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Why is Mads Mikkelsen often the villain?
The Danish actor has the answer to that. “It's quite simple. It's the funny accent. It's as simple as that,” he replied, Deadline reported.
Mads Mikkelsen's history of villainy
Mikkelsen has played villains in several movies such as Le Chiffre in Casino Royale, Kaecilius in Doctor Strange, Galen Erso in Rogue One, Gellert Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts and Ludwig von Kahlen in the latest Indiana Jones.
And who could forget his role as Hannibal in the NBC series that ran from 2013 to 2016 that made the internet fall in love with him, cannibalism and all?
… and accents
“It used to be Germans, then it was Brits; then the Russians, and then for some reason they fell in love with the Danish accent. That’s definitely part of it,” he continued to explain.
Mikkelsen added, “Then if the Americans see something they like, they have a tendency to try and copy it, right. But I’ve been lucky enough to do different villains in different universes. There’s a big difference between Marvel and James Bond… but I never think about it too much. In Denmark, we don’t divide it into bad guys and good guys, we tend look at more complex characters.”
Acting in a language not your own
The actor spoke at the Marrakech Film Festival, which also held a gala screening of his new movie, The Promised Land. The film is also Denmark's Oscar entry.
As a recipient of the festival's honorary Etoile d'Or career prize, Mikkelsen attended a masterclass filmed with aspiring actors and filmmakers. One of the attendees, a young actress, asked him for tips on how to act in a non-native language film.
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“I’ve done quite a few films in different languages, none of them I speak or at least not fluently,” he answered.
“The trick the first time I did anything in English was to rehearse it and rehearse it and then, once you shoot the scene that’s it, it’s over. Don’t think about it anymore. If there are mistakes, if people out there are going, ‘Oh my God, what an accent’. So be it. That’s all I could do,” Mikkelsen advised.
He added, “Forget it once you get in there, focus on the scene. You cannot be on stage or in front of the camera, focusing on the language. The worst-case scenario is you can fix it later in the ADR sessions later on.”
Mikkelsen emphasized the importance of the director and the actor working together, and the former being willing to accept a performance done with an accent.
“If they anticipate a perfect language with no accent whatsoever, you should tell them to find someone else,” he elaborated.
When asked if he had a favorite director to with, Mikkelsen demurred and said that it would be like comparing oranges and apples.
“I try to make them all equally important. Everything I do is the most important thing, the next thing I do it’s the most important thing in my job. It will be the best field in history. That’s the goal. Luckily, we never achieved that so we get another chance,” he stated.
“I’m not going to compare oranges and apples. Each one has changed my career, or been a stepping stone to something else, everyone has been part of that. So, if they’re not equally important, I love them all,” Mikkelsen concluded.
