MADS MIKKELSEN
Brilliant in Another Round and Oscar Buzz
He may have become a household name in America by playing a man who would gladly eat our livers with some “fava beans and a nice chianti” on the NBC TV series Hannibal, but Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen was already an established movie star back home. Mikkelsen got his start as a gymnast and dancer. It was during his professional career as a ballet dancer that he met choreographer Hanne Jacobsen, whom he married in 2000. After years as a dancer he decided to branch into the world of acting, and we are so lucky he did. He got his first role in 1996, playing a drug dealer in Nicolas Winding Refn’s Pusher. He went on to work with Refn again in Bleeder. He continued to gain recognition for his work in his native Denmark, and by 2003, he was a Danish star.
In 2006 he broke through to the international market when he was cast as Le Chiffre, the main antagonist, in the James Bond film Casino Royale. His career only continued to flourish, with leading roles in two Academy Award nominated pictures (After the Wedding and A Royal Affair). And then, in 2011 he was cast as famous fictional serial killer, and people-eater, Hannibal Lecter in the NBC TV series. The show only ran for three seasons, but it became a critical success for its striking visuals, overall campiness, and the palpable sexual tension between Mikkelsen and co-star Hugh Dancy. He’s also no stranger to major franchise films. In addition to James Bond, he has also had major roles in Marvel’s Doctor Strange, and in the Star Wars film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Soon, he will be taking on a new major franchise as Gellert Grindelwald—replacing Johnny Depp—in the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them universe.
His career these days isn’t all franchise films. This past year saw him re-team up with Danish director Thomas Vinterberg, with whom he had worked on 2012’s The Hunt, on Another Round. The movie follows a group of four school teachers who, after learning about a scientific study, decide to maintain a blood alcohol content of at least .05 to see how it impacts their social and professional lives.The film, and Mikkelsen’s uninhibited, inebriated performance, have been racking up acclaim, and we wouldn’t be surprised if Another Round found itself nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards.
