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Mads Mikkelsen on Getting Into Flying Kung-Fu Shape for ‘Doctor Strange’ and Finally Getting His ‘Rogue One’ Action Figure
Ever since his role in 2006’s James Bond hit Casino Royale, Mads Mikkelsen has been one of cinema’s preeminent purveyors of evil. His villainous streak continued with his turn as religious fanatic Kaecilius in last November’s Doctor Strange. (You can watch a new deleted scene from the movie above, via our pals at Yahoo Movies UK.)
Between facing off against Benedict Cumberbatch in that Marvel adventure and playing Death Star daddy Galen Erso in December’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the 51-year-old Danish actor had an extremely busy 2016, which further cemented his reputation as one of the movies’ most intense and versatile stars. With the home-video release of Doctor Strange fast approaching (Feb. 14 on digital HD; Feb. 28 on Blu-ray and DVD), we spoke with Mikkelsen about finally receiving his long-awaited Star Wars action figure, his excitement over getting to perform “flying kung fu,” and whether he’ll ever reprise his role as the iconic serial killer from TV’s Hannibal.
Yahoo Movies: You’ve now (mostly) completed your responsibilities for Doctor Strange and Rogue One — are you exhausted yet?
Mads Mikkelsen: Yeah, a little. It’s interesting, because for Doctor Strange, I was just in Japan — they released it there a week ago. So even though we finished it last summer, it’s still around. Yes, we’re exhausted, but we like to talk about stuff that we’re proud of, so it’s all good.
Now that you’ve had key roles in two of last year’s biggest films, I assume you’re writing your own ticket in Hollywood.
[Laughs] It honestly is surreal … for any actor I guess, and especially for a Danish actor. When I was a kid, I had no dreams that I wanted to be an actor, but I did watch the Star Wars films, of course, and I did read the Marvel comic books. So it is crazy and surreal when you’re 50-something and you end up in films like that.
When you were first making a name for yourself in Danish films like the Pusher trilogy did you ever envision yourself starring in three of the cinema’s biggest franchises/movie universes, including James Bond, via 2006’s Casino Royale? Was blockbuster cinema ever on your radar?
No, not at all. Nobody’s radar. Besides Viggo Mortensen, I guess — but he was like half-American anyways — no Dane ever went over there and gave it a shot. For us, it was all about reinventing Danish films, doing what we thought was the right thing to do at this time when we were fresh and young and had lots of energy and ideas. Then all of a sudden, somebody watched Danish films over [in America], and I got a phone call. I never sought it — it kind of found me.
You finally received an action figure for Rogue One’s Galen Erso — what was that like? Were your kids excited?
It was very cool. I haven’t actually seen it yet, but they have texted me that it’s on its way in the mail. Because I have made a big thing out of not getting one. I was actually moaning quite a lot. I was moaning my way to get one, and finally I achieved it, so I’m at peace with that.
Well, if you’re going to be in a Star Wars movie, you have to get your own action figure.
I invented the Death Star — I mean, c’mon guys! [Laughs]
Your Doctor Strange character, Kaecilius, is far more villainous than Galen Erso, but both don’t see themselves as evil. Was that what drew you to both roles?
Yes, I think it is. It’s what reality is as well. There are two sides in a war, and I’ve never, ever seen one side raise their hands and say, “Hey guys, we’re the bad guys!” [Laughs] They have a purpose, they make sense within their own logic — and they have to. If not, there’s no reason to have a fight. If we could understand that — not necessarily embrace that, but at least understand that — then we have a better chance to figure out what the opponent is thinking, and what is their purpose.
What’s the preparation process for a big film like Doctor Strange or Rogue One? Is it different than the process for a smaller project — or, creatively speaking, is it fundamentally the same?
It is fundamentally the same. It is all about the script, your director, and your fellow actors. What are we telling here, which way is the best way to tell this story, and is there anything we can improve in here to tell that story.
Obviously, it’s a much bigger project when you’re doing a Doctor Strange film. There are 500 people at breakfast, and in Denmark, we will be 10. So it’s a different scale. But once that’s done, we sit in small groups, and we work just the same way. We’re trying to make it intimate; that’s the whole idea. Obviously, with Doctor Strange, it was a different kind of preparation, because we had a boot camp, and we had to get into this physical shape of being flying kung fu masters, you know?
