Actor Carsten Norgaard. Photo courtesy/copyright of Bettina Niedermann.
Most of us have at one time or another wondered what it would be like to live not only in a different place, but also a very different time. What if, however, that innocent daydream was taken to the extreme in the real world and you had no choice about it. Imagine what life would be like if, for example, the Axis powers rather than Allied forces won World War II. That chilling scenario is played out in the upcoming Amazon Studios TV series The Man in the High Castle. Based on the novel of the same name by American science fiction author Phillip K. Dick, it will give viewers a totally new perspective on what our world could have ended up becoming. The chance to help tell such a story is one that actor Carsten Norgaard could not pass up.
“I think The Man in the High Castle is a fascinating concept,” enthuses Norgaard. “A number of Phillip Dick’s novels and short stories have been made into films, so when this opportunity presented itself, it was obviously something I very much wanted to be a part of. I read for the role [of Colonel Rudolph Wegener] only the one time and that was it. I guess the producers responded to whatever I brought to the character because I was offered the part.
“We shot the pilot in Seattle, Washington and I worked mostly with Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa [Nobosuke Tagomi]. He and I seemed to have a very strong synergy right out of the gate, which I guess worked quite well given the positions of our two characters in the story. They’re both kindred spirits in a way and share an affinity as far as dealing with a certain situation, the outcome of which they’re both trying to avoid.
“I’d have to say that my overall experience of working on The Man in the High Castle was something quite special because of the level of collaboration amongst all the various departments. I got the feeling that everyone in front of as well as behind the camera was the custodian of their own world, so to speak, and took a great deal of pride in the story that they were helping tell. I think the material along with our showrunner [and writer] Frank Spotnitz inspired a level of collaboration that resulted in an ideal creative environment. I have to also give a lot of credit to Amazon. They pretty much left us alone to tell the story, which I thought was really amazing, because normally when you work with a network you feel its presence much more in the day-to-day production.”
The Man in the High Castle opens in the year 1962 and takes place in an alternate history where the United States of America has been “sliced” into three territories that include the Japanese puppet state known as the Pacific States of America (located west of the Rocky Mountains), a Nazi puppet state comprised of the eastern half of the former U.S., and lastly a neutral zone between the two called the Rocky Mountain States. An officer in the Greater Nazi Reich, Colonel Rudolph Wegener travels to San Francisco in the Pacific States of America under the guise of Swedish businessman Victor Baynes to meet in secret with Japanese trade minister Nobosuke Tagomi.
“Wegener is worried about a potential power vacuum that could occur if Adolf Hitler died, and, in turn, lead to another war between the Japanese and the Germans,” explains Norgaard. “He and Tagomi are hoping to find a way to avoid this. My character is quite a complex individual. This man has done some terrible things in his life, and the guilt of his actions weighs heavily upon him. Not surprisingly, he is haunted by the atrocities that he’s committed on behalf of the Reich and his efforts to avert another conflict is the colonel’s way of atoning for what he’s done and trying to achieve redemption
“The one other thing I can say without giving the plot away is that Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the mission that Mr. Tagomi and Colonel Wegener set out to accomplish will take a tremendous amount of effort on both their parts,” teases the actor.
Along with a variety of made-for-TV movies and miniseries, Norgaard’s other TV credits include Capital City, The Manageress, Sinbad, NCIS: Los Angeles, Sleepy Hollow, Person of Interest and Grimm. On the big screen, he has appeared in such feature films as D2: The Mighty Ducks, AVP: Alien vs. Predator and The Three Musketeers. It was the advice of his father that planted the seed in the Danish-born Norgaard’s mind that he could one day follow his passion to become an actor.
“When I was very young, my dad said to me, ‘Find something that you like to do, and then find a way to get paid to do it,’” recalls the actor. “I’m sure that my dad didn’t necessarily envision me becoming an actor, especially as I don’t come from an industry family, but my parents have always been very supportive of my choice of careers. I’ve always loved film as a medium, especially when you sit down to watch a film and, because of great acting as well as great filmmaking, are transported into that world. Growing up, it was very much an event for me and I was captivated by watching a story unfold up on the screen.
“I actually started out acting in London. I had a small commercial agent there, and was hired for a movie [in 1988] directed by Philip Saville called The Fruit Machine. After that, I was lucky enough to get a more established agent in London, and more work followed, including roles in American projects. So that’s pretty much how I got into the business.”
Having worked as a professional actor for over 25 years, what makes a career in this industry rewarding for Norgaard. “I have to go back to The Man in the High Castle,” he says. “It was such a positive experience in every sense, and when the pilot came out, some critics were comparing it to and calling it Amazon’s House of Cards. That was a huge honor as well as really exciting, but more so, it validated what we had done in the pilot and what those who watched it were responding to.
“Frank Spotnitz is an amazing man and a great communicator, particularly when it comes to his time. He was always open to suggestions, and he’d have conference calls with us to discuss the historical aspects of the piece, which helped add different layers to the characters. It was collaboration in the purest form, and it doesn’t get much better that than as an actor.”
Steve Eramo
The Man in the High Castle will be available for streaming on Amazon Prime starting on Friday, November 20th. As noted above, photo courtesy/copyright of Bettina Niedermann, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks! To find out more about Carsten Norgaard, check out his social media accounts below:
https://www.facebook.com/carstennorgaardofficial/?fref=ts
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