Mads Mikkelsen talks about playing the role of a Bond villain

You'll be relieved to know that both of Mads Mikkelsen's eyes are normal. In Casino Royale, his villain, Le Chiffre, a money launderer who bankrolls international terrorists, has one eye that's scarred and cloudy and occasionally weeps tears of blood. He's also a very dour fellow, unlike Mikkelsen himself - reports EW.

The Danish actor, who turns 41 on Nov. 22 and will soon be seen in After the Wedding (Denmark's submission this year for Oscar consideration), was all smiles and laughs as he spoke to EW.com last week at a Manhattan hotel.

How did the filmmakers rig your eye to bleed?
Pretty simply. They just stopped the film and placed a little drop there. I had a contact lens covering the whole eye. It didn't hurt at all, but I must have been the most clumsy Bond villain in history. I couldn't see anything. All my depth perception was gone, so I just kept knocking things down.

What is it about you that you think led to your casting as the Casino Royale villain?
The funny accent? I don't know. There's a lot of interest in Danish film these days, so we are luckily in a position where casting directors are watching us.

Did you have ambitions to work outside Denmark and make a Hollywood blockbuster?
I was pretty happy working back home. But I got the offer, and it's a Bond film, a legendary thing, and my son would have killed me if I'd said no. It's a small country, so if you become what you would call a star over here, you can only make, like, one film per year because people would get fed up with you pretty soon. So in order to actually live from what you're doing, you have to work abroad as well.

Who's your favorite Bond villain?
The one I remember most was Jaws, but that's because I was very small and he was just an enormous man. And then, of course, Christopher Walken [in A View to a Kill] because I really love him as an actor.

Was it a relief to play a realistic bad guy instead of the usual Bond movie megalomaniac?
We tried to make it more human. This villain is under pressure, not only from Bond. And the more pressure he's under, the more dangerous he becomes. It's not a guy who's taking over the world. It's not a mad scientist. So he's more recognizable. I really liked the script, and I was glad I didn't have to do the pirate laugh when he did something evil. If you leave him alone, he'll leave you alone, so he's not pure evil.

He's not too nice to his girlfriend.
Well, she's expendable.

Did you enjoy torturing James Bond with a whip?
I had great fun. I don't think he had a great day. It was very exhausting for him. He had to hit that certain level of energy for eight hours. But I seemed to enjoy it pretty much. With the eye thing, I did have a problem. Once in a while, I heard a scream down there that was slightly different. ''Oh, that means one step back, okay.''

How did Craig and the rest of the team take all the bad press he was receiving?
It was difficult to see and feel it in him, but I'm sure there was a lot going on inside. It wasn't something we went around talking about a lot on the set because that wouldn't benefit anyone. I'm sure he felt the love and respect for him as an actor on the set all along. The only thing he could do was to focus on the work and do his best. Listening to all the gossip about being blond, it's hard to take that seriously. But if I went to work every day reading in the paper that I'm really crap at it, that's a hard thing. And it was all over the place all the time. He's breathing much easier now, I guess.

In real life, are you good at poker?
I've played a lot of Texas Hold 'Em. This time, happily, I got a teacher who took me out to teach me the hard way, left me in a couple casinos to see what happened. I was sitting with a couple of old Chinese who didn't give a s--- about money.

And did you play a lot during your downtime on the set?
Every time we had a break, we played poker. Every time there was a wrap, we played poker.

What were the stakes?
Our per diems, the food money. So some of the guys didn't eat that day.

Who won?
That's a good question. If you asked Daniel, he'd have one answer. No, I won.

What was Craig's poker-table ''tell''?
Actually, he didn't play that much. He was very disciplined. He had to get up at 5 every morning, while the rest of us might have a couple days off. But he smiles when he has a good hand.

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