Casino Royale villain Mads Mikkelsen talks Bond and his latest movie

14-Sep-2006 • Actor News

Actor Mads Mikkelsen is about to become very famous. By mid-November you'll know exactly who he is.

But for now, he's just pretty excited about his Danish movie After the Wedding getting Gala treatment tomorrow night - reports the Toronto Star.

"I brought a suit and everything. It got wrinkled in the suitcase. I was trying to iron it last night, but I don't think it worked."

At the suggestion that he let the hotel staff handle the problem, or get the folks at Harry Rosen to provide a tuxedo, he shakes his head and laughs. "Oh, I don't know. We're not used to that in Denmark. You should be able to do it yourself."

Meet the guy who plays Le Chiffre, the nefarious baccarat-playing foe of Daniel Craig's brand-new James Bond. Casino Royale premieres in London on Nov. 16. Mikkelsen can't wait to see the "top secret" movie.

The 40-year-old actor has been famous at home "for about five years" for roles both comic and dramatic in movies like The Green Butchers, Adam's Apples and Pusher. He also played Tristan in Antoine Fuqua's Arthur, and is used to getting stopped for autographs by over-excited teenagers. Getting voted Denmark's sexiest man helped, too. He's not too worried about his fame becoming global.

"I think it takes more than one movie. But it won't be a surprise to me if it happens. I'll probably get recognized, but I think I can still go on vacation."

After the Wedding is directed by Suzanne Bier (Brothers, Open Hearts), the Danish filmmaker who is now working on Things We Lost in the Fire with Halle Berry and Benicio del Toro.

Mikkelsen plays Jacob, a guy who went to India on youthful travels and never left and is trying hard to raise funds for an orphanage there. A promise of money gets him to Denmark where the businessman benefactor insists Jacob attend his daughter's wedding. He reluctantly does so and that's the beginning of everything he knew slowly unravelling.

It's a close-up, character-based drama, which Mikkelsen says has left audiences weeping. (Well, actually he uses the Danish expression: "crying snot.")

Hardly like a big-dollars, blow-'em-up Bond flick.

"There's a different approach, a different budget. I can't sit around with (Casino Royale director) Martin Campbell for four weeks and discuss the script. That's impossible because there are 2,000 actors and it's not that type of film. But with Suzanne Bier, you do that, you spend a lot of energy getting on the same page.

"I'm not someone you can tell, `Come in here, sit there, do that.' I think that's a horrible way of doing things. I like to be able to make a suggestion ... (be) a participant in the making of the movie."

Mikkelsen has a background as a gymnast and dancer and was primed to do a lot of stunts in Casino Royale.

"I got to do very little. I'm the guy who's pulling the strings. I was upset I didn't get to fall out a helicopter, which I'd been looking forward to. But what little there was, I did myself."

Asked if Craig's performance will silence the naysayers about his casting in the iconic role, Mikkelsen is adamant. "I know it. He's a perfect Bond and brings the character into 2006. He can do everything the others could and so much more. There are always some idiots who refuse to let go of the old, but ..."

He hopes Casino Royale will bring him more action roles.

"I really want to jump out a helicopter some day. In Denmark we can't really do the big action movies, so I'd love to do that somewhere else. You can do it all: drama, black comedy, action, if you're lucky. I think it would be so much fun."