Mikael Birkkjær: There's something sexy about women in power, it's dangerous, attractive and smells good

The ridiculously sexy face of Scandimania, Mikael Birkkjær is as charismatic and complicated as the characters he plays. Hettie Harvey is seduced
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Hettie Harvey4 May 2012

The steady stream of Scandinavian dramas that has flickered darkly across our screens over the past few years has given us two wonderful things: strong female leads – flawed, complicated and relatable – and some extremely hot men. Top of that list comes Mikael Birkkjær, the Danish actor who became a pin-up here thanks to his role as Ulrik Strange, Sarah Lund’s brooding partner in The Killing II, and then transformed into pretty much the ideal man as Philip Christensen, the prime minister’s (practically) perfect husband in the political drama Borgen.

Birkkjær, 53, is unruffled by the glare of intense female adoration that has accompanied these roles. On the contrary, as we sit drinking strong black tea in the new Royal Danish Playhouse in Copenhagen, it doesn’t seem to surprise him in the slightest. ‘I have always had some... response from women,’ he says with a laugh. ‘If I go out, you know, I can feel the interest. That’s fine – if you can stay away from trouble.’ He pauses. ‘I’m quite good at that.’ I am in no doubt whatever that he needs to be.

Having been a stalwart of the Royal Danish Theatre for some 20 years, recognisable but not famous, in 2008 he starred in the hit Danish TV series Sommer and quickly found himself a national sex symbol, voted Hunk of the Year in a major newspaper, and with some fairly blunt propositions from the opposite sex. ‘But you know, I’ve always been...’ he struggles to find the right words. I gather that he’s trying to say that women were throwing themselves at him long before he was officially crowned a hunk. ‘Now it’s just there’s more power in it. I feel it more.’ I keep it to myself that I feel it, too.

That women respond to him so vigorously is unsurprising. On screen he has a powerful presence and rugged, unkempt charm. In the flesh, not only is he handsome, with cool blue eyes that can flash from amused to icily displeased in a blink, and cheekbones sharp enough to slice your breakfast herring on, but he’s friendly, answering questions with a half-smile, and tactile, at one point leaning over from his end of the sofa we’re sitting on to give my knee a firm squeeze. Crumbs. He’s a natural flirt, in a light-hearted way, almost – but not quite – as though he isn’t even aware that he’s doing it. Walking around the theatre to have his photograph taken, he stops to chat with everyone, making them all laugh.

‘Oh yes,’ he says, without a trace of irony, when I ask if he thinks he’s funny. ‘F***ing funny!’ he guffaws. Perhaps his confidence is another of the things women find so attractive. I read him the opinion of a Danish sexologist regarding his appeal: that his secret lies in a blend of ‘incredible presence... and the twinkle in his eye. He is a natural seducer.’ ‘Yeah, yeah,’ he nods. ‘I think so, isn’t it?’ Isn’t it what? ‘Well...’ Now he’s lost for words, a bit embarrassed, looking out of the window. ‘I... I’ve always been, you know,’ he laughs, ‘interested in, er... well... I love women. I have a lot of good female friends who I don’t, you know, touch, but I... adore them and talk to them and ask them about things but I do not... work them.’ He laughs again, nervously. ‘I feel good when I’m with women but... oh shit!’

One such good female friend is Sofie Gråbøl, The Killing’s marvellously taciturn and brilliant detective Sarah Lund. The pair have known each other for years – the Danish acting world is a small place, as anyone who’s watched more than one Danish television series will know – and their relationship in The Killing has an edgy chemistry, with his character slowly, carefully unfurling the prickly Lund’s defences and nearly – tantalisingly nearly – kissing her (‘You so wanted them to kiss, didn’t you?’). Then (and I’m about to give the game away here so if you haven’t seen series two, shame on you, but skip to the next paragraph – and if you haven’t finished Borgen yet, skip the next two) there was that twist that shocked both viewers and actors: Birkkjær’s character was revealed to be the killer. ‘I didn’t know until we filmed episode nine [of ten], when we went to Spain to film the Afghanistan bit. It was like’ – he starts acting out a little scene between himself and the writers – ‘ “Mikael, we need to talk.” “Yes.” “So, do you know that you are the killer?” “WHAT?! But I couldn’t have done it, I was with her!” “No.” ’ He looks genuinely crestfallen.

But if it was The Killing that made us sit up and take notice of this dashing Dane (as it did Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall – Birkkjær was called on, along with Gråbøl, to meet them, both big The Killing fans, on their recent visit to Denmark), it was Borgen that made us fall for him hook, line and sinker. As the husband of Denmark’s first female prime minister (a storyline that foreshadowed the election of Helle Thorning-Schmidt as the country’s first female prime minister) Birgitte Nyborg, beautifully played by Sidse Babett Knudsen, he created a character so kind, thoughtful, supportive, long-suffering, clever, domesticated and sexy that many men might feel he set the bar uncomfortably high. ‘Yeah, the father, the perfect husband... People were like, “Oh! Is it real? Can a man be like that?” I think so. He can… let the woman grow, let her be successful.’ Is he drawn to powerful women? ‘There is something sexy about women in power. I like when you can see that a person believes in themself that much. It’s hard to have a lot of responsibility and it’s attractive. Dangerous but attractive – and, you know, it smells good.’

Having said that, it wasn’t long before the on-screen marriage suffered under the pressure of Birgitte’s job and the perfect husband was having an affair. ‘I was against it. I said to the writers, “No, he wouldn’t do that.” But they wanted it like that.’ I think he really loves her, I say. ‘Absolutely,’ he nods. ‘I still do.’ They are currently filming series three – encouragingly for romantics, he’s still in it – and series two is set to air here early next year.

