Happy Sad Confused - Mads Mikkelsen

Episode Date: January 27, 2021

Mads Mikkelsen always makes an impression. Whether it's in his Danish collaborations with Nicolas Winding Refn and Susanne Bier or in ginormous blockbusters like ROGUE ONE and DOCTOR STRANGE. And then of course there's HANNIBAL. Mads joins Josh on this episode of "Happy Sad Confused" to talk about all of it including his acclaimed new performance in ANOTHER ROUND. For all of your media headlines remember to subscribe to THE WAKEUP podcast here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, sad, confused begins now. Today on Happy, Sad, Confused, Mads Mikkelson mixing up Hollywood blockbusters and acclaimed Danish cinema like his latest performance in Another Round. Hey guys, I'm Josh Harowitz. Welcome to another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused.

I've been wanting to have Mr. Mads Mikkelson on for some time and finally we've made it happen. You know him, of course, from stellar work like Hannibal, cutting-edge network television, like hasn't been done in many years, if at all. And big, big movies like Dr. Strange and Rogue One. He's starring in the new Fantastic Beast movie. But really, if you know Mads-Mickleson's work, you know him probably first from his Danish work. He has a close collaboration over the years with filmmakers like Suzanne Beer and Nicholas Wendigreffin, and he's really been able to kind of mix it all up in a fascinating career. And fascinating is the word for Mads McElson. I feel like his face, his voice, his very persona. He's just

an arresting kind of magnetic presence. And I think that's why people are so attracted to him and why people are borderline obsessed with him, including myself. So I'm thrilled that this finally happened. I got a chance to meet Mads over Zoom and have a long, in-depth conversation about his life and career. He is currently starring in a really, really great film and an amazing performance. It's a collaboration with another director. He's worked with a couple times now, Thomas Winterberg. The new film is another round. It's out available on VOD, various places, you know, iTunes, Amazon, etc. wherever you get your movies on demand. And I heartily recommend this one. It is one of the best performances of the year. He's getting lots of awards attention. He's already won a bunch of stuff in Europe

and very potentially could be in the mix for stuff like the Golden Globes and Oscars and stuff. And I would be happy to see him in that mix because he's fantastic in this film, which is, you know, to give you a little bit of a tease, it's a fascinating kind of premise. It's based on the theory by some, put forward by some, that we are born with a lack of alcohol content in our blood, that we actually require a little bit more to be at our heightened most alive. And we all know this that have had partaken and drank over the years, that alcohol does make us feel a little bit happier and smarter and sexier and whatever. And this film kind of explores that. The character he plays Martin is kind of at a midlife crisis, at a crossroads,

and decides to kind of test this theory along with a bunch of friends and start to drink and start to drink constantly, like, throughout their lives and their teachers. So it's an interesting kind of moral social dilemma. And it flies in the face of a lot of the kind of like depictions of alcohol we've seen in film. And like, it's an honest portrayal. We know that the downfall that alcohol can lead to, but we also know how alcohol can make many of us feel. So a very interesting different take on a subject that I think many of us feel like we're the experts on. So So again, I heartily recommend another round. Check it out. Mads, as I said, has really mixed it up in recent years. I had to talk to him about Star Wars Rogue One, one of my favorite Star Wars films, period. His performance in Doctor Strange, Casino Royale, which was really the big Hollywood blockbuster that brought him to the floor. He is currently, as I alluded to earlier, filming the third Fantastic Beast film. And for some context there, if you don't know it, he replaced Johnny Depp. He's playing Grindalwald. Johnny, Johnny, obviously, He's come under a lot of fire for allegations over the last few years.

So Warner Brothers decided to pull the plug and remove Johnny from the production. They were already filming. So Mads is currently in London filming that, and he was kind enough to take time out from a busy schedule to talk about his life and work. So that's what's up on the podcast today. Other things to mention that Josh Harlow's world, well, first and foremost on my mind, if you follow me on social media, I've got a crazy dog in the other room, guys. I am now a proud dog owner. We have adopted Lucy, who is an adorable pit mix rescue from Lucky Dog Refuge in Connecticut. She is acclimating well to city life for the most part.

She's not a puppy. She's two years old. But she's got a lot of energy guys. It's changed my life, mostly in good ways. She's adorable and so sweet. But, you know, we had some potty training issues the first few days. that actually went away relatively quickly. But now we're just dealing with, like, you know, she's got a lot of energy.

She's a pit. She's a pit mix. So, like, sometimes she gets a little much to handle, guys. So, I'm, you know, send me your advice on Twitter, on Instagram. If you have any advice, we're seeking it. I literally, like, moments before recording this intro, was trying to teach her, you know, to go down, to sit, to go down, and suffered a little, little bit of a nick. I'm okay. I'm going to survive. But it's a hazardous life being a dog owner, even with sweet

Lucy. But yes, for the most part, she's fantastic, and we're very happy to have her here in the palatial Horowitz estate. It's not palatial. But it's big enough for her. Anyway, other things I want to mention, oh yeah, I want to mention stir crazy is back with a new episode this week. My Crazy Show for Comedy Central. We have Madeline Petch, if you know, River. You know, Madeline. She is a delight on that show and a delightful personality. And she killed it in this episode as through crazy. She came ready for fun and delivered in spades.

