Mads Mikkelsen Quotes & Sayings

I can never wink at the audience. — Mads Mikkelsen

I choose work with the people I like to work with. — Mads Mikkelsen

Awards mean absolutely nothing if you don't get it. If you do get it, they're the best thing in the world. — Mads Mikkelsen

I always wanted to play some kind of instrument - piano, saxophone, whatever. I took it up for a while, then forgot about it because I didn't have the time. — Mads Mikkelsen

I always work with the tempo of the energy of the character, whether he's fast or slow, or heavy or light. — Mads Mikkelsen

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. — Mads Mikkelsen

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

I don't wear cologne. I do occasionally, but anytime I take a shower, I just put on deodorant. That's basically what I smell like. — Mads Mikkelsen

If you're not bruised up, then you're not doing an action film in a real way. — Mads Mikkelsen

I was not into sci-fi, science fiction, at all. I was into some of the old pirate films with Burt Lancaster and stuff. I liked them. — Mads Mikkelsen

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. — Mads Mikkelsen

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

I have an enormous metabolism, so I'm lucky. — Mads Mikkelsen

I like to stay home with my family. — Mads Mikkelsen

A solid family, as they say. They join me on location if they have a chance, but I can also be home three or four months doing nothing, so I probably see my kids more than people who work constantly all year long. If that changes, we'll have to have a family meeting. — Mads Mikkelsen

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

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. — Mads Mikkelsen

If you believe in Odin and Thor, people laugh themselves to death. While it's okay to believe in a man who turned water into wine, and walked on water — Mads Mikkelsen

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. — Mads Mikkelsen

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. — Mads Mikkelsen

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. — Mads Mikkelsen

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. — Mads Mikkelsen

I'm very proud of 'Valhalla Rising.' — Mads Mikkelsen

Machiavelli had some cold tricks for people who wanted to be demagogues and wanted to take over the world. — Mads Mikkelsen

I like 'The Three Musketeers.' I like those kind of cool things where they were having a robe and a sword. — Mads Mikkelsen

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. — Mads Mikkelsen

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. — Mads Mikkelsen

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. I have quite a few suits that I really enjoy wearing but, unlike Hannibal, I like wearing them only at special occasions. — Mads Mikkelsen

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

Once in a while, when I'm out on the lawn, I'll jump around and do a couple of things. Here's a secret: The older you get, the more difficult it gets. The smallest little injury stays with you for so long. But that's how it goes, and it doesn't stop me. I'm always ready to do something that hurts a little! — Mads Mikkelsen

I've never been a big fan of making telepathy to the audience. That would be too much a wink in the eye. That would make people around me fools, right? — Mads Mikkelsen

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. — Mads Mikkelsen

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. — Mads Mikkelsen

I don't necessarily prefer playing villains. I know a lot of people say they are more fun, but if the scriptwriter has done their work well, you can find something realistic in a villain and find the mistakes in a hero - it's all down to the writing. — Mads Mikkelsen

I'm one of the actors who really enjoys working with kids and animals, which is always a no go. There's something beautiful about it because you tend to forget yourself as an actor. — Mads Mikkelsen

We were in love with 'Mean Streets' and 'Taxi Driver.' We had no idea why nothing remotely like that was done in Denmark. — Mads Mikkelsen

It was never a plan to be an actor. — Mads Mikkelsen

Danish film is spreading in a fantastic way. — Mads Mikkelsen

Actors are very good at not revealing anything, so they're safe. — Mads Mikkelsen

If you have to be frightening, you need some actors around you to be really frightened. And if they're not frightened, you're not so frightening anymore. In the same way, people say, 'I think you come in, and you're really sexy'. But how do you play sexy? It depends on the eyes that are looking. — Mads Mikkelsen

I'm in a very lucky position. You have to remember that 95 percent of all actors aren't working. I'm actually able to go to France and work. It's a situation I couldn't have dreamt up. — Mads Mikkelsen

I'm terrified about psychic people who have their little shops. I always walk across the street and go somewhere else. Imagine if one of them came out with their face all pale and said, 'Hurry up and enjoy yourself.' No one wants to know that. — Mads Mikkelsen

When I do outdoor scenes, I tend to find a quiet space where I can sit and carve a walking stick that can turn out to be interesting for me. — Mads Mikkelsen

I always try to find something I like about the bad guys and then try to find the mistakes and the flaws in the good guys. — Mads Mikkelsen

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. — Mads Mikkelsen

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. — Mads Mikkelsen

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. — Mads Mikkelsen

I have the strange ability to shut things out. — Mads Mikkelsen

If you're playing the bad guy, you have to find what you like about them. — Mads Mikkelsen

I think the meaning of life is life itself. We don't necessarily want to know what it is, but we want to live it. Hopefully, we'll go out fast without knowing it. — Mads Mikkelsen

