Who is … Thomas Bo Larsen?

A 50-year old actor best known for playing a thug or troublemaker in movies, like in ‘Festen’ in which he is a racist to boot. 

Is he a troublemaker in real life?

Well, he has called himself a “100 percent thug”.

Why?

He got into a lot of trouble when he was younger. He was dyslexic and dropped out of school when he was 14. As he told the weekly newspaper Søndagsavisen, he would have failed all his exams anyway. After that he tried his luck with a regular job, but found that he got fired all the time – 14 times before joining the military, but even they didn’t want him. He was the stereotypical problem boy who drove a scooter, wore a leather jacket, got into fights and smoked a lot of hash. At the age of 20, he got a hash psychosis.

How did he get into acting then?

He tried amateur theatre and felt he had finally found his calling in life. But he never knew you could study acting until he was told. So he applied to acting school and got accepted first time. 

He must be good!

The film critics like him, even though he tends to be at his best playing an overgrown teenager, bully or someone living on the fringes of society – sound familiar? Nevertheless, he did recently star in a movie, the acclaimed ‘Jagten’, in which he played a ‘normal’ family guy. 

So he’s grown up?

Well, that might be pushing it. He just appeared in a TV2 show with his daughter, ‘Drengerøv og Datter’, in which they visited Brazil, Japan and Russia. The aim was for Larsen to get some quality time with his daughter and teach her a bit about global poverty and different cultures. But mainly he just embarrassed her. Her worst moment was when he insulted, rather than impressed, one of their hosts with his terrible English and said: “You’re not only a doctor, you’re also a cock.” Poor kid, but sure she loves him though describing him as a “kid with ADHD”.




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