I always say, this is one of my favorites. This is one of my favorites. And she was kind of surprising in some ways. Like, I mean, I expected and hoped she would be good, but she exceeded my expectations. So check out that episode on Comedy Central's YouTube and Facebook pages on my social media pages. Joshua Horowitz, and I hope you guys enjoy that one. If you haven't checked out my interview with Elizabeth Olson on Wanda Vision for MTV, check that out. That's on MTV News's YouTube page. No spoilers in it, but it was great to reminisce about some of our shared

experiences over the years, including some of you guys have sent me this meme over the years. I did a sketch, an after-hour sketch with Lizzie Olson a few years back. This was before Infinity War came out, and part of the bit of the sketch is she supposedly ruins the end. of Infinity War by saying everybody dies. I had no idea what the end of Infinity War was going to be. I didn't realize that half of everybody was going to die. So people have since then said, oh my God, Elizabeth Olson ruined Infinity War in retrospect. So we had a laugh about that and reminisced about her taping that and whether that even occurred to her as she was reading my silly script. So check that out, as I said, on MTV Newses, YouTube, and Facebook pages.

Anyway, that's enough other stuff for now. Let's get to the main event. Again, Mads Mikkelson, check him out in another round on VOD. It's a stellar performance and no surprise from one of the most interesting, unique performers out there. Here's my chat with the one and only, Mads Mikkelson. Thank you for taking the time. I know you're in the middle of a ginormous movie there. hopefully they're giving you a little a little time off i have a day off and that everything is shut

down so i enjoy doing this instead good stuff does it feel like you're kind of living like a double life right now like you're making a movie which is obviously going to occupy a lot of your brain and you're also you know pushing this this passion project of yours does it feel like a little bit of two different lives it's been like that ever since i started that's the nature of what we're doing yeah things we're shooting now will come out in um a year and then maybe with any luck if it has a longer life where it travels throughout the countries it will go on for a couple of years sure so it's nature we've been doing this ever since i start back in the in the previous millennium back in the dark ages for all of us um i've always

been a fan of your work sir and i and i love your collaborations with it with you've collaborated a number of times with some some my favorite filmmakers and kind of an interesting bunch of of filmmakers, whether it's Vinterberg on this, Suzanne Beer, the mad genius that is Nick Reffen. Is there a commonality in the folks that you have established these kind of ongoing relationships with? No, they are all very different. And the ones you mention there, Susanne and Nicholas Thomas Thomas, and we have to mention Anas Thomas Jensen, who I've done dark comedies with five now. Do they have something in common? Yes, they do have something in coming. They are filmmakers on their own mercy in the sense that they

are complete in charge. They have an idea of what they want to do and that is their new baby and we're all trying to bring that to life. And they're very different in the styles and what they want to tell. But they have that in common that they also have some strong personalities and they insist on this being their film, which I really, really love in a director. So how much collaboration do you need require once you're on set? Like once you're on set, is that still a place for collaboration? Or do you like, do you know what you're going to do on day one and do you want the director

to know exactly what they're doing every day? It's full. I take pride in spending quite a lot of time before we, we, we, um, you know, go on set. I don't like to have the big discussions on set. It's expensive and it can also bring a lot of frustration to the set and to the other people watching it. I do like to be on the same page before we go on set. That doesn't mean that we always completely agreeing, but at least that we have addressed it. We've looked at it, we've discussed it, and we know a way to understand. And we agreed that we're going down this path.

We might make a couple of takes that's going slightly different. And that's the way I like to work. Having said that, once we are on set, things will happen and opportunities will rise. And we will have to capture that as well and come up with the impulsive ideas, both directors, fellow actors, or me for that way. So for me, it's a mix, but I do like to...

to call each other in the middle of the night a few weeks before because you come up with something you find brilliant you need a director that'll abide by your insane last-minute ideas and vice versa yeah I mean some like it more than others I know I think that the at least the ones that call me again seem to live with it yeah I got to think Refin likes a late-night phone call like say a flight of fancy. Yes. But Ravan also, at least when you watch back home, I don't know if he's changed that much. I mean, his films have changed throughout his career.

Sure. In style. So at least for him, he was very, if not dependent on, he was at least expecting the actors to bring something that wasn't in the story. That was a very big part of his work, that he would catch. the right people that he had a strong idea that they know about this world that doesn't I do. And I will be the grandmaster and will look at them to do certain things and they will they will add to that. So that's at least been his approach when I've worked with him.

You guys essentially started your film careers together. Pusher was your first film, I believe, I believe his first as well, right? Did you know he had the goods right from the start? art or were you, no? No, I've addressed that meeting a few times. I was in drama school. He was looking to raise money and find access for his film called Puscher, which was about the drug environment of Copenhagen, beyond the belly, where I grew up.

