Wilhelm Tell is the man who has become a legend for shooting an apple from his son's head with his crossbow. It is extremely uncertain whether Tell ever existed at all. But he has become a mythical Swiss folk hero who has been told about for hundreds of years.
It's a story about freedom and how to preserve it, says Claes Bang, who plays the lead role in the new film "William Tell", to TT.
According to legend, Wilhelm Tell (the film's title comes from the English interpretation of the name) lived in Switzerland in the early 14th century. He fought against the ruling German Habsburgs and was skilled with his crossbow.
A bailiff forced Tell to shoot an arrow at an apple on his son's head. Of course, he succeeded and the uprising against the Habsburgs took off. The legend has been kept alive over time, among other things, in a play by Friedrich Schiller, an opera by Gioacchino Rossini, and a long-lived American TV series in the 1950s.
"A reluctant hero"
Now it's Claes Bang, known not least from Ruben Östlund's "The Square", who plays Tell in the film directed by Nick Hamm.
Hamm thinks Bang is tailor-made for the role.
Tell is a reluctant hero, and there are few actors like Claes who can be quiet and still steal the scene, he says.
For Bang, the toughest job was learning to handle a crossbow.
It takes at least five seconds to span and load it. It was very physical. And we had a number of different crossbows to use. It's a dangerous weapon, if it's loaded, it's for real. It's not like with a pistol, where you can pretend it's loaded.
I also had to make it look like I'd been doing this for 40 years, he notes.
Entertainment with a message
Claes Bang and Nick Hamm emphasize that their film is violent entertainment but with a message, even if it's not explicit.
The reason the legend has lived on is not least the scene with the apple. It's a fantastic scene, which is about a man with high morals. Should he fight or should he let his country be taken over by the enemy?
At that time, Switzerland still consisted of cantons and was not a single country, they emphasize.
Here came a man who helped to bring the parts together. He is a Swiss folk hero, but also a European.
Age: 57 years.
Family: Wife Lis Kasper Bang, two children.
Lives: In Copenhagen.
Occupation: Actor.
Previous roles in selection: "A soap", "The Square", "The Affair", "The Girl in the Spider's Web", "The Northman", "Stockholm Bloodbath", "Mästaren och Margarita".
Current: In "William Tell", which has its Swedish cinema premiere on 14/3.
