The Borgen star: "All the actors I admired had drunk themselves to death"

There would be no further season of the Danish drama Borgen.

The story was finished.

But then screenwriter Adam Price began working on another script, which sort of slipped into Borgen's political universe.

In the fourth season of the series, it is not Danish domestic politics that is at the center, but major political contradictions.

A Canadian exploration company has discovered a huge oil field outside Greenland.

Russian interests are beginning to buy into the company and China and the United States are drawn into an incipient geopolitical conflict.

- Adam sold the idea that there is actually no agreement that regulates the distribution of any natural resources in Greenland.

It's all right.

Considering Greenland's location, it is definitely a story that is close at hand, says Sidse Babett Knudsen in the cultural program Sweden!

Became Foreign Minister in the new season

In the middle of the drama is Birgitte Nyborg, who has taken a step down in power and gone from being prime minister to foreign minister.

- There has always been an underlying conflict in Borgen.

Can one have power without losing oneself?

In the new season, you see more how Birgitte Nyborg fights to retain power and you can see how she loses herself, says Sidse Babett Knudsen.

Not afraid of being pushed aside

In her new role as Foreign Minister, Birgitte Nyborg feels opposed by the Prime Minister - and she is not in the inner circle of power in the same way as before.

Sidse Babett Knudsen is as old as her character, 53 years old.

Is she afraid of being outmaneuvered, given the market for female middle-aged actors?

- No, not really.

Maybe it's because I was a little late in the match.

The first time we recorded Borgen, I was around 40. Then people reacted to a woman in her 40s playing the lead role in a big drama series.

Now it's not so strange anymore, says Sidse Babett Knudsen.

In the clip, Sidse Babett Knudsen tells how she, as a nine-year-old, was afraid of the acting profession.

See the entire interview with Sidse Babett Knudsen in the program Sweden!