Interview: Mads Mikkelsen on 'Doctor Strange', 'Star Wars' and 'Hannibal'

Image via Disney

The film has some incredible CGI visuals — is it hard to act on a green screen with none of that around you?

We have it to a degree. We can only imagine so much. There was also a little animated version the director made that he showed us before did it, so we have a fairly good idea of what the geography of everything is. But I could not imagine what the effects team has done. I had my hopes, but when saw the film the other day I was blown away.

You’ve gone from James Bond to Marvel to Star Wars. Are you amazed that you’ve got to be in all these beloved franchises? 

A little bit. They are all, by their own right, individual pieces of art, but also part of the pop culture. I never thought that would happen to me. I never saw it coming!

Do you worry about being typecast as always playing bad guy, or do you enjoy it?

I enjoy it. Also I have a different career in European cinema, that has definitely seen me with different eyes. I've never been annoyed in the sense that people only see me one way. I embrace it. If the alternative is not to do anything in America, I'll take it!

You haven’t moved to America yet, have you?

I still live in Copenhagen. Not just because I love it, but all the American stuff I've ever done has been shot in Europe! It'd be strange to take your family in LA and then say "Daddy's off to Romania now.”

Do you try and balance doing big Hollywood movies and interesting European films then?

It’s not that I'm planning to do “one of these and then two of those”. It’s whatever comes my way that I like. There's no strategy. From the very beginning of my career decided that I will not be ambitious on behalf my career, but I will be very ambitious on each project. I make [the current project] the most important thing in my career. For the reason that you cannot control your career. It is uncontrollable, and it will never end where you hope. So you will just feel disappointed while you've been using all you projects as stepping stones. You should do it the other way around. Make every stepping stone the most important thing. Because eventually it becomes a career.

When you sign up to do these big franchise movies actors are often tied up to appear in several sequels — is being tied into a load of future movies that might get i the way of that ever a concern?

Oh not really a concern. {Playing bad guys} I have a tendency not to survive these films!

We’re about to see you in a Star Wars film — is that overwhelming? Did you geek out on the set of Rogue One?

I wasn't really geeking out, but it does hit you every once in a while, like when you're walking by a 40 metre long table covered in Storm Trooper helmets. You have to focus and stay in it, but when you step back and look it, yes absolutely.

A big theme of the film is about the cynical Stephen Strange coming to realise that magic and mysticism are real. Are you someone who believes in spiritual stuff?

Not really to be frank. In acting there are always a lot of that happening. A guru that everybody speaks about. But that's not part of my world. I've seen them all and I know what they're up to. Some people love to be gurus. I've always thought, take what you can use, whether its philosophical or clever or deep, but don't bend down on your knees to that person. Because they're just a person.  That's my philosophy. I am a little pragmatic. I'm not a man who believes in anything, apart from science.

Is that a very Scandinavian outlook?

The funny thing is, look at Scandinavian gods — Thor, Odin. They're completely mad. If you start saying you  believe in that people will say you've lost your mind. But look what people believe in today, monastic gods. Why is it more mad to believe in a man with a hammer than those? Its all about what are you using it for. What purpose is your religion or higher belief? I do believe that we have a soul, and a mindfulness, and that we can achieve certain this with those, definitely. But I've always been a bit reluctant with gurus.

Hannibal recently ended after three years — what was it like developing that character like that over 39 episodes?

It was a luxury, because you never get to have a character for that long, or get that much screen time. It was a clever show — it would have been a little boring if you were playing the same old TV cop or something, I think you'd get fed up of that after a couple of seasons. But because they characters are so reach it was an absolutely fantastic journey. You only get to do that on a TV show.

Did playing such a dark character for so long ever get to you?

Obviously when you stay so long with a character the energy of him gets to you. You want to get into the character, then get out of there. If not, it becomes a little unhealthy. Hannibal was a very specific person in that he might be going to what we consider the darkest places, but for him they are not. Those are the beautiful places for him. He is a happy man. In terms of bringing home a character. I don't think I've been with one that has been so pleased with his life.

You never had nightmares about him then?

Not really. My characters can haunt my family though. My daughters had a dream about me as Hannibal a few times!

Finally, if your Hannibal Lecter, Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter and Brian Cox’s Hannibal Lecter from the 1980s have a fight, who would win?

Why don't we just gang up and kick the shit out of Doctor Strange instead? Wouldn't that be better?

Doctor Strange is out now.