The Killing | Forbrydelsen | Interview with Sofie Grabol who plays Sarah Lund

I have a feature in the Big Issue next week on The Killing, BBC4's brilliant Danish whodunit, which returns for a second series on Saturday (tomorrow).

As well as speaking to thriller writers Val McDermid and Denise Mina about the significance of the series as a crime drama, and in terms of Lund being a female detective, I also got to speak to Sofie Grabol, who plays the heroine.

I'll post more next week once the mag is out but as a taster here's an exceprt from the interview.


Was it strange, following a break, to return to the Lund character to film series two?
"It was actually very strange. When we finished the first series I had no idea they had thoughts of a second series. To me it was beautifully finished - I loved the open ending of the first one. So when we came back it was really strange. For me everything was so familiar. The character and the dark universe of The Killing. But no one else was. My boss was the only one who came on from the first to the second [series]. I remember feeling it was as if I was in a band and I was standing there with my bass guitar but all the other musicians were new so nothing sounded the same."


What about the jumper?
[laughs] Ah, the jumper: I tried to get rid of it but it was too strong it came back.

It turns out that it is in fact an expensive Faroese jumper, a designer item. How could a character like Lund, on a police salary afford it?

I was really sorry that came out because the reason we picked it, why I thought it was so perfect, was that  I thought it looked home knitted. It looked like something her mother had knitted, it didn’t look like a big designer item. But then the jumper has been huge in Demnark and Britain and people have discovered it is espensive. But for me it is something her mother knitted.

Do you see her as a feminist detectve?

No, I never did.

Why not?

Basically its not where I start. When I start working... if I label, if I sit down and calculate an agenda or a message which should be put through then I think I’m in debt creatively. The whole thing [that is] interesting for me as an actor is the investigation.

* The Killing is on BBC4 on Saturday at 10pm