Exit Villa

Exit Villa, historically known as Villa Glahus, is a large neo-Baroque villa at Trosterudveien 12B in the Ris area of Oslo, Norway. The house was designed by Norwegian architect August Nielsen and completed in 1912. Built in wood with elements of Art Nouveau incorporated into its neo-Baroque design, the villa was for many years the home of industrialist Hjalmar Johnsen, director of the L. Johnsen hat and fur factory, which became Norway’s largest fur manufacturer during the 1930s. The property later acquired a more unusual history when it became the base of a criminal group during the mid-1990s. Around twenty people were associated with the group, including at least thirteen students from the Norwegian School of Management, and police seized stolen goods worth more than NOK 2.5 million from the house when the operation was broken up in 1996. Fashion entrepreneur Ørnulf Høyer bought the property in 1998 and subsequently carried out extensive renovation and expansion. The villa, garden and swimming pool have since been used repeatedly for Norwegian film and television productions. Although its historical name remains Villa Glahus, it has become widely known in Norwegian media as the Exit Villa because of its recurring role as Jeppe Schiøtt’s home in the television series Exit.

Exit Villa has appeared in Olsenbanden Junior, Taxi (2011), Hjelp, vi er i filmbransjen (2011), Tina & Bettina: The Movie (2012), Mammon (2014–2016), Doctor Proctor’s Fart Powder (2014), Hvite gutter (2018–2022) and Exit (2019–2023). The property has repeatedly been chosen when productions require an imposing and affluent Oslo residence, with its large rooms, elaborate interior, garden, terraces and swimming pool allowing the same real house to represent several unrelated wealthy families and characters.

In Taxi (2011), the villa is used during the Oslo-set conspiracy surrounding lawyer Javar and the large-scale tax fraud he inadvertently uncovers within the taxi industry. The series follows Javar as a memory stick containing evidence of fraudulent accounts draws him, his journalist girlfriend Anne and members of his family into a dangerous network involving taxi operators, accountants and corruption within the tax authorities. The Trosterudveien property is used as one of the affluent private residences appearing during the investigation, contrasting with the working environments and ordinary homes through which much of the story develops.

In Hjelp, vi er i filmbransjen (2011), the villa is used as one of the affluent residences encountered after Glenn and his friends accidentally turn a fake film audition into an actual feature-film production. Their original plan is simply to attract women by pretending to cast a film, but matters escalate when Glenn meets Linda and her wealthy mother offers to finance the nonexistent project. Suddenly forced to make the movie they have been pretending to produce, the inexperienced friends find themselves dealing with real actors, money and a production they have no idea how to control. The large Trosterudveien villa contributes to the wealthy environment surrounding the people who become involved in financing and supporting their increasingly chaotic film.

In Tina & Bettina: The Movie (2012), the villa provides one of the large private residences used in the comedy built around Tina and Bettina, the exaggerated west-Oslo teenage characters created by Odd-Magnus Williamson and Henrik Thodesen. The film expands the characters from their television sketches into a story involving school, parties, status, relationships and their attempts to maintain their social position. The grand house and grounds at Trosterudveien fit directly into the affluent west-side environment around the characters and were used for residential scenes in the film.

In Mammon (2014–2016), Exit Villa appears as one of the wealthy Oslo residences connected to the financial and political elite investigated by journalist Peter Verås. The thriller follows Peter after he receives information about financial wrongdoing and discovers that the evidence implicates his own brother. His investigation expands into a much larger network involving finance, politics, the media and powerful families. The Trosterudveien villa was used during this world of wealthy and influential characters, several years before the same property became considerably more famous through another Norwegian drama about the darker side of Oslo’s financial elite.

In Doctor Proctor’s Fart Powder (2014), originally released as Doktor Proktors prompepulver, the villa appears among the Oslo residences used for the film’s exaggerated version of the city. Based on Jo Nesbø’s children’s novel, the story follows Lise and Bulle after they meet eccentric inventor Doctor Proctor and discover his extraordinarily powerful fart powder. What begins as an attempt to sell the invention develops into a conflict with the bullying Truls and Trym Thrane and their wealthy and domineering father. The large villa is used as part of the affluent environment surrounding characters in the story, contrasting with Doctor Proctor’s eccentric home and laboratory.

In Hvite gutter (2018–2022), the villa represents the home of Leo’s wealthy father, played by Henrik Smestad. It appears as early as the second episode of the first season, when Leo brings Jens, Herman and Mathias to the house to steal alcohol from his father. They are caught in the act, but rather than becoming angry when he realises who they are, Leo’s father allows them to take the drinks. He nevertheless uses Herman to demonstrate what might have happened if he had mistaken them for genuine intruders, physically intimidating him while the others watch. The villa returns in a later episode when Leo once again brings the group there to steal alcohol. This time his father surprises them carrying a baseball bat and strikes Herman in the stomach before recognising the boys and realising that they are not burglars. The large house, grounds and well-stocked home therefore serve as a recurring extension of Leo’s privileged family background, while the encounters with his unpredictable father turn visits to the property into a running source of physical comedy.

In Exit (2019–2023), the villa represents the home of financier Jeppe Schiøtt, played by Jon Øigarden, and is used repeatedly across the series. Jeppe is one of four wealthy friends working in Oslo’s financial sector whose outwardly successful lives conceal extensive drug use, infidelity, sex workers, violence and increasingly destructive behaviour. The Trosterudveien property establishes Jeppe’s considerable wealth through its grand entrance, large reception rooms, garden, terraces and swimming pool, while domestic scenes reveal the sharp contrast between his luxurious surroundings and his dysfunctional private life. Jeppe lives there with his wife Hermine, and the house becomes the setting for arguments, parties, drug use and some of the series’ most uncomfortable confrontations between the couple. Because the villa recurs so frequently and is clearly identifiable on screen, the association became strong enough that Norwegian newspapers and property coverage now commonly refer to Villa Glahus simply as the “Exit house” or “Exit villa”.

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