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Until 2010, Nicolaj Coster-Waldau (Rudkøbing, 1970) was a Danish actor. With all the consequences. If it appeared in a movie (for example, the notable 'Headhunters' ), one left the cinema surprised by the role that so well and so ruthlessly played "that", "the protagonist", "the one with the weird name" or, if He had had the deference of reading the credit titles, "Nicolás". But in March of the first year of the current decade everything changed. Then and until now, he became the 'Matarreyes', Jamie Lannister or, for enthusiasts, the Danish who eats everything. He was still called by the national gentilicio, but in another way. Much more colorful without a doubt. "Well," he starts quietly while having coffee in the garden of the hotel that hosts the Sitges Festival, "I only have words of thanks for 'Game of Thrones." It's been an incredible ten years. It has really been something too big. even in Peru . I have literally been all over the world and everyone knows me. " And there he leaves it for now.

The first question about the HBO series falls late, the conversation mediated. Before starting the interview, an email specified that, please, no questions about the series of marras. As almost always in these cases, the restrictive measure that is supposed to avoid tensions, actually creates them. He waits for the question and the one in front of it turns his head to find the right periphrasis that will lead us all to Jaime, but without offending. Have you heard of white elephants? Well, that.

"The funny thing," he continues, "is that it would be said that I have not done anything else in life. And, the truth is just the opposite . In my work, 'JdT' occupies a minimal part. But of course, how many will arrive to know this Danish film that brings me here? In six months, they will ask me why I have not done anything after I finished 'Game of Thrones'. And, the truth is that I have not stopped at the rate of two films each year. In my life, 'JdT' is a minimal part that does not define me or my work at all. "

Now we can continue. And what follows is 'Suicide tourist' , the Jonas Alexander Arnby tape that describes with a neatness and a narrative coldness about the excellent drama of a man who one day discovers that the only way to continue loving happens by stopping do it, to disappear, to commit suicide. What if death were the only path of liberation, but not religious or mystical, but real? We speak, to understand each other, of a futuristic drama in which a secret clinic is dedicated to elaborate assisted fantasies to the point of matching eternal life with the same reality, heaven and hell.

"Despite the complications," Coster-Waldau (not Jaime) reasons, "it is something quite simple. It is the story of a scared guy who loves his wife. A man in crisis as we have all been at some point. If you have not had a crisis in your life, you are probably a psycho . And this man is not as scared as the woman he loves to stop loving him, "he stops, takes a second and concludes sententiously:" Finally after all, loving is more important than anything else. " And here we all agree. Let them ask but Lannister.

Account that despite the seriousness that the film distills in each plane, in the background there is a touch of humor; a viscous and somewhat black humor, but humor after all. "Humor serves to underline the tragedy. It can be fun the exaggerated way in which we act many times and, truthfully, human beings take ourselves too seriously. You have to distance yourself with the world and laugh," he says in a fun game between the tape and what is not the tape, between fiction and reality. And he adds: "Yes, we Scandinavians always seem very worried and sad, but that is only a consequence of the drama being more exportable than comedy. We have good comedians and better comedies . " And we believe him.

He also says, using the manual of the perfect interviewee, that he is disturbed by the possibility of being pigeonholed and as proof presents his latest work yet to be released with Brian de Palma , 'Domino' . "The shooting has been the closest thing to chaos or, better, it has been what the Americans believe is chaos and that, in fact, is part of the risk in any European production," he says for a moment to find the moral : "I'm content to comply with Michael Caine's rule: make a good movie out of ten. All the directors I've worked with wanted to make 'Citizen Kane' , but it's clearly not that easy."

And fame, how do you get along with her? "I only see the positive side. I am glad that they recognize me in the Philippines, Germany or Sitges , but, on the other hand, it does not go with me. It is something that has nothing to do with who I am or with my work." It is clear.

And now, and if you've got here, answer: what is the name of the actor? God, it wasn't that complicated. Stop calling him 'Matarreyes'.

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