He did not grow up at all. So I met a kid with thick glasses and short pants. high-pitched voice, you know, talking about what he wants to do, and I'm like, what is going on? But then the more I listen to him, the more I could tell that he had a visual and an emotional ambition about this project. And he didn't understand the word of what I was saying, because the only reason I got casted for that was that he didn't want actors.

He just didn't loathed actions. He wanted real people, and somebody told him, like, you can't have real people for all the parts. They're too big. You've got to have somebody who also can go in and out with the characters with. Finally, he agreed on watching me because the only reason he wanted to watch me

was that somebody said, it's quite interesting, but he's a hot time understanding what he's saying because I had real fast, sweet language. And he didn't understand much of it, but he loved what I did. So that's part of time. Well, you did hit upon something, though,

that we're talking about filmmakers. You respond to, most actors respond to. It's passion at the end the day. It's someone, the last thing you want is someone that's showing up just as a job. And whether their passion is maybe misguided or not, you can work with that. You can't work with somebody that doesn't have, you know, this is, these are the kind of jobs that require all in. Yeah, it has to feel as if this is the film.

That's the film. That's the only shot they get. And this is their dream. Yeah. It doesn't matter if the first film or it's their 100 film. It has to be their baby. And they have to, you know, to be a lot of fire inside of them to bring this project to life.

That's definitely key for me. I mean, you can't bump into where you think that's the case and then it turns out that was not the case. Right. And then you have to bring a little more fire on board. Right. If the director is it, but mostly I've been lucky and I've been smart enough to see that that was the one-on-one to work.

What are your feelings on day one of a shoot like another round? You've worked with the filmmaker. You've talked about this. I know on and off for seven plus years with him. Do you have butterflies? You've been doing this a while. You know what you're doing. But give me a sense of what's in your head, what's in your heart on day one of a film.

No, you're looking forward. You're looking very much forward to get started. I was not part of it the first few days, which I hate. I would love to start. I don't like that people's already been, you know... Yeah, what's happening? Wait, something's happening without me? Everybody has nicknames.

Right. So, but I think I just snuck in, and I was there for some of the first shots anyway, even though I wasn't hit him. Yeah, it's butterflies in the stomach. It's, you want to, this is the first scene, so you will have to find your character now. There's no room.

I mean, it's not like theater. We can go back to it and change it, No, no, this is now. And we have a fairly good idea what the character is, but there's obviously a lot of questions up there. How exactly does he move? How exactly does he talk? How exactly how tired of life is he?

And these are all things we have to nail the first day, even though I think we started out with something quite not so dramatic, just walking through a school and having a little chit-chat with a teacher. future, but it's enough to give away if you don't have a concept of what the character is. So it's a nervous day, but it's also a beautiful day because we get started. There's a, as you well know, as a fan of film, there's a long, rich tradition in movie making about films that kind of talk about the destructive nature of alcohol. I mean, many an award has been won for those things, and rightfully so, from days of wine

and roses to leaving Las Vegas. are great films and great character studies. And unsubdainish as well. So it's not a subject that has not been touched upon. So this flies in the face of that. I can't remember a film like this that has kind of really honestly and openly talked about what we all know,

which is that alcohol frees us and makes us feel smarter and funnier and the better version of ourselves, at least for a time. Did you have some weariness about going against the prevailing? wisdom of how alcohol is depicted in film? No.

None whatsoever. First of all, the alcohol part of the film is the Kickstarter to tell the story about life. Right. And embracing life, the life you're in the midst of, the life you don't seem to be able to embrace because you're jealous on the future and you are not satisfied. with your past, so you kind of forget your prison, right? So that was, first of all, what the story was about. The alcohol was just a hat that is, you know,

kick-starting the film, even though it's a big theme of the film. And that we're going against the classic narrative, no, that is just fire on my gasoline on my fire, because I do love to go against narratives. I think we have to, I mean, a narrative can be truly true and honest, but it can also be one-eyed. The dangers of alcohol, we all know about it. It's not that it's been hidden from us.

The dangers of smoking is, the danger of shooting up, whatever. You can keep going, right? But alcohol has been here for 7,000 years, and it's like no shit show when I've heard this theory. It's like low-hanging fruit. We know how great it is with two glasses. That's why we do it. It's a social lubricant. We get the balls to pick up that phone and make that phone call. We never dare to do. We forget our sorrows for a minute. We become making me more creative. Some people get closer to their spirits. And people meet. A lot of very few people have met their spouses if there wasn't alcohol involved. And then we can say, that is sad. Maybe it is. But it's a fact. So, but we also, I think we touch upon the darker side.

We do say there is a big difference between two glasses of wine and two bottles. That is a big difference. And I think that we do touch upon it. But our goal was not to be more about the film either way around. We wanted to be attributed to alcohol what it can do, a positive thing. And then we want to touch upon what it can also do when you pass that limit. But predominantly it was a film about life. What was your relationship growing up with alcohol?

