Interview by Paul Salfen, Text by Christine Thompson for AMFM Magazine
AMFM Magazine’s Paul Salfen caught up with actor Nikolaj Lie Kaas and writer-director Anders Thomas Jensen for a conversation that feels as warm, unpredictable, and deeply human as the film itself. Following its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, the sixth collaboration between Jensen, Kaas, and Mads Mikkelsen lands on May 29th—and it’s a wild, heartfelt ride that only this creative family could pull off.
In The Last Viking, Kaas plays Anker, freshly released from fifteen years in prison for a robbery gone wrong. The loot? Buried somewhere by his brother Manfred (Mikkelsen), who can no longer remember where. What begins as a desperate hunt for missing money spirals into a chaotic, unexpectedly emotional journey about fractured identity, family bonds, and the wreckage we leave behind. It’s funny, dark, tender, and completely unhinged—in the best possible way.
“We are so excited to have you on with us today because… wow, what a movie this is,” Salfen told the pair at the top of the conversation. “It’s just so crazy. And we don’t know what turn it’s going to take at any moment.”
That sense of joyful unpredictability comes straight from the set. For Kaas and Jensen, returning to work together felt like “going to summer camp.”
“It’s like old friends getting back on someone’s couch,” Kaas laughed. “We shot primarily in Sweden, stayed there, and the whole thing is almost like being in a play. The interior and exterior of the house were the same, so we were just together constantly.” He paused, then added with a grin, “Every time Matt had to jump out of a window… I don’t know why I remember that, but all the physical stuff is actually the things I remember the most.”
The shoot was only 32 days—long, intense, and physically demanding—but the trust that’s been built over a quarter-century made it possible. This is their sixth film together, part of a tight-knit crew that has grown up making movies side by side.
“I wouldn’t dare to go there without these guys,” Jensen said of the film’s wildly eccentric characters. “To take characters like this and make them relatable to a normal-thinking audience is kind of rough. But we’ve done so much, and they’re very much part of the whole process—from when I start writing to rehearsals and everything. It’s just a really, really nice collaboration that’s been going on for a quarter of a century now.”
That trust is everything when you’re balancing on the razor’s edge of “too much.” Jensen and Kaas are known for pushing comedy into uncomfortable, almost dangerous territory—think the pants-dropping scene in their previous hit Riders of Justice that scored terribly in test screenings yet audiences begged to keep.
“I love movies like Parasite where I get confused—where I don’t know whether I’m supposed to laugh or cry,” Jensen explained. “Whenever you can hit that note… that’s great.”
Their secret weapon? An ironclad rule in the editing room: if you have to choose between an emotion and a laugh, always choose the emotion.
“Because a laugh is a laugh,” Jensen said. “But real emotions were put in there and you lose some of the fun sometimes. We cut a lot of fun out. But to maintain that these are real people, real existing characters—even though how crazy it is—that is the core of it.”
The film’s deeper theme, they both emphasized, is simple yet profound: make room for everyone.
“Let’s talk to the people that we really, really don’t like,” Jensen said. “We should all be here. But it has to be balanced… You have to embrace everyone at the same time. You have to take care of yourself. It’s a balance all the time.”
Kaas nodded along, clearly proud of what they built. “I was surprised so many stories got to be in the final movie… the guy who has like 90 personalities and all that stuff. There’s so much in this film to consume. I thought it was impossible for anyone to consume that. But hands down, it really works.”
When asked for advice to young filmmakers hoping to follow in their footsteps, both men were refreshingly honest.
“You have to start with some sort of good taste,” Kaas offered, “because again, it has to be wrong and it has to be off at the same time. You can’t go too far… and sometimes we have. You learn from it. It’s trial and error.”
Jensen added: “For me it’s very much finding people that you work with that you are on the same page. So you all agree on what you’re doing, the premise of what you’re doing, and then work as hard as you can and do your best. And sometimes it turns out well.”
Looking back on their very first feature together—Flickering Lights—Kaas remembered how their raw, lived-in language felt revolutionary at the time. “We thought we were the kids that were talking in a specific way. And this was the grown-ups that had to do with films… It was something that you brought on from your own life, the way you interact with each other as well.”
That authenticity still pulses through every frame of The Last Viking. As the film finally reaches audiences, Jensen and Kaas hope viewers walk away feeling seen—and maybe a little more willing to talk to the people they’d rather avoid.
The Last Viking opens in theaters and on digital/on-demand tomorrow, May 29th. If you’re ready for a movie that will make you laugh, wince, cry, and cheer—all in the same scene—you’re in for one hell of a Viking raid. Just don’t forget your sense of humor. Or your map to the buried treasure.
