2001–2012: early work
Fimmel began his acting career by appearing in the music videos for Janet Jackson's song "Someone to Call My Lover"[16] and "I'm Real" (original version) by Jennifer Lopez, both in 2001.[17]
He studied under Ivana Chubbuck, the Hollywood acting coach of movie stars Brad Pitt and Jared Leto.[18] He took two years to pluck up the courage to audition for his first role.[4]
He landed the title lead in The WB series Tarzan in 2003, in which he did most of his own stunts.[19][20][21] The series was cancelled after eight episodes. In addition, he appeared in two television pilots: The WB's drama Rocky Point with Lauren Holly in 2005,[22] and the Fox crime thriller Southern Comfort with Madeleine Stowe in 2006.[23] In 2008, he played a murderer in the Australian film Restraint, and a party boy in Surfer, Dude with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. In 2010, he portrayed a compassionate cowboy in Pure Country 2: The Gift and a forensic photographer in Australian horror film Needle, co-starring Ben Mendelsohn.[24]
He depicted a talented classical pianist in Ivory, an independent film that was an Official Selection in the 2010 Montreal World Film Festival and the Strasbourg International Film Festival.[25] The film was produced by Gray Frederickson and co-starred Martin Landau and Peter Stormare.[26]
Fimmel played Helweg, a prison guard, in the 2010 film The Experiment, in a role reportedly offered to Elijah Wood, who pulled out of shooting for reasons unknown.[27] The film is based on a real-life experiment on volunteers by Stanford University that was cut short after spinning out of control, with "guards" exhibiting sadistic behaviour and "prisoners" suffering depression.[28]
Fimmel starred opposite Patrick Swayze in A&E's 2009 series The Beast.[29] He played rookie undercover FBI agent Ellis Dove partnered with a hardened veteran cop, Swayze's Charles Barker. Production ceased after 13 episodes due to Swayze's death from pancreatic cancer.[30] He played fugitive Mason Boyle in two episodes of NBC's 2010 action-adventure Chase, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.[31][32]
He appeared in FX's TV pilot crime drama Outlaw Country in 2011 with Luke Grimes.[33]
Fimmel played the lead in 2012's Harodim with Peter Fonda as a former intelligence officer trained in black ops tracking down the world's most wanted terrorist, who is compromised by his own chain of command.[34]
He co-starred with Billy Bob Thornton and Eva Longoria in the 2012 redneck Southern comedy flick The Baytown Outlaws, playing one of the three hapless Oodie brothers who bites off more than he can chew when he agrees to help a woman get her godson back from her deadbeat ex-husband.[35]
2013–2019: breakthrough and film work
Fimmel was signed as the lead character for four seasons in the critically acclaimed drama television series Vikings, co-starring Alexander Ludwig, Katheryn Winnick, Gabriel Byrne, Gustaf Skarsgard, and Linus Roache.[36] Premiering in 2013, the show gained a cult following and chronicles "the extraordinary and ferocious world of the mighty Norsemen who raided, traded and explored during The Middle Ages."[37] He played a character loosely based on Ragnar Loðbrók, the legendary Viking leader who is frustrated by the unadventurous tendencies of his local chieftain and strikes out to pillage new lands.[38][39][40][41]
2020–present: television and film balance
In 2020, Fimmel featured as a TV presenter in Here Are the Young Men, which was adapted from a novel about three Dublin high school graduates whose epic binge to mark the end of an era is blighted by catastrophe.[54]
From 2020 to 2022, he appeared in HBO Max's science fiction drama Raised by Wolves from director Ridley Scott and Scott Free Productions, which marked Fimmel's return to television.[55][56][57] It was a role that earned him a nomination for Best Actor in a Science Fiction/Fantasy Series at the Critics' Choice Super Awards.[58]
