“You can’t compare the two”: Nikolaj Lie Kaas on avoiding “Call My Agent” deals with Zentropa-backed industry satire “Agent” – Berlinale

Danish actor Nikolaj Lie Kaas is best known for his on-screen work with filmmakers like Lars von Trier and Anders Thomas Jensen, but he’s joining them in Berlin this week mediatorhis first project as writer and director.

The eight-part series is a scathing show business satire about Joe, an aspiring 35-year-old agent for some of Denmark’s biggest stars. It is his job to solve his clients’ problems – be they professional or personal, but he has had enough of both himself: he is in danger of losing custody of his ten-year-old daughter Tallulah and his boss, who is also his mother. to lose She is about to fire him. As Joe desperately tries to stay afloat, his problems only get worse.

Esben Smith (follow the money) as Joe and Danish actors as Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (game of thrones) and Sidse Babett Knudsen (Borgen, to the west) as caricatures of themselves in a rolling format, which the audience may know from the popular Netflix French series, Call my agent.

“I was so angry when it came out,” joked Kaas when asked Call my agent and the similarities with his debut. “Same idea at the same time. It’s so classic.”

Kaas said he continued to binge-watch Call my agentOne experience he said was more comforting than terrifying.

“I was relieved to see you couldn’t compare the two,” he said. “There’s something about the irony and sarcasm that’s much harder on this show. We called everyone. All celebrities play extreme versions of themselves indoors Call my agentthey play themselves without even trying to make it satirical.

mediator is a Zentropa production and TrustNordisk is responsible for distribution. The series will have a local debut on Danish national broadcaster TV2.

Kaas told Deadline that he approached TV2 with the idea for the series three times before they decided to give it the green light. After each pitch, he was told to spend more time writing and designing the series’ narrative arc, which continued to evolve throughout the process.

“I took the long way,” he said of the writing process. “I will never do it again. It was too long, three years to write about it.”

While Kaas took many years to develop the overall structure mediatorThere was one plot point he decided from the start would not be on the series: He would not have a cameo as one of Joe’s famous clients.

“When I see these programs that have a director, I feel so sad. They consider themselves celebrities,” Kaas said.

After six solid episodes mediator ends on a cliff which, according to Kaas, “makes it impossible not to think ahead.”

“I think there’s potential for a second season,” he said, before joking that he’s not sure he has “the abundance of energy” to go through the same process.

And how does Kaas rate the reactions of his Danish industry colleagues to the series?

“Hopefully they’ll see it’s just sarcasm,” he said. “This is an extreme version of us.”