Kasper Wedendahl doesn't mind if you call him a comedy director so long as it means he doesn't get the scripts with "happy kids and chocolate." At 37, Wedendahl (or, as he prefers, "Kasper the Unpronounceable") has been making commercials for close to a decade, and in that time he's honed a style that's as likely to elicit nervous titters as it is belly laughs. Comedy is definitely a part of the recipe, but there's darkness and weirdness in there, too. And if he's a man of his word, the work's only going to get stranger from here on out.

Born and raised in Copenhagen, Wedendahl has managed to put his unpronounceable surname on two Gold Lions, not to mention the nameplate at Danish prodco Bacon, which he runs with Danish director Martin Werner. But after seven successful years as a primarily European commercial director, he's craving a bit of change. Because he's repped capably by Les Producers in France, and Stink and Bacon in the rest of Europe, his North American reel has fallen prey to pitfalls of timing. So, coupled with a new mandate for his directorial work, one he says is evident in recent work for A1 and Volkswagen, Kasper finally has his sights set on North America. We caught up with him just before he skipped town for an overdue vacation, and got his thoughts on the prickly definition of comedy, the tedium of car work, and why Smuggler's Brian Carmody is the man.

How did I get my start? It's a classic story about a kid playing around with a video camera at a local TV station. You know, sweeping the floor and getting coffee during the day and stealing the equipment and shooting at night. The hard way; no film school.

At a certain point I got really fed up with television. Every week you have to do 30 minutes of something, even if there are no ideas. One of my friends had a small commercials production company. He asked me to try my luck on a no-budget commercial and I found it very funny. That was seven years ago and I haven't looked back.

My first big break came shortly after that. It was for CNA, which is like H&M: cheap, shitty clothes. That spot opened me up for international work. First I was picked up in France, where I did Volkswagen work that won a Gold Lion four years ago. A year after that I won a Gold with Interflora. That was my second big break.

I live in Copenhagen and Paris. Production-wise, Paris is my home. Copenhagen is just where I was born. I would love to live in Los Angeles, especially for what I do, because comedy rarely has the biggest budgets. I'm always considering a move. It could be anything from a little island outside of Spain and then the day after it'll be Manhattan. As a director, you're always traveling, so it's like, "This is a fucking awesome place, this is where I wanna live", and the week after you're somewhere else going "Hey, I wanna live here !"

I've been with Smuggler for a year and a half, maybe two. Before that in America, I worked with a lady, I can't even remember her name, but she scared the shit out of me because she was into the money side of it. She saw the Gold Lions and she picked me up and power-sold me around the States. I saw some really shitty boards, got scared shitless and ran away. In Europe I signed with Stink who is affiliated with Smuggler in the States, so we took a tour in Los Angeles. Have you ever met Brian Carmody? That's the guy. He's the guy. I just remember looking at this little Irish guy speaking hip-hop lingo and thinking "That's my man."

The timing [in America] is always slightly a problem when you're a European, because in Europe you always book two to three months ahead, whereas in the States, they award a job like six weeks before it shoots. So I'm always very booked. But I've just recently decided to put much more focus on America, because I enjoy working there a lot. I just finished a campaign for A1. One of the spots, called "Jaundice", happens in this weird restaurant that we called "The Steakhouse That God Forgot." I worked with this fantastic DP called Eric Treml and we had an awesome collaboration. We're both Europeans, so we come from the same slightly modest, slightly depressive backgrounds.

I don't think my stuff is hilarious like a Happy or a Lionel Goldstein. It's more about little weird ideas. But I guess I am a comedy director. I'm definitely not a lifestyle director. And I'm not a car director, 'cause that's so fucking boring! I did it once and I was dying from sitting on a lo-loader for five days with a client who was totally freaked out because it wasn't the perfect angle.

I think [commercial work] is probably one of the best jobs in the world. But now I've got a couple of scripts in development for longer projects. I'm shooting a short this fall, but I always get so scared when I start working on features because it's always something about people who deserve to die. Then I run off to my shrink and ask him, "What's wrong with me?"

Bacon> www.baconcph.com
Smuggler> www.smugglersite.com
Stink> www.stink.tv