Scan Magazine | Cover Feature | Mads Mikkelsen
Mads Mikkelsen
‘The toughest thing I’ve ever done’ In Arctic, Mads Mikkelsen, the Danish actor best known for playing villainous roles in big-budget Hollywood films like Casino Royale and the popular TV series Hannibal, tackles a truly heroic everyman character who discovers over the course of his journey what it means to be human. We spoke to him about a film that centres almost exclusively on his character, a plane-crash survivor named Overgard, and about the experience of making it under gruelling weather conditions.
you get there, to the set, at the point where you are going to actually shoot it, you realise this is going to take a toll, and it did every single day.”
By Suzy Maloy, The Interview People | Photo: Laurent Koffel
Mikkelsen: “There were a few information lines that he came up with, talking to himself, which we cut out. We were both in love with the fact that he talked to himself, but we agreed that it should be rational, what he said, and we didn’t want it to contain information. We wanted it to be a way for him to stay sane. So, whatever information we needed in the film, we knew we had to put in in a different way.”
In the survival drama Arctic, Mikkelsen plays a man stranded near the North Pole following a small plane crash. Alone for weeks, he fights daily against the unforgiving elements and a lurking polar bear. His precarious situation, in which he is both physically and emotionally challenged awaiting a rescue that may never come, is further complicated when another human enters the picture. The film was shot on location in Iceland over 30 days, occasionally interrupted by blizzards, by Brazilian musician/director Joe Penna (Turning Point, Beyond), who co-wrote the screenplay with frequent collaborator Ryan Morrison. What was the appeal to you? The title, Arctic, kind of gave it away, right?
Mikkelsen: “Yeah, I had a hunch. Initially, it was the story but, later on, it was Joe. I loved everything I read on that page, and then when I turned it, I loved
the next page, and so on. I thought it was pure and honest. It avoided falling into the traps of going down memory lane and flashbacks that, to me, would have ruined the experience. So, I thought it was a pure, beautiful and emotional journey. When I heard what Joe wanted to do with it I was sold, and I said ‘yes’ right away on the phone.” You filmed this on location in Iceland. It was a 30-day shoot, in which you had 19 actual shooting days. When you were there, was there a moment of ‘The next film I do is going to be on a beach?’
Mikkelsen: “It wasn’t one moment – it was the entire time. It was extremely brutal. There were plenty of situations where I wished either that I was 