Singer, television host, and now actor: Swedish artist and 2015 Eurovision winner Måns Zelmerlöw may add actor to his list of accolades, as he will appear in the Swedish series Jordskott.
Jordskott (Earthquake) is a Swedish mystery-thriller series, centered around police detective Eva Thörnblad (actress Moa Gammel), who investigates strange occurrences surrounding a disappearance. Måns Zelmerlöw is set to appear in season 2 of the series, which just started airing. His debut episode is on 3 December.
Måns Zelmerlöw will play the role of Henrik Riksäter, a successful young financier, who lives in Stockholm with his wife Åsa (played by Jenny Lampa). The couple recently became parents of a baby girl, and the child is causing much sleepless nights, as there seems to be something strange about the baby. The couple soon get involved with detective Eva Thörnblad’s investigations.
Creator and director Henrik Björn says about Måns Zelmerlöw’s role:
The biggest challenge is that the guy is so nice, so we had to tune him a little. He plays a young father with deep sleep deprivation, so he had to let the beard grow up and we worked some extra rings under his eyes.
Måns Zelmerlöw had to audition for the role, as Henrik Björn says:
This character does not play music, he’s not a pop star, he’s got to deal with that – so I contacted Måns and then he appeared for a filming test. And then we said that he must be able to stand on his own. He made a really good trial film and was more prepared than many others are.
The scene he had received was quite long because I wanted to put him to the test, and he delivered. I think he appreciated that we had not put him in the ‘nice pop star’ role without any substance. Then we showed the trial filming to SVT and then he got the role.
Måns Zelmerlöw himself says about acting:
First of all, it was great to be part of such a professional production, with such a good script and skilled people behind and in front of the camera. It felt easy to work from the very beginning. It was basically my first acting role, but I received a lot of support from both director Henrik Björn and the other actors.
There is something tempting to enter another universe, to own a role. Not having to be yourself all the time is actually pretty nice. So I’d really enjoy myself doing more acting. I’m prepared to convince Henrik that he will sign me to be in season three!
Måns Zelmerlöw isn’t the only Eurovision-related star to appear in Jordskott, as Melodifestivalen-participant Yohio played the role of Linus, an androgynous goth teenager, in season 1.
Watch a clip of Måns Zelmerlöw in Jordskott here.
Jordskott season 2 airs Sunday night on SVT 1, and new episodes are also posted on SVT Play Saturday at midnight.
Enjoy Måns Zelmerlöw performing his winning Eurovision 2015 song Heroes at the Grand Final:
