INTERVIEW

LB: What led you to become a professional actor? ⁠ ⁠

NDS: I graduated from the School of Performing Arts in Odense in 2016. For a big part of my life I dreamt about becoming an actor, but it was first while attending upper secondary school that I realised that you could actually study to become a professional actor. It’s not like I just knew that I wanted to be an actor all my life, but in a way I think I was always subconsciously drawn to it. I started doing theater really young and was part of theater groups.

When I finally knew that I wanted to pursue acting, it was more like a realisation, that this was something that I felt good at and it came natural to me. I was doing alright in school, but I was more into reading other things than the stuff I was told to and wasn't great at writing, but better at explaining and showing what I meant. I liked playing football, but I could see some of my teammates excelling at it far beyond me,

“ but on the contrary every time there would be a school play or an after school performance, then I felt like I was right at home.”

After Upper secondary school I started at a High school specialised in acting and studying there only confirmed that this was what I wanted to do. I started doing small independent film projects on the side and honing my skills to get into the School of Performing Arts.

I was accepted to it in 2012 and it was amazing. I could really feel that was something I had dreamt about.

LB: What drives you in your work?

I’m completely taken with the profession, there is never two days that are the same and you are able to explore a vast amount of topics, people and characters. I think that I'm fascinated by people and want to understand what moves them and tell a character's story. This is a big part of what drives me, to reflect upon people's behaviours and to use this in my work. There is also a corporeality that I think is exciting, which can range from something very physical such as dance, performance or stunts to something more subtle like a character's ticks and facial mimics. This physicality combined with the curiosity I have of people, is what really fascinates me.

It's essentially about great stories, which I would
like to be part of telling.

Right now you can see @nikolajdenckerschmidt in Netflix’s “Cursed” and the Danish series “Enten/Eller”.