In the cross hairs

Danish actor Claes Bang's late-career boost shows no sign of abating, as he moves from TV villain to big-screen hero.

- BY RUSSELL BAILLIE

In the movie William Tell, Claes Bang plays the crossbowwielding, apple-impaling hero of Swiss folklore. Which might be surprising to anyone who has followed the Danish actor's career. Especially because, since his breakthrough role as an art gallery boss in Ruben Östlund's 2017 Palme d'Or-winning The Square, Bang has tended towards villains rather than heroes.

He's been Dracula in the 2020 BBC/Netflix revival, the evil chieftain Fjölnir the Brotherless in The Northman, and the despicable John Paul Williams in the first season of acclaimed Irish black comedy Bad Sisters.

He's most recognised for John Paul - even in the cafes and shops of the Matakana Coast, from where he talked to the Listener before Christmas. He was in the area filming the Jason MomoaDave Bautista action flick The Wrecking Crew, and stayed on with wife Lis, touring the north before heading to the London premiere of William Tell in early January.

John Paul got his just deserts in the series written and starring Sharon Horgan-after all, the first episode titled "The Prick" begins with his funeral before it recounts how he abused his wife and terrorised his four sisters-in-law. But the character has followed him around ever since.

"I don't think I have ever done anything that has had that kind of impact. It sometimes happens that people recognise me somewhere and if they recognise me for that, it's a palpable disgust.

"I really have to assure them that I'm not like that because it seems that it really wrenched the guts of a lot of people watching that.

"The really interesting thing is that some people wrote to me to say, "Thank you for doing this, because there are so many of these men out there and I know one, or I have been married to one, or I have escaped one, or my sister is with one.'