After three countries and eight cities, I’m a man of many lives. I was born in Riihimäki, one of the most crime-ridden towns of Finland, but my mother took me to the rural paradise of Hailuoto, population 1000, after which I roamed Finland north and south. I studied arts and crafts in Oulu, cinema in Rovaniemi, arctic warfare in Sodankylä, and Meisner technique in Helsinki, all the while working odd jobs in cafes, paint shops, and telemarketing hells, or hardening my skin as an entrepreneur – and it all works charms for my acting.
After Steven Ditmyer’s Meisner workshop in 2014, I went on to perform in commercials, short films, music videos, and TV-series like the 2016 summer spin-off for Salatut elämät (Secret Lives). On my travels in Paris and Amsterdam I studied screenwriting with Nick Bain (The Man Who Knew Infinity), Meisner technique with Debra Mulholland (Hunter Street), and Strasberg’s method with the magnificent André Landzaat (General Hospital, The Actor’s Studio), and I got to play the fantastic Lord Byron in George Isherwood’s play A Dreary Night in November.
It all boils down to self-development and the Truth. Apart from movies, strength-training, and all-round wellness, they are my dearest hobbies. I’m always learning more about myself, the world, and skills like boxing, tennis, guitar playing, singing, and gymnastics. This often plays into preparing for a dream role physically, mentally, as well as spiritually, studying characters, and most importantly, going for the Truth both personally and artistically which is my number one goal in life.
“Acting is living truthfully under imaginary circumstances.”
– Sanford Meisner
“Acting is the most personal of our crafts. The make-up of a human being – his physical, mental and emotional habits – influence his acting to a much greater extent than commonly recognized.”
–Lee Strasberg
“The person you are is a thousand times more interesting than the best actor you could ever hope to be.”
– Constantin Stanislavsky
The search for Truth will never end, of course, but I keep going and I do my best to type it into screenplays and show it on screen – not to mention True Blog and Characters.