Interview: Simon Lööf on ‘An Honest Life’
An Honest Life, the latest film from director Mikael Marcimain, may debut on Netflix tomorrow, but it has been two years since Simon Lööf first stepped into the role, with production commencing all the way back in October 2023. “It’s weird because it’s been so long since we started filming,” he says, reflecting on the long road to the film’s release. “After you’ve done shooting, it’s in you for a little while, but after two years you kind of forget about it.”
Now, with the film’s release finally in motion, Lööf finds himself revisiting not only the character of Simon, with whom he coincidentally shares a name, but also the whirlwind months of filming that also marks his first ever starring role in a film. “It gives you flashbacks to two years ago, and you kind of rethink everything again and reflect,” he adds. “I mean, I’m just excited for it to finally come out, and for people to see and hopefully enjoy the work that we all did.”
The Swedish thriller follows Simon, a sheltered law student who arrives in Lund full of anticipation and ready for his life to really begin. During a violent protest march he meets the anarchistic young woman Max and falls in love. Finding himself disappointed with his experience at law school, Simon is easily dazzled by Max (played by Nora Rios), and her world of excess, lies and huge risks. And when he realizes the damage that’s already been done, he also realizes that it’s already too late to escape.
For Lööf, the role came at a formative time in his career, while he was in Greece filming So Long, Marianne, a miniseries about the 1960s romance between Leonard Cohen (played by Alex Wolff) and Marianne Ihlen (played by Thea Sofie Loch Næss), the Norwegian woman who inspired Cohen’s song “So Long, Marianne.” Lööf starred as Göran Tunström, a Swedish author who was also friends with the couple. “I got an e-mail from my agent and from the casting director, Jeanette [Klintberg], who is incredible,” he recalls. “I love trying out for her projects. She’s very good to work with. At the time, I was in Greece so I did the self tape. And when I got back to Sweden, I got a call back, went in for a second round and then a third round.” Eventually, he tested opposite Nora Rios, who plays Max in the film. “I guess it’s not like I picked the project,” he says. “Obviously I wanted to. But I was the lucky one who got the part.”
Once cast, he turned to the source material to try to find the character. “I read the book, and I thought it was really interesting,” he says. “And I really wanted to try and obviously make it as good as I possibly could. I wanted to try to find the Simon in the book, and find that side of me and try to portray him. So I was so happy when I got it because I thought it was a really interesting project. It’s kind of dark, which I like.”
It’s a surprise to learn that An Honest Life marks Lööf’s first ever starring role in a film. Mostly known for his charismatic turn in hit Viaplay series, Threesome, which lasted for two seasons, Lööf is virtually in almost every scene of An Honest Life, confidently carrying the film on his shoulders and delivering a complex, surprisingly nuanced performance in the process. “I don’t like to overthink the character,” he says of his approach to the performance. “If I just bounce and play with what I’m getting, I’ll find it. I like to just be in the moment when we’re shooting. That’s what makes it true. If you’re trying too much, it doesn’t click.”
Simon (the character, not Lööf) is a bundle of contradictions. He’s smart and driven, but also uncertain. Uncertain of himself, uncertain of his future and uncertain of the career path he chose for himself. It’s apparent in the way he interacts with his fellow students and even in the way he conducts himself in class, distracted by his surroundings rather than focused on the professors instructing him. “It wasn’t like he decided to go into law because it’s a good choice,” says Lööf. “I don’t think he was really sure about it, like a hundred percent sure within himself.”
That lack of certainty makes him vulnerable to outside parties, including Max and his roommates Ludvig and Victor. “He doesn’t really know what’s going on, you know? He’s so conflicted,” says Lööf. “So he hits rock bottom. And I think that’s life, you know? The real changes that you do in life, they come from when you hit rock bottom. So that made it easier for him to get drawn into whatever happens next.”
What happens next is Max, a force of nature who draws Simon into her orbit. Simon first comes across Max on his first day in Lund. Shortly after arriving by train, he accidentally finds himself caught up in the middle of a protest, where he saves Max (and subsequently puts himself in danger) from being apprehended by the police. “He falls in love with this girl who is so different from any girl he’s ever been with or met from his small little hometown,” he says. “So I think he decided on this and thought like, ‘Okay, this is what I’m gonna do because it’s a safe bet.’ And then suddenly he just gets a right or left hook in the form of this girl. It’s so unexpected.”