Were you, I was a late bloomer? I didn't drink until I was like out of college. I don't know what was wrong with me. Yeah, but that is, that's for most Danish people in no-go, you will definitely have people waiting that long. But it's such a big part of high school. It's also part of what, if you're working class kid that like I was, back in the 70s, it's also part of pre-high school.

You could go to and to a apartment play billiard when you were third. 13 and you could drink a beer as long as your older brother was with you and he he had promised to drag you home it was fine you know those those days have changed and that's a good thing so you can't do that anymore you have to be 18 if you go into work but so yes it's it's part of the Danish culture and but then again it's also part of American cultures depending on where you come from and Italian and Irish and you can go on and on maybe not like one to one with the kids graduating and getting their hats

and doing the traces things you see in our film but then they have something accrual into that which is slightly different but the idea about what happens after a glass of wine where everything gets lifted a little everybody can relate to that it's interesting I mean I know from hearing your previous conversations like you knew

and your fellow actors knew it wasn't going to be a good idea to show up drunk to play drunk that's you need your witsableness about you to perform your craft. But at the same time, I'm fascinated about, you know, acting is all about kind of letting go of your inhibitions and not worried about feeling like a fool. So I'm curious just on a more broader sense,

what are your, how do you get to that place without alcohol to feel so free to do anything in a scene to accomplish your goals? I think that the fact that we know each other very well, all four of us, including director slash writer. gave us a sense of we felt safe enough to go out on the limb and make a fool out of ourselves so so the laughs you will receive when you didn't hear it are a recognizable laughs because that's like exactly you know we all know that was

wrong but it's so easy to make it wrong the way you just did it so it was an embracing laugh and an embracing group of people where you can go on the lymph together and then there's something interesting happening it's not only for us it made an experiment with young kids who got served alcohol one one part of the group and the other part did not and they were not told which one and they partied and they went on and the ones who did not get alcohol served were as intoxicated they behaved exactly the same way it is very intoxicating to run around other people who let's go Even though it's acting, all of a sudden, it becomes very freeing. We also had a boot camp where we tested out in specific things where we went for, you know,

got the shots. We measured exactly 0.5, 0.8. We discovered some interesting things about when you think that if it's fine, I can't even feel it. And then you watch the tape the next stage like, it's not fine, my friend. This is valuable information. Now you know for the rest of your life, your limit, like what limits at what points you can get to? Yeah, I mean, we've all since everybody has a camera on the phone, and we had a super cozy night. Yeah, maybe I was a little loud at one point, but it wasn't too bad. And then you see the video the day after, Jesus, nobody's, nobody's listening to each other.

Everybody's just... Everyone's the most fascinating person in the room to themselves. Exactly. And that's happening on a very interesting level, what's like 0.1, actually. But 0.05 and 0.08, it's a little variation. you can misjudge that to be just a happy person today. It's just a good move. But then the little move starts giving you away.

You're not really in control of your hands anymore. Oh, there's certain words that comes out a little different than normally, right? And that was a really good lesson for all of us and we could use specifically for the teaching scenes. If you want to dial up and down on the volume of that, you could go back to forth with those things. This sounds like such a, you know, usually I'm talking to actors about boot,

camp, we're talking about movies like saving private Ryan and like spending two weeks learning how to be soldiers. This is a much better version, Mads. You figured it out. Congratulations. We were not curious about how is it to be drunk because obviously we have enough experience of that. But we wanted to just really systematically, scientifically test out those specific levels.

And it was just very interesting and it was very, very precise when there was no communication anymore. When, I mean, and if that had been the case for every single day that we have been in that zone, we would have had a director that was trying to talk to four kids who would be screaming, you know, and when you go from one level and have to go down, because the director wants it to be a little less now, that's also no go if you are, if you're for real on that way. Sure. We're talking about, you know, kind of like inhibitions and letting go. Rightfully so, the ending sequence of this film has been talking about. talked about a lot. There probably hasn't been a conversation you've had about this film

without talking about the dance sequence, so I apologize in advance. But it is... I did have some in the beginning because it was such a secret when the film hasn't released Denmark. So all the journalists wanted to talk about it, but they couldn't. It's like a Marvel movie. It's the same thing. We can't talk about the big reviews. But it is one of the great sequences I've seen in years in film. It truly is just a release, whether you've seen the movie or not, hopefully we're not ruining anything for you, but know that Mads really calls upon

some long-dormant dance skills in it. And are there some lessons here? Because I know you've said that, like, you were very reluctant. You didn't want to, like, lose the reality that you guys had established in this. Yeah, that was what I was reluctant about. Not so much that I will, that I would dance.

I mean, if there's a good reason, I'll dance. If there's a good reason I'll get naked. But I was a little, you know, but sometimes there's not a good reason to get naked, and you have a hunch. And I think it was a good reason for this fans, but I just felt that we could lift it into an imagination thing, a drunken man's fantasy. I was afraid we couldn't get away with it without coming across us very pretentious. That was my thing. Thomas was also a little nervous about it, but not as much as me.

