A few days ago I put up a video of a Danish TV show appearance by Ditte Arnth Jørgensen, the actress who played "Karen26" in the notorious hoax. At the time I mentioned that my grasp of spoken Danish was just too poor for me to provide a translation, and expressed my hope that someone would eventually volunteer one, but in all honesty I was far from optimistic that this would happen any time soon. As it turns out, my pessimism was unfounded: thanks to the efforts of Jonas Kirkegaard, we now have a full English translation of the contents of the interview. Following is the full text:
Host, Anders Lund Madsen (ALM): Ladies and gentleman. Let me introduce a woman who has been wanted across the world since the beginning of this week. For the first time she will be on national television – as herself. Please give a hand to Ditte Arnth.
<applause>
ALM: You are - or you were Karen. Please tell us how that came about.
Ditte: well, I got a call from my caster, which is what happens to you when you are an actress and looking for jobs.
ALM: And you are at home on a normal day?
Ditte: completely normal.
ALM: How long time ago are we talking about here?
Ditte: about a year ago. So they call me and tell me that this video is a bit different in that it is going out on this so-called YouTube.
ALM: And you knew about this YouTube already?
Ditte: I knew it as a place where people publish videos of themselves farting.
ALM: And that can be funny too… It is a place where people put down their mark but this is work. Did you have any qualms?
Ditte: not really, no. It is just another story to be told and I approached it as any other actress would have. So I saw it as a job that I must deal with professionally.
ALM: and it does go well indeed. How about the shooting? Were there any problems there?
Ditte: No problems. We did have to shoot it a couple of times though
ALM: did you have time to get into the part?
Ditte: Well, it’s a fairly short text and in a foreign language. So I had some compulsory words and that was kinda it. It was my job to figure out what kind of person Karen was. What does she like to eat, what kind of music does she listen to, why is the child called August? So I went into character
ALM: and that you certainly did. Very convincingly. No one thought that you were anyone other than Karen. But there is something I have to reveal. It’s not your baby.
Ditte: That’s right. I don’t have children. I’m not a mom.
ALM: Strange. But also interesting. As an actress to be able to play a mom.
Ditte: that’s right.
ALM: then, the video came out last week?
Ditte: Yes, Thursday last week.
ALM: did you know it was going public. Did you watch it? Are you the first to click?
Ditte: I’m not the first to see it but I do see it Thursday evening after I come home from the theater.
ALM: And when is it that all hell breaks loose?
Ditte: All hell breaks loose Saturday where I am tending the garden in my apartment block.
ALM: not the best of days for hell to break loose.
Ditte: Not exactly but I can’t escape painting the garden furniture so I just continue.
ALM: Can you describe what happened? The media start calling you?
Ditte: First of all the producer calls me and says: welcome on the front page (well-known slogan for Danish tabloid newspaper, Ekstra Bladet).
ALM: but that was the whole point right? To shine a light on Denmark.
Ditte: Well, yes but not in Danish press.
ALM: first it hits the Danish news but not long before it goes abroad, right?
Ditte: The weekend passes and in the beginning of this week it reaches Germany, Sweden, Italy, Britain, Canada and Israel.
ALM: And I know that there are men in your dad’s garden, right?
Ditte: Yes.
ALM: And someone calls your sister and asks her if she would participate. Because you turn everything down.
Ditte: I decline all invitations.
ALM: It travels all the way to the US where the day before yesterday it was on the O’Reilley Factor, which is on one of the most controversial stations over there, Fox News. Let’s have a look at it:
<Video clip>
ALM: this is a great thing indeed, Ditte. And as a representative of the official Denmark thank you for representing Denmark in such a beautiful fashion as to upset O’Reilly. That is something the rest of us can only dream about. I assume you have been paid very handsomely for this achievement. At least a couple of hundred thousands, right? That is the kind of money we are talking about right? This type of publicity cannot be bought for money. Did they pull out the great wallet and throw in a nice Mercedes too? I mean, that would only be proper.
Ditte: That is how it should have been. I got DKR 50.000.
ALM: wow. We are talking black money here, right? No of course not. We don’t do that in Denmark and you’re Denmark’s public face now. From now on you won’t be able to go abroad …
Ladies and gentlemen. Ditte Arnth, thank you very much.
Good to see Ms. Jørgensen kept her sense of humor in the face of the whole thing: going by some of the irate responses I saw on Danish websites I feared she might end up the subject of a lynching.
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