– Extremely surprising – Dagsavisen

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Whose: Erik Thorstvedt (61).

What: Former soccer player and expert commentator.

Why: Participant in the Game on TV2.

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You were involved in a drastic turn in the Game last Sunday! You even got a farewell speech from Danby Choi, only to hear that he was the one who quit! How did it feel to be in such a situation?

– Extremely surprising, I have never been so surprised before. It’s a bit of a show that you can still experience something like that at a very prominent age. It was a lot of fun, unexpected and all at once. Vidar for president, that’s for sure.

Many were as surprised as you! What do you think about it engaging so much?

– I just have to pay tribute to those who have put this together. They are good people, and they have found incredibly small, dramaturgical things that seem to work. Basically I thought “Okay, 12 episodes of this, it’s going to be thin soup, isn’t it?”. But they have managed it. They’ve had some luck, because there have been tricky twists and turns throughout, and it’s quite possible they had the opportunity to improvise along the way – that there were more “twists and turns” than they had hoped for. They have to take some of the credit, in the way they have made the program. After all, you only see 1-2 percent. There are 16 hours a day with cameras all over the house. There are many hours of fabric!

So there are things that didn’t come?

– Most do not come. The big dramatic stuff comes along. And then there is a bit of cozy chat, humor and atmosphere that has to give way for the drama to emerge.

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What was life really like inside the house?

– For my part, it was very nice. I was lucky that smoke descended into the basement almost immediately. It was very good there. And after we got up, it was also a nice place to be. I escaped a lot of the panting up there that was the first few days, which was competition all the way. The way the game developed, I didn’t have to make many decisions. I ran a clean race. When it came to voting for my own team, I didn’t. It does not suit me to cut someone out of my own flock. Then it was time to stroll off, and take it as it comes. But of course, the competitions are a bit pess and I can feel the adrenaline. And when the vote comes, and the pulse comes… I thought I was going home so many times. Three times I sent a message saying I’m coming home, and three times I had to send and say I’m not coming anyway.

What was it like to come back to the real world?

– No, that was perfectly fine. It was perfectly fine. The thing about this was that it doesn’t last very long. The farm lasts for weeks – here it was very concrete, each episode is a day. Overall, a nice thing to be a part of. And they have thought about this, that we must have different types of people with us. That’s the way it is in the rest of society, and we have to deal with that. That is one of the reasons why it has become popular. People have very different types of behavior. It creates a dynamic that is much more exciting than if everyone did like me or Danby. Different angles are a good thing for this program. When I look at it, I see more now than I did when I was inside. What the various people talk about in their rooms, where you see all the things that are going on. You get new aha experiences: “Aha, that’s how it was”. It’s a bit like that for us and that there are things there that may have happened in a different way or were more complex than thought.

Before the regular questions – were you really in the basement for up to 6 days?

– Hehe, yes, we were there. There was someone who said it couldn’t be true. That the soundproofing is poor in modern houses, that they must have heard us. When we had to do a sync, we had to go out into the hallway and into another room. Then we had to be very calm. But Vidar refused to believe we were there – he had to get a guided tour before he understood that was the case. It was a bit of fun. But my God, there are people living with far worse conditions. Being down there for five or six days is perfectly fine, when you get a decent tone. Then you can manage most things.

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Fixed questions now! Who was your childhood hero?

– Erik Johannessen. He was a goalkeeper at Viking. He was a “Larger than life” character. He started standing in the Viking goal when he was 18, and then the Vikings were very good – they won four years in a row. He made fantastic saves, rolled a couple of extra times and shouted so that you could hear it in Flekkefjord. Once I sneaked in and managed to take him on the back. It was big.

Which book or film has made the biggest impression on you?

– “And the sun goes on”, by Ernest Hemingway, we read at school. That style and way of writing, the whole thing, it was something that made an impression on me early on. But I’ve read a hell of a lot of crime fiction, so I’ve read countless Agatha Christie books. And “Jack” by Ulf Lundell. After reading it, I just want to sit in the park and drink red wine, and let life flow by.

What makes you happy?

– When things are in order, everything is good, there are no things hanging over you. The children are doing well. When everything is fine. We have tried to make up our minds to think that every day is life, so we must not live for something to come. Good, old-fashioned everyday happiness is good for me.

What are you willing to go on a demonstration train for?

– Hmmm… The world is full of good things, but I have a doctor I know who says there are two things that get little focus and money in Norway. There is psychiatry and drug addiction. There are two issues that I am a bit passionate about. It’s not very sexy, but very important, because many people struggle with it. There are two things that are good, and worth spending money on, in a constant battle for funds.

Who would you rather be stuck in the elevator with?

– “Pope” Vidar Magnussen I think would be a lot of fun, that is. He himself says that he is “socially awkward”, but I think he is a brilliant man. There is not much to do in an elevator, you can just chat. Pope or president, he can choose – but it will be from the top shelf!

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