And he just said, listen, it's going to stand out even. more on the film if we heighten this moment. Yeah. So we should go for it. And so we did. And he was absolutely right. And lucky did. We were talking a lot about, as you say,

kind of like the accoutrements of this is the alcohol, but it's underlying the story as a man who at the start is at a low point. He doesn't see a future or is at, you know, the cliched midlife crisis. That's not a cliche because we all, I feel like, go through it at some point. But even worse than that, he's,

sees he sees his past every day every day goes to work he sees the immortals the young faces right he's reminded of the potential constantly and he's being reminded that hey what did you do with your life you know is this what you wanted so that's a reason why thomas placed us in the school and not in a factory he wanted us to be reminded every day if we're dealing with a so-unquote midlife crisis it would be interesting that you're being faced with it every day. At the point when we meet him, he hasn't put his finger on it. He's not addressed it. It's just a comfortable lump.

Trainers left the station. But it's only dawning on him the night in the early stage of the film where they have a dinner party, a celebration, a birthday party, where he's had a conversation with the headmaster. Things are not going his way. And that night it dawns on him. that I'm a failure. Everything is filled, you know.

And then Thomas makes this very bold move of having a character that has a smaller breakdown very early in the film, which is something you would always place in the end of a film. And very bold of him to say, you know what? Instead of the audience knowing the characters

and then accepting this scene, I want the audience to get to know the characters through the scene, which is bold and ramble. you know, talking about crises, midlife crises, you know, I know you only from talking to you the last 20 minutes and I'm from watching a lot of your work, but it seems like you have gone the other direction. You, in your 50s, have experienced the best portion of your career, arguably. You have different kinds of opportunities, whether it's character roles, leading men opportunities. You know, I've talked to so many actors and like it's impossible to make plans to plan for the future. But you must be thrilled with how this has played out. Has this exceeded where you thought you would be at this point in your life, in terms of the career, at least? If you ask me when I was a young dancer, yes. If you ask me when I was in drama school, yes. If you ask me the first 10

year of my Danish acting career, yes. Everything has been different than I thought. But then again, my life has been different than I thought from the very start. I never dreamed of being a dancer. watch the dance. I've never been to the theater. So nothing has turned out the way I planned, but that's also partly thanks to that I've not planned anything. I didn't have any plans. I had dreams and fantasies like everybody else. I was watching films and I wanted to be that guy up there, not the actor. I wanted to be Bruce Lee. I wanted to be the guy. I didn't, I didn't imagine being an actor. I just wanted to be him. Well, he was the coolest man on the planet. I I mean, who doesn't want to be...

Actually, whoever I was watching. But never, ever thought that that would be a career. So, yes, of course, this is surprising me. And one cannot argue, yes, it looks like a lot of things are happening in my 50s, but there was also a lot of things happening, in my 40s or in my 30s, different things. Unlike Martin, the character I play,

I am a curious person. I do find it interesting that the sun is rising and I do find it interesting right now I'm looking out with this window here and I said building down there

I've watched a few times and I'm just curious what is it and I know I'm going to go for a walk and have a look and Martin wouldn't bother you know

that's a big difference between me and him luckily I'm curious you know you refer to yes like you know I consider myself a student of film

yet frankly I haven't seen a lot of your earlier work, the early Danish work. I've seen the Nicholas Reffen films and some other things. But, you know, prior to when you kind of made this transition, I think King Arthur was the first, quote, unquote, Hollywood film you did, right? You were very successful back home. You had done a hugely successful TV show. So again, kind of like talking to you back then, would you have been fine with never, quote, unquote, breaking into the Hollywood market and being a Danish actor in your homeland?

Back then, yeah. Yeah, I didn't seek up the Hollywood market. It called me. There was somebody who heard of someone, and they were getting actors from different parts of the world to do this kynastafel. And all of a sudden, I ended up there for a audition, and I got it, and I have no idea why I got it,

because I was supposed to sit on a horse and say it's fairly quirky, cheesy monologue, and I don't think I pulled it off, that well because there was no horse. I didn't have any idea what this monologue was about. But then I remember I did go down to Andrew Foucaux, and I got went down on, you know, he was sitting on the floor and I went down to my set,

this night, I don't understand this and this, but I have an idea, well, I would do this and this. And I had a few proposals. And I don't think they were used to that, you know, because that's just the audience approach. So he made a couple of takes more, and he found that very interesting. That was a guy who had an idea or something.

This guy can help me, yeah. Yeah, and probably like my face. They've seen a few thoughts with me before. So that was it. So yeah, I don't know. I was very, very pleased to be part of what happened in Denmark. At that point, Denmark was being placed on the map, through a variety of reasons, through the dogma thing,

Nicholas was doing this thing as well. Others were doing horror films. Something was happening in Danish movies like never before, and I was part of that. Yeah. So I was just so pleased and happy at that point, and then this came along, and then it just became a bigger playing field,

which I was just very happy about as well. I mean, you're recognizable now around the world, but I always find it funny. Like, for instance, I went to, I went on vacation to Stockholm a few years ago, And it was like, out of my dreams, in the airport, Stellen Scarsguard was like just plastered on all the walls. It was like he was greeting me to the country.

