Ingvar as Ragnar, in a scene from the movie ‘Godland’.
Ingvar on the set of Icelandic TV series ‘Trapped’, with co-stars Ólafur Darri Ólafsson and Ilmur Kristjánsdóttir. Image by Lilja Jóns for RVK Studios.
On the set of TV series ‘Trapped’. Image by Lilja Jóns for RVK Studios.
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Ingvar Sigurðsson is among Iceland’s most established and celebrated actors, with more than 80 screen appearances. He spoke about recent projects, Icelandic storytelling, and Reykjavík travel tips (among other things) with Tina Jøhnk Christensen.
The view from the top floor of Ingvar Sigurðsson’s house in Reykjavík is magnificent. The house is located in the southwest part of the Icelandic capital and has a view to the Atlantic. It’s a view that Ingvar wouldn’t swap for anything in the world.
Despite being an internationally known actor currently appearing in Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon series on Netflix, Ingvar has no intention of leaving Iceland. This is partly because of his wife, actress Edda Arnljótsdóttir, and his children Snæfríður, Áslákur, Sigurður, and Hringur, but maybe even more so because of his local swimming pool, Vesturbæjarlaug.
“This is the thing that I miss the most when I’m not at home,” says Ingvar laughingly, while showing us the ocean view via Skype from his Reykjavík home. “I joke with my family that I miss it more than them when I’m away.”
This is often the case, because Ingvar is in demand. He’s currently working with fellow Nordic actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau on the TV series King and Conqueror, in which Ingvar plays Fitzosbern, a supporter and advisor to Coster-Waldau’s William of Normandy. It’s a series that takes place in England during the 11th century, around the time of the historic Battle of Hastings.
Ingvar isn’t a stranger to big productions. He’s appeared in big-budget movies such as Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016) and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018), in which he plays Gunnar Grimson, a wizard bounty hunter employed by the British Ministry of Magic.
However Zack Snyder, the director behind blockbusters such as Watchmen (2009) and Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), created the most impressive village for Rebel Moon that Ingvar had ever seen. Even the set of Zack Snyder’s superhero film Justice League, in which Ingvar plays the mayor, could not compare to the Rebel Moon set in Santa Clarita, California.
“It’s the biggest [production] I’ve been on,” he says about the sci-fi fantasy epic Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire and Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver.
“It was really impressive. The set of the village was huge. Everything had to be really well organized and that was the case for every department. There were so many actors and extras and they had to be transported to this remote location, which was so far away from any studio, quite far north of Los Angeles. The films were shot during covid, so we also had to take many precautions and it was so incredibly hot. It wasn’t an easy shoot, yet Zack’s enthusiasm was amazing and kept us all upbeat.”
Ingvar plays Hagen, one of the farmers on the planet Veldt, a far-off moon where the villagers live in a simple, peaceful environment reminiscent of medieval times. Here, the small community sustains themselves growing grain, but when they’re attacked by evil forces who want the harvest, peace is threatened. Hagen is one of the villagers who takes up the fight against the attackers.
“The reason I was attracted to [the story] and really wanted to play Hagen was that he is such a nice guy,” stresses Ingvar. “Usually, when I’m cast in foreign movies, I’m cast as some sort of bad-ass guy, and it was so refreshing that he [Hagen] was just a really good person, and it just felt so nice. I was like: ’Thank you for trusting me with this role.’”
He pauses, perhaps reflecting on why he was so surprised and pleased to be offered the role of a ‘good guy’ in a Hollywood movie. “Somehow if you have a slight accent and a strong face, they seem to think: ‘Yeah, he’ll be the bad guy.’”
Godland follows an idealistic Lutheran priest, Lucas (played by Elliott Crosset Hove), as he’s sent to Iceland by the Church of Denmark at the end of the 19th century, with the goal of establishing a parish and erecting a church, as well as photographing the people. Ragnar reluctantly helps Lucas navigate the harsh Icelandic landscape, while cursing him for being a ‘Danish Devil’.
“Elliott came to screen it [Godland] here in Iceland and we went to cinemas around the country, and he felt quite embarrassed that he was from Denmark,” recalls Ingvar about his colleague, who represents the Danish establishment in Godland.
Iceland under the Danish crown can be a somewhat fraught subject. “I was like ‘Come on, man – it wasn’t as bad as you think.’ We benefitted hugely from being part of Denmark. We were able to study in Denmark and we had special deals. Both nations benefitted.”
