Tomorrow’s dreams are enough for me

Hjörtur Jóhann Jónsson stars in the Icelandic horror film Órád, which premiered yesterday. Hjörtur realized late that he was going to become an actor, but loves his work, which he speaks sincerely here with life and existence in an interview with Birna Dröfn Jónasdóttir.
“I never intended to become an actor, it never crossed my mind,” says actor Hjörtur Jóhann Jónsson, who plays the lead role in the film Órád, which premiered place yesterday.
“My mom and dad are both actors and everyone around me is into the arts, but my parents didn’t push me into it at all, it was more the other way around. said if I had a passion and I loved something else, I should focus on that,” he says with a smile.
Hjörtur grew up in Vesturær and was in the Ofleik theater company when he attended Hagaskóli, then he went to Menntaskólin’s theater company in Hamrahlíð, but he didn’t realize he wanted to be an actor until what he participates in the Student Theatre. . Since then, he has acted in around 700 plays and numerous movies and TV shows.
“I always really loved acting when I was younger, but I never imagined it was the profession I would work in,” he says. “I studied philosophy in college, but I actually thought it was more fun to discuss philosophy in the cafeteria than to attend classes, so I enrolled in geography, because I was so interested in the outdoors and mountaineering. But then I also found it so boring that I went back to philosophy,” Hjörtur adds with a laugh.
When Hjörtur went to student theater, he says he found a new connection to acting. “There it was on a different ‘level’ than I was used to and I could use philosophy and many other things that I knew and knew as an actor,” Hjörtur explains.
At the student theater, Hjörtur met Kolbein Arnbjörnsson, an actor, and together they decided to apply to theater school. “We went to a semi-acting boot camp. There was swimming every morning and then we practiced monologues and all kinds of plays all day. It paid off and we both got in. ”
Hearts Jóhann JónssonPhoto credit: Anton Brink
The years in Hagaskoli
While Hjörtur was growing up in Vesturær, there was a lot of unrest in Hagaskóli and it was difficult to maintain discipline at school. Teenagers came to school with bombs, then the police had to watch the students. Hjörtur did not participate in the disturbance, but says that during the situation he did not realize the seriousness of it. “You thought it was just something flippant, but when I think about it, it’s a very serious matter. It’s 13, 14 and 15-year-old kids taking bombs to school, it’s a very serious matter. crazy,” he said.
“There was so much going on in those days and it was a really tough world for a lot of people. I was just kind of between the bands. Not very cool and not quite at the bottom either, so I think I had a good time there,” Hjörtur says, but he remembers a story where he was supposed to be beaten at school.
“I never got into a fight or anything like that, but it was really because I bought a FUBU red jumpsuit and a tenth-grade boy had the exact same jumpsuit. He put on angry and we found out he was going to beat me. I was scared to death, but someone told him Helga Braga was my sister and he stopped. So she saved me there.” says Hjörtur, whose sister is actress Helga Braga Jónsdóttir.
“So it was kind of like that at that point that you didn’t say anything or discuss anything, I don’t think I even talked to him about it until much later,” says- he.
“I was just remembering the other day that when I was little I was bullied at school. It was sweet compared to how bullying can be but it was really bad and I didn’t even tell my mum and dad about it, they came from the mountains when they found out.”
Hjörtur has a three-year-old daughter and a seven-year-old son, and he says he does his best to teach them how to express their feelings and how to talk. “It can only cause anxiety and various problems if you don’t talk,” he says.
Did you struggle with anxiety after that?
“No, I’ve never done that and I consider it a great blessing because anxiety is so common. I’ve often experienced normal anxiety and once experienced abnormal anxiety, it was an awful feeling. Anxiety is very common, but it can be treated and it’s important to remember that. So it’s totally normal to be nervous, but not to be nervous,” Hjortur says.
Brynja Björnsdóttir, Hjartar’s wife, was diagnosed with MS, and during the diagnosis, Hjartur says she felt extreme and abnormal anxiety. “I completely lost control of my reasoning and became anxious about all sorts of other things. The anxiety just took hold of something, for example, I had it in my brain after seeing an article about a boy who had a difficult disease and my son had this disease, I just couldn’t stop thinking about it I thought I would be useless, that there was a void in the wall because I had never had anxiety. But then I realized that it was not normal and that I needed help and I got it and it went well . But I found I couldn’t do it alone, I got help to untangle it.”
Hearts Jóhann JónssonPhoto credit: Anton Brink
Four firsts
When Hjörtur and I met in a café, it was three days after the start of Órád. Although the year was short, this was the fourth premiere of the year for Hjartar. “It was a lot of fun and a lot of fun,” says Hjörtur, who also starred in Macbeth at Borgerleichún, the role of Runólf in the Napoleonic Documents and a role in the French film Grand Marin. . “These are all such different projects and the work environment is so different, but on both fronts you tell stories and study human life and the person, you get to know so many people up close in each project, and I like to do theater and cinema.” said Hjörtur.
The show Nine Lives has enjoyed great popularity in this country, and Hjörtur says it’s important to give your all to every show. “Of course, it’s very special to show the same show so many times like Niu liv, that’s more than 170 shows. Me and the whole group of the show are trying our best to keep the show good, to have the same energy in the show 170 than there was in show one or show 20. This show is really big and it has a great atmosphere, but basically the show is the story of Bubba’s life, the life of a man who has suffered trauma and overcome it. It is important that the heart and the energy remain in such a spectacle,” says Hjörtur.
The movie Órád is different from a lot of things Hjörtur has done before, but it’s an Icelandic horror movie of the best kind. “There is something very special about horror films and they have their place in the cinematic flora, it’s quite unique. There are entire film festivals dedicated to horror, and people love it This movie starts with an ordinary family in Reykjavík, and then weird things start to happen, incredibly exciting.”
Asked what lies ahead, Hjörtur says he’s not known for planning far in advance. “I usually don’t think too far ahead, the dreams of tomorrow are enough for me. I love playing and I love being a family man and I look forward to the next projects,” concludes Hjörtur.
Author: Birna Dröfn Jónasdóttir
Hearts Jóhann JónssonPhoto credit: Anton Brink