“Dealer” (“Pugger”), 1996
A full-fledged movie for Mikkelsen was Nicolas Winding Refn’s drama “Dealer,” a future neon and Ryan Gosling fan. In the film, Mads played the minor but striking role of a drug addict who continues his on-screen path in the next two episodes of the criminal series. The actor has a successful collaboration with Refn: Refn will invite the artist to his projects more than once in the future, and thanks to this role, Mikkelsen got a strong start in his career.
“Dealer” (1996)
Balboa Entertainment
“Adam’s apples” (“Adams aebler”), 2005
The next major work of the actor was the dramatic “Adam’s apples” by Anders Thomas Jensen. The plot of the movie is built around a neo-Nazi who was imprisoned and had to spend a probationary period in a church. Mikkelsen played the role of Ivan, a non-standard priest who wears scout shorts and a puffer-collared shirt and looks at the world only through rose-tinted glasses.
After the dark appearance of a street drug dealer, the actor plunged into a completely different role. This time he played a fragile person with strong moral principles to which he clings with all his might. Also, sometimes brought to the point of grotesque absurdity, this film reveals Mikkelsen’s comedic talent that would not often be used in his later work.
Frame from the movie “Adam’s apples” (2005)
M&M Productions
“After the Wedding” (“Efter brylluppet”), 2006
Susanne Beer’s poignant drama tells the story of Jacob Petersen, who has an enormous heart. He devoted his life to helping the needy children of India. When his orphanage faces bankruptcy, he receives an unexpected financial offer from a wealthy Danish businessman. The man is ready to offer Jacob $12 million, but in return he sets his own terms: Petersen must attend the wedding of the businessman’s daughter. This event completely changes the life of the protagonist and reveals the terrible truth about his past.
When the movie was released in 2006, Mikkelsen was a regular in festival films and became one of the most interesting actors of her generation. The complex and voluminous work in “After the Wedding” required special skill from the actress. Jacob turned out to be a man of the purest morals, suddenly faced with an unthinkable moral dilemma.
Frame from the movie “After the Wedding” (2006)
Nordisk Movie
“Royal Casino” (“Royal Casino”), 2006
The role of James Bond rival Le Chiffre divided Mikkelsen’s acting career into “before” and “after”. This picture, with its unlimited budget and millions of people around the world, opened the doors of Hollywood cinema to the actor.
Le Chiffre, the hemolacrylic criminal played by Mikkelsen, turned out to be not just another Bond operetta villain, but a lively and ambiguous character you sympathize with. Her fragility is expressed not only in an obvious artistic device (involuntarily bleeding due to illness), but also through the actor’s signature facial expressions: restrained and piercing.
Frame from the movie “Casino Royale” (2006)
MGM
“Valhalla: Viking Legend” (“Valhalla Rises”), 2009
The actor’s ability to create large-scale heroes even in the most ascetic conditions is confirmed in Nicolas Winding Refn’s Valhalla: The Viking Saga. This is the bloody and brutal tale of a warrior nicknamed One-Eyed (yes, another hero with a problem with his eyes) who escaped from slavery. The plot is partially based on the legends of the Vikings from the harsh Scandinavian tales.
Mikkelsen’s character is a mute warrior-seer who does not need words to tell the audience all the tragedy of his life. One of the best and underestimated works in an actor’s career. Meanwhile, Mads’ ability to work with a minimal amount of text will be replicated in 2018’s Lost in the Ice.
Shot from the movie “Valhalla: Viking Legend” (2009)
BBC Movies
“Hunting” (“Jagten”), 2012
Mikkelsen replaced the bloody landscape of Scandinavian lands with the quiet exteriors of a small Swedish town. His character, Lucas, is an astute school teacher who has been wrongfully accused by a student of violence he didn’t commit. For this role in 2012, Mads was recognized as best actor at the Cannes Film Festival. And Thomas Vinterberg’s film itself won the Oscar in the “Best Foreign Language Film” category two years later.
Despite the statements of the American Film Academy, The Hunt’s artistic language turned out to be universal, and the story about the tortured and innocent hero did not become a hostage to speech impediments. Mikkelsen painted a subtle picture of an almost transparent person who has nothing to hide from the world, but who this world is facing, depriving him of subjectivity and the right to self-defense.
“The Hunt” (2012)
Det Danske Film Institute
“Hannibal” (“Hannibal”), 2013-2015
Mads played the shrewd maniac Hannibal Lecter in the TV adaptation of the Thomas Harris novel series. In fact, although the authors were based solely on the figure of Lecter, they completely rewrote the literary source to fit the new realities and with the participation of new heroes.
Initially, Mikkelsen refused to play the role of Lecter after Anthony Hopkins, but gradually the producers of the show convinced him of the originality of the idea, which means that the main character of the story was created from scratch. Lecter in the Mads version contained seemingly incompatible things: cunning and dangerous, but not devoid of humanity. His personal streaks with profiler Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) have become a separate ornament of history: how this relationship has traversed a difficult path from difficult confrontation to almost fraternal kinship.
Frames from the series “Hannibal (2013-2015)”
Gaumont International Television
Doctor Strange (2016)
In 2016, Mikkelsen landed her own role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Since Hollywood was more accustomed to using the negative charisma of the actor, in Doctor Strange he got the role of Kaecilius, the master of the mystical arts, the main rival of Stephen Strange.
And again, the antagonist performed by Mads turned out to be a hero with a complex internal structure. He is ruthless and determined in his desire to change the world, but explains it with an almost Shakespearean desire to save people from the forces of time. This is a confused and indecisive character in whose character everything is not so simple. Mikkelsen managed to bring theatrical suffering, confusion and volume to his hero.
“Doctor Strange” (2016)
Marvel Studios Inc.
“One more” (“Druk”), 2020
The new collaboration between Vinterberg and Mikkelsen showed once again how European and Hollywood directors used the actor’s potential in different ways. In One More, Mads plays teacher Martin, who decides to do a science experiment with three of his friends. An unproven theory claims that a person from birth suffers from a lack of alcohol in his blood. The friends decide to test this hypothesis and start drinking small amounts of alcohol every day, but of course, something goes wrong with their fine plan.
Winterberg’s Oscar-winning drama, contrary to the stated synopsis, is not a comedy of positions or a satire on social constraints, but a painful drama about an internal crisis. Mikkelsen’s hero, like his friends, found himself at the crossroads of life, having lost interest in both him and himself. A subtle psychological study of an actor who, despite being 55 years old, has not lost a bit of his professional form.
Frame from the movie “One more” (2020)
Det Danske Film Institute
Fantastic Beasts: Dumbledore’s Secrets (2022)
After a series of high-profile and outrageous scandals, Johnny Depp was forced to leave a number of major studio projects. Including the Fantastic Beasts series. The role of the villain Grindelwald went to Mads Mikkelsen – in this case, the perfect candidate.
According to Western critics, the Danish actor managed to enhance the trilogy by adding an extra dimension to the key foe. In his version, Grindelwald is a character who has long been on the edge of worlds: in his youth he was close friends with Albus Dumbledore, whom he would later try to kill. This ambiguity of evil, but a character that is by no means one-sided, seems to be embodied only by a master like Mikkelsen. After all, as Grindelwald tries to destroy the familiar world, the actor who plays him saves the audience, guiding him into the magical world of the struggle between good and evil, where good always wins.
Still from Fantastic Beasts: A Dumbledore’s Mystery (2022)
Warner Bros.
Source: Gazeta
Barbara Dickson is a seasoned writer for “Social Bites”. She keeps readers informed on the latest news and trends, providing in-depth coverage and analysis on a variety of topics.