Herbert Nordrum chooses the funniest — and, ironically, maybe most British — possible allegory when describing his involvement in Georgia Oakley’s Sense and Sensibility. “It feels like I’ve been dropped in the national English football team,” the Norwegian tells The Hollywood Reporter. “And everyone is passing me the ball, and they’re not being weird about it.”
You can’t blame Nordrum for feeling a little daunted. This windswept, earthy adaptation of Jane Austen’s beloved novel — out in U.S. theaters Friday — boasts an all-star ensemble of Brits (Daisy Edgar-Jones and George MacKay among them), was shot in the U.K. and is the actor’s first-ever English-language project.
He hasn’t asked Oakley, but Nordrum’s hunch is that she spotted him in Joachim Trier‘s The Worst Person in the World, his breakout feature, next to Renate Reinsve. At the top of our call, with Nordrum knee-deep in Sense and Sensibility press, we take a moment to reflect on the whirlwind success of that unsuspecting drama. “[Trier] deserves the position he’s in right now completely,” says Nordrum about his fellow countryman who, fast forward five years, is now an Oscar-winning filmmaker. “He’s just an amazing director — so playful, but at the same time, maybe the smartest person I know. And it’s the first time I felt someone valuing what I did,” continues Nordrum. “I learned a lot from him.”
Trier should be receiving a thank-you note from Oakley any day now. In Sense and Sensibility, Nordrum plays Colonel Brandon with heart-wrenching tenderness. Brandon is a gentle giant of a man, overcome by his feelings for Esmé Creed-Miles’ Marianne Dashwood. She mistakes his prudence for dullness early in the film when the charming but devious John Willoughby (Frank Dillane) comes calling. Brandon is left pining for Marianne from afar, Nordrum’s expressive eyes setting the scene for what might be the most romantic gesture in literature (and movie) history.
Nordrum had caught Oakley’s debut, Blue Jean (2022), and was very happy to submit a self-tape for the role. But he admits Jane Austen — shockingly — is not a “huge part” of Norwegian culture. “Not as much as it is here,” he says about England. “Everyone loves the films and loves her writing, so she’s definitely a big deal in Norway. But her books are not in our school system.”
So, it would be fair to presume that Nordrum might not have much of a relationship with this story. Those presumptions would be very wrong. “I saw the early version of Sense and Sensibility, Ang Lee’s version,” he says. “It’s one of my mother’s favorite films, and my sister as well. I remember seeing that when I was young and loved it.” But when he got this part and began his research, he “very quickly” decided not to rewatch the 1995 Oscar winner with Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet and Hugh Grant. In Nordrum’s words, he didn’t want to create any kind of tunnel vision. “From my conversations with Georgia and reading this script, it felt like it needed to be very, very grounded. It felt very important to bring myself into it instead of satisfying the idea of the character, if that makes sense.”
What he found particularly difficult about setting himself this task was shutting out the enduringly brilliant performance of the late Alan Rickman in that film. “I’m a massive fan of his,” explains Nordrum, “and I think everything he did became iconic and part of the culture, in a way. The bad guy in Die Hard and Love Actually and Harry Potter and Sense and Sensibility, his Colonel Brandon — somehow he made them all iconic.” It helped Nordrum to acknowledge that. “It’s very important to recognize the shoulders I stand on, but not reference them in any way and try to really look inwards instead.”
Thankfully, Brandon is one of Austen’s most introspective suitors, and Nordrum is not unlike the character in real life — thoughtful, gentle and a little self-effacing. He quickly found himself tapping into what was going on internally. “He’s too passionate. He has too many feelings, and it’s difficult to know how to handle them.” He and Oakley agreed that it “wasn’t like he’s cold in any way,” but that it’s actually “too much happening inside of him.” It’s a tidal wave of emotions that the Norwegian can relate to. “When falling in love, it becomes very scary. You don’t know what to say and everything you say is wrong. It’s easier to not say anything and maybe being misunderstood,” he says. Nordrum felt that way a little when courting his now-wife.
What powers Nordrum’s lovesick devotion is the gradual and unsuspecting rise in chemistry between his Brandon and Creed-Miles’ Marianne. “She’s an actor I admire a lot. She’s very inspiring to be around,” and, like Marianne, “knows what she likes,” says her co-star. Creed-Miles’ natural vivaciousness was a gift for Nordrum, who found an in by simply following her lead and “reacting to everything she did.” Nordrum even suspects she has a “little director” in her. “She knows what a scene needs for it to unfold in the right way. Our first scene together is where we’re at [the Dashwood] house drinking tea, and it’s very awkward.”
Creed-Miles asked if they could hold eye contact until right before the cameras began rolling. “Just to sit there and look each other in the eyes for as long as possible,” Nordrum recalls, “which made it super uncomfortable. I became very embarrassed, which was a great idea because it ended up building so much tension and a nervous energy.” It’s a small but firework-lighting piece of improv by Creed-Miles, who remains most critics’ standout Dashwood sister.
And with great Austen characters comes great responsibility. An army of Janeites, no doubt wielding their worn copies of Sense and Sensibility, are marching into cinemas around the world to watch an adaptation for a whole new generation. But Oakley’s approach diluted a lot of that pressure for the cast. “It didn’t really feel like a big machine at all,” says Nordrum. “It felt very much like an intimate film about love. About sisterhood, first and foremost,” he adds. “Two sisters and their love.”
What did weigh on Nordrum’s mind, however, was nailing an English accent. “It was really difficult. A lot of work with the dialect coach,” he tells THR. “I had to really try as hard as I could to get this old English flowing.” His grandfather was English, and much of the shoot involved being at a different moor or castle with wild horses galloping around every other week, Nordrum says. That made it a tad easier “getting into the [English] vibe,” apparently. In fact, he did so well that it almost sounds like the intonation has lingered.
That suits Nordrum — he’s keen to keep up the English-language features now that he’s cut his teeth riding horseback in the rolling hills of the British countryside. He’s proud of Norway’s film output, but concedes there are many more opportunities in the U.K. and in Hollywood. He has Georgia Oakley — “one of my favorite people I’ve ever worked with” — and Joachim Trier in his corner, at the very least. But who else is up there? “I have so many dream directors,” he says, adding that he’s a superfan of Toni Erdmann‘s Maren Ade: “She’s maybe my favorite director. She’s only made two films, but I love them both. She has produced a lot, and I’ve seen everything she’s produced as well.” Nordrum also loved Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir.
This autumn, though, Nordrum is channelling his inner Colonel Brandon. “After playing him, I appreciated that side of myself more,” he says toward the end of our call. “That it’s okay to be overwhelmed, or to not have a great answer to everything, and it’s okay not to get what you want immediately.” In his mind, Brandon’s a hero. “To love someone and then realize that you can’t have the person, and then to kind of step aside, but to still want to try to help her in any way… that’s huge, in my book.”
Nordrum is now an honorary Brit for his part in bringing Brandon to life in 2026. He’s pleased about this. Because what he really loved about making Sense and Sensibility? “Being called ‘darling’ and ‘babe’ every day. I’m gonna try bring that back to Norway.”
Focus Features‘ Sense and Sensibility hits U.S. theaters Oct. 16.