How demanding was the preparation for Doctor Strange? I assume there was quite a lot of fight training.
There was quite a lot. We had a five-week boot camp before we started shooting. But I was in good shape already, and I was a gymnast as a kid — I used to be a dancer. So a lot of these things, I’d done them before. Although not on this scale, not every single day. So it was a challenge — but it was a great challenge. And how good did we get? Good enough that I don’t have a double in any of the shots; I did all the shots.
I was going to ask you — does the gymnastics and dancing background help with roles like this?
It’s not that you can’t do it without it, but it definitely provides a helping hand. Benedict had never done anything like that, and he learned it just as good as the rest of us. But I think that maybe it was an easier first two weeks for guys like me who had done martial arts before. It was kind of more accessible.
How did you get involved with Doctor Strange? Were you familiar with the property or with Marvel comics/movies in general? Were you a big comics fan beforehand?
It came to me in the sense that I got a phone call from Scott [Derrickson, director of Dr. Strange]. He pitched the story to me, and then he said the magic words: “Flying kung fu.” That’s when I said, “Hold it right there — I’m in.” I’ve been a big fan of comic books since I was a kid; my childhood was full of comic books and full of Bruce Lee.
How much prior experience have you had with greenscreen and CGI?
I’ve done quite a few things — enough to know what it is. There are two different ways of working with the greenscreen. There’s the one where you’re fighting monsters that are obviously not there, and that’s where you fight a tennis ball and you have to imagine where the monster’s arm is and whatever.
In the case of Doctor Strange, most of it was the surroundings — the buildings, everything around us. And it wasn’t a direct interaction with what we were doing, with something that was around us. So it wasn’t as challenging. But then again, some of the time, the world is spinning upside down and so are we, and so for that, we had a little animated version of the whole film, so we could constantly keep track of where is Doctor Strange, and where am I, in this whole thing.
Did you find any of the finished effects surprising, given that you only had a rough idea of what they would look like?
Oh yeah. As I said, we had the animated version while we were making it, and obviously, it didn’t look close to the end result. We can only imagine and we can only hope and cross our fingers that this is going to look cool. But I don’t think we were ready for any of it when we saw it, because it was really mind-blowing. It was something very, very spectacular. Specifically, in the scenes that you were not in — that you read and that you knew they were filming — once you saw those scenes, you were like, “Whoa, this is amazing!”
You said you were a Marvel fan growing up. Was “Dr. Strange” one of your favorites? Or did your tastes lie elsewhere?
Yeah, I was definitely a Marvel guy. I do remember reading “Dr. Strange” as well. I was probably not old enough to fully grasp its ’60s philosophy — it’s quite surreal and psychedelic.
But as a kid, talking about who did I identify with out of all the Marvel heroes? It had to be Spider-Man. I mean, Spider-Man was like me, and everyone else — a skinny boy with a big mouth, and he got away with it. [Laughs] He was our hero.
You also starred in the Danish comedy Men & Chicken last year. Is it important for you to also do smaller-scaled Danish work like that, to provide you with some balance, artistically speaking?
It’s not that I sit down and say, “Now, I have to do this. Now I want to make a big blockbuster.” That’s not the way it works. But as a Dane, I think it’s still important to be a part of what we do back home. Those are the stories, those are my friends, we started out together — there’s something just very nice about going back to that specific freedom we have together.
Do you have any future plans to reemerge in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
I don’t think they tell us. Once you see the film, you have a pretty good hunch about what’s going to happen next time — if there’s a next time, which I’m sure there will be. And if I’m a part of that, they can just call me. I’d love to. But as it is now, it looks like it’s going somewhere else.
What about your starring role in NBC’s Hannibal, which was canceled last year — any chance for another course?
Not as of now. We are all in this limbo-land, and I think we’ve all just kind of let it go. If it happens, if Bryan [Fuller, Hannibal’s showrunner], for some reason, gets a chance to do it, and he calls us, I’m sure we’ll all be up for it. As it is right now, I think we’re just working on the stuff we’re doing now. But it’s such a wonderful show, you can wait four years. I mean, you can easily let four years pass in the story. So if it does happen, I think we’re all just a phone call away.
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