The film marks a shift in Simon’s psyche, and Lööf wanted to make sure the audience could see it clearly through his performance. It’s a tightrope walk of a performance, with Lööf perfectly capturing two very different sides to Simon; the lost, aimless young man he was before he met Max and the street-smart, savvy he becomes by the time the film ends. “I think it was important to show who he is down deep now and that it was necessary for him to change into what he eventually becomes,” he explains. “He’s finally standing up for himself and starts thinking with reason instead of going off of his feelings.”
If Simon is uncertainty personified, Max is the epitome of confidence. Brash, bold and fearless, it’s easy to see why Simon was drawn to her. But even though they get closer and closer as the film progresses, Max remains an enigma to Simon. Throughout the course of the film, she stays firmly out of reach for Simon despite his many attempts to decode her. “We see Simon trying to get to know her, but he doesn’t fully know her,” says Lööf of the dynamic between them. “But that’s one thing that he for sure wanted—to know who she is. He’s interested but never really gets a grip of her because she is loose, just free. And he doesn’t really understand, I think, what that really is.”
Max doesn’t live alone. She’s part of a commune led by the enigmatic Charles (Peter Andersson), a rag‑tag collective of rejects and anarchists who share everything; meals, clothes, even living space. Simon is initially taken aback by the unfamiliar dynamics, and even more so by the people themselves. That inability to fully understand the world Max brings him into is key to understanding Simon’s narrative. “When he sees all of these different types of people, it’s hard for him to comprehend [Max and her lifestyle],” he says. “He’s trying to figure it out.” For Lööf, the themes ended up hitting close to home. “Part of my life, I lived in a very small town and it’s so different from the big cities like Stockholm,” he explains. “Here, there are small communities everywhere, but it’s not really the same thing.”
Simon doesn’t live alone either. He rents a room in an apartment shared by two rich, obnoxious former law students Ludvig (Christoffer Rigeblad) and Victor (Fabian Hedlund), who invent new fees to tack on to his rent and frequently force him to clean up after them, treating him like a servant rather than a roommate. One scene in particular, where Ludvig and Victor invite Simon to a dinner party only for him to find out that they want him to set the table and wash the dishes, is particularly hard to watch. “I remember when we shot that scene and after maybe even the first take, we were all like, ‘Ah, that’s tough.’ Like everyone just felt bad for Simon,” says Lööf of the scene. “The scene is actually [shortened] in the film. Initially, when we shot it, it was a lot longer. Everyone else did such a good job and just being with them and the way that they acted made it natural. I was pissed off and felt unfairly treated for real because they were not nice. But we laughed about it, obviously, afterwards. And it was a fun scene to shoot because there was a lot of tension.”
Earlier this year, Lööf also had a supporting role in Paul W. S. Anderson‘s In the Lost Lands. Based on the short story of the same name by Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin, the film stars Milla Jovovich and Dave Bautista as a witch and a hunter, respectively, who journey into a dangerous landscape to find an artifact for a queen. Lööf starred as Jerais, the Queen’s loyal guard and advisor, deeply entwined in the court’s politics and intrigues.
Carrying a budget of $55M, In the Lost Lands was a different, far more expensive, experience for Lööf, who describes the experience as a step up for him as an actor. “I’m still very thankful to just being able to work but yeah, it was a huge step up for me in regards to budget and scale of a film, a film set,” he says. “So I learned a lot. After that shoot, I now have more confidence to being able to read scripts and see what makes a good film and what doesn’t. And also how I work as an actor—what works best for me and what doesn’t. So I’d say it was a huge learning experience for me.”
As for what’s next, Lööf says he is keeping his options open but he’s particularly interested in playing darker characters as opposed to traditional heroes. “Right now, it is this, An Honest Life,” he says. “But I’m still at the point where I just want to do as much as possible, different types of genres, characters. I want to explore my darker side even more. I think I want to play villains, not heroes. And obviously go over to the States and try to explore over there.”
But for now, Lööf is focused on An Honest Life, a project he’s been extremely passionate about for years now, and one he hopes that audiences will connect with just as much as he has. “I hope that they can see—not that I hope they go down his route—but that they can see themselves in [Simon]”, he says. “Even if it’s an older audience that says, ‘Oh, yeah, I’ve been there.’ And maybe also people that are in that situation, they don’t really know what to do. And hopefully it raises questions within people in the search for what they want. Sometimes, you maybe have to listen to both sides of yourself to find what you really want to do.”
AN HONEST LIFE begins streaming on Netflix tomorrow.