Connie Nielsen

Connie Nielsen
Nielsen in 2016
Born	Connie Inge-Lise Nielsen (1965-07-03) 3 July 1965 (age 59) Frederikshavn, Denmark
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1984–present
Partner	Lars Ulrich (2004–2012)
Children	2

Connie Inge-Lise Nielsen (born 3 July 1965) ^{[1] [2]} is a Danish actress. She has starred as Lucilla in the films Gladiator (2000) and Gladiator II (2024) and as Queen Hippolyta in the DC Extended Universe. She has also starred in films such as Soldier (1998), Mission to Mars (2000), One Hour Photo (2002), Basic (2003), The Hunted (2003), The Ice Harvest (2005), Nymphomaniac (2013), 3 Days to Kill (2014), Inheritance (2020), and Nobody (2021). ^[3]

She also had roles as New York Police Department Detective Dani Beck, the temporary partner of Christopher Meloni's Elliot Stabler in the NBC crime drama series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2006), the Starz political drama series Boss (2011–2012), the Fox crime thriller series The Following (2014), and the TNT limited drama series I Am the Night (2019), and starred in the Channel 4 drama series Close to Me in 2021.

Early life

Nielsen was born in Frederikshavn and grew up in the village of Elling, Denmark. ^[4] Her father, Bent Nielsen, was a bus driver, and her mother, Laila Inge-lise Matzigkeit (1945–2014), was an insurance clerk, who also acted and wrote musical reviews. ^{[5] [6]} She was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Mormon. ^[7]

She began her acting career working alongside her mother on the local revue and variety scene. At 18, she traveled to Paris, where she worked as an actress and model, which led to further work and study in Italy—at drama school in Rome and in master classes with Lydia Styx, a teacher at Piccolo Teatro di Milano in Milan. She lived in Italy for many years before moving to the United States.^{[ citation needed ]}

Career

Nielsen's feature-film debut was the Jerry Lewis French film Par où t'es rentré ? On t'a pas vu sortir in 1984, followed by a role in the Italian miniseries Colletti Bianchi in 1988. She appeared in the Italian film Vacanze di Natale '91 (1991) and the French film Le Paradis Absolument (1993). ^[8]

She moved to the United States in the mid-1990s, and made her first appearance in a major English-language film in 1997 as Christabella Andreoli in The Devil's Advocate , starring opposite Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves. This first minor breakthrough led to roles in the films Permanent Midnight (1998), Rushmore (1998), and Soldier (1998). ^[9]

In 2000, Nielsen appeared as Lucilla in Ridley Scott's Gladiator , starring opposite Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix. Since then, she has starred in American films, including Mission to Mars (2000), One Hour Photo (2002), The Hunted (2003), and Basic (2003), for which she had to cut off most of her hair. She also starred in the French thriller Demonlover (2002), directed by Olivier Assayas. She played the Irish mother to an orphan in A Shine of Rainbows (2009). ^[10]

Nielsen in 2009

In 2004, Nielsen made her Danish film debut in the drama, Brødre (also known as Brothers), for which she won the Danish Best Actress Award, the Bodil, ^{[11] [12] [13]} as well as Best Actress at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. She was also nominated for Best Actress at the European Film Awards. In 2006, Nielsen appeared in several episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Detective Dani Beck. She filled in for Mariska Hargitay, who was on maternity leave at the time of filming. ^[14]

With Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jamie Bell, and Uma Thurman, Nielsen appeared in the 2014 Lars Von Trier film Nymphomaniac . ^[15] She was featured in a series of promotional posters prior to the film's release, a campaign The Independent described as "shocking", observing, "Connie Nielsen appears somewhat moist in this poster for Nymphomaniac". ^[16]

In 2015, she appeared on the TV-2 album Det gode liv in which she sang along with Steffen Brandt on the track "Brev til Mona". In September 2018, she appeared in the pilot episode of the CBS drama FBI with Jeremy Sisto and Missy Peregrym.

Nielsen is known as Queen Hippolyta in DC Extended Universe franchise, appeared in four films beginning with Wonder Woman (2017).

Personal life

From 2004 to 2012, Nielsen dated Metallica drummer and fellow Dane, Lars Ulrich. ^[17] They have one son together. ^[18] Nielsen had a son, Sebastian, from a previous marriage to fellow actor Fabio Sartor; and Ulrich has two sons, Myles and Layne, also from a previous marriage. ^[19]

