Harry Potter, James Bond, & Indy 5 Actor Reflects On Being A Go-To Villain

Harry Potter, James Bond and Indiana Jones 5 actor Mads Mikkelsen reflects on being one of Hollywood’s go-to villains. After getting his start in Danish cinema in the 1990s, Mikkelsen first began landing Hollywood roles in the 2000s, with prominent parts in movies like King Arthur, the James Bond film Casino Royale, Clash of the Titans and others. Today, Mikkelsen is a familiar face both to aficionados of art films like the Oscar-winning Another Round, and to fans of franchise movies like Doctor Strange and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.

The ever-busy Mikkelsen is indeed about to add to this laundry list of franchise appearances with his role as ex-Nazi Jürgen Voller in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, and recently the star had occasion to reflect on why he has become one of Hollywood’s favorite villainous actors. Speaking to IGN, Mikkelsen joked about his accent being part of his bad guy appeal, then went on to break down why actors are attracted to villainous roles in the first place. Check out what he had to say in the space below:

“They love me. I don’t know. I can blame it on the funny accent, I guess. No, a good villain is just somebody all actors wants to dive into. When they’re well written like definitely in this case, they have two sides of the coin. We have to find a little part of them where we go, that makes sense. I can follow him that far. And then of course it goes a little too far. So it’s just very human, if you can find humanity of the character, it will become interesting. And so we always try to do that. That’s not being on the character side, that’s just finding something we can link to.”

Mikkelsen’s Greatest Bad Guy Performance Isn’t In A Movie

While there’s no doubt Mikkelsen has shone brightly in the movies he’s starred in, it can be argued that his greatest role of all came not on the big screen but the small. In 2013, Mikkelsen took on the seemingly daunting task of following the great Anthony Hopkins in the role of menacing serial killer Hannibal Lecter on Bryan Fuller’s TV reboot of Hannibal. Far from embarrassing himself in the role of Lecter, Mikkelsen created a new and deeply complex take on the character that arguably surpasses Hopkins’ iconic interpretation.

There is indeed no denying Mikkelsen’s power in a role like Le Chiffre, the sadistic Bond villain he portrayed in the franchise-redefining Casino Royale. In the Harry Potter franchise, Mikkelsen brought Grindelwald to life in a way that made almost everyone forget about his predecessor Johnny Depp. His Lecter however goes far deeper than either of those performances, proving that when it comes to playing such dark characters, Mikkelsen can deliver surface-level menace as necessary, or he can dive fully into the souls of the most twisted and horrifying of psychotic monsters.

It’s clear from his role choices that Mikkelsen enjoys the challenge of bringing a bad guy to life, whether that bad guy be a dark wizard, a criminal mastermind or a brutally manipulative psychologist/murderer. Indiana Jones 5 gives Mikkelsen a full-on Nazi on his resume, and his performance is sure to spice up the final adventure of Harrison Ford’s Indy.

Source: IGN