UN: Youve been acting for sometime now and have been in countless movies. How did you first get involved with the movie business? Did you know from your first role that this was something you wanted to pursue?

Kim: Well I knew from when I was a kid that I wanted to be an actor. It wasn't so much at the time the art itself I wanted to pursue, but I wanted to be up there on the screen kicking ass, killing the aliens, shooting the bad guys, being the bad guys.(laughs)

Well, as a kid I had a few jobs of different nature. I was in the Danish army for almost two years before I found out that wasn't for me. I guess in a way I hoped to find the action there I really wanted in an acting job. I also started to attend a computer related school at some point cause I've always been very interested in computers, but I was bored out of my mind and bailed on it after a year. I mean, I knew that I wanted to do, and the only thing I could see myself happy with doing, was acting. Thing is, you keep hearing how many people fail in that business so I naturally just assumed it was never anything I would succeed in, guess I didn't believe in my skills. It wasn't until I was 25 years old and finally got a hold of my b***s and decided to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I saw an advert in a local newspaper about this method acting school started by Russian actors based on Konstantin Stanislavskij's methods, and I decided for myself to just try it out. What the hell, it's a weekend audition and if they won't take me, fair enough - at least I tried it, right? Well, I got into the school in first go and there I was, suddenly on the path god, that sounds clich doesn't it? (laughs) The dream was all mine, I think I surprised quite a few people by my decision. Apparently I'm not the typical "actor kinda guy".

Well, I attended acting school from 1998 to 2001, after which I moved to Copenhagen in order to get into the film business, which is a dream I have always had. I did a couple of projects before moving, but it didn't take off for real until around 2002-2003

I started out doing quite a bit of acting in short films, which later led to a good amount of jobs on TV and feature films, but how much is hard to say. I've been involved in quite a bit of projects, some in bigger roles, some in smaller.

UN: Were there any movies in particular that inspired you to want to take up acting? Any actors in particular that made you think hey I can do this?

Kim: Well seriously, as a kid in the early 80's I was hooked on Star Wars and the 007 films. Always wanted to be up there as a part of the action. Throughout my teenage years I turned very much towards horror films, such as the Friday the 13th series, the Freddy Krueger flicks, not forgetting the Halloween films. I still love these films to this day I still watch any horror film I can get my hands on.

I suppose I've been hooked on horror ever since I saw "The Exorcist" one late night it was shown on the TV. I guess I was 12 or so, and my parents had forbidden me to watch. But, you know, as it is with kids, what you are not allowed to do is always the most exciting. So I saw it and as clichd as it sounds, it changed my life in many ways. The film scared the living crap out of me. I didn't sleep properly for two weeks after that. (laughs) What scared me wasn't the possession as such, it was more the face of the demon you see in very short frames in a dream that Damian Karras is having, with his mother having to cross a highway. I mean, that fascinated me a lot. The fact that we have this whole film and what terrified me the most was what you hardly saw, I guess those glimpses you catch of the demons face is less than a second in the entire film, but it made quite an impression on me. No other film has ever been able to get to me like that one did. It actually took me several years and a lot of persuasion to see it a second time. These days, obviously, it might not look like much - although to me it still does. As I got older I loved the slasher films such as Friday the 13th and the likes, and I guess I grew a bit tougher with age.(laughs)

I have a huge fascination in general for the "darker" movies, the Predators films and the Alien films also have a very big place in my heart, as does David Lynch's films.. Not forgetting "The Crow" which in my eyes is an absolute masterpiece.

I don't know if there are any specific actors I can "blame." (laughs) Not really, no, I mean, there are a lot of talented actors I love watching, but to me it's more the story and the genres that attracted me. And especially, the mood in the films, not forgetting.

UN: Mental Distortion, although it is just a short, was your first time directing. Was it harder than you first anticipated?

Kim: Not really. It represented a lot of challenges to me, and a lot of limitations cause we didn't have much of a budget, but it taught me a lot as well having to improvise a lot through it.

UN: Craig marks your first time directing a full length feature. Obviously you knew how much time went into making a film from being an actor, but was it a different kind of pressure? Not only did you have to worry about your performance as the lead of the film you pretty much had to worry about everything else as well.

Kim: Only because I had fantastic collaborators was it possible. Budget was limited like hell, but I had two great producers giving me invaluable support in all aspects of the word. Without Jan T. Jensen and Jim Pedersen it wouldn't have been possible at all, and we realized how well we worked together that we formed Cetus Productions during the production - the company that now helms the final productions of Craig and other projects being worked on at the moment.

It has been accepted so far at three festivals in the US. It was just released onto DVD in Scandinavia (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland) and will be released in Germany, Austria and Switzerland on DVD in the end of May. There is currently no US DVD release planned, but we have a sales representative working on the case.

