Pilou Asbæk

Early life

Asbæk was born in Copenhagen, the son of gallery owners Maria Patricia (née Tonn) and Jacob A. Asbæk, who run Galerie Asbæk in Copenhagen. His mother was born in Casablanca, to a Danish father and a French mother. His father is from Hammel. He has two older brothers, Thomas Asbæk, an art consultant at Asbæk Art Consulting, and Martin Asbæk, a gallery owner at Martin Asbæk Gallery.

Asbæk went to boarding school at Herlufsholm School where he was active in drama productions. He graduated from Denmark's National School of Theatre in summer 2008.

Television

In 2009, Asbæk played soldier David Grüner in an episode of the second season of another Danish TV series, The Killing (Danish: Forbrydelsen).

From 2010 to 2013, Asbæk played the spin-doctor, Kasper Juul, in the critically lauded Danish TV series Borgen written by Tobias Lindholm about the politics of a female Prime Minister of Denmark. Asbæk's performance was uniformly praised by critics. In 2014, the Danish public-funded DR cast Asbæk as Didrich, a landowner suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, in a big-budget period TV series called 1864.

In 2016, Asbæk joined the HBO series Game of Thrones in Season 6 as the ruthless pirate captain Euron Greyjoy.

Film

In 2011, Asbæk starred in another piece by Tobias Lindholm, in the film, R, as a Danish convict, portraying a harrowing prison experience. The film was shot in the Dogme 95-inspired style. The next year, in 2012, Asbæk starred in another Tobias Lindholm film called A Hijacking, about Somalian piracy, for which he transformed himself physically, gaining weight to imbue the role with method acting.

In 2013, Asbæk portrayed a flamboyant Danish tycoon named Simon Spies in the movie Sex, Drugs & Taxation (Danish: Spies & Glistrup). Asbæk co-stars opposite in the film with his wife's cousin, the actor Nicolas Bro, who plays the other main character, Mogens Glistrup.

In 2014, Asbæk starred opposite Scarlett Johansson in the Luc Besson film, Lucy. Also in 2014, Asbæk appeared in the Bille August film, Silent Heart (Danish: Stille Hjerte), in which his mother-in-law, Danish actress Vigga Bro, plays the character Lisbeth.

In 2015, Asbæk again collaborated with director Tobias Lindholm in the film, A War (Danish: Krigen), playing a soldier in Afghanistan. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival.

Asbæk co-starred in the 2016 remake of Ben-Hur, starring Jack Huston and Morgan Freeman. He portrayed Pontius Pilate.

Theater

Presenting

On 10 May 2014, Asbæk co-hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Copenhagen, with Lise Rønne and Nikolaj Koppel. Some critics commented adversely on the obscure jokes shared by the presenters throughout the televised show.

Personal life

Asbæk's wife is playwright Anna Bro, who has been his partner since 2008. She is the daughter of the actors Hans Henrik Clemensen and Vigga Bro and comes from an extended family of actors. The couple has a daughter, Agnes, born on 31 December 2012.

The nickname Pilou came from his mother's French ancestry, and is a French version of the word Pip. The nickname is because Asbæk was the youngest son, in French, "petit" for littlest, "Little Philip." Pilou is an abbreviation of Petit Philip.

Asbæk's godfather was the late artist, Kurt Trampedach.

Awards