Nielsen is fluent in her native Danish, English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, and Swedish. She also knows some Spanish. ^[20]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1984	Par où t'es rentré ? On t'a pas vu sortir	Eva	Credited as Connie Nielson
1991	Vacanze di Natale '91	Brunilde / Vanessa
1997	The Devil's Advocate	Christabella Andreoli
1998	Permanent Midnight	Dagmar
	Rushmore	Mrs. Calloway
	Soldier	Sandra
2000	Innocents	Megan Denright
	Mission to Mars	Terri Fisher
	Gladiator	Lucilla
2002	One Hour Photo	Nina Yorkin
	Demonlover	Diane de Monx
2003	The Hunted	Abby Durrell
	Basic	Osborne
2004	Brødre	Sarah
	Return to Sender	Charlotte Cory
2005	The Great Raid	Margaret Utinsky
	The Ice Harvest	Renata Crest
2006	The Situation	Anna Molyneux
2007	Battle in Seattle	Jean
2009	A Shine of Rainbows	Maire
2010	Kidnappet	Susanne
2011	Perfect Sense	Jenny
2013	Nymphomaniac	Joe's Mother
	The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden	Baroness Von Wagner	Voice
2014	3 Days to Kill	Christine Renner
	Return to Zero	Dr. Claire Holden
	All Relative	Maren
2015	The Runner	Deborah Price
2016	Ali and Nino	Duchess Kipiani
	The 11th	Katrine Firth
	Løvekvinnen	Mrs Grjothornet
	The Confessions	Claire Seth
2017	Stratton	Sumner
	Wonder Woman	Queen Hippolyta
	Justice League
2018	The Catcher Was a Spy	Koranda
2019	I'll Find You	Lena
	Sea Fever	Freya
2020	Inheritance	Catherine Monroe
	Wonder Woman 1984	Queen Hippolyta
2021	Zack Snyder's Justice League
	Nobody	Becca Mansell
2022	A Week in Paradise	Fiona
2023	Origin	Sabine
	Ocean Deep	Mara
2024	Role Play	Gwen Carver
	Gladiator II	Lucilla
2025	Nobody 2	Becca Mansell	Post-production

Television films

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1993	Voyage	Ronnie Freeland
1994	Le paradis absolument	Sarah
2008	Danny Fricke	Danny Fricke
2015	Unveiled	Joan McAllen

Television series

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1988	Colletti bianchi	Marilù Bacchetta	Television Series; 12 Episodes
1994	Okavango – The Wild Frontier	Lena	Television Series; 16 Episodes
2006	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Detective Dani Beck	6 episodes
2011–2012	Boss	Meredith Rutledge Kane	16 episodes
2014	The Following	Lily Gray	10 episodes
2014–2015	The Good Wife	Ramona Lytton	4 episodes
2018	FBI	Ellen Solberg	Episode: "Pilot"
	Liberty	Katrina	5 episodes
2019	I Am the Night	Corinna Hodel	6 episodes
2021	Close to Me	Jo Harding
2022	The Dreamer – Becoming Karen Blixen [21]	Karen Blixen

Music Videos

Year	Artist	Title	Role	Notes
1985	Arcadia	Election Day	Girl dance

Awards

• Rungstedlund Prize (4 September 2023). ^[22]

References

1. "Nielsen" – via BnF Catalogue général.
2. "Nielsen, Connie, 1965- - LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies". Library of Congress.
3. "Connie Nielsen - dansk film database". danskefilm.dk. Archived from the original on 4 November 2023. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
4. "Connie Nielsen". Aniston.dk (in Danish). Archived from the original on 24 July 2012. Retrieved 1 April 2011.
5. Stewart, Susan (9 March 2003). "Double Danish / Connie Nielson [sic]". Newsday. p. D7. Archived from the original on 24 July 2012.
6. "Star Dentist Drilled for $20M". The New York Post . 7 August 2004. p. 6. Archived from the original on 24 July 2012.
7. Cavagna, Carlo (December 2005). "Interview: Connie Nielsen". AboutFilm.com. Archived from the original on 15 May 2016. Retrieved 6 December 2009.
8. "One Hour Photo: About The Cast". Cinema.com. Archived from the original on 1 September 2014. Retrieved 2 November 2015.
9. Lucia Bozzola (2016). "Connie Nielsen biography". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times . Archived from the original on 7 March 2016. Retrieved 2 November 2015.
10. "Connie Nielsen on Reading the Script". Freestyle Releasing. 2010. Archived from the original on 11 September 2015. Retrieved 2 November 2015.
11. Eising, Jesper (27 February 2005). ""Kongekabale" årets film". Berlingske.dk (in Danish). Archived from the original on 29 June 2021. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
12. "Kongekabale årets bedste film. - Indland". DR (in Danish). 27 February 2005. Archived from the original on 28 June 2021. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
13. "2005". Bodilprisen (in Danish). 20 November 2015. Archived from the original on 16 March 2016. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
14. "Connie Nielsen fills in for Mariska Hargitay on 'Law & Order: SVU'". Star Pulse. 2 February 2006. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 2 November 2015.
15. Scott Roxborough (27 August 2012). "Jamie Bell, Connie Nielsen Join Lars von Trier's 'Nymphomaniac'". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 7 March 2015. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
16. Liam O'Brien (10 October 2013). "Nymphomaniac orgasm posters: Uma Thurman, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Shia LaBeouf star in shocking film campaign". The Independent. Archived from the original on 27 February 2014. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
17. "An interview with Close to Me's Connie Nielsen". You Magazine. 21 November 2021. Archived from the original on 1 February 2022. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
18. "Metallica Drummer Lars Ulrich, Girlfriend Connie Nielsen Expecting". Blabbermouth.net. 6 December 2006. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 18 November 2006.
19. Filini, Elena (7 November 2024). "Fabio Sartor, la star hollywoodiana Connie Nielsen ricorda l'ex marito: "Un artista e un intellettuale, venuto a mancare troppo presto"" [Fabio Sartor, Hollywood star Connie Nielsen remembers her ex-husband: "An artist and an intellectual, who passed away too soon"]. Il Gazzettino (in Italian).
20. Vaughan, Brendan (29 January 2007). "A Woman We Love: CoNielsen". Esquire . Archived from the original on 2 October 2007. Retrieved 16 November 2007.
21. Credits to "The Dreamer" Archived 8 December 2022 at the Wayback Machine on its sales agent TrustNordisk website
22. Epaimages

External links

• Connie Nielsen at IMDb