Mads Mikkelsen Quotes

I know a little about Greek mythology. It’s not that far away from the Nordic mythology.

I do read some of the scripts from America and, even though the themes or subject of the film is very interesting, and some of the scenes are very interesting, there is a tendency that they have to explain everything. There will be no dilemma.

There’s been no real reason to move to LA. The stuff I’ve done for America has been done in Europe anyway. We made a decision early on that we’d find our base and not shake the children’s world as much as mine.

We are filmmakers, and we are specifically trying to entertain people.

I haven’t watched that much TV, to be honest. To be honest, I don’t watch that many films anymore – partly because I don’t have time; secondly, because I watch a lot of sports, and I love watching sports.

Once you do one bad guy, usually all you get offered is bad guys. But I’ve been able to do different things.

Danish film is spreading in a fantastic way.

We can ask ourselves why we invent God, and then, ten minutes later, we invent Satan – why? Because we need him; there’s something fascinating about the other side of the coin.

If David Bowie wants, I’ll put him in my phone book.

The physicality of any character is always split up into fast, slow, high energy, low energy, what kind of personality he has. So that’s where the physicality comes in. And flying through the air is just something you have to do if they ask you.

I have an older brother who is an actor as well.

I watched westerns when I was a kid, like everybody else, but I wasn’t a total nerd or geek about it. I kind of fell in love with westerns heavily when I started watching Sergio Leone’s westerns.

Once you do one bad guy, usually all you get offered is bad guys.

I choose work with the people I like to work with.

England and Denmark have a sense of irony and a darker sense of humour that you don’t necessarily find in Germany and Sweden.

Sometimes you’re trying your best and you still can’t find a solution, but I try not to waste my life living in a dark place.

If people need to be informed by lines, then there’s no reason why the actor is saying the line except for information for the audience; I think there’s something wrong.

I did a TV show called ‘Unit 1.’ It wasn’t a bad experience, but yes, the first season I didn’t have a good time because I was coming from Nicolas Winding Refn films where the corners were sharp and radical, but now we had round corners.

I like to stay home with my family. But travel is good in a way. It makes you redefine each other each time you see each other. Also, it helps that I think my wife is the hottest woman in the world.

If you’re playing the bad guy, you have to find what you like about them.

I’m not ambitious about my career, but I am ambitious with each job. I can be fairly annoying to work with.

Sometimes we misunderstand what films can do. We just throw a whole book in there, with people just talking, talking, and talking. The picture can tell, the frame can tell.

I love working back home, but it is a small country, and we do get tired of watching each other.

‘Clash Of The Titans’ is one of the biggest movies I’ve done; it was certainly the most effects I’ve worked with.

In a way, we tried to make ‘The Salvation’ a contemporary film with contemporary emotions. At the same time, in the script, you get a feel that all the small talk is not a part of our universe. It’s more precise talk.

II know a little about Greek mythology. It’s not that far away from the Nordic mythology.

I like to stay home with my family.

I’m not looking for a challenge, necessarily. I’m looking to make a really great film.

I take my work enormously seriously. When I do something, it has to feel right. Everything has to be right.

I’d rather be voted ‘the sexiest man in Denmark’ than ‘the ugliest man in Denmark’.

I always work with the tempo of the energy of the character, whether he’s fast or slow, or heavy or light.

The problem is that you can’t really read a script saying, ‘Hmmm, I’ll just see what this is.’ You have to go right into it; you have to get engaged with it, and once you are engaged, you want to do it! It’s really difficult to get uninvolved.

I think I’ve always had to pick and choose whatever I want to work on. If I’m not happy with what I’m doing, it’s probably not going to end up that interesting.

If you spend a week at a casino you will very easily see that people have a certain way of behaving in a casino.

We have no chance to comprehend what goes on there – it’s so dramatic, and people are so poor. We all felt bad about being there. Filming in India felt like we were going to borrow something knowing that we were never going to give it back.

Predominantly I’m an Adidas guy who walks around in sports gear all the time because there’s always a ball right next to me somewhere. I do a lot of sports, but I do enjoy wearing a lot of suits.

If you’re not bruised up, then you’re not doing an action film in a real way.

I did a crazy version of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ once, and I played Romeo.

I’m a big fan of film for one reason: because it is visual.

I’ve been watching ‘Walking Dead’ with my son, and there is absolutely nothing in there I find shocking, but it’s cool, and I like it.

When I was a kid, I wasn’t looking at the small-budget films myself. I was looking at ‘James Bond’ and all the major films, so I still have that energy. I still love those films.

I was a gymnast for many years before I was a dancer, so it comes in pretty handy when we do stunts.

I was into sports and swimming as a kid and didn’t spend a whole lot of time sitting down. I was a gymnast.

I never even thought about being an actor. Somebody asked me if I’d like to learn the craft, and I said, ‘Okay.’ I was a gymnast in a show at that time, and somebody asked me afterwards one night. I performed as a gymnast for nine years, and then I did acting after that.

I’m engaged to Hollywood. If there’s something I find I have to do, I’ll do it. Otherwise, I’ll just stay home and have a vacation.

The day before I was famous in Denmark, nobody looked my way. The day after, everybody wanted to talk to me.

I go to the pub, hang out with my family – that’s pretty much it. I also do a lot of sports when I get the chance. I’m actually a pretty mellow guy.

I can be intense in a lot of ways, but not the way you see the guy in ‘The Salvation.’

I was a very focused kid. I always had this crazy lifestyle… billions of jobs, two hours of gymnastics every day, handball, anything with a ball, really. I must have had ADHD or something. I was very energetic, and very small. I didn’t start growing until the last year of high school.

If I was doing ‘The Hunt’ constantly, I would get very old, very fast.

One thing I can say about the French language is that no one in the world loves their language as much as they do. It doesn’t matter if you’re close – it still sounds terrible to their ears.

TV is obviously so different from film: because it’s a never-ending process, it keeps going; you keep receiving new pages.

I’ve always been extremely physical.

If I do my very best, then the camera and the audience will follow me, and eventually they will somehow feel like I feel. I don’t have to show it to them. I don’t have to speak it out loud.

I’m a beer man. I tried to drink whiskey and Scotch, but I don’t get it. It smells like a girl who didn’t shower and just splashed a lot of perfume on.

I never really planned a career. I’ve tried to avoid it. I’ve tried to do this stuff I felt for, the stuff I like. So, I’ve just been meeting these fantastic directors who’ve offered me a variation of different parts and different films.

I’m not even on Facebook. I’ve got enough friends I never see. You know how you have a lot of friends you never call? I don’t have time for new friends, and I don’t want to be friends with someone only online.

I’ve always been extremely physical. I was a gymnast for 15 years, and then I was a dancer for nine, so I was kind of looking for these parts. But we have a tendency in Denmark not to do many action films.

I fancy myself at being pretty good at understanding a script and finding the weaknesses, and then making them more radical than they are. People tend to listen to me.

First, I have to read something and find it interesting and like the story. If I don’t understand it fully, but there is something in there that is interesting, then it takes a director to convince me. If he can’t do that, then I don’t go with it. It doesn’t matter where the project comes from.