The heart of Conflict
Finnish actor Peter Franzén shares insights into his role in upcoming thriller Konflikti (Conflict), the importance of the story behind the series and why a good script is always the key to finding his next role.
With credits including Vikings, The Wheel of Time and Helsinki Syndrome, Finnish actor Peter Franzén says he has enjoyed a “wonderful ride” across his 30-year screen career.
“As an actor, I’ve been very fortunate,” he tells DQ. “I’ve had a longish career, I’ve been able to portray different kinds of characters and it’s been a wonderful ride so far. I’ve been fortunate enough to have met a lot of wonderful people that trust in me.”
But it’s his latest role in Konflikti (Conflict) that he describes as one of his most “important” jobs to date. The six-part series, produced by Backmann & Hoderoff and XYZ Films for Finland’s MTV3, explores the idea of a proxy war – where a neutral country is attacked to provoke wider conflict – and the human drama of those forced into combat.
As a military unit completes its training exercises and a nation prepares to celebrate Midsummer’s Eve, an unknown enemy invades a picturesque Finnish peninsula. Separated from their fellow conscripts, squad leader Annika (Julia Korpinen) and her motley team of recruits escape into what is now an occupied area, while unit commander Captain Rami (Franzén) goes rogue in search of his wife and daughter.
Meanwhile, the US president and other allies urge Finland’s newly elected President Saaristo (Sara Soulié) to take decisive action fast as military action is met by counter-threats amid the possibility of all-out war.
Franzén was invited to join the project by director Aku Louhimes, whom he has known for three decades, and he says the subject matter was so important because of how it reflects Finland’s real-world security issues sharing a border with Russia, which is currently engaged in war in Ukraine.
“It’s a crazy world we live in now,” he says. “It was something I had on my heart for such a long time because I was brought up with my grandparents who were fighting for our independence in the Second World War. That burden, that toll, has been with me all the time and now, for the first time in my life, I was saying, ‘OK, what could I do and what would I do if it’s something that happened?’
“Of course, as an actor, this is the best I can do, and hopefully nothing more happens. I’m so proud of the Finnish Defence Forces and Finns, even though there are disagreements in a lot of things. But one thing is pretty clear: that we want to be independent, to have our own language, our own culture, and we want to keep it that way. That’s why Finns have always been prepared. I’m very happy with how the series turned out.”
Conflict, the actor says, is the kind of Finnish drama he hasn’t seen before, and one he hopes will make people more interested in politics not just in Finland but across Europe.
“When you read the script and you see where it’s happening, for Finns, it raises all the hair on your arms and on the back of your neck because it’s your place,” he says. “For a foreigner who watches this series, this is the beauty of our country. It’s rather amazing at times, the archipelago and the forests and everything. So when you read the script, you submerge yourself into defending Finland immediately. It’s in our hearts.”
In the series, Captain Rami sets out to defend his conscripts but is also facing his own demons and striving to save his own family. “He has PTSD, he is suffering a lot of pain and he is trying to hide it – but not very well,” Franzén says about his character. “But he goes on a mission of his own and, of course, that’s a bit of a dilemma in a hostile territory. So it was interesting to try to portray a person who would go on a mission on his own. He is not Rambo, but it’s towards that. He’s not capable of doing any superhuman feats, but he’s an able soldier. It was interesting to portray a person like that and to use the skills I have learned along the way.”
As a former army sniper, the actor found Conflict gave him the chance to refresh the skills he picked up during military service, as well as his experience training with the SAS and Navy SEALs for previous film and television roles. This was made particularly important by the fact Louhimes placed greater emphasis on practical effects, rather than inserting visual effects during post-production.
“I enjoy physicality. I’m not a young guy anymore, but I can still keep up,” he says. “And I like actual effects and having to do your own stunts as far as it’s reasonable. I enjoy that. But every bit of action has to have drama – otherwise it’s dull and it’s meaningless. So if the action is incorporated into the drama then it works out for me.”
“The military stuff we did was pretty accurate to what the instructors there were telling us to do and showing us how to do. We tried to mimic and to do things the way we knew how, but action for action’s sake is not interesting; it’s about the people. If you get into the human soul, if you can portray that well enough for the audience, you can pretty much portray anything in any circumstances. You have to find the human in every character.”
With the show due to debut in Finland this Saturday, Keshet International is also shopping Conflict to international buyers, and Franzén believes the series tells a David and Goliath story that audiences around the world can relate to.
“We’re a small nation, Finland, and to me it’s always been most interesting to watch David beat Goliath,” he says. “But I hope people will find my character’s battle interesting and touching to a degree. I’m sure there are lots of people who have had PTSD.
“That might be one of the biggest things that people will be able to relate to. Helping one another, being there, noticing when somebody is in distress or in need of some sort of assistance, and maybe this can even prompt people to be more brave in regular, normal, everyday life to pinpoint and see those things in your fellow human being. But of course, it’s not really happening. It’s an action drama about people defending their right to live as an independent country.”
Through his career, Franzén has always sought out characters he hasn’t played before, whether that’s Rami in Conflict, King Harald Finehair in Vikings or Elias Karo in heist thriller Helsinki Syndrome.
“But for the most part, it’s all about the script. If that appeals to me, then it’s about the character,” he says. “You can always develop the character if the script is really good and the character, to your mind, is lacking something. There’s always a little possibility for the actor to pitch in and maybe develop the character a little bit further. With that, of course, the story becomes more full. But for the most part, it’s the script and, of course, the people attached that will definitely lure me into something interesting.”
Franzén has recently wrapped another show, Icelandic-Finnish series Everybody Loves Horses, which is produced by Sagafilm and Kaiho Republic for RUV and YLE. “It’s completely different [from Conflict],” he says. “No killing, only broken hearts and lots of animals. It was lovely to make a thing like that.”
He is also on the board of Oulu-based production company NTRNZ Media, which specialises in documentaries and TV series.
Yet Franzén remains most recognisable for his role in Vikings, appearing in almost 50 episodes of the History Channel drama created and written by Michael Hirst. Reflecting on that experience, Franzén praises Hirst for being so open with the actors on the show and inviting them to help develop character story arcs with him.
“He took us aside after every block of two episodes and he was like, ‘OK, it’s time for us to have a little chat’ with a glass of wine, or a bottle of wine, in his favourite restaurant,” the actor recalls. “We would talk about our character’s development with him and he would ask if we had any good ideas or where our characters were in the next five episodes.
“It’s quite seldom that an actor can be a part of it, so we were fortunate in that sense,” he adds. “Of course, though it’s a cliché to say, that was a big family. All the actors are still pretty much in contact with each other and some of the team. We got glued together in a way. It was amazing, the whole thing.”
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tagged in: Backmann & Hoderoff, Conflict, Franzén, Konflikti, MTV3, XYZ Films