Mads Blog

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Royale Splendor
Even though the role of bad guy Le Chiffre in Casino Royale is about to dramatically alter Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen’s horizon, he says the set felt pretty much the same.
Monday, September 18, 2006

By Pam Grady

Jeff Vespa/WireImage.com
Photo

Mikkelsen, at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival

Mads Mikkelsen won't say much about Casino Royale, the upcoming James Bond movie in which he stars as the villain Le Chiffre opposite new Bond Daniel Craig. He will allow that the film is kind of a creation myth. "It's about how Bond becomes Bond," he tells FilmStew.

The 40-year-old Dane insists that he only makes one film a year, which doesn't quite explain how, in addition to Casino Royale, he had two films in the just concluded Toronto International Film Festival: the domestic drama Prague, about a couple coming apart while far away from home, and After the Wedding, written by Mikkelsen's frequent collaborator Anders Thomas Jensen and directed by Susanne Bier. A fourth release this year, the Swedish thriller Exit, opens there on October 6th.

Mikkelsen is an award-winning star in Denmark, where he works on stage and screen, appearing in such films as Pusher, Open Hearts, The Green Butchers and Adam's Apples. Audiences in the United States primarily know him from his role as Tristan in 2004's King Arthur. That low profile is about to change with the release of Casino Royale, certain to be one of the most talked about movies of the season regardless of how it does at the box office. After years of coasting on Pierce Brosnan's admittedly formidable charm, the franchise is getting an injection of new energy in the rougher, tougher Craig.

"The script is really strong,” says Mikkelsen. “It's been dragged into 2006, a different Bond. It's more gritty, more brutal, more realistic, but still Bond. I think it's a new approach and it works really well."

Certainly the casting of the two actors suggests a change. They are both fair-haired boys and effortlessly elegant off-screen (Craig deserved that best dressed moniker that GQ bestowed on him), but where Craig is often hard-boiled – something so many directors have taken advantage of before, casting him as rough trade in such diverse films, as Love Is the Devil, The Mother and Infamous – Mikkelsen is smooth. As Le Chiffre, he says, he's also forceful and smart.

"[Bond] gets in my way, because I'm laundering money from terrorist organizations," Mikkelsen explains. "All of the sudden I have a problem; I owe a lot of people a lot of money. I try to get that back by arranging a big poker game, and what do you know? Bond turns up."

In taking on new roles, Mikkelsen looks to find qualities that exist within his own personality from which to build his character. "I think everyone knows all of the feelings in the world, and can relate to them in certain situations. It might not be a big part of me, but it's in there somewhere," he asserts.

And what did he locate within himself that gave him the key to Le Chiffre? "He's a very cynical person, very, very ice cold, and I have that, as well," he admits.

A portion of After the Wedding was filmed amidst the poverty of India, while Prague was shot away from his Danish home in the title city. They are both small, intimate dramas as opposed to the big-budget circus that is Casino Royale. Yet Mikkelsen insists that when it came to shooting the films, there was surprisingly little difference.

"The atmosphere on the Bond film was pretty much like we have back home,” he reveals. “Barbara Broccoli was there and Michael Wilson was there all the time fetching coffee, giving massages. It was a really good atmosphere. And when you're working, it's the same work, even though there are 500 people on the set, still the focus is on work. I didn't see the big leap."

It was two years ago tomorrow (17 September) that I started this fan site. And thanks to you readers, random encouraging Google searchers, and Mads, for his own great success, we are still here, and just as keen as ever.

Mads, jeg er gladt for at snakker med dig (og til Ole) i Toronto, Fridag (14 September). Jeg taler til min far, og han er rigtigt overaskelse. Det er fed/alt for meget! Din films er meget godt, og jeg synes du/i (alle sammen med dig) vil hav heldig med den … box office, awards, future prospects, whatever! Til næste år i Toronto, ogs til jeg besøg Kobenhavn for arbeiter, hvem jeg giver dig en øl! - en af den lille web-skrivers.

(It's not so easy constructing original sentences from stuff you think you know but aren't sure 'cause you really only learned en lille smulle dansk and you don't have your notes. Now go have fun with that one, translating/correcting it)

Tak/thanks everyone!

I just saw Prag. I ran in late, missing the director's (Ole Christian Madsen) comments, but Mads was there with him. Then the lights went down, and Mads and Ole joined the audience to watch the film.

The entire movie, or almost, is extreme close-ups, focusing on the sculpture of the human face - and the human spirit. It was also fully engrossing, and hard to watch, especially if you've been in a relationship with an introvert, as Mads' character is to the extreme. Stina (I want to say Stahlo but it's Simon Stahlo and he's a director, so it goes to show I'm learning the business) Stengade was so, so, sooo good, so in control and present, and perfectly out of control when it called for it. There was a scene that rendered me a puddle, and it will for you, too. (click the title of this post or here for a review of the film)

At the end of the film Ole and Mads got up to answer a few questions. Silence when calling for someone to start, so yes, I took the opportunity: Was it difficult for the actors to have such intense closeups on their faces? I asked, as in my old acting courses, we saw how the camera picks up everything, you better beleive it. Mads took the question and said that actually, with cameras all around you all the time, you don't often notice it, and it can even make it easier because you can be even more yourself.

The most interesting response was one (mostly) Ole gave about the most difficult scene to shoot, and without giving it away, it was location-based, with a few wild cards thrown in as the others involved in the scene were not actually paid extras, so it had the potential to get a little out of control. Basically, at the end of the day, kids were swarming the actress saying "I love you!" but ignoring Mads completely. :-)

As we were leaving I said to the director "Det er richtict godt!" but forgot to add the "Tillyke" like I'd hoped to. Therefore I did speak briefly with Mads, which I'm quite pleased about, but as he was about to be swarmed, I beat a retreat and came to where the people really ARE swarming: The Intercontinental Hotel, where a friend in the biz is working for the week. The autograph hounds outside are in full force.

