30 Fascinating Facts About Nikolaj Coster-Waldau We Bet You Never Knew Before

11 June 2019, 4:10 pm EDT By Ruby Karnick

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, widely known for his role as Jaime Lannister in the HBO fantasy series "Game of Thrones," has received several accolades for his performance in the series. Apart from his acting skills, he is also known for his support to different humanitarian causes. Here are some really interesting things to know about the Danish actor:

He is a UNDP Goodwill Ambassador, drawing attention to critical issues such as gender equality and climate change.
He was nominated for the 2018 Emmy Award in the Supporting Actor in a Drama Series category for his role as Jaime Lannister in "Game of Thrones," which he lost to his co-star Peter Dinklage.
He starred as Clas Greve in the Morten Tyldum's "Headhunters," which became the highest-grossing Norwegian film of all-time, also earning a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Foreign Film.
He was one of the speakers in The Spotlight Initiative, a European Union-United Nations action to eliminate violence against women and girls, after kicking off the women's amateur World Cup, in September 2017.
He partnered with Google in the year 2017, to use Street View to document the impact of global warming in Greenland, in order to increase awareness and highlight climate change.
He, along with several other Danish artists signed a manifesto in early 2018, which demanded zero tolerance for sexism, sexual harassment and sexual assault in the Danish film and stage arts industry.
He is a supporter of English football club Leeds United and he is a member of the Leeds United Supporters' Trust.
Since the year 2003, he has been supporting the Danish Red Cross. He led a Game of Thrones campaign-contest in order to support the RED foundation which aims to raise awareness and fight AIDS in the year 2016.
He wrote a pledge calling for all fathers to support gender equality and women's empowerment on the occasion of International Women's Day, after participating in a female empowerment initiative in Kenya, in the year 2017.
Nikolaj kicked off The Lion's Share fund's launch, an action in which when an advertising campaign uses an image of an animal, the advertiser will donate 0.5% of the paid media spending of that campaign to the fund in June 2018.

He traveled to Maldives to report the global warming effects resuming his role as a United Nations Development Program Goodwill Ambassador in October 2017.
He has signed on to narrate one of the fairytales for GivingTales, the celebrity storytelling app for children and adults alike. He is going to narrate "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" in September 2017.
His native language is Danish, but is also speaks fluent English and German. However he has stated he does not feel as confident speaking German, and prefers English when interviewed in German language media.
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau was born on July 27, 1970 to Jørgen Oscar Fritzer Waldau and Hanne Søborg Coster, in Rudkøbing, Denmark.
His father was an alcoholic, who died in the year 1998. His mother is a librarian. He often talks about his father's problems and also about his parents' divorce.
He was mainly raised by his mother in Tybjerg, a small village between Ringsted and Næstved in southern Zealand, along with his two older sisters.
He graduated from the Danish National School of Theatre and Contemporary Dance in the year 1993, becoming the youngest actor to enter the school.
He made his stage debut as Laertes in "Hamlet" at the Betty Nansen Theater, but it was his role in the 1994 movie "Nightwatch," which brought his fame in his native country.
He played the role as Ossy in the 1998 movie "Wildside" by Simon Staho, which he reportedly co-wrote. He then went on to star in other Danish films such as "Misery Harbour."
In the year 1997, he made his British début alongside Clive Owen, Jude Law and Mick Jagger in "Bent," based on the 1979 play of the same name.

It was reported that he was under consideration to play the real life screenwriter Whitfield Cook in the Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren film "Hitchcock."
His career in the United States started with his role as Medal of Honor recipient Gary Gordon in Ridley Scott's "Black Hawk Down"
It was said that when he first got his Screen Actors Guild card, he got very excited that he went to a SAG online shop and bought four mugs with SAG logo, which he still has.
In the year 2013, he starred in the horror film "Mama" alongside Jessica Chastain, which debuted at number one in the US box office and grossed over $140 million worldwide.
He was cast in the role of Sykes, a military weapons expert in the science fiction action thriller film "Oblivion," based on Joseph Kosinski's unpublished graphic novel of the same name.
He starred in Susanne Bier's Danish thriller "A Second Chance" as Andreas, a police officer forced to make a difficult choice, in the year 2014.
He was then featured in the Danish film "3 Things," a thriller about a prime suspect of a bank robbery who negotiates the terms of his witness protection deal.
He has been the L'Oréal Paris global spokesperson for the company's Men Expert line of products, since January 2018.
He married Nukâka, a Greenlandic actress and singer, in the year 1997, and has two daughters with her. The family, along with two dogs, resides in Kongens Lyngby.
His daughter Filippa starred in a Danish short film, "The Girl and the Dogs," while his other daughter, Safina starred as the lead character of Simone in a Danish Christmas TV-series named "Theo og Den Magiske Talisman" in December 2018.