There is this feeling in America that our immigration issues are much worse than nearly anywhere else. We certainly don't think of Norway as a place that has to wrangle with right wing extremism, anti-immigration anger and terrorism.
And yet in Norway, like the rest of Europe, these are the battles that bubble right under the surface of what seems to be a calm and stable society.
On July 22, 2011, right-wing extremist Anders Breivik set off a bomb in the capital, Oslo, killing eight people, before heading to tiny Utoya island where he stalked and shot dead 69 mostly teen members of the Labor Party’s youth wing. That attack - known as the 22/7 Attack in Norway - helps frame the story driving the Viaplay drama series Furia.
In the series, Ine Marie Wilmann plays Ragna, who works as a chef in a tourist cabin. But she also runs the right-wing radical blog “Furia," and is involved with a local militant right-wing group which plans to take violent action. Asgeir (Pål Sverre Hagen) is a newly-hired local policeman who is trying to keep a low profile for himself and his daughter after an undercover operation involving the Russian mob turned ugly. As you might imagine, these two characters end up meeting and helping each other.
I recently spoke with Wilmann and Hagen about Furia, anti-immigration feelings in Norway and the challenges of acting in a show that requires so much emotionally from the cast.
The interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Q: Ine, let me start with you. Ragna is is a very physical role. And I'm wondering, did you have to do some work ahead of time to get to that point where you were comfortable being the badass?
Ine Marie Wilmann: (laughing) Yes, I did. Also, because the last thing I'd done before this show was to try to learn how to figure skate. So I had been doing ballet and figure skating for a long time. But there was a need for a physical transition. So I trained in Brazilian jujitsu and some boxing, and just like general fighting. I got really hooked on it, though. I own boxing gloves now. And yeah, it was a positive.
Q: Pål, for you. it was a little bit of a different challenge. Your character goes through an emotional rollercoaster and some real transitions throughout the season. And I'm guessing as an actor, that was a lot of fun.
Pål Sverre Hagen: Yeah, I think that the real heart of the story - the storyline of that character - is his relationship with his daughter. And I think we had a real goal of trying to start off the series by trying to find that heart in their relationship because the story and the theme of of the show is so serious and rough in a way. And it was a very good starting point for me to focus on on that and take it from there.
Q: Ine, I think that in the US, we tend to think of Norway as being less obsessed with immigration than we are here. But actually, that's not the case. And my understanding the premise of this series is sort of grounded in that the 22/7 attack from about 12 years ago. And it seems like that because of that, the show resonated there in a way that it might here in the U.S. because we don't have that backstory.
Ine Marie Wilmann: The 22nd of July is very close to our national trauma. But what we also found when we did research for this series, and what it's based on, is that there is this increasing degree of extremism both on the right and with extreme Islam. And all of these feelings and these tendencies stretch throughout Europe and into Norway. Like, it's all over this trends. I think the the tendencies resonate because they're international and online. And that was also something we found, which was really frightening during the shooting of the show. It's that a lot of the things that happened in the script also happened in reality while we were shooting the series. So it can just leave you reeling at some point.
Q: Let me throw this out to you first, Pål. Both of your characters wrestle with this tension of doing what needs to be done versus what it will cost you. And with your character, it's really this idea that you want to protect your daughter. But yet, you want to do what's right, you just can't let things sit there and just ignore them. And it's that battle of doing what's right versus protecting your family.
Pål Sverre Hagen: For sure. And the story of my character is only I think, partially told in the first season opens up much more in the season that coming out soon. You have the family of two people on one side and then you have this bigger picture that's connected to the family in a way and like Ine says, these things can move through society and reach reach all of us in one way or another and it's really scary, but also necessary. I think it's a good thing to look closer at how extremism in all forms work, how they change ourselves. idea change us.
Q: Ine, Ragna really wrestled with this idea of what does it look like when a "good person" does something bad for the greater good? How permissible is it? How far do you go? How much evil do you embrace to for the greater good? And that's really an interesting part of this first season.
Ine Marie Wilmann: That was one of the things that attracted me to this character as well, is that in a way, she is also an extremist. But she tries to be an extremist for the sake of the good. But at one point, she also goes as far as she can go. And then I don't know what's left of her at the end of the season. What happens to a person that goes that far? Even though the goal is to do good, but how much do you destroy on your way there?
Q: Pål, that's an interesting question. And your character deals with that as well, in that evil will change society and have an impact, whether you ignore it or not. You can't run away from evil. So then it's trying to figure out how you deal with those changes and what impact will it have on your life? It's trying to decide what you are willing to sacrifice to make the world a better place?
Pål Sverre Hagen: And I think it's interesting how this bigger picture of how things that happen on a society level can reach into our all our lives and our families and become very real. I think it's one of the scary things about this. Extremism can find its way into our lives in a very intimate way. And that makes it difficult to handle.
Q: Ine, your character certainly deals with a little bit of that. And one of the the ironic things about people who are evil is that sometimes they can be very nice people, there are people that you want to hang out with they, these are really great until you see that aspect of them that is really horrifying.
Ine Marie Wilmann: Yes, precisely.
Pål Sverre Hagen: And also the problem is what happens when you can do what you think is good, but that may be what other people consider to be evil. I mean, these people are also believers in what they do, which makes it complicated.
But this is a very polarizing time and I think it's very important to agree upon some things that we really feel we need to protect us as a society and as people.
Ine Marie Wilmann: And I agree, and also to what I found during the research of this, I followed this Australian journalist, her name is Julia Abner. She's quite young. And she's been going undercover in both right extremism environments and extreme Islam. And she makes the point that you can't be blind to these tendencies in the society and just let them evolve.
And I think the target of this series, besides being an entertaining thriller, is also to maybe get people to think about these tendencies and think about how this is growing. How can we pick up on the early signs of radicalization and what can we do before it's to late? But on the other hand, you also have to try not to get too frightened. Because when I did the research, I found that it's very easy to become so afraid that you'll do anything to protect yourself and your loved ones. You build all of these wall and the polarization just increases. And then we're just so frightened that we lose each other along the way.
Q: Ine, let me wrap this up with one last question to you. I suspect that in the U.S. right now, most people are familiar with your role on Netflix's Troll, which is certainly a very different character than this one. So people who've seen you in that movie and then see you in this show get to see quite an acting range.
Ine Marie Wilmann: (laughing) That's probably true. But Pål and me also have this other miniseries coming out on Netflix in the beginning of April. In that series, we're in the 1940s and I'm a mom of three during war time. So it's an interesting range for audiences.
