Being a fan of Nordic Films and TV, and Danish ones in particular, it was hard not to get invested in the characters in Families Like Ours, which featured so many well-known and loved faces.

And amongst these well-established actors, another shone – an emerging talent to look out for in the future: Amaryllis August, who plays Laura. Alex caught up with the Danish actress over a Zoom call to discuss her role in the new Thomas Vinterberg series, which tells the story of Denmark being evacuated due to rising water levels, causing dispersed families and distressing situations. 

Laura is one of the main protagonists in the series, linking together all the characters’ storylines as their lives fall apart and need to be rebuilt. 

Her role as Laura in Families Like Ours

Amaryllis’ character, Laura, is a young woman trying to find her way in the world, and at times her behaviour or decisions are frustrating and become the catalyst for issues throughout the series. Yet despite this, you warm to her and root for her. It must have been an interesting role to read and play?

“Yeah, you just wanna scream at her. What are you doing?” the actress laughs. 

Her father’s actions, played by the ever-brilliant Nikolaj Lie Kaas, are also very questionable – does it run in the family? Or is it because of what is at stake for the family?

“It was really interesting to see how the characters go from these like regular, normal Danish families to just crumbling apart. Like this whole psychological part of what happens to humans when everything we know and love just falls apart.

That is one of the things that I thought about the most when I read the script and one of the reasons why we get so infuriated with the characters,  because we’re like, why are you doing this? And I think I puzzled about this a lot myself to see why Laura does the things she does.”

She goes on to explain how she, much like us, the audience, came to the conclusion that these characters are having to react with a fight or flight mode, leading to the chaos that unfolds in the latter part of the series.

“We all know we can make bad decisions when under pressure.”

Working With Thomas Vinterberg

The television series is a first for Oscar-winning film director Thomas Vinterberg and an incredibly exciting opportunity for Amaryllis to work with one of Denmark’s finest. 

“When we shot Families Like Ours, I had only watched Festen in school because I had to do an analysis of it”, the actress explains. “I thought it was so uncomfortable to watch because it’s so realistic – I just wanted to close my eyes. After that, I got to see Another Round as I was at the premiere and I loved that movie.“

Whilst on set, Amaryllis heard about all of the other films Vinterberg had worked on and eventually started to watch them whilst they were shooting Families Like Ours; “That got a bit weird because so many of the cast I was working with on set the next day were in the films, so I deciced to finish off watching the rest of his films when I we had completed shooting.”

The Cast

The cast that surrounded Amaryllis includes a number of famous Danish faces, the likes of Paprika Steen, Thomas Bo Laursen, Nikolaj Loe Kaas, Magnus Millang, and Albert Rudbeck Lindhardt. Bearing in mind that it was the actress’s first big role, did she ever find herself starstruck?

“I feel like the whole experience was so surreal because it was my first time ever going to a casting. So just getting the part itself was so unbelievable – I just couldn’t believe that any of it was real. I kept thinking, you guys are just fooling me.”

She lets on that this carried on throughout the shoot – that she still could not believe this was happening and even now, after it has aired it still feels like a joke and she was just fooled.

Shooting Families Like Ours

Of course, it was real – and so how was the reality of acting in the series? “I miss it so much, it was such a fun time – but it was also really difficult with really long days.”

Amaryllis goes on to explain how close everyone became over the course of shooting; “We practically all became one family as it took almost a year to shoot and I think you can see that togetherness shine through on the series.”

In fact, when the filming had wrapped on the series, the cast had found it hard to adjust: “We all got so into the story that we just kind of all started to believe that it was real. And then we got home and we’re like, oh wait, we’re not actually evacuating Denmark, everything is fine!”

How hard was it having to convey so many feelings in this surreal situation?

“I would say, seeing as I don’t have any experience or any kind of tools to pull out of my pocket, I just kind of… I think I just started to believe that I was Laura myself. I read the script so many times, and my life was on set because I had so many shooting days.

“I just kind of started to feel that I was Laura. I remember a lot of the times when we shot scenes, I would just start crying—even if it wasn’t scripted—because it was just so sad. I felt like everything was real.

And for the physical part, we actually had a layover from when we shot in the Nordic countries—Denmark and Sweden—to the Czech Republic, Romania, and France. We had a three-month layover where Thomas thought I was too… how do you say… I was too much like a little mouse, like a little high school student. So he said, ‘We need to toughen you up.“

So Amaryllis ended up boxing twice a week with a private instructor, “a lovely guy named Henrik“, and she did some intensive training for three months. By the time they filmed the scenes set in Romania, she felt more physically and emotionally prepared for the role. The training had toughened her up, and she no longer came across as so ‘mousy.’

What about Lucas?

Something we feel we have to ask is about one of the characters in the series who (eyes away if you have not seen the TV series and want to avoid a minor spoiler!) seems to predict or see things in the future. We never really find out how or why, so I wonder whether Amaryllis can shed some light on his character?

“Honestly, I have no idea, but I love that nobody really knows. I feel like it’s up to interpretation by the viewer. It’s kind of there as a side story, and gives everything an eerie feeling. It reflects the characters not really knowing what is real or is it all in their imaginations; everything is so crazy that we don’t understand what is actually going on. Maybe he kind of wants to bring the audience into the madness of the characters”.

What is next for the actress?

After a phenomenal performance in Families Like Ours and shining amongst some of the crème de la crème of Danish TV and Film, one would hope that more projects are on the horizon for the young star?

“I’d love to. I’m starting at an acting boarding school in Denmark this August, and then I’m planning to apply to different acting schools around Europe to see if I can get in. That’s my dream right now because I really love acting, but I feel like I need some tools. Most of the time, I have no idea what I’m doing. So it would be nice to get some proper training.”

We can’t wait to see what role Amaryllis will take up next and can certainly see an exciting future ahead for this emerging talent.

Families Like Ours is out now on BBC iPlayer in the UK. We are waiting on news of a US release.

Written by: Alex Minnis, Founder of Nordic Watchlist