Check back later at my Scandinavian page for perhaps more details on Prag and the movie I'm seeing tomorrow morning, Falkenberg Farewell.

So here I am at the breakfast table with my mom at the counter and Dad mostly on the phone because he's got a picnic to be responsible for today (it's rainy) and he's also reading the Toronto Star. I'm not really paying attention to anything but I see Sarah Polley on the cover the A&E section and that makes me think of Beowulf and Grendel which is the last movie I saw her in and I start reading the article over Dad's shoulder and then for no reason (maybe thinking of the Beowulf and Grendel landscape, I made the leap) I suddenly say "You know, I went to Karlby Klimt when I was in Denmark." And Dad says "Where?" and I'm obviously missing the pronounciation. Then Dad says something about "That's not the way they do it over in Denmark" and I say "what?" and he says "Iron a suit. You don't get someone else to do it for you." And I'm like "what are you talking about?" And he jabs his finger at a picture further down the cover page of the A&E section and I see Mads' picture. He was reading the article, as you will too!

Here is the article, for those who can't access the link (after 7 days, it'll be no one but Star subscribers):

Meet the not-yet-famous enemy of Bond

Sep. 14, 2006. 01:00 AM
MALENE ARPE
POP CULTURE WRITER

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.

"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."

I visited this site and noticed that the home page, blog, and template were not right. My apologies, there must have been a problem with the server.

Tomorrow I depart for Toronto. Wish me luck in my research and film-going - and the rare chance to perhaps meet Mads!

First, read the above review.

Now, I haven't seen Open Hearts yet (if you haven't read the linked review above, it's by the same director and writer team), because although it got Canadian distribution late last year IIRC, I haven't seen it at the video store, and to be honest I have not been in the headspace to deal with watching a movie about a man who leaves his wife for a younger woman, must less a man whose daughter says something like "you bought her a whole house full of furniture, and you won't even buy me a dress!" I'd be SQUARELY on the wife and daughter's side. I'd slap that younger woman so freaking hard her head would spin and she'd have the tinnitus I now happen to have.

However, Bombay orphanages? Rich guys named Jorgen? I'm SO there! I wonder if I get to see the red carpet walk. I've never been to one of these things before.

Permit me to be smug for just a moment. And then let your jaw drop over how much the tickets cost.

On another personal note (yes, two in the same post), my parents are going to be very happy to see me sooner than Thanksgiving (my traditional trip, second weekend of October). They live outside Toronto and I've been hounding them to come and visit me, but my mum's health is not so good.

Synopsis:

"Prague" tells the story of Christoffer and his wife Maja, who go to Prague to bring back the remains of his recently deceased father. As Christopher learns more about his father's life, he also tries to improve his relationship with his wife. He feels Maja is slipping away. The question is whether they will ever be able to retrieve their love for one another.

I have yet to buy my ticket for this show - may have to wait for overnight, as apparently the lines, the holds, and the webserver are long and slow. There's also a whopping $4.50 service charge, so I have to plan my itinerary accordingly and buy all the tickets at once. BUT the buzz so far out of Toronto, from what I hear, is good.

Last night, if you came by the home page of this site, you would have seen the little link like this made live:

Scandinavian film

Today I announced it to my friends and I hope it takes off from there. For things related to films that Mads is not in, it'll all be there. Mads films will be both there and here. And here is where you'll find the stuff Mads fans in general want to know.

Enjoy!

This afternoon as I was driving, I heard an entertainment reporter for the CBC talking about "indie" movies - I presume by indie he meant international - that were must-see at the Toronto International Film Festival. He cited a Scottish one, then he said 'A Danish movie called After the Wedding' and asserted that the lead, Mads Mikkelsen, is set to be the next Viggo Mortensen.

Go Mads!

Only now, I see the need on this site's main page for a primer on how to pronounce Mads' name. It's Mess Mee-kulsin.

Don't worry about it if you've said it wrong, so long as you change your ways. It's hard to screw up Andersen, but EVERYONE seems to call me Sor-REN-sen. Gah!

This is the day I iron out whether I go to Toronto this weekend or wait until next week. It is good news, really, that Mads' films are on days that I can easily go; my conflict is the 9th and the films are screened after that.

I have written to my friend at Alliance Atlantis to see if he knows of any press conferences regarding these two films and when they would be; I do not know who to contact at TIFF to be able to attend but I'm sure I'll get a name at some point.

Perhaps I'll go take a look at some of the chatboards and sites in our new Links section to see if anyone there knows what is going on.

Update: There is no need for me to go this weekend. There are no press conferences scheduled for Mads' movies or any Danish or Norwegian films, either. I will go to Toronto next week.

Film Title: Prague (Prag)

Programme: CONTEMPORARY WORLD CINEMA
Director: Ole Christian Madsen
Country: Denmark
Year: 2006
Language: Danish, English, Czech
Time: 92 minutes
Film Types: Colour/35mm
Prague

SCREENING TIMES:
Tuesday, September 12 6:45 PM PARAMOUNT 3
Thursday, September 14 1:00 PM PARAMOUNT 3

Film Title: After the Wedding (Efter Brylluppet)

Programme: GALA PRESENTATIONS
Director: Susanne Bier
Country: Denmark
Year: 2006
Language: Danish
Time: 122 minutes
Film Types: Colour/35mm
Rating: 14A


SCREENING TIMES:
Friday, September 15 9:30 PM ROY THOMSON HALL
Saturday, September 16 3:00 PM VISA SCREENING ROOM (ELGIN)

Press release here.

This film has received Canadian distribution.

This is also the director (and Mads is the lead) of Open Hearts.