Anyone who wants to keep up with what's happening is welcome to visit www.craigthemovie.com - all news will be posted there, such as new release dates, festival showings, new reviews, etc. etc.

UN: How did the initial idea for Craig first begin to form? Have you wanted to write a serial killer film for a while? Were their any films in particular that you wanted to have a similar feel to tone wise when you were writing the script?

Kim: Always was very interested in the serial killers films, both the ones about fictive killers and the ones about real-life killers. Without of course thinking what they did was cool, I've always found it quite interesting, and as the time was right it became more and more interesting to me to explore that as an actor. I had developed this serial killer story over several years in my head, and finally I got around to actually making it a full-on story and we started to film it before I hardly noticed it.

UN: Were you planning on playing Craig right from the very start? How long did the rest of the casting take? Do you feel like you assembled a solid cast for the movie?

Kim: Yes, I wanted to play Craig even before the story was developed fully. I knew it would be an interesting journey for me to take.

I'm quite happy for the most part about the cast we finally assembled. We never really did have any auditions cause I first and foremost wanted to use actors I already knew and had worked with before - a lot of reasons, but primarily to take a load off my work pressure. I didn't have to find new faces, I had a big enough network of friends and colleagues to put in whoever I knew would do a good job in specific parts.

UN: Were there any cliches or aspects of the serial killer genre that you tried to avoid while making Craig? It has elements that will definitely appeal to fans of the genre, but at the same time it has a very unique feel as well I would say.

Kim: Well, thank you. To be honest, I wanted to make it a little surrealistic as well, a bit "messy" if you will, because that's how Craig's mind is - messy. I've been a huge fan of David Lynch for years and love the way he is able to affect your subconscious. Sometimes his movies don't make a whole lot of sense, but you still do get something out of it. I mean, I've watched "Lost Highway" and "Mulholland Drive" several times now, and every time I think I get something out of it. Now, that far being it from me to compare myself with "The Lynch", but I tried to put some elements in that didn't make a whole lot of sense, but at the same time on another level, did. I've had a lot of reactions to it, positive I'm glad to say, but different people get different things out of it, but all things fit in somehow, so it's an amazing thing to explore.

Another thing with Craig was - I wanted to if it was possible for a character to gain peoples sympathy, in this case because he is rather pathetic and sad, and to see how far that sympathy stretches when he starts doing evil deeds. Will they on some level be able to understand him, not condoning it necessarily or how will they react? It's clear that Craig has had a very tough life, experienced very gruesome things but does that justify punishing other people?

The film is about a shy guy named Craig who loses both his parents when their house burns down. His sister survives, but due to heavy lack of oxygen, she is sent into a deep coma. Craig has only got one friend, Cliff, but he's got more than enough problems on his own, so he cannot really be there for Craig. Meanwhile, Craig is under heavy medication, and when he one day looses his precious Lithium pills, his whole world is getting turned upside down.

UN: How has the response to Craig been so far from both critics and viewers? Has it been getting favorable responses across the board?

Kim: (laughs) Well I've learned first and foremost that you can't please everybody. A Danish newspaper called it a splatter film, which to me shows a lot of ignorance, because it is definitely not a splatter film! Then, a webzine complained about it not being bloody enough. So I mean people expect different things and you can't meet all those expectations.

Well, I'm pleased to say that the two before mentioned reviews were really the only bad ones we got as far as I know. A lot of magazines, both Danish and internationally, took it very nicely to heart and I thought was fair in their comments. I never really wanted to make a clean-cut film, I wanted to make a film with its own oddities and own personality, if you will. If either everyone hated it or everyone loved it, it wouldn't really be that interesting to make. But as it seems, people took different likings to it, most positive, luckily. (laughs) and that means they actually related to it, somehow. And that's all I wanted really, It's not a brainy film, it's very approachable, but hopefully it does challenge you a bit when watching as well in a good way.

UN: How did the idea for The Horror Vault come about? Did you spearhead getting all of the directors involved or were there other people involved in the process as well?

Kim: Well, I've always loved Creepshow sort of stuff and I always wanted to make something of the sort. Sort of a horror anthology, so yeah I kinda took the initiative to get it started, but there's been so many great people involved in it now, that it's not anything I can take full credit for, except for maybe coordinating the project.

Incidentally, it's gonna be available at www.thehorrorvault.net within the next few weeks (early April 2008), so support indie film and get your copy the legal way.

It's been such a great experience, so much so that we are already working on The Horror Vault 2, which will be released in December, if all goes well.

UN: You've included your debut short, but also a new segment called When John Met Julia. What can you tell us about the new segment?