I would imagine that that's somewhat similar for you. As much as you have fame around the world and in the U.S., back home, are you basically Tom Cruise? If I walked around with you, are you? I'll tell you what, you can get a similar experience going to Copenhagen. Yeah. I am plastered there, but not because in general, But in Sweden, they have a tendency to, you know, they're very proud of that people

did sports, Bjorn Borek, Ellen, Marks, Sudo. They're very proud of them. And so they use that as a Mac and come to our country, the country of these people, right? I don't think we would pull that out in Denmark. We'd have a different approach to that. But I am hanging there, and that's because I've done a conscript commercial. So that will greet you. Okay.

There's one one to me and Stenl. Fair enough. So I think worldwide audiences probably first noticed you for good for in Casino Royale with a memorable performance as Leshief opposite Daniel Craig, Daniel Craig's first bond. You were not a Bond fan, as I understand it. I was not a non-bond fan. I just hadn't watched any of the films.

But I lied, obviously. I lied at the meeting and at the addition. And I had to ask some of my friends, what characters is at? who's, you know, I was not, I was not ready for a 10-question quiz. I was not. Who had more fun in the torture scene, you or Daniel? Or was nobody having fun? Definitely me.

It was, it was a great scene, and we were looking so much forward to it, because it was like, it was a scene scene, you know, like a scene from, it could be any film. It was something that, it was a little brave of bond to go down that path, right? So we were looking forward and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, So was Martin Campbell, and we had so many ideas, me and Daniel. And we were sitting at a table with Martin, and we pitched our ideas. And at one point, Martin said, guys, guys, come back.

It's a Bond film. Let's talk again. So we went into our previous world of Independence. Oh, I want to see you. I want to see you and Daniel's version now. But anyways, but it turned out great. And, but it was a very rough day for him, obviously, the amount of sincere, genuine, desperate, painful screams he had to over and over again. That's hard work, you know.

Yeah. And the body doesn't know the difference between acting and not acting sometimes, right? That one, you lose your voice eventually. And I, yes, my character was frustrated that I couldn't get to him. But, but I was not going through the same level of pain. Keep in mind that I only had one eye. and I did miss my target once in a while. So some of those screams are quite genuine.

Daniel's still talking to you or things are okay now? I'm sure if he meets me, yeah. Are you treated especially well at casinos or especially not well at casinos? If they recognize me, everybody wants to steal my money. Of course, that's a great story. And I keep reminding them, I'm not a shark of just me playing poker. I do love playing football. I don't go to casino that often, but I do love poker.

I've always done. I, like Maddie, I count myself a big fan of what you and Brian did on Hannibal. I mean, it's looking back now, it's a miracle that a network put that show on to me. Yeah. I didn't know at the time. I didn't know the difference between a network and a cable. But once I realized now that it was just like, it was not even close to. The second most brutal, a visual, a gruesome thing was not even close, second.

I mean, it's just insane what we got away with. How did Brian, for the creator, sell you on that character, which had been arguably, you know, etched in stone by one of the great actors of all time? That must have been foremost on your mind. Like, what more is there for me to mine in this character? Yeah, but the only way to sell it was that we're not doing that. else. That was the only way. And then obviously when my ears were open, I was ready, that's something else. Couldn't just be completely different either. It couldn't just be

something completely completely different. And so there had to be a bridge between what the stories are, what the character is, but also make it our own. And one of the reasons why it obviously became our own was that it's a TV show. Bear in mind that Anthony Hopkins and signs of lamp, he has 14 minutes of screen time. That's pretty much what I have in every single episode. That was an insane impact on us, right? Meaning that it was so masterful and we're not going to go down on the past,

but we have a chance to do something completely different, which is for two seasons, watch a man who is part of the FBI, he's becoming friends with people, hopefully we got him as fairly charming sometimes, and then once in a while we see the other side. Right. And whereas if you're in jail, as Anthony Hopkins was,

in thousands of lamb, all those cars are gone. That's why you can get away with doing your little thing with your tongue and things like that. We couldn't do that, at least not for the first two seasons. Right. Because people would give him away. So that's what sold me. And then obviously Brian's approach to the insanity of these stories

and his insane friendships, he had criss-crossed, not only between Will and Hannibal, but also between Jack Crawford and Abigail. It was, he has an insane approach to think why, and it's actually surprising every time he comes with a new script. It's just like, what? And it's always brilliant. And not to mention, exquisite filmmaking on a TV scale.

You're not used to seeing that kind of artistry on that scale. I agree. But I had nothing to compare with at that point. I just loved what you talked about. And then when I saw it and I saw other shows that might be dealing with the same thing, I was just like, this is really different and in a good way.

