Tobias Santelmann as Harry Hole in new adaptation of Jo Nesbo’s bestselling Norway-set novels (Image: Netflix)
The actor bringing troubled but brilliant detective Harry Hole to life in a must-watch new Netflix drama nearly did not get the role – because he came across as too “nice” and too “good looking” in his first casting. Author Jo Nesbo, who has adapted the screenplay for the nine-part TV drama from his bestselling books and is also series’ showrunner, admits he and director Oystein Karlsen were unimpressed by a tape of its star Tobias Santelmann.
So much so that Karlsen told the actor to accept another role he had been offered, while awaiting their final decision, which would have ruled him out from portraying one of crime fiction’s most iconic and damaged detectives. “We had Tobias Santelmann top of our list to play Harry, Oystein and I, so we had him do a tape based on part of the script… and it was underwhelming,” Nesbo, 65, admitted. “It was like he was too nice, he was too soft and he was way too good looking. He is a great actor but he did not nail it, so we were kind of surprised and a bit disappointed.
Jo Nesbo appearing at the London Book Fair on Wednesday (Image: Courtesy London Book Week)
New series leans heavily on Nesbo’s novel The Devil’s Star (Image: Vintage Books)
“So we went through other brilliant actors and we had almost decided, and then Oystein said, ‘Why don’t we have Tobias have one more go at it?’ He came in for a screen test with a script he had rehearsed and another actor that he would play against, with costumes and camera, and then he was just so brilliant. He did not know this but before he was even out of the door Oystein and I looked at each other and said, ‘Yes, that’s Harry’.”
Santelmann, 45, best known for starring in Exit and The Last Kingdom, has already had rave early reviews for his performance in Detective Hole – pronounced “holy” – which will stream on Netflix from March 26 and has been widely tipped as its next big binge-worthy drama. And the Norwegian actor looks set to win over the adoring fans of the 13 Harry Hole novels that have sold more than 50 million copies globally – something the last actor who attempted this, Michael Fassbender in the film adaptation of the seventh book in the series, The Snowman, never managed to do.
For this reason Nesbo, who was a professional footballer and musician before becoming Norway’s most successful writer, can laugh about how close Santelmann came to not being cast as Harry. He says: “He phoned at some point and spoke to Oystein because he had another offer and said, ‘How are my chances of being Harry?’ And he told him we are not finished yet but if you have a good offer, go with that.”
When The Snowman was adapted in 2017 the author decided not to be involved in any way, saying at the time that he preferred to leave it to those with expertise in film.
But after having spent the last five to 10 years learning how to write for the screen, first with Occupied, then Exit and most recently with So Long, Marianne, which was about Leonard Cohen’s romance with Norwegian Marianne Ihlen in the 1960’s, he felt ready to get involved when Netflix approached him about Detective Hole.
Nesbo worked with Karlsen, 55, on the last two of those TV dramas so after it was decided Detective Hole would be filmed in Oslo and in Norwegian, he suggested he come on board as its director. He decided to be the sole writer for the adaptation and to act as its show runner, saying: “I knew it was probably the only time in my life I would get an offer like that”.
Michael Fassbender played Hole in the lacklustre 2017 adaptation of Nesbo’s The Snowman (Image: Working title)
Harry Hole creator Jo Nesbo is helming the forthcoming nine-part TV drama Detective Hole (Image: AFP/Getty)
He adds: “I was just curious about the process so I dived in, and little did I know that would be my life for the next three years.”
Before taking to the stage as London Book Fair’s author of the day on Wednesday, he explains: “We are still in post-production and we still haven’t named the episodes, so I will be doing that at Heathrow tonight on the way home.”
Nesbo felt ready to take on such a key role in filming the TV drama from May to December 2024, but “when I got to the set on the first day I was the least experienced film worker there, and I was the show runner, but we had the best crew. I just had to be honest about it and say, ‘I am the show runner, I know how to tell a story, I don’t know how to make a TV series, you will have to help me’.”
The nine-part drama is based on the fifth book in the Harry Hole series, The Devil’s Star, with elements of the two books before it, Redbreast and Nemesis. The writer, whose daughter Selma, 27, interned as a production assistant while shooting Detective Hole, as did his nephew, says The Devil’s Star was chosen as it’s the first book in the series where the city of Oslo becomes a character in its own right – and he wanted this to be a central element for the TV drama as well.
“In the first establishing shot of Oslo you see a gondola coming down the hill, which was planned for Oslo a few years back but they did not do it. In our series it is there,” Nesbo adds.“There is also the disastrous Munch museum, which I think is the ugliest building in Oslo right now. We decided to make it a little less ugly, so we fixed the Munch museum and added a few high rises around it, so this is like the Gotham City version of Oslo.
“It’s the real Oslo but we called it Oslo plus 15%, which means the gritty side is more gritty and the glossy side is more glossy.”
Detective Hole sees Harry investigating a serial killer while paired with a corrupt cop, Tom Waaler, portrayed by actor Joel Kinnaman, 46, best known for The Suicide Squad films, who he suspects of killing his only friend in the Homicide Division, Ellen, when she got too close to taking him down.
Santelmann as Harry Hole in new TV drama (Image: Netflix)
Her death causes Harry to break his promise to his new girlfriend Rakel, played by actress Pia Tjelta, 48, to stop drinking.
When asked to describe Harry to anyone that has not read his books Nesbo comes alive, saying: “Harry is a man of contradictions. Physically he is tall, not even ruggedly handsome, I would say he is ugly-god looking in a way, he is not everybody’s cup of tea.
“He is a loner, a closed person, but for some reason, maybe due to his sense of humour and his observation skills, he has this charm. He’s both a cynic and a romantic. He is a lone wolf because he actually really cares about the people he loves and in his experience of life when he ties bonds with people, whether a girlfriend or other people, they will get hurt. Not by him necessarily but by his job or circumstance and that has formed him as a human being.
“He inherited his drinking from his grandfather and that made him hard to be around.”
He adds: “There are two Harrys, the sober Harry who is so organised and good at his job, and the drunk Harry who is of no use to anybody.”
Despite the dark nature of the books Netflix did not ask for this to be toned down in the TV version and Nesbo adds: “If you asked me what it is about, although is a whodunnit and a grim murder story, I would say at its heart it is a love story.”
After spending three years working on Detective Hole the writer is “excited” to see it finally coming out but also admits to feeling the weight of pressure in hoping it is a success. He says: “It’s the first adaptation that I’ve been involved with and to go from not being involved at all to being the showrunner is quite a jump. I do feel the responsibility that it will hopefully reach an audience.
“In that sense releasing a book is like playing soccer with friends in the park league, now I’m suddenly at Wembley.”
Pia Tjelta plays Harry’s long-suffering girlfriend Rakel Fauke in Netlifx series (Image: Netflix)
Nesbo has also written a new Harry Hole novel, Kill Shot, which is set to be published in November and sees the former detective called back from the boredom of working in insurance, which he hates, to help catch a killer artistically filming his murders and posting the videos online, set against a backdrop of a movie being shot.
He smiles: “Which you may suspect had something to do with me being a showrunner for the past three years and it would be foolish to deny that. But it is not our crew.”
Nesbo also had another film influence with an adaptation of his horror story The Night House having finished shooting and being in post-production. Despite the previous film The Snowman failing to win over viewers, the author says getting so involved in making Detective Hole was not an attempt to “get Harry from the books right”.
He says: “I know there are a thousand Harrys in the heads of my readers and we are not going to challenge that – people can keep them.”
- Detective Hole is streaming on Netflix from March 26. Kill Shot will be published in the autumn