Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen (born 22 November 1965) made his debut at the age of 30, with Nicolas Winding Refn’s Copenhagen noir classic “Pusher” film trilogy. At the age of 40, he secured a world breakthrough as the sneaky Le Chiffre in the 21st James Bond movie “Casino Royale. Read more about the actor who critics have called ‘the face of the resurgent Danish cinema’.
Since then, he has made consecutive success: As Niels in Open Hearts (2002), Svend in the Green Butchers (2003), Ivan in Adam’s Apples (2005) and Jacob Pedersen in After the Wedding (2006).
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The video game Death Stranding
Recently, he provided the English voice, appearance, and motion capture for Cliff in the video game Death Stranding, developed by Kojima Production and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. In an interview, Mikkelsen revealed that though he understands some of Death Stranding’s intended message, much of what Hideo Kojima told him regarding the game still puzzles him. He has described Death Stranding as a “labyrinthine game” of which he has seen nothing like before, with a story “completely out of this world”.
A reliable character actor
Mikkelsen has managed what few Nordic actors achieve, to balance the position as national first lover with lucrative supporting player assignments on the international front. More than New York Times critic A. O. Scott have embraced his “charming snout” – especially those who experienced him in the title role in the cult TV phenomenon “Hannibal”.
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A. O. Scott remarked that in the Hollywood scene, Mikkelsen has “become a reliable character actor with an intriguing mug” but stated that on the domestic front “he is something else: a star, an axiom, a face of the resurgent Danish cinema”.
Began his career as professional dancer
Before becoming an actor, Mikkelsen was a trained gymnast and professional dancer, the latter of which he did for nearly a decade. He studied dancing at the Balettakademien (ballet academy) in Gothenburg where he also became fluent in Swedish. During his dancing career, Mikkelsen met choreographer Hanne Jacobsen, whom he married in 2000. Later he pursued a career in acting to explore his more dramatic side. He studied drama at the Århus Theatre School in 1996.
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Perhaps the only thing missing from his CV as a good Scandinavian is participation in a Norwegian-originated project.
Other important roles include Igor Stravinsky in Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (2008). In 2012, he received the Cannes Film Festival Best Actor Award for his performance as Lucas in the Danish film “The Hunt”.
He is best known, outside of Denmark for portraying the serial killer and cannibal, Dr. Hannibal Lecter in the NBC series Hannibal (2013–2015), and films such as Marvel’s “Doctor Strange” (2016) and “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” (2016).
Professionally humble
Nevertheless, Mikkelsen is professionally humble on his own behalf; his appeal in Hollywood reportedly boils down to a combination of timing and luck. It must have helped that the production community began to look elsewhere than the UK in search of dubious types with “exotic” accents.
He loves Copenhagen
When the city of his birth, Copenhagen, comes up as a theme, Mikkelsen really gets the job done. He sings the praises of Copenhagen, where his bank clerk father Henning and nurse mother Bente welcomed him to Østerbro in November 1965. Now he lives with his wife Hanne Jacobsen in fashionable suburban Hellerup, a few kilometers north.
The Face of the Resurgent Danish Cinema, written by Tor Kjolberg