Claes Bang

Claes Kasper Bang (Danish: [ˈkʰlɛˀs ˈpɑŋˀ]; born 28 April 1967) is a Danish actor and musician. He is best known for playing the leading role of Christian in Ruben Östlund's 2017 film The Square, which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and for the role of Fjölnir in Robert Eggers's 2022 film The Northman. In 2019, he played the role of Sasha Mann for the final season of The Affair, and he rose to further international recognition by starring as Count Dracula in the BBC/Netflix series Dracula (2020). For his role in The Square, he became the first Dane to win the European Film Award for Best Actor. Bang has also developed a music career under the moniker of This Is Not America. Bang was born in Odense on the Danish island of Funen. After his parents’ divorce, he mostly lived with his father and moved home frequently; he ended up attending several different schools while growing up. During his third year of high school, Bang participated in the musical Hair which sparked his interest in acting, and after he left school, he continued to do amateur theatre. At the age of 23, he made an application to the Danish National School of Theatre after discovering that the age limit for applying is 25. He was unsuccessful but applied again the next year and was accepted five days before his 25th birthday. He attended the school in 1992 and graduated with a diploma in 1996. His first theatre role after graduation was at Børneteatret Skægspire in the play Tudseakvariet, and he received his first breakthrough role in the Danish 1997 television show Taxa. He has worked mainly on stage and television in Denmark. From 2001 to 2004, he was a permanent member of the cast at Aalborg Teater. In 2002, he asked the theatre director for permission to perform a monologue called Ondskaben, which is based on Jan Guillou’s novel Evil. After leaving the theatre in 2004, Bang bought the rights to the work so he could perform the monologue at other theatres. He has performed the monologue almost 400 times, including an English language version in Denmark, Sweden, the UK, Germany, and South Africa.