Mads Mikkelsen talks about “Therapy for Vikings” | EUROtoday

Ringo Starr? He continues to be alive and has lovely black hair.

The director Anders Thomas Jensen could be very profitable with movies through which he includes males in unusual occasions. You are sometimes the weirdest one in these teams.

Most just lately, in “Heroes of Probability”, I used to be, for as soon as, essentially the most “normal”, however total you might be proper: Jensen likes to push me to extremes many times, now additionally with this frightened man known as Manfred alias John Lennon.

The core theme in “Therapy for Vikings” is a severe one: paternal violence within the household. People are scarred for all times after they expertise one thing like this as kids. Do you must know one thing about trauma with the intention to speak about it?

Creativity doesn’t rely upon trauma. But it will be important for me as an actor in addition to for the director to know one thing concerning the human expertise.

Part of your picture is that you simply usually play villains. Now it’s a man who has nearly fully withdrawn into his fantasy worlds. According to the unique title of the movie, he considers himself to be the “last Viking”. Is this creativeness the core of an actor’s work?

I play Manfred because the six-year-old baby he has all the time remained. He stays within the background as a result of he distrusts the world. But he’s additionally very narcissistic, as kids might be as quickly as he steps on stage and takes cost.

I can inform tales about my childhood which can be much less lovely and actually nice issues. It’s just like the glass is half full or half empty. Childhood is what you need from it.

I ask as a result of folks prefer to search for a clue with regards to actors: What experiences does somebody have when enjoying an uncommon character? You’re most likely not a way actor who digs deep into your individual psyche.

I are likely to search for reminiscences, however that has nothing to do with technique performing. This is usually very misunderstood. Method performing is principally a boring method used to evoke a sense. It has nothing to do with somebody gaining 100 kilos for a task. In the particular case of Manfred: I attempt to perceive what makes him glad. This will also be one thing banal. I simply want to grasp it. You may also overdo it when getting ready for a task.

Robert De Niro is taken into account an advocate of technique performing. The approach he performed Travis Bickle in “Taxi Driver” actually impressed you.

Above all, it was the paradox of the character. We’re used to films with characters we like and others we do not like. And nothing adjustments on this both/or till the tip. I favored Travis Bickle at first, however then he grew on me and generally I needed to hit him. That’s life. I used to be fully on him for 2 hours.

The cinema would subsequently be a spot the place we as people, but additionally as a society, can study and strengthen take care of ambiguity. One additionally particularly speaks of tolerance of ambiguity as an important advantage.

There are additionally limits to this tolerance. This is what we as a society want to determine. Nowadays we domesticate a excessive diploma of individuality, and then again, everybody must be equal someplace. That would not add up. If somebody steps out of line, that individual undoubtedly should not be capable of convey the entire world to its knees earlier than them.

“Therapy for Vikings” is a pleasant instance of a common discovering: there are dramas, however hardly any tragedies, and after they do, they’re instructed as comedies. Are the previous genres dissolving?

If we consider the Greek comedies: the order of genres was very strict. The comedies used this to convey criticism of the authorities. Aristophanes spoke very particularly about untenable circumstances, so he was very severe, after which he wrapped every part up in one thing loopy so that folks would let him get away with it. We cannot get by with out darkish humor. That’s what lies behind these mixtures.

In 1996 you turned identified for the movie “Pusher”, for which you had your head shaved. A nod to “Taxi Driver”’s mohawk coiffure?

I feel it was me who recommended it. These two guys, the one actors within the movie, had a darkness of their eyes that I used to be lacking. I used to be by no means a part of this drug scene in Copenhagen. So it took one thing radical for this character of Tonny to achieve respect.

You made “Pusher” with Nicolas Winding Refn, who later turned a cult director with “Walhalla Rising” and “Only God Forgives”. It was the time of Dogma 95, when Danish cinema achieved world recognition with Thomas Vinterberg and Lars von Trier.

We made the movie in a approach that was laid out by Dogma 95 with a manifesto: handheld digital camera, no extra lighting, all that stuff. We simply did not speak about it. We merely did not have the cash for extra, and the movie needed to have a really documentary really feel. For me, on the core of Dogma 95 is that the story must be the main focus once more.

Are you continue to in contact with Winding Refn?

He was at my birthday just lately. We are elements of each of our life journeys and complement one another effectively: He solely talks about movies. I simply speak about sports activities.

Her enthusiasm for soccer is well-known. How do you bear in mind the summer time of 1992?

Haha, I used to be in Copenhagen and I used to be one of many tons of of hundreds who flooded into the streets when Denmark, towards all logic, turned European champions. It is alleged that 20 or 30 p.c extra infants have been born 9 months later than would have been statistically anticipated. But I do not simply watch soccer. Tour de France is simply as thrilling.

What fascinates you about these sports activities?

It’s the drama. Someone wins, everybody does their finest. Things usually occur that you’d reduce out of any script as a result of they’re too loopy.

When did you first meet Anders Thomas Jensen?

I had simply completed my research, it was the mid-nineties. He wrote quick movies. We argued fairly a bit originally as a result of we have been each very provocative again then.

His movies are entertaining, however very complicated intimately. Does he have to cover his intelligence somewhat?

Intelligence is various. I do know actors who you would not suppose have been tremendous good, however who’ve unerring instinct. Thomas’s thoughts could be very, very fast, and when he talks, issues come up that nobody would anticipate.

Do you imagine in one thing like destiny? Karma? Your profession appears as if every part occurred very simply.

I by no means sat again, however I all the time lived within the second and by no means considered something that was to return in two years. I do know people who find themselves so centered on a selected dream that they see every part as simply steps towards that dream. In this fashion, a life can rapidly be over.

What is essential when you could have a script in entrance of you?

If it is badly written! If there isn’t a wavelength with the director! Sometimes I see a movie or a fireplace but additionally in unhealthy scripts. Or if I do not absolutely perceive one thing – then it turns into fascinating!

Do you learn rather a lot your self, or do your folks already know what to place within the drawer?

Most issues get by to me. I insist on that. I would discover one thing that solely I discover. My persons are superb and know me very effectively. But I do not wish to danger something.

You’ve claimed you did not understand how large of a deal the James Bond franchise was once you accepted the function of villain Le Chiffre in Casino Royale.

That was as much as me. I’ve by no means watched Star Wars, and I have never watched any James Bond films. I watched B-movies and horror movies. Today I perceive what was nice about James Bond. But my heroes have been the karate fighter Bruce Lee or Buster Keaton, Charles Bronson.

Buster Keaton should be notably fascinating to you as an actor. He is legendary for his immobile face. It usually appears like he is not enjoying in any respect.

He does rather a lot, however in fact early cinema was completely different. Sometimes you discover somewhat pleasure creeping into your stoicism, after which the heavens open up.

You have repeatedly accepted roles internationally, quickly additionally within the very thrilling “Dust Bunny”. Was there ever a second, for instance after “Casino Royale,” when your life, your profession, may have spiraled uncontrolled?

I all the time had Denmark. That was all the time sufficient for me. It’s enjoyable to work in Hollywood or wherever else. But my associates, my language, my household, that was all the time Denmark. We do not make big pirate movies, however we do our factor.