Actors are a race. — Mads Mikkelsen

Denmark is a small place. We all know each other. — Mads Mikkelsen

I'm a big fan of film for one reason: because it is visual. — Mads Mikkelsen

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

I try not to carry any character back home because that would be extremely frustrating for my family. — Mads Mikkelsen

'Clash Of The Titans' is one of the biggest movies I've done; it was certainly the most effects I've worked with. — Mads Mikkelsen

There is a tendency to underestimate the power of what we can do without words. Sometimes you can make a scene even more powerful and precise without dialogue. — Mads Mikkelsen

II know a little about Greek mythology. It's not that far away from the Nordic mythology. — Mads Mikkelsen

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

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

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

I've always been interested in strange foods, coming from all different places. — Mads Mikkelsen

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. — Mads Mikkelsen

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. — Mads Mikkelsen

I come from a culture where you don't divide it up to what you can do on TV and what you can do on film. — Mads Mikkelsen

I've never been specifically attached to westerns, but there are those I like - one of the best westerns I've seen is 'Unforgiven.' I think the genre has something extremely powerful that can allow them to talk about good and evil in a very straight way. — Mads Mikkelsen

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. — Mads Mikkelsen

The whole Fannibal thing is predominantly something that happens in a world I don't know about, which is the Internet. — Mads Mikkelsen

I'd rather be voted 'the sexiest man in Denmark' than 'the ugliest man in Denmark'. — Mads Mikkelsen

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. — Mads Mikkelsen

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. — Mads Mikkelsen

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

I vividly remember Charles Bronson's face in 'Chino.' The western genre is screaming for a face like that. — Mads Mikkelsen

I will never be a fan of any kind of political correctness: I think it's instant death to creativity. — Mads Mikkelsen

I'm not the kind of actor who runs around and insists on being called Stravinsky by everybody, and my family has to call me Igor. I'm not that kind of actor. I think that's pretentious. — Mads Mikkelsen

If I was doing 'The Hunt' constantly, I would get very old, very fast. — Mads Mikkelsen

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. — Mads Mikkelsen

In Denmark, we're making 20 films a year. If I'm showing up in even two of those, people will get tired of me really fast. — Mads Mikkelsen

Typically, I work with the script and the director for awhile before, just to make sure we're on the same page. — Mads Mikkelsen

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

I was a late bloomer, but I had a career as a contemporary dancer before that, so I had some kind of connection to this world. But I was always a little more in love with the drama of dancing than the aesthetics, so I thought, 'Why don't you give it a chance if you think you can do it a little different?' — Mads Mikkelsen

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. — Mads Mikkelsen

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. — Mads Mikkelsen

Before we made films about gangsters, everything was about the royal families. They contain so much drama. — Mads Mikkelsen

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. — Mads Mikkelsen

I think they tried the 3-D revolution at least five times throughout history, and it never seemed to work. However, finally, 'Avatar' did it. — Mads Mikkelsen

I became a dancer late and an actor late. — Mads Mikkelsen

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. — Mads Mikkelsen

I have an older brother who is an actor as well. — Mads Mikkelsen

The criteria [to take or refuse the role] is that I would love to have some kind of dialogue or communication with the director. I need to understand that we can communicate and that we like communication. That's something I have to have a strong feeling about. Secondly, I have to find the script intriguing or interesting. I don't have to understand the whole script, but I do have to find it intriguing. If those two things are present, that would probably be a yes. — Mads Mikkelsen

I have a three-piece suit. I'm an art collector. I have a funny accent. So I'm probably the killer. — Mads Mikkelsen

I would have turned any offer down, if it had turned into a thriller. I would have seen no point in a thriller here. I don't need to entertain people, on top of what we were doing. It's not a question of whether he did it or not. I would have thought that was banal and uninteresting, and I wouldn't care. And it could have also turned into a shoot-out because there were a lot of guns in the film. — Mads Mikkelsen

When you do a TV show, there's always the fear that it will become tired and you'll know exactly what's going to happen. — Mads Mikkelsen

I don't want to be the stupid blond. I want to be an actor. — Mads Mikkelsen

I guess they have to label someone the sexiest person in the world, and it is always someone who is on telly even if it's the weatherman. For a couple of years it was me and then it was someone else. It's nicer being the sexiest man than the most ugly man. I live with it, and I don't mind it, but I don't go around with a big smile on my face everyday. — Mads Mikkelsen

If David Bowie wants, I'll put him in my phone book. — Mads Mikkelsen

I've always been extremely physical. — Mads Mikkelsen

I make an awesome soup with coconut milk and shrimps; it takes me five hours to prepare the whole thing. It does become very spicy, but you can definitely taste all the ingredients. — Mads Mikkelsen

Everybody wants a big crowd. You get amazed sometimes with certain things that millions of people are watching and you go, "Serious?! Really?!" And then, there are things that you really, really enjoy and not a lot of people are watching. It's very, very hard to predict how it works. — Mads Mikkelsen

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. — Mads Mikkelsen