Mads Mikkelsen seemingly has it all. A supremely gifted actor and one of the most handsome men in the world, he lives a quiet life in his native Copenhagen with his wife, son, and daughter.
In person, he's jovial and outgoing, smiling constantly, and except for his striking leading man looks, one would never suspect that he's one of Europe's biggest stars.
He won the coveted Palme d'Or in 2012 as best actor for his performance in Thomas Vinterberg's The Hunt in 2014 and is best known for his role as Le Chiffre in Casino Royale (2006), the Hannibal TV series, back-to-back blockbusters in 2016: Doctor Strange and Star Wars: Rogue One, and was BAFTA-nominated for Another Round (2020).
Add in the role of Gellert Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022), and like so many others from Scandinavia, the actor proves the appeal of the stoic, bold, blond, brave, outlandish types from the Northern Hemisphere.
That perception fits nicely with his upcoming role in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, in which 57-year-old Mikkelsen plays Jurgen Voller, a (somewhat typically) mean Nazi who pits himself against our titular hero.
STRIPLV: You've famously said in the past you didn't like James Bond films nor Star Wars films, yet watched them, a few for the first time, when you landed those roles. Is the same true for Indiana Jones?
MIKKELSEN: That is true in the case of those movies! It sounds strange to say that, but I just never liked the films and what they stood for. Am I a hypocrite, or somewhat fake, to now admit I'm a big fan of them? I can honestly say like I felt like a whole new universe has opened up to me, and it was finally fantastic to see what other people had seen in these films many years before. The Indiana Jones movies were much closer aligned to my personal tastes when I was growing up, so there is no awkward backtracking required on this occasion. (Laughs) I like action movies. Indeed, I grew up on kung fu films, and I was a big fan of Bruce Lee, so I was into these sorts of films.
STRIPLV: Why kung fu?
MIKKELSEN: I don't know, perhaps because it was just so different to the culture I grew up around. I loved Bruce Lee, and as a young boy, I was always practicing martial arts moves. I would get up every morning very early and work very hard at it. I even wore the kind of Chinese shoes and loose pants that he wore.
STRIPLV: You've done all sorts of films throughout your career but now seem pretty settled playing in these big Hollywood studio films?
MIKKELSEN: I enjoy doing them, but I still make the smaller movies. In my head, the big films help draw attention to a lot of the smaller European kinds of films I do. Often, I will get fan mail from all over the world, and what always surprises me is how people in China, for example, will know me from the blockbusters, but they now spend time watching some of my Danish films. I'm very glad about that.
STRIPLV: You take your family with you to different places, awards ceremonies, film festivals, etc. How do your children feel about all the attention their famous father gets?
MIKKELSEN: They're adults now, and they've long lived with the attention that comes with my job all their lives. In Copenhagen, people will recognize me in the street, but usually in a quiet way. In Cannes, though, for example, is a very different situation. It's much more chaotic and crowded, and there are photographers constantly taking my picture and people screaming my name all the time wherever I go. That's when my children have really got to experience first-hand what "daddy" deals with outside of Denmark, but it's something they're very much used to by now.
STRIPLV: Did you ever worry about that attention becoming bigger, to the point where you realized you may not like it?
MIKKELSEN: No, not really. Actors aren't really such a big deal in Denmark. Our national heroes are football players, although we Danes are quite modest, and we don't have a big fascination with celebrities as some other cultures do. Danish children would much rather be sports or football stars than actors. (Laughs) But there are plenty of Danes who are proud when someone like me or (soccer star) Christian Eriksen has been able to succeed on an international level.
STRIPLV: Going back to your big break in blockbusters, how difficult was it to land parts when you were relatively unknown except to European art house audiences?
MIKKELSEN: I got a phone call from Barbara Broccoli (the producer of the Bond films). She told me that she had seen Suzanne Bier's Open Heart and, that it was one of her favorite films, and that she wanted me to play the villain. I'm still not sure exactly why she made that connection because, in Open Heart, I play this wonderful man, a doctor with three children, who's almost too nice.
STRIPLV: You must have been proud of yourself when you won the Best Actor prize at Cannes for your role in The Hunt in 2012—an absolutely stunning film and performance.
MIKKELSEN: Thank you, that's very kind of you to say. Yes, it was nice, but getting a prize like that doesn't really change how you feel about your work. I think of an award as something you can look at as a pat on the back for having done a good job. It's something that helps you feel better on a rainy day or when you're a little down, and you don't believe things are going your way. Then you can look back at the prize and think to yourself: "Well, at least that film worked out!"
STRIPLV: One of the most interesting aspects of your life is that before becoming an actor, you had a completely different career as a modern dancer.
MIKKELSEN: I was a professional dancer until the age of 30, when I went into acting. I did classical repertoire and modern dance, everything except ballet.
