Clark director and producer Jonas Åkerlund is addressing commentary that his series, based on Clark Oloffson, is showing the Swedish criminal in a positive light. Oloffson, an infamous figure in Swedish culture, has spent more than half his life in prison for sentences including attempted murder, robbery, and dealing narcotics. He is most known for his involvement in the 1973 Norrmalmstorg robbery where he and ex-cellmate Jan-Erik Olsson held hostages at a bank for five days. In a weird twist, the hostages seemingly bonded with the robbers and their refusal to testify against them coined the phrase “Stockholm syndrome.”

When asked if he felt that the series was glamorizing a criminal, Åkerlund told Variety:

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Åkerlund went on to discuss that even loved ones questioned his decision to work on the series:

“Well, I mean, if you look at the whole series with healthy eyes I think it doesn’t at all, but again, like, in his head, and the way I told it through his eyes, it is a glamorous world for him. But if you look at what he’s done, you realize that it’s not. And then of course, he hurt a lot of people on the way. He said, ‘I never killed anybody. I never used violence. I never stole from people, I only stole from banks.’ Well, it’s kind of the same thing: if you hold a gun to a person’s head when you rob a bank, that person is going to be hurt. But I don’t think anybody would look at it and think ‘That’s the lifestyle I want’ or ‘That’s what I should be doing in my life.’”

Olofsson, now 75, committed crimes through the 1970s and 1980s. The six-part series follows his life, from birth until the late 1980s, when he is sentenced for drug trafficking. The story is told from Oloffson’s perspective where comes across as charismatic and alluring to women. While Oloffson did not participate in the creation of the series, Åkerlund and the team behind Clark did rely on books Oloffson penned about his life. The series is currently streaming on Netflix and stars Bill Skarsgård as the titular character, Vilhelm Blomgren, Hanna Björn, Christoffer Nordenrot, Adam Lundgren, Björn Gustafsson, and Isabelle Grill.

“When I told my father I was gonna do this he was like, ‘Why would you give that guy time on TV?’ There’s a thing with older people – for all the right reasons – because Clark put fear in the whole country with his tactics. People were scared that he was going to show up. And he was always on the run. He escaped from prison 17 times. 17 times. I mean, take that number in,” he said.

Jonas Åkerlund’s Work in Music and Film

Jonas Åkerlund is a film and music video director, writer and musician. Before the debut of his feature film Spun in 2002, he strictly worked on music videos. In 1998, his video for Madonna’s Ray of Light won a Grammy Award. In 2008, he was the recipient of the Best Long Form Music Video Grammy for directing Madonna’s The Confessions Tour DVD. He won another Grammy in 2014 for Best Music Film for his work on Paul McCartney’s Live Kisses concert film.

In film, he is most known for his work on the 2018 horror film Lords of Chaos, a fictionalized story about the Norwegian black metal scene in the 1990s. The film received positive critical reviews, but members of the metal community have spoken out against it, particularly those who were depicted in the film who felt they were shown in a negative light.

Åkerlund is currently working on a documentary with Billy Idol, about the musician’s life.