Kim Bodnia, the Jewish co-star of BBC’s latest hit Scandinavian drama, The Bridge, once aimed to be a professional goalkeeper, he told the Guardian — “I could have been the rival of Peter Schmeichel”.

Bodnia, who played Danish cop Martin Rohde in The Bridge, will be appearing on the big screen later this year in the film Rosewater, about a journalist detained in Iran. His role as an Iranian interrogator was “a tough job because I’m Jewish,” he said. “I’m playing a guy who really hates me and wants to destroy my country."