Feb 28Sofia Mehnke
Actress
10 minute readBy Natalie K. HaighIt’s a cloudy February day in Copenhagen, but Sofia Mehnke knows how to make it cozy. We pick up some bread with cheese at her local bakery and walk back to her beautiful old apartment. Despite it being in the middle of the city, it feels decorated for a calm stay in the countryside, which is where Sofia grew up. The living room has a corner with guitars and an unfinished canvas. We sit with blankets on the sofa, the calm of a quiet day surrounding us, as we sip on tea. 
So, if we can start at the very beginning, how did you first get into acting?S: It all started when I was young with child modeling, so I was in front of a camera from early on. I attended an international school that offered drama classes, which gave me my first real insight into performance. I found that I really appreciated being on stage—not because I liked being looked at—but because it allowed me to explore parts of the human experience in my own way. Acting gave me the opportunity to step into different perspectives and experience what it means to be a person, in all its complexities. Along with theatre, you work with cinema, and you do adverts. How do you find that?S: Well, one has to pay the bills (laughs). But I’m fortunate that acting isn’t my only source of income, so I have more freedom in choosing which ads I take. I make sure they align with my own moral compass. Being a commercial actress—and in the past, a commercial model—can be tricky, especially when I have strong political views and certain standards. Sometimes, you have to say no, as it often comes down to the motive. That’s why I appreciate stage acting more—it’s less driven by financial concerns. In an ad, I’m often just a tool for a big conglomerate to profit off my likeness.That’s a very admirable and reflective approach, that I think we need more of. When you do say ‘yes’ to an ad though, can you appreciate working on it creatively? S: Yes, definitely. It’s made me wonder, what is art? Can art exist in a commercial context? If an ad is aesthetically stunning, can it be considered art? I think so, and I can appreciate that. 
I think so too. Your answer clearly reflects a deep appreciation for art, which shows how creative you are. Can you share more about your creative pursuits beyond acting?S: Funny enough, I don’t really consider myself a creative—I just do these things because they’re fun. I’ve always enjoyed escaping reality for a moment, whether that’s through playing a different character or painting something I love. I used to paint fish a lot because I’m fascinated by what life would be like underwater. In music, I enjoy writing from the perspective of someone I don’t know or about something I haven’t experienced. It’s about embodying something else and testing the limits of reality through my own hobbies.What are some themes you like to embody or test at the moment? S: Lately, I’ve been drawn to portraying the brighter side of the human experience. I realized that a lot of the music I used to listen to was filled with negative messages, and I feel heavily that this is a problem I see with, but not limited to, female artists. Many love songs focus on themes of not being good enough, being replaced, or entertaining negative patterns in relationships. I think that’s a shame because there’s so much beauty in happiness. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to appreciate all the things there are to be grateful for and happy about. So, right now, I’m inspired by sweetness, the sweetness of life. When I was younger, I was definitely an existentialist and that showed in my writing. But these days, I like to think not everything is that deep. What I’ll do with that, I’m not sure yet.
I totally get you; I can feel my brain developing when I feel more positive.S: It is! Frontal lobes are merging! It really comes down to the smallest things. For example, the latest song I wrote is a birthday song for my father. It might sound silly, but it’s those every day, special moments that reveal the true sweetness of life. That’s something I want to capture and celebrate in my creative work—to highlight the beauty in life’s little things.It feels very explorative as well, and again, very authentic. Your recent advert feels like I’m watching you, as if there’s this genuine light you possess and transmit into different presences. S: Aw, thank you so much! I’m the kind of person who only dives into something if I absolutely must from a place of genuine desire. So, when you or others say I come across as genuine on screen, I’m genuinely flattered. I can’t be anything but myself, so hearing that means a lot.I imagine there could be a misconception that for someone to act, they need to be able to be disingenuous— to hide themselves and play another. But you’re exploring the opposite. S: Oh, 100%. Usually, when I’m shooting an advertisement, the only direction I get is to "have fun"—that’s pretty much it. So, I just have fun and pull from myself for the role. Even when it requires emotional depth, it’s never about pretending for me. Not to sound like some psycho method actor, but I’m always there. It’s more about sharing the character’s experience and conveying their emotions as a vessel, rather than pretending to feel certain things. Acting is a release for me too, especially since I approach it as an ‘empath’. It connects to my work studying vulnerable people in society—there’s a lot of emotion and empathy involved. I guess a lot of my life revolves around that.
