The first season of the NRK series «Lykkeland» took us back to the beginning of the oil adventure in 1969. On January 2, new episodes of the series will come, which received good reviews when it was shown on screen in 2018.

Five years have passed when we meet the four young main characters again. This time we also get to see everything that has to be sacrificed for oil, money and status.

– It feels close

Several of the actors are from Stavanger and have known how oil has affected the city, one of them is Ole Christoffer Ertvaag (34). In the “Lykkeland” universe, he plays the brother of the main role Anna, Rein Hellevik.

Ertvaag describes Rein’s journey as a picture of the educational journey that many young people from Stavanger had at that time.

– You have to take it seriously, because it was serious, says Ertvaag, who has had in mind that it is actually real people who have experienced what they recreate in the series.

The actor who himself has had a long time who has worked in the oil has noticed how the oil has affected the cityscape. There were many who had parents who were many away from the family.

– What surprised me most, was what many were offered, says the 34-year-old who was not aware of how much was behind the oil money.

What you see are the fine bells and the cars, not how little safety there was on the oil platforms, where you stood with oil up to your knees, he adds.

“Lykkeland” star about the sibling relationship: – She has been there from day one

– It has been challenging

Ertvaag describes other seasons as more dirty, something that stands in stark contrast to the title in the series.

The 34-year-old says that Rein is more happy to get his hands dirty than he himself is. Ertvaag is struggling with health anxiety, and through the character Rein he has this season been exposed to a lot of exposure therapy.

– It works very well, says Ertvaag and adds that even though it has not improved the private situation, clearly go into the character and handle the oil spill on the set.

The pandemic has also marked the life of the actor both on and off the film set, but he has not been single.

In private, Ertvaag can tell that there will be many unnecessary hours in CT machines and in play offices.

– I just need to know that I’m not sick, he says and knocks on the table sometimes.

– Was an asshole

Get drunk at the audition

Rein’s sister and the main role in the series Anna Hellevik, is played by Stavanger girl Anne Regine Ellingsæter (26). Anna goes from being a secretary to becoming a confident and energetic graduate economist.

Her relationship with Christian Nyman has also ended, and as many of the fans might have hoped, she is a gift with the American lawyer Jonathan.

Back in 2019 by Ellingsæter award for best actor during the Golden Route for his role in the series. She can tell that it was actually quite coincidental that she ended up auditioning for Anna in «Lykkeland».

– I lived in Copenhagen when they auditioned, I also happened to be in Stavanger that weekend. It was a friend who sent me a message that it was an open audition I had to go to, says the 26-year-old, who had just woken up after a night on the town when she received the message.

She still jumped out of bed and auditioned. Despite being hungover, she hijacked the role that made her pursue the acting dream to the fullest.

Ellingsæter can reveal that she is quite different from the character Anna, but that Anna is someone she looks up to.

– I can sometimes think: “Why am I no longer like her?” says the 26-year-old, who occasionally draws inspiration from the character’s power of action.

– I’ve been freed

– The dialect was challenging

One who is not from Stavanger, but has practiced a lot in the Stavanger dialect, is the northerner Per Kjerstad (44). He plays Fredrik Nyman, who is now benefiting from the choices he made in the first season of the series, where he went from being a shipowner to entering the oil industry.

The biggest challenge for Kjerstad has been the dialect. An advantage for the northerner has been that he actually lives in Stavanger, and that his children speak Stavanger.

– I had to force myself to speak Stavanger all the time. After three or four weeks, people stopped getting annoyed about it, and when I stopped letting go of the shame, it went well.

Put the film in one shot: – An extreme exercise

Even after much practice, Kjerstad came across words that he simply could not utter.

– We had to film a big stage where everyone was dependent on each other. Then I should have said the word «Norwegian Petroleum Directorate», but it just knotted in my mouth, says Kjerstad who finally asked the props to get a sofa, so that he had food in his mouth and could mumble the line.

Kjerstad has also received reactions the other way around, where people at the store have thought he is a sophisticated man from Stavanger, but then they also meet a rough northerner.

– They are not so different

In Lykkeland, Fredrik Nyman is married to Ingrid Nyman, who is played by Kjerstad’s good friend Pia Tjelta (44).

– I love playing Ingrid Nyman, says Tjelta who can reveal that it is actually her favorite character to play.

– Lost the feeling in half the face

She would have been happy if she could waste Ingrid the rest of her life.

– It is a character who pulls strings, with a huge overview at the same time as she has a rich inner life, says Tjelta, and director Petter Næss (61) adds that Tjelta and Ingrid are not so different.

– There are few women who can stand better with a glass of champagne in hand like Pia Tjelta and Ingrid Nyman, he laughs.

Tjelta adds that the biggest difference between her and the character is that Ingrid is much richer than her. – But that must be a change, she laughs.

In the second season of «Land of Happiness», Ingrid discovers that her time is over. Even though her life project succeeds in keeping the family and the farm on the right path, she is still looking for a private with the rest of her life.