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on 2006/9/22 3:44:16
By the end of November, Mads Mikkelsen could well have the entire world talking animatedly about him.
But who the hell is Mads Mikkelsen? He is Denmark’s greatest contemporary movie star, a man who is repeatedly voted in his country as “the sexiest man in the world”.
Now, what has that got to do with the end of November? Mikkelsen plays the villainous Le Chiffre in the 21st official James Bond flick, Casino Royale, starring Daniel Craig and Eva Green, and the film is scheduled to open across the globe on November 17.
Even as he gears up mentally for a burst of international stardom, the dashing 40-year-old Dane has his usual spread of dramatic films on his plate. He was at the just-concluded 31st Toronto International Film Festival to promote two such new films from back home – Susanne Bier’s After the Wedding and Ole Christian Madsen’s Prague.
After the Wedding is essentially a tale of a family grappling with truths and falsehoods, loss and renewal, joys and sorrows and Mikkelsen, as the male protagonist, holds it all together with a top-notch star turn.
In Prague, a family drama of a completely different hue, Mikkelsen plays Christoffer, a man who visits a dreary but imposing Prague to claim the body of his long-estranged father now lying in a morgue. Even as his own 14-year marriage teeters on the brink of collapse, he struggles to reconnect with his past.
Neither After the Wedding nor Prague, both directed by one-time Dogme 95 practitioners, have anything in common with the upcoming spy thriller that will see Mikkelsen don the garb of an evil man who uses his winnings from baccarat to fund a nefarious network. But, like many of the Danish films that Mikkelsen has featured in over the years, they do provide proof of what the actor is capable of in roles of dramatic intensity.
Mikkelsen isn’t exactly an unknown name outside of Denmark, having played one of the Knights of the Round Table in Antoine Fuqua’s King Arthur alongside the likes of Clive Owen (as King Arthur) and Keira Knightley (as Guinevere).
But Casino Royale represents his biggest career opening to date. In a role that the legendary Orson Welles essayed in the 1967 spy spoof Casino Royale, Mikkelsen has his best opportunity yet of stamping his presence on a potential blockbuster. Knowing the range of his skills, chances are the life will never be the same again for the consummate actor.
source:hindusthantimes
