COPENHAGEN, Denamrk (CNN) -- Actress Connie Nielsen hit the big time when she starred in "Gladiator" as Lucilla, sister of the deranged Emperor Commodus. Since then she has appeared in hit movies including "One Hour Photo" and "The Hunted".



Connie Nielsen has always refused to play the Hollywood fame game.



But Nielsen has refused to play the Hollywood fame game and seems drawn to challenging roles in controversial movies, including "The Situation", about the current Iraq war, and "Battle in Seattle", about the anti-globalization riots that took place in Seattle in 1999.



Nielsen now lives in the US and returns to Copenhagen every year. She talks to My City, My Life about what makes the city, and its people, so special.



CNN: How do you define yourself?



Connie Nielsen: I absolutely refuse the fame part of my business. I refuse even the money side of my business. I try to do as good work as I can do, I try to grow in my art and reach for truth. That's what I want from my art, that's what I aspire to.



I try to combine my work with my family, that's what I aspire to. I don't say that's the only thing. It's not all work and family, because otherwise you would be saying no to the many other things in life and there are many other things.



CNN: The people here are supposed to be incredibly happy -- what do you think?



Connie Nielsen: I think it's funny in a way because when I grew up here it was very unusual to hear the word "happiness". If you asked somebody, "what do you wish for in life?" they wouldn't say "happiness."



I would have answered "excitement, knowledge," God knows -- I mean, many, many different things, but certainly not "happiness". It seemed like a foreign concept to wish for something that specific and that singular. And I think that a lot of Danes kind of feel like that about being the happiest people in the world.



CNN: Is there anything you'd like to change about the city?



Connie Nielsen: Anywhere there are social buildings that stuff people into boxes, concentrate poor people there. It's specific to any big city. There was an effort to create buildings that concentrate these people very closely, and their social problems. They are still around in New York, Paris, London and here too.



So if I could change anything about Copenhagen, or any other major big city, I would change the way we build buildings or housing for lower income people. I don't think people who are already burdened with social, economic, psychological situations, dysfunctional families, need to be burdened with other people with the same problems.



CNN: Is the city politically driven?



Connie Nielsen: I don't think I can remember a moment in my life where people didn't discuss politics. People discuss politics at the table. I think some of the first information I received was politically charged (laughs). It was at a time when girls were being told, "Why don't you go and learn how to repair machines rather than learn to repair your jumper? Why don't you learn to cut wood rather than learn to keep a house clean?" in school.



It was to make us conscious of what we were, how we defined ourselves and why you would accept one concept of yourself rather than another. Have you searched through the truth of that concept? Have you deconstructed? Have you made sure that its foundations are valid? That's how I grew up and I think it was wonderful.



CNN: How would you describe the city architecturally?



Connie Nielsen: It's everything here from very late renaissance to this 19th century golden age we had here. It's that, intermixed with pure Danish modernism. I love the juxtaposition of it all. I love when we bring in metaphors for our past as well.
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