Source: Kress.de   [translated & edited]

Date: March 16, 2015

For Michael Nyqvist, star of the "Millenium" film series and well-booked cinema villain recently in "John Wick", the lavish Sky co-production "100 Code " was only the second major series order. "What attracted me was the complexity of my role," says Nyqvist in the kress.de interview. That binge viewing fans are likely to consume the twelve exciting episodes in a frenzy irritates him a bit. He says, "If people let me into their bedroom at night, that's their problem."

In the series he plays a somewhat run-down Swedish criminal investigator, who actually wants to quit the service, but then gets involved in a serial killer hunt. The depths of the role of a very ambiguous man who struggles with his own demons attracts Nyqvist. "You can tell everything in a movie," he says.

However, the Sky series offers him much longer breath for the development of his figure. "With a series, you do not have to be so effective and purposeful," says Nyqvist. "You can allow yourself empty action loops and open ends."

The fact that he was able to work on his serial investigator Mikael Eklund again and again over the shooting of the twelve-episode season over a longer period was quite new to the actor. "The worst thing you can do in such a series is that your character will eventually be annoying and boring," says Nyqvist. "At '100 Code', I was always curious to go back to the set."

In addition, the production - which includes Sky Deutschland Fabrik Entertainment and the ProSiebenSat.1 subsidiary Red Arrow International - brought with it a sense of genuine team spirit. "You're more into something like a theater ensemble," says Nyqvist, who is still on stage regularly in Stockholm. "I simply had much more time to interact with my colleagues and develop our roles together."

The core conflict of the series is - apart from the very fierce and gloomy staged hunt for a murderer of women - the not entirely voluntary cooperation of the Swede with a US-American colleague, which is played by the former "Lost" actor Dominic Monaghan. The result is a true "Culture Clash", according to Nyqvist. "One might think that American and European culture have become more and more similar," he says. "They are not," said the Swede.

His serial colleague eats - at least fictionally - with his hands. The character differences - even when determining - are blatant. "It's going very well," says Nyqvist. "And I'm happy to be on the European side."

That once again a new series from the supposedly "Golden Age of Television" comes along so darkly - from a distance one must think of "True Detective", but also of many Scandinavian productions of the "Kommissarin Lund" class -, has with the mental differences, says Nyqvist. "We Swedes do not ask so much what happened, but why did they kill?"

Because of the mirror image basic constellation - US Cop, Sweden Commissioner - would be a continuation after the first twelve episodes downright offer. Michael Nyqvist is, however, taciturn to the industry. Just this: "There is an open window," he says. "We could follow the criminal investigations into other countries." That he would like that himself, he does not have to deny.

The series was developed by Bobby Moresco ("Crash", "Million Dollar Baby"), who also directs.