Interview: Lena Olin vs. The Darkness

I've been a fan of Lena Olin for as long as I can remember. She's a magnetic presence on screen, who has crafted a career of playing complicated, often dangerous, characters in films like The Ninth Gate, Mystery Men, and The Reader.

Her latest series is a dark Nordic Noir set in Reykjavik. Olin plays Hulda Hermannsdóttir, a detective forced into early retirement, who chooses as her final case the disappearance of immigrant women in the capital. As her time begins to run out, Hulda must confront both her past trauma and the chauvinist attitudes of her colleagues before another woman goes missing.

The series is an intense and unrelenting ride that deals with heavy topics. Not an episode goes by without discussions of abuse, trauma, and systemic corruption. At the center of it is Olin, who carries the series in a bravura performance.

I spoke with her through Zoom during the press tour for The Darkness. This interview is edited for clarity.

We don't see characters like Hulda often. We don't get the space for women who are strong and contradictory. What drew you to her as a protagonist?

It was exactly what you just said. I began by reading the three books. This season has elements of the latter two, but The Darkness is the main one. I had never seen a character like this: Someone passionate and without compromise. Hulda is devoted and impossible to deal with because she doesn't back off. She's unafraid.

She has to deal with the darkness both within her and around us in Iceland. I think her way out of that is helping others; saving someone, anyone. I love when she says to Jack's character: "It doesn't matter how I feel, because we can save Elena, that's what matters." It's a way out of her trauma, to focus on someone else.

I love that about her, but I can understand why the men at the police station want to get rid of her! They want to have coffee and she's on fire the moment she's through the door.

I love that the series gives space and richness to Hulda and her grief. It breaks the myth of the "difficult woman". Especially in the scene where Hulda fights with her husband and how he dictates how she's allowed to grieve. It's a very honest and painful moment.

I completely agree with you. The fact that we're expected to grieve in a sympathetic way. Hulda obviously grieves, but she's doing it in her way. I love that Hulda refuses to do it how society expects from her. She doesn't conform to the "I will listen to everyone else" thing.

I love the fight, especially the lead-up to it. I had to follow what goes on in Hulda 100%. I couldn't think of it like: "How will people see her?" I had to be with her.

But it's also easily seen as: "Why is she so violent and yelling at her husband?"

I love Hulda, I think she's an amazing character, and I love how you see it; that she's allowed to grieve.

There's also another great scene that made me laugh, but I'm not sure if I was meant to. It's when Hulda goes to the psychiatrist and just info dumps on her, and then walks out before the psychiatrist can even get a word in. It's just the act of admitting there's a problem that does it for her.

I feel those are the best laughs when we're not sure if we're supposed to laugh. But that's Hulda, she doesn't think about herself – even when she should! She needs help. She's violent. She hits her colleague, and even though he's an idiot, she can't do that!

But she doesn't think of herself. So she lists out the horrors she's been through and sees another message that someone needs her, and that's what she does. She says it out loud and it's enough for now.

Hulda is willing to overlook the law and bend the truth for what she sees as the greater good. Yet she's also angry by past wrongs. The series constantly plays with the expectation of viewpoint and how everyone perceives the truth differently. What was it like working with material like that?

It's the material that makes Ragnar Jónasson a fascinating writer. It's an interesting dilemma; what people can be pushed to do in extreme situations.

Of course, there's a crime, but the real suspense is to see what people can be capable of. Hulda deceives her whole career: She breaks the law! That's her entire life, and she does it anyway. I didn't hesitate to show that. She does it because she sees a child in danger and remembers her own trauma.

Her name, Hermannsdóttir, means soldier's daughter, right?

This was a real thing in Iceland: American soldiers came in, fell in love, had kids, and then left the Icelandic mother and child. And society took the kid for two years so the mother could get their life together. But during that time, the kids spent years in hospital wards. That's not just Hulda's story but true for many. Their whole lives were ruined. She was pulled from her mother and she doesn't know her dad. So it drives her to make these choices.

That's what I love about this job. You have to explore what makes a human being.

I made a note about the series that a good mystery or crime series isn't about the crime but what it reveals about us. I'm glad we're on the same page.

When I watch something like this, I forget about the crime, because I'm focused on the people. It's what interests me. It keeps me watching. Whodunnit is interesting, but what's fascinating is what goes on in people.

The Darkness premieres on SkyShowtime on November 1st.