“I'm a lucky man. I'm a really lucky man. I never learned how to act. I mean, I learned from great actors, but I never went to acting school. And in Germany, of course, I was very lucky that I worked with Fassbinder, who was one of the directors who showed Germany how it really was after the war, so it wasn't kind of craziness. And I went to Mannheim, is an intellectual film festival in Germany, and I had a little short film called Last Trip to Harrisburg, and it was the Opening Night film with a film of a new young director, Lars von Trier, called Epidemic. And when I saw—he wasn't there, there was a lot of directors sitting in one row with me—and when I saw The Element of Crime, I couldn't get up my seat. And I said to the directors who were invited from America, said, "We all can go home, because whoever made that film is going to win." I expected somebody like Fassbinder or Kubrick, dressed in black, scratching themselves, being in a bad mood, the eyes are closed, and there comes this student-looking young director. And we talked, we had a beer, we talked, and we exchanged a telephone number. And again, lucky man, couple of weeks later I got a call: "Hey, Lars I'm doing Medea from Carl Dreyer, and I want you to play the husband of Medea, King Jason. But there is a problem." I said, "What is the problem?" He said, "You don't look like a Vikinger. Don't wash your hair for three weeks, don't shave, and come to Denmark because I have to sell you as the king of the Vikinger." So I went, very smelly and strange looking, I went to Denmark, I got the part, and we became friends, and his wife got a baby and he wanted me to be the godfather of the baby, and now we work together 30 years.”