So I was very proud to be part of that for three seasons. It was tough. It was hard job for all of us. Maybe especially for me, because it's not my native tongue. And I am constantly talking about, you know, Bulgarian dishes or Japanese music. So there was constantly words that nobody's heard about,

and I had to learn him like that because everything came in so late, right? Yeah. So it was brutal hard work, but I did enjoy it tremendously. Does it feel like unfinished business at this point? I know that you guys didn't know the cancellation was coming, does it feel like, and what's your level of optimism?

I mean, how often do you talk to Brian about continuing this? I mean, getting that is found a new home at Netflix, the talks have been revitalized, right? So there is that, and I always keep the same answer. I think that I don't think you find anyone who was part of the cast that is still alive, that would say no thanks. I think we all enjoyed it tremendously, so we go back and visit it again.

Unfinished, no, I mean, creative showrunners always have a way to end the season because they never know if they're going to get the next one. So there's always this feel of like that was it. Having said that, the third season after that, we were pretty sure we would get the fourth. That was not the feeling we had after the first and the second. But the third one, we were pretty sure.

And then the opposite half. Yeah. Was Rihanna a big Valhalla rising fan or was she a big The Hunt fan? How did you end up in Rihanna's video? I never got a chance to ask you what's been. specifically it was. When I heard that she wanted me to be part of it, I actually thought that, oh, am I going to dance? Is that because she knows I was a dancer? What was the idea? Maybe it was Barn. Maybe it was Hannibal. Could have been Hannibal. I don't

know. Don't question it. Once you're there, just accepted. I don't know. I just know that it's for great Rihanna fans. So that was a really welcoming job in my little home. Well, I mean, I looked it up on YouTube. That has 155 million views. I mean, if you weren't in Star Wars and Marvel, I'd say this is your most last. thing ever but I mean it's it stands toe to toe yeah that's insane but she did um yeah it's interesting because I'm not I'm not on social media in that sense so but I hear some insane numbers sometimes oh yeah and we don't know how popular some of these people are and she's up with me up there with the most popular people and then she is she's incredible talented I really enjoyed working

It was only two days. It was very chaotic. But, I mean, so sweet and extremely talented. So that's a good little. Totally. Talking about notches in the book, you had an amazing one-two punch in quick succession around 2016. And, you know, I, as any self-respecting nerd,

can't not hit Dr. Strange and Rogue One. I grew up obsessed with Star Wars and obsessed to comic books. Let's talk to Dr. Strange first. Was it always that character? because I read that you were also discussed for Baron Mordeaux, or did Scott have you in mind as the villain only? I know, that's the first time I hear that.

Always Casillius since I was approached. He might have talked about it to other people, but no-who was always Casillius. And that was fun. I got to do a lot of flying kung fu. Did you grow up with comics? Were you a comic book guy?

I am the comic book guy. Really? How did we get to 36 minutes into this conversation and not realize that? I've been a comic book collected since I can remember. And then later on in life, when I knew what that was, I'd make sure that I got everything in first editions and original. But I was not, I mean, I read Marvel. I loved Marvel.

I loved all these things, and I had a thing called Kung Fu magazine as well, with Shangxi and Iron Fist. But my collecting thing was with albums, graphic novels. Never the Marvel ones. I started, but it was just never-ending. So I swapped into graphic novels, and that's where my heart went later. You'll probably show me up here, but I'm curious. Give me top three, top five graphic novels, trade paperbacks, whatever you were into.

They are very predominantly very European. So this is very difficult not to get around the tintin, or what they call time, which is like the father of a lot of things. I was also a very big spirit fan, Will Eisner. Oh, sure. Good to get my hands on his stuff as well. And then there's a lot of guys. Bilal and Tadi, they are French and German people big.

But you will recognize some of them when you see them. You might know you see the Pratt. He's done Corto Maltese. Okay. Yeah. Blueberry was a big thing. His guy, do you know Blueberry? I don't actually.

It's a French guy for Mithuos. Mobius, and it's just so, it's like you want to make a film right away, the coolest color in the world. You must be bonding with Dan Vogler over there. I know he was on Hannibal, but... We made a podcast together. He had a Comic Con podcast, and we did an hour. Oh, cool.

We threw quite a few comic books, yes. And I didn't know. I didn't know that he was a comic book creator himself. Yeah, I didn't know. He gave me some for Christmas and it blew my mind that we'd go. my mind that we both grew up with that and he actually made it. The rest of us were just dreaming about it. Being a part of Star Wars, being a part of Rogue One, Rogue One to me is like a miracle of a Star Wars movie. I don't know how they pulled it off, especially like I don't

know what was true, wasn't true, like reshoots all that kind of stuff. But whoever made it in the end, you guys got there because it's an amazing piece of work. Did it feel chaotic at the time Or did it feel like any other big Hollywood movie you'd done that had kind of the requisite reshoots, et cetera? Some of it was just straightforward working, and then some of it that was a little chaotic. There was no secret that there was some rewriting in the script while we were doing it.

And when you do that while you're doing it, it is obviously very tricky for the actors to know what am I carrying into this room now. You know, I open the door, I'm not sure exactly what happened before. So that was some of that. Having said that, it always felt like a solid story. A young girl lost, doesn't know where she belongs in the world.