Kim: Oh I'd rather not say too much, except I always thought the idea of a sexy female turning out to be a vicious killer was an interesting idea so as you might have guessed, I'm not playing that part. (laughs) I have a supporting part in that segment as a victim.

And then as you mention yourself, Mental Distortion is included as well. I cleared up some glitches and stuff I wasn't all happy with from the original cut and polished it for the Vault. Incidentally, Mental Distortion was always meant to be apart of The Horror Vault, it was made for that in the first place.

UN: Horror movies broken into segments were much more common in the 80's and are actually a fun format for horror fans. What would you say are some of your favorite films that follow this format? I'm assuming Creepshow will be mention as it pretty much started the idea and still holds up incredibly well to this day.

Kim: Creepshow 1+2 absolutely. I never really got to know Tales From The Crypt all that well until the recent years - heard about it, but never saw it. I bought all the seasons on DVD and once I got started watching, I couldn't stop. It was like a fun trip back to the days when I first saw Creepshow in my teenage years. Great!

I used to be a big fan of Amazing Stories as well, not really horror, but they had a lot of supernatural aspects in on it. To be honest, and I'm a bit embarrassed to admit this, but I didn't see the Twilight Zone movie from 1983 until recently either. Again, not really horror, but it was interesting. Heard so much about it and the TV shows, but never actually saw it.

But I love the idea of smaller stories; it is a very different thing telling a story in the short format, than it is in the feature format. It is definitely both things I'll keep on doing, but it is very different in many ways.

UN: I noticed on IMDB that is says The Horror Vault 2 is already under way. What can you tell us about your segment from the film?

Kim: I already made a segment for The Horror Vault 2. It's called "Invasion of Privacy" and is inspired by all the talk about the surveillance society. You know, big brother is watching and all that stuff. Personally I don't know how to relate to big brother, I'm kinda emotionally mixed about it, it's both a safe and scary feeling at the same time. That's what inspired me to do this and what made it interesting to make a little story about.

UN: What can you tell us about Czech Mates? It says on IMDB that the film is completed. How did the shooting go? Does it have a different feel than Craig?

Kim: Hmm yes, imdb must have misunderstood it a bit. It is still in pre-production, filming hopefully in August 2008. Well, it's a dark tale, definitely not without cruel humor that I love so much. It's about a lonely guy from Denmark named Lars who in his loneliness and net dorking orders a couple of "loose" women from the Czech Republic to come and stay with him. Now, we've heard all that about wives for order before, and that's what he thinks it's gonna be. But these two girls have plans on their own. The film will be in English. I mean, that's the only logical choice since the girls speak their own language, Lars speaks Danish in a few scenes, but his best friend Billy is English, so we have this multinational society going on. (laughs) Well, it's gonna be an interesting movie and I hope people will see it when it's released.

The script from written by Tristn White from the UK, so it's gonna be the first time I'm directing something I didn't write myself, an interesting challenge.

UN: Any final words?

Kim: I'm currently in the early stages of two other feature films as a director; Tour de Force, which is an action film about a policeman who due to a tragic loss has a breakdown and starts doing hits for the mafia. Second, as already mentioned, Czech Mates, of course. Finally, we in Cetus Productions are currently working on a supernatural thriller in Danish named "Slvtrd", English title will most likely be "Silver Thread", which is being directed by Jan T. Jensen and I'm producing and playing a bigger part in it too.

And FINALLY, recently, I played a supporting part in a feature film named "Jon" by Texan based director William Instone. Another part in "Unlikely Prophets" by director Cristian Cupertino based in Florida, and finally a part in "The Tourist" by Andrey Iskanov from Russia.

I'm looking forward to "What nobody knows" ("Det som ingen ved") by Sren Kragh-Jacobsen. A Danish political suspense thriller by the same people behind "Mifune's Last Song", the third of the dogma films. Not a very big part I play in this, but I am very much looking forward to seeing that one as well. That film incidentally premiers in Denmark on my 35th birthday, heh. "Dead on Arrival", a Swedish crime thriller I was in Stockholm to do a part for last summer, directed by Henric Brandt. "Operation Sunrise" by Donovan Cerminara which is a Canadian film I was in Poland to shoot last year just had a couple of screenings and will hit the festival circuit soon, can't wait to see that one. "Westbrick Murders", directed by Shaun Rana, starring Eric Roberts and Vernon Wells, in which I play the role as Officer Sam.

So I'm really happy and honored to have been given the chance to participate in projects that far away from my "homebase", it has certainly been exciting and an enormous experience for me, and I certainly hope to be given that chance again in the future.

I love my job, so I always make space for new projects. I've done a lot of each, both indie films and studio films. Both definitely have their charm. I love the indie way of working, always so vibrant and alive.

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