marine
engineers, in Undercurrent (Brim), a film by vesturport, the theatrical
collective he co-founded, and in Contraband, Baltasar’s English-
language remake of Óskar Jónasson’s Reykjavík-Rotterdam, starring
Mark Wahlberg. Darri played a chef on a container vessel in the
original.
“My grandfather was the captain of a herring boat—everyone
in Iceland is connected to seamanship in some way,” states Darri,
stressing the industry’s significance to the Icelandic psyche. “I’ve
only gone fishing as an actor, though, I’m not tough enough to be
a fisherman.”
Undercurrent, directed by Árni Ólafur Ásgeirsson, is a gritty dra-
matic feature about the tensions between the crew of a fishing ship
working 16-hour shifts far away from home under difficult circum-
stances. Both Undercurrent and The Deep are based on plays by Jón
Atli Jónasson. “I favor this take on seamanship. We have often cov-
ered the country romance but not given seamanship its fair share
and faced this part of our heritage. Thus far, I’ve found plays about
the lives of fishermen to be rather unrealistic,” comments Darri.
FroM Sweeney To STorMLanD
In 1993 Darri had his first proper acting experience, participating
in a high school play, Yevgeny Schwartz’s The Dragon. The year after
he played the lead in the popular high school staging of Sweeney
Todd by Christopher Bond, directed by Óskar Jónasson. Darri’s
friends urged him to enroll in the Icelandic Academy of Acting but
he was undecided at first. “I thought I might learn Chinese,” reveals
Darri, “but I’m very happy with the decision. I took the entrance
examination and made it. Acting suited me; I was lucky to fall into
the right profession.”
Already in Darri’s third year, his director from Sweeney Todd
offered him his first film role, in the comedy Pearls and Swine
(Perlur og svín). “It was a dream come true. I had to get permission
from the school board to act in the movie and was shown a lot of
understanding. It was very educational to work alongside an elite of
actors and I always feel confident under the lead of Óskar.”
Darri says he has taken good advantage of his opportunities and
gradually gained the experience he needed to play his first lead in
a movie. In director Ragnar Bragason’s drama Children (Börn), co-
written by Darri and others, he played Marinó, one of the main
characters which he developed himself, a mentally-disabled man
living with his mother in an apartment complex, a good-natured
guy who also proved dangerous.
In Stormland (Rokland), which is based on a novel by Hallgrímur
Helgason, Darri played his first unsupported lead, portraying Böddi,
a misunderstood disgruntled academic obsessed with the Saga hero
Grettir, whose thoughts are too big for the small-town community
where he lives.
“I very much enjoyed trying that out and was lucky not hav-
ing been pressured into taking on a leading role before I could
handle it properly. I’m not like Hilmir Snær [Guðnason; the star
“he’s so good that physical appearance doesn’t matter anymore—like gérard depardieu. darri is a big man but he can play any-
thing, except maybe Peter Pan… although, i’m sure he could pull that off too. if he continues to grow, who knows where he will
end up? he’s one of our best actors and it will be interesting to follow his career.” – Director/writer/producer Baltasar Kormákur
Scenes from the deep.