Then an Oppenheimer story unfolds. She's always heard that he was this, and then she realizes she was that, you know. And it was quite beautiful written. So at the end of the day, the changes that was in the film was not as dramatic as, as people talk about. It was a, but obviously, when you do it while we're working, it's obviously a little confusing.

Is there any talk, any rumblings of, you know, with all these prequel, et cetera things, Cassie and Andor's show, of seeing Galen or so again? Well, that's a tricky thing with the prequel, right? If you, if you tend to wait long enough, and then next to go back and visit the character, then you have to look not only, younger than the previous film

for much younger than you are today. So, good luck with that. A lot of hair dying going on there. Hey, you've seen what they can do on Fantastic Beasts. Anything is possible. You are in the midst of that right now. I'm a big fan of your castmates there. I've done a lot with all of those guys.

They're all impeccably fun and smart folks. You obviously jumped into this one in an unusual circumstance. Johnny left, et cetera. I won't rehash all of that. From your perspective, I assume you didn't have much time to prep. You had to just sort of decide, has that been a disadvantage? Has that been to your advantage?

What would have been the struggle of sort of jumping into a pivotal role like Grindelwald with not much time to think about it? Yeah, it's not the normal process for me or for anyone. I'm seeing a Danish film, as we talked about before, the whole idea of talking for weeks and maybe months before we start shooting, coming up with ideas calling each other in the middle of the night, would probably not be the way I would approach it in an American film anyways.

But I would definitely have meetings and talks and all those details are settled before in good time. And here it was like wuky-dokey and flying over, we'll take it from there. And then we had a Skype meeting and we talked about the story, the character, and it seems as if everybody was

agreeing very much how to approach it with the change we were dealing with now. and so yes it was different but it didn't film rushed or anything once I was there it felt yeah we talked about it well let's let's start working you know but not the normal way but I would think the benefits of working David Yates is such a sweet man knows what he's doing and then working with folks like Jude and Eddie have you gotten to kind of like get dig into it enough have you gotten some kind of like juicy actor stuff with Jude and Eddie yet

Absolutely. And from the get-go, actually. And they were just, they're just wonderful people. They know the situation they're in, they know the situation I am in, the film is in. So it's just like a very, it's a family that's always, already been close-knitted, but there was room for one more. That's the way you felt this here. And so that, yeah, so that was just a very good experience. And they are, as you said, but it goes for everyone there. It's been quite true as well. They're very, very, on a very difficult circumstance, it's not only this, but the COVID locks downs and the testing constantly. This just feels like a really tight-knit community. One film I wanted to mention that, sadly, I guess, I don't know if we'll never see

or it's just destined not to be, and I don't know if this is a sore subject. We were going to see you starring in an Alexander Payne movie, and I was so excited at that prospect, and it fell apart in such an unusual circumstance. And I'm just curious, it fell apart, like, a week before shooting? Is there any hope for this film coming back around, or what's the story? Two days before. Oh, my God. Yeah, it was, you know what?

I've been trying to figure out exactly what happened, and I'm giving different answers. So for now, I will stick to the official saying there was something to do with the right. and the way to approach it, because it's a real character, obviously. And there was some concerns from his side, and then they met his concerns and said, well, okay, in that case, you're not going to go down that path. That's what the story is. And then we say, okay.

Fair enough. Well, I don't want to end on a downbeat note. Let's end on an upbeat note and say, once again, that another round is one of the great pieces of art I've seen it in some time and your performance is just a stellar piece of works or no surprise you always deliver but this one really shows off your talents

in the best possible way. I hope you're enjoying this weird Zoom victory lap as it were. I mean, it is obviously regrettable that we were invited to a lot of festivals and they're not happening. But we managed to get a few physical ones in and that was just wonderful

but it would have been it would have been fantastic to travel with this film as well. Absolutely. For a second, it's a good second. Yeah. I'm seeing the accolades still pouring in, whether it's awards or people like Yermo Dutoro. I don't know if you saw that. He weighed in. That's a good, good backer to have. Yes, it's fantastic. And I also got a little bit, which is like, who said to who, yes, it was, it's Martin Scassiz who has seen it and told Julian who did our fantastic film about the Ternet's Gate. Oh, Julian Schnabel, sure, yeah. It's not a, so he sent me a text that he was recommended of film.

And he watched it, they loved it very much. And then it was like the recommendation was from Martin Scocese. And obviously being like both of them, but as a teenager or a young man, when I watched a taxi driver, she's been like an untouchable hero from you always. So that was just surreal that he's seen a film and nobody forced him to say, watch it. Yeah, A, Martin Scorsese knows who I am. B, Martin Scorsese loves what I do.

This is a good day. Mads, it's been a pleasure to get to know you. Hopefully, after this madness is over, we'll meet in person. Congratulations again and stay safe out there. Beautiful. Thanks a lot. And so ends another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused. Remember to review, rate, and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.

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