A Danish actress abroad: From Copenhagen to Los Angeles

Leaving Denmark

At sixteen, I boarded my first international flight: a trip to Northern California as an exchange student. I had saved the money by delivering newspapers. Until then, travel had meant family visits, country drives, and the occasional trip across the Swedish border. California was a different scale of departure.

The Orbit Hostel on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles.

I didn’t know then how much the experience would affect my life. My American accent gradually became second nature, and later became part of the work I was cast for.

Los Angeles

A few years later, I returned to the United States to study at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in Los Angeles. I had found the school in a magazine and decided, almost on impulse, to audition.

I remember stepping out at LAX and recognizing a city I knew mostly from films. My first stop was the Orbit Hostel in West Hollywood. I met people passing through Los Angeles for all kinds of reasons: aspiring actors, musicians, writers, and travelers.

One long-term guest gave me a folded map covered in handwritten notes: where to find farmers’ markets, which neighborhoods to avoid, and where groceries were cheapest. For a while, that map was my guide to the city.

A Career Across Borders

In the years that followed, acting took me between countries. I auditioned in Canada, spent stretches couch-surfing while looking for work, handled visa applications between projects, and later lived in London. I eventually returned to Copenhagen, where I’m based now.

Danish actress Liv Hansen in Los Angeles, where she trained at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute.

The work has included film, stage, and voiceover. Moving between places and languages has been a practical part of my career, not a grand plan. Each project has depended on the opportunity in front of me, and on being ready to work in a different setting.

Back in Copenhagen

My life and work are based in Denmark now, but the years abroad remain part of my professional history. They shaped the languages I work in, the places I know, and the range of productions I’ve been part of.

The route from Denmark to California, Los Angeles, Canada, and London was less straightforward than I imagined at sixteen. It is one part of how I became a Danish actress with an international working life.

Further Reading

• Working With Directors: What Happens Between Takes

• Acting in Canada as an International Actor

• How I Prepare for an Acting Role Without Overthinking It