Icelandic actor Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson is making a name for himself in Hollywood, capitalising on his impressive stature for roles in Captain America: Brave New World and the upcoming Masters of the Universe adaptation. We give the actor a ring at his home in Reykjavík to chat about his superhero-like trajectory
For Icelandic actor Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, landing the role of Copperhead, a villain in Captain America: Brave New World, the latest film in the Marvel universe, brings him right back to his childhood. “It kind of brings out the child in you, because it goes back to when you were a child playing with these the action figures,” he says. “You were always pretending to be one of them: ‘I'm that one and I'm that one’. And now, you've acted for 20 years, but then suddenly something like this comes along and you become that child again.”
Best known as the bearded Viking Jarl Olaf Haraldsson in the Netflix series Vikings: Valhalla, 45-year-old Haukur Jóhannesson, who hails from Hafnarfjörður just south of Reykjavik, has no plans of leaving Iceland despite breaking through in Hollywood. Having made his onscreen debut in the Icelandic film Reykjavik Rotterdam in 2008, Haukur Jóhannesson has been working steadily since, racking up credits that tend to capitalise on his stature and timeless appearance (his first international role was Cain in Darren Aronofksy’s Noah).
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