I have been connected with the Niels Bohr Institute since the completion of my university studies, first as a research fellow and, from 1956, as a professor of physics at the University of Copenhagen. After the death of my father in 1962, I followed him as director of the Institute until 1970.
If the role is challenging enough, I don't see why I shouldn't play an older man or a father figure. It is not about playing what you are in real life. We are called actors for a reason!
Many people, including me, thought it was too early for me to play a father to two grown-up daughters, but I found the script of 'Dangal' irresistible. I had to do it!
My father left me with his love of Jewish studies and cultural life. To this very day, along with several physicians and scientist colleagues, I take regular periodical lessons taught by a Rabbinical scholar on how the Jewish law views moral and ethical problems related to modern medicine and science.
My father, I think he played percussion in high school. My mother played piano when she was very young, but only for a brief while. I don't think she had a great teacher. In any case, neither of them were really into music at a young age.
My grandfather, Arthur Baskerville, he played and still plays a little bit piano and trombone, and so when I was a kid, I always heard jazz around the house, but I also went to his gigs, whether it be a Saturday brunch in my hometown Columbus, Ohio. We'd go and hear him play with some of the local musicians.
My wife is from Copenhagen and her father has been a huge Liverpool supporter since the early 1960s.
When Obama was first proposed as a presidential candidate in 2007, the nation failed to have a meaningful debate concerning the serious constitutional issue of electing someone whose father was not a U.S. citizen.
My father was trained as a saddler, but in fact as a young man worked in his father's business of rearing and selling cattle, so he grew up in the countryside.
There's parts of it that I connect to - being a father and everything - but 'Mamma Mia!' allows me to go out there and be me and have fun. I've never really had the chance to do that with so much freedom.
