He’s one of Europe’s most acclaimed actors. Now, thanks to a starring role opposite Tom Cruise in this month’s Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, the 51-year-old Swede is on the brink of becoming the same in America.

by Matt Berical

If you were to pass Michael Nyqvist on the streets of New York, Los Angeles, or any other American city, you probably wouldn’t even turn your head. Even as he entered the Men’s Journal offices dressed in a chambray shirt and dark jeans, a healthy amount of gray stubble adding depth to his already thick jaw, few heads turned. And yet, this suits him just fine. Nyqvist is an observer, a studier of the mechanics of the human condition, someone who enjoys watching others from afar, gleaning bits and pieces from them. And that’s exactly what makes him such a fine actor. “Some of the best tools an actor has are listening and empathy,” says Nyqvist. “I have material wherever I go. I’m curious about everyone, so I like to sit and stare and study. People are so very interesting.”

But in his home country of Sweden and Europe as a whole, Nyqvist doesn’t have the luxury to sit and observe unnoticed. There, he can’t stare; people are staring at him. The Swedish actor is one of Europe’s most popular, due to his acclaimed performance as Mikael Blomkvist in the Swedish adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s The Millennium Trilogy, starring alongside Noomi Rapace’s Lisbeth Salander. Trained at the School of Drama in Malmö, the 51-year old Nyqvist has been acting for nearly thirty years. Along the way, he’s starred on screen and stage, playing everything from schizophrenics to sociopaths and winning some of Sweden’s most coveted awards in the process, including a Guldbagge Award for Best Male Actor (their equivalent of the Oscars).

Before visiting Men’s Journal, Nyqvist enjoyed strolling Manhattan’s streets, where he was free to study the characters around him. Remaining unknown in America, however,  is a luxury he won’t enjoy much longer. After roles in Abduction and Downloading Nancy, Nyqvist stars opposite Tom Cruise as the megalomaniacal villain in this month’s Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. We spoke with the actor about his introduction to American blockbusters, trading punches with Tom Cruise, and his strange relationship with the late Millennium Trilogy scribe Stieg Larsson.

Ghost Protocol is the first true blockbuster in which you’ve been involved. How was it different?

It’s another challenge, of course. To be truthful, I think the difference between Hollywood and Europe in a way is that in Europe we mostly do films describing the world. Here, you build a new world. I found that to be really interesting. Plus, I had to work on this Oxfordian-style of talking.

We can’t imagine an English accent would have been too much trouble for you to pick up, as you’ve done many accents before.

Well, my language coach had worked with Sean Penn and the late Heath Ledger. And he was from Ireland. During my first lesson, he had me read one page out of King Lear. So I started, you know, “horses, horses, killing, killing, horses, love you.” And afterwards, he said, “we have an expression in Ireland, ‘it’s better to have a good shit, than a bad fuck.” He meant we needed to start from the beginning.

One of the biggest conversations surrounding this installment of the Mission Impossible series is that Tom Cruise did all his own stunts, including rappelling off the world’s tallest building, Dubai’s 2,723-feet high Burj Khalifa. Were you up there with him?

I was up there but I didn’t even look out. I’m scared of heights. But, with Tom who does pretty much everything before everyone else, including scaling that building, you just have to do it. In the end of the film, we have a big, big long fight. I remember he asked me once, “What’s your subtext here?” And I just said, “My only motivation is I don’t want to puke.” I’m so afraid of heights.

Did you have a problem doing any of the fight scenes?

No way. Fighting’s never been a problem. I’ve had fight scenes on theater stages and movie screens. Plus, I’ve practiced Thai Boxing for years, in addition to standard boxing. So hitting people? I love that. And Tom’s a guy I greatly admire. He’s very intense and focused, and we enjoyed each other very much. I missed him when we wrapped. He goes from zero to 100 in a nanosecond, and I do too. So he and I were able to bring the level up higher and higher in not only the fighting sequences, but in all sequences. It was a lot of fun.

How was it playing such a large-scale villain?

Whatever role I play, I have to find a way to defend it. What I love about Hendricks, my character in this film, is that he tries to solve the big questions his own way. The world today is very fundamentalist; no matter what beliefs each person has, everyone thinks they’re going to make the world better through their own eyes. So I read a lot of fundamentalist material to try to come up with a set of beliefs this man would follow. I remember reading an interview with Charles Manson when he was asked about how he became a guru for his people. “It’s easy,” he said. “I don’t lie.” He was so certain he was right. That was the key for me.

To continue reading 60 Minutes with Michael Nyqvist, click through to the second page.

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