It’s not only Vesturbæjarlaug, Ingvar’s local swimming pool, that makes him stay in Iceland. But it’s one of the top three things! His advice is for travelers to skip the famous Blue Lagoon when they visit Iceland, and instead do as the locals do: Go to the pools.
“This is the real deal,” says Ingvar. “Our pools are like luxury spas. They’re outside and I always undress outside. Not inside. I stretch in the hot-pot, enjoy the steam room, and I swim a little bit, and I’m like a newborn baby afterwards. You’re so clean afterwards – inside and outside. It’s really good therapy.”
There are plenty of things to do in Reykjavík, and Ingvar highlights a few picks. There’s Bió Paradís, the downtown cinema, where you can watch all kinds of independent movies. The cinema also houses festivals throughout the year. It’s also a good social gathering place. There’s Harpa, the concert hall, which has an amazing spirit inside. There’s Grandi, the old fishing harbor, which he describes as cool with fancy stores and restaurants and a great atmosphere. And of course, Laugavegur, the main shopping street.
“When I was a child, my parents had a children’s clothing shop there at number 62, so I grew up partly on that street and it’s changed enormously because of tourism. It’s always been busy, but now it’s also busy with tourists.”
Outside of Reykjavík, Ingvar recommends the Eastfjords, the eastern part of Iceland. His mother is from one of these fjords and parts of A White, White Day was shot there.
“The tunnel [scene], where I had my screaming girl on my back, was shot in the tunnel on the way to my mother’s childhood home,” explains Ingvar about a pivotal scene in the film, where father and daughter emerge from a fog that blurs the line between sky and earth. “I always feel like my ancestors are coming to my body when I’m there, so it was special shooting that scene there.”
He suggests going to Lónsöræfi, in the eastern highlands, where they shot a lot of Godland, and the area known as Húnavatnssýsla, in northwest Iceland.
”I was a farm boy here,” he says. “Everybody in my generation was sent out to work on a farm in the summertime and this is where my father’s ancestors were from. So I also feel very connected to this land.”
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This article was orginally published in 2024, and updated in 2026.
Tina is an award-winning journalist and author from Odense, Denmark. Since 2013, she has been a voter for the Golden Globe Awards. Tina is based in Los Angeles and is a regular visitor to Iceland, which she loves. She covers film-related subjects for Icelandair.
In Iceland, such typecasting isn’t an issue for Ingvar. Here, his roles are as complex as his talent is versatile.
Recently he was praised for the supporting role of Ragnar in Icelandic writer-director Hlynur Pálmason’s Godland, a Danish-Icelandic co-production. The film was presented in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2022 film festival in Cannes, was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award, and was shortlisted for Best International Feature at the 2024 Oscars.
“We’re from an island in the middle of the Atlantic and it’s very exotic,” says Ingvar, in an attempt to explain how a small country like Iceland can make a big mark internationally as a film nation.
“We’ve been storytellers since medieval times. We have the old sagas and they are our jewel and pride and we never lost the skill of telling stories. We always want to keep cultivating our artistic expression, and we want to be independent and show the world that we really are equal to everyone. We work hard at it – it’s in our DNA.”
Ingvar is a regular in Hlynur Pálmason’s movies. He played the lead in A White, White Day, which was presented in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2019 film festival in Cannes. It’s a mystery thriller about grief and unconditional love. Ingvar plays a father, widower, and small-town sheriff who has been off-duty since his wife disappeared. He was nominated for Best Actor at the European Film Awards for his performance.
Ingvar is also a regular in the productions of another prolific Icelandic director, namely Baltasar Kormákur. He appeared in Baltasar’s big-budget English-language films such as Everest (2015) and his Icelandic productions such as Jar City (2006), plus the TV series Trapped (2015-2021) and Katla (2021).
“Both of them are really fantastic ambassadors for Iceland,” he says of the two filmmakers.
“They are both very hard-working guys. But they are very different creatively and that’s great. Hlynur makes artistic movies and people are crazy about him all over the world after Godland. He’s getting more and more known internationally and his success is very promising for the future.”
Does Ingvar see himself as an ambassador for Iceland too? “I don’t think about it that way, but everywhere I go, I do talk about being from Iceland. When I was younger and came to LA, no one understood why I lived there. Now, Iceland is on the map because of our growing tourism, and people get it why I don’t want to leave.”
Actor Ingvar Sigurðsson on Film, Fame, & Iceland | Icelandair US