STRIPLV: How did you first get into dance?
MIKKELSEN: I was very much into sports. I loved gymnastics and pretty much any kind of sports. I enjoyed athletics, working on my body, and developing my physique, and I've been like that all of my life. I had a lot of nervous energy as a child, and my math teacher in school was the one who got me first involved in sports because he also taught physical education. He saw that I needed to find an outlet for my excess energy, and sports was the perfect solution because I couldn't get into much trouble if I was playing football or doing gymnastics for five hours a day!
He noticed that while doing gymnastics, I was very conscious of movement and choreography. One day, he asked me if I wanted to study dance, and I said yes immediately, especially because the ballet class was full of girls. I was the only boy. (Laughs)
STRIPLV: Does your dance background influence or add some elements to your acting work?
MIKKELSEN: One thing dancers learn is discipline. Even though actors are usually very dedicated to their craft, one thing I've always carried with me from my dance training is punctuality. I'm always on time, and I don't particularly like it if someone arrives late on a set or for meetings. It's quite a big thing for me. From a physical perspective, I don't always consciously take advantage of the skills I developed as a dancer when I'm acting in front of a camera, but I'm sure that that's always there in some form. I'm very aware of the way my character should move and how other actors are moving in relation to me, and I think that also allows me to express certain emotions or states of mind simply with the way I walk or certain body movements that can convey a lot.
STRIPLV: Do you have any particular career strategy or preferences when it comes to certain kinds of films or characters?
MIKKELSEN: No, not really. My job is to fall in love with a story or screenplay and bring my character to life. I'm always looking to play the character with the right emotions and the right level of those emotions and help tell the story the best way possible.
STRIPLV: You played the infamous Hannibal. Was it difficult going home to your family at night after playing a serial killer and cannibal?
MIKKELSEN: Fortunately, I am not one of those actors who likes to stay in the head of his character once the day's shooting is over. That does not seem very healthy, and I would suggest my colleagues seek medical help if they need to do that! As an actor, I dedicate myself completely to my character, but I try to let go of it as soon as possible. For every role, I try to build a specific personality that allows me to understand and behave according to that personality. That's the art that comes with doing drama; otherwise you should call it therapy.
STRIPLV: Is it true that you've been sometimes mistaken for Viggo Mortensen throughout your career?
MIKKELSEN: Yes. Once. This is a good story I like to tell people, although you may have heard it by now. I was going back to my hotel in Toronto quite some time ago, and a bunch of photographers mistook me for him, and they started screaming, "Viggo, Viggo!" There was too much noise for me to try to explain that it wasn't Viggo, so I just let them carry on. I think I even signed some autographs for fans as Viggo Mortensen. (Laughs)
STRIPLV: To finish then, how good has it been to help reprise Indiana Jones?
MIKKELSEN: It's a dream come true. He is an iconic character who made so many people happy during his first incarnation. To see Harrison Ford still doing it at 80 is quite incredible and a testament to what an astonishing actor he is. It's an honor for me.
The top five Mads Mikkelsen movies (as rated by Rotten Tomatoes)
Users of the movie-dedicated website Rotten Tomatoes have ranked the movies of Danish acting legend Mads Mikkelsen, and the top five may surprise some.
The 2006 film directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, Pusher II: With Blood On My Hands, has a perfect rating of 100% from 10 professional movie critic reviews, while from the average rating from those 5,000+ audience members, it hits a still very respectable 85%.
In the film, Mikkelsen plays ex-convict Tonny, who finds that trouble follows him despite trying to gain his father's favor.
In Open Heart, Mikkelsen plays a doctor who meets the main female lead character, Cecilie (played by Sonja Richter), and they begin an affair, despite it emerging that his wife was the driver of a car which has robbed her fiancée the use of his legs. Laid bare with raw human emotion, it was well received by critics (93% rating from 58 reviews) and viewers (90% from over 2,500 reviews).
Mikkelsen's emotive and sympathetic performance sees a complicated subject dealt with in the 2012 Thomas Vinterberg film The Hunt. When a student of Mikkelsen's kindergarten teacher character implies that he has committed a lewd act, everyone in his local village turns on him. One hundred thirty-three reviews from critics have produced an average rating of 92% and over 10,000 audience votes, clocking 93%.
Mikkelsen's role in the 2006 Bond movie Casino Royale is the most familiar on this list, as the actor rubs shoulders with Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Eva Green, et al. Director Martin Campbell changed things by delivering a hugely intense reimagination of the Bond franchise, with a 90%+ rating from over 250,000+ audience viewers.
Finally, Doctor Strange sees Mikkelsen starring as Kaecilius as Dr Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) loses the use of his hands following a car accident. Scott Derrickson directs this MCU film, casting Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, and Tilda Swinton. With almost 400 reviews, the critics gave it 89% and the audience of over 100,000, 86%.