Perhaps he’s so comfortable in the role of a doting househusband because, in reality, he’s done his fair share of staying at home. Birkkjær has two children, Rasmus, 22, and Andrea, 20, with the actress Tammi Øst. The couple are now divorced but when their children were young, they juggled rehearsals and performances with looking after them: ‘I did a lot of shopping, cooking, cleaning, working. It’s very familiar to me to be at home, doing that stuff.’ He is touchingly proud of his children: Rasmus is set on becoming a teacher, like his grandmother and aunt, and Andrea has her sights set on acting, like him. ‘When I watch things with her, like The Killing, she’ll stop it and say, “I don’t believe that.” ’ She criticises his acting? ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or other actors.’ Brave girl.

He has been in a relationship for the past six years but it quickly becomes apparent that this subject is firmly off limits. What does she do, I ask, and it is as though a gulf opens up on the sofa between us as his blue eyes turn icy. He stares at me. ‘But should we talk about this?’ People are interested to know these little things... ‘Yeah, I know they are. And I say, I don’t want to talk about my private life. I can tell you about my kids but,’ his voice drops so low that I have to lean in a little to hear him, ‘don’t get so f***ing close to me.’ OK, I say, thinking how well cast he was in The Killing. Fair enough. ‘Fair enough, thank you.’ He laughs – and just like that, the ice melts and the sun comes out again.

Birkkjær grew up in Copenhagen, the son of a plumber and a kinder-garten teacher, with one sister. It was, he has said, an idyllic childhood, until his parents split up when he was ten. The children stayed with their father, but a few years later, aged just 36, he died of cancer and Mikael went off the rails. ‘I lost my father when I was 13 and I didn’t care about anything in school after that. I was very closed down. They would throw me out of school when I didn’t behave. But I was in grief. I was like...’ he mimes an explosion. ‘It was a tough time. It’s so many years ago now but I still have very easy access to pain and dark feelings. It’s easy for me to get into the land of sorrow.’

Acting saved him from his grief. At 17, his mother sent him away to board for a year in the countryside and it was there he dis-covered a talent for acting: ‘You’re using your body and your mind. Not only sitting working, not only running but combining them and it was a good feeling.’ He also discovered girls. ‘I had a brilliant time,’ he sighs. ‘There was this... older woman, she was 24 and I was 17 and she took me and... taught me stuff. It was very nice and I got in line. I survived.’ He returned to Copenhagen after a year, calmer and more focused, opted out of military service – ‘I don’t believe in war. No soldiers, no war’ – took some acting lessons and went on to drama school before joining the Royal Danish Theatre. He spent the next two decades on the stage: ‘For 20 years, I was the prince. I was the guy who would meet the babe, fall in love, go to the king, say, “I love your daughter, man,” and the king says, “Oh yes, you can have her, kiss her.” You know, Shakespeare and stuff. I’ve done a lot of that.’ But it wasn’t all Prince Charming. He points out old production photographs of himself as we wander around the theatre; one shows him in a long, black leather coat and heavy boots with a mohican, menacingly brandishing a revolver. Terrifying, I say. He looks delighted.

I wonder if he regrets that all this success is coming late on in his career. Does ageing bother him? ‘I try to keep in shape. But I’m not young any more, I’m over the top. It’s OK. Life has been good to me.’ He keeps fit (he really does; dressed in a form-fitting black T-shirt, cargo trousers and Nike trainers, I note with a guilty blush that he’s clearly in excellent condition), doing yoga, playing badminton and cycling. ‘I don’t have a car, I bike all the time. I have four bikes. I fix them. It’s how I relax.’ He’d also like to write a novel one day: ‘I just feel that I have so many stories in my head that I want to explore.’

Between the book plans and the pipe he lights up while having his photograph taken outside, one could be forgiven for thinking that he’s settling a little too comfortably into late-middle age. What about that natural seducer – isn’t he worried about losing his twinkle? ‘No,’ he frowns. ‘I don’t think I’ll lose it...’ He roars with laughter. Phew. That’s all right then.

ES

Hej! Six more great Danes we love to love...

Nikolaj Lie Kaas

Not that we need any more reasons to be excited about the third series of The Killing, but Nikolaj, 38, Lund’s new sidekick, looks pretty tasty. As yet his character hasn’t even been named, but when you look this good, who needs a name?

Kim Bodnia

He’s no matinée idol but as Martin Rohde, the detective on the Danish side of new Danish/Swedish thriller The Bridge, Kim, 47, has stolen our hearts. With those big, soulful eyes and easy-going charm, he’s a big bear of a man we want to hug.

Johan Philip Asbæk

As the prime minister’s press officer Kasper Juul – the Don Draper of Borgen, with his secret life and wobbly ethics – Johan, 30, has single-handedly made questionable facial hair and Machiavellian machinations suddenly seem sexy.

Lars Mikkelsen

He’s tall and dashing with piercing blue eyes. Since he appeared in The Killing as the morally ambiguous politician Troels Hartmann, Lars, 47 (whose little brother is Casino Royale villain Mads), has been our guilty secret crush.

Crown Prince Frederik

It’s not only the actors who are eye-catching in Denmark. Crown Prince Frederik, 43, has super-cute boyish good looks, and is also a father of four adorable children and a doting husband to his Australian wife Mary.

Thomas Levin

As Ulrik Mørch, the newsroom nemesis of Borgen’s talented and ambitious TV journalist Katrine, Thomas, 33, is obnoxious, conniving, petulant and rude. But he’s also very, very handsome. So we forgive him.

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