So, when you take on a character, especially in a play, how do you learn to play them? How do you generate or curate that empathy?S: I think it comes down to living with the character. It’s hard to describe the process, but an example would be a play I did last year with some good friends. It was a sci-fi play, and I had a character who didn’t have much depth on the surface—she was just a woman at a conference. But I had so much fun making her nuanced. I imagined simple things, like what she ate for breakfast (definitely a Cap’n Crunch type of girl), where she’s from (Texas), and that she spends a lot of time in Florida. I even tried to taste the air she would breathe and feel how she would move her hands. A lot of it was improvised, so what I’d say as her wasn’t always planned; it almost felt like possession. I didn’t know if what would come out would be funny—it was all intuitive. There was often an element of crowd work too, as you feel out the audience. Since it's a different audience every night when you do a play, so she had different facets of her on display.On that note of the audience, what does it feel like to be on stage in front of one?S: It depends on the audience, but by the time I’m performing, I’m usually at a point where I really want to share the product experience. I’m a bit detached from it because I already have a clear vision and motive for what I need to do. In my everyday life, I’m hyper-aware and constantly thinking about things, but when I’m on stage, that takes a backseat because I know exactly what I’m doing and my goal. So being on stage feels like complete freedom, despite being shackled to the script and cues. It’s a unique freedom, considering how my brain works.I totally get you, it’s like, when other people might start overthinking on stage, your thinking actually stops and there’s just clarity. S: Exactly! What’s always drawn me to acting is that it gives me a break from being myself. The nervousness comes afterward, once I realize I’ve been perceived and that people have opinions about what I did. That’s something I’ve had to work through—beating myself up over irrational reasons. It’s this funny combination of loving the moment but dreading the aftermath.
Do you not like to watch yourself then?S: No, I never do. It’s something I’m working on, especially since I don’t often share my work online or in public spaces. When I do, it feels like an exercise for me. It’s partly about pride—I can’t control how I’m perceived when I’m watched, so it’s a control thing. When I watch a playback of myself acting, I don’t like it because I can’t control what happened on stage.I can imagine that’s also especially strange, when theatre is about a shared experience in the moment. Being able to preserve that and watch it back almost defeats the purpose. S: Precisely, and that’s why I never really got into movie acting the same way—it would mean having to watch it back, and I’m just not comfortable with that.Well then, sticking within the expertise of theatre, do you have any tips for stage fright? S: Hmm, okay, well I’ve worked on it a lot myself, and this isn’t going to work for every one - so don’t try this at home! But the trick is to exert yourself to your absolute limit. Push yourself as far as you possibly can because God knows I want to vomit every time I need to do anything, like even calling the dentist, and I’ve just recovered this and stage fright by taking myself less seriously. Learning to teach yourself that not everything is that deep, is honestly the key. What my group do backstage is just jump up and down and act silly and scream a little bit, just to feel what the body is capable off, and to take up physical space. You’re so right, the mental state can be very liberated by physically asserting yourself. S: For sure - my tip is do a power pose. Do superman!Do the flamingo.S: Do lion’s breath.Or down dog, if you want to get frisky. And on that, just to check, you don’t imagine everyone in the audience naked? S: No, I think that’s so freaky. Like why would I want to see everyone naked? But that does sort of relate to how I overcome being on stage, because I think my focus is more on my control over the audience, rather than their control over me. Like I enjoy that they don’t know me, they only know who I’m presenting, and that there’s this mystified dynamic. It’s fun to break the fourth wall a bit and just hold an uncomfortably long moment of eye contact with someone, you know, just because I can (laughs.) The power of it is quite a special feeling. 
To finish by looking forward, do you have any exciting goals or plans coming up for the years ahead? S: That’s a very good question because I’m very aware of the unpredictability of this profession. I do it because it feels right and fun in the moment, but I honestly don’t know if I’ll still find it fun in six months or ten years. Because of that, I don’t really have many long-term goals. Instead, I focus on doing meaningful work in the moments when it makes sense. But I do have one overarching dream that is very special to me and it combines all the facets of myself – it would be to write, produce, or star in children’s TV. Wow, that is so interesting! That merges so well with your years of experience working with kids too and studying pedagogy now. What does the combination look like?S: It sounds super banal, but I have such a deep appreciation for the fresh eyes and creativity inherent to childhood. They inspire me so much—I learn so much from studying children and being around them. It’s like it’s awakened something deeply buried within my own consciousness, and I really value that perspective. I also feel strongly that we need to protect children—their innocence, the status of childhood. Kids aren’t really the same as they used to be. I feel almost a responsibility with my current education and creative abilities, to take that on and it would be an honor to do so. I’d love to create little universes for children where they feel calm, seen, and inspired to remain themselves in a slow, mindful way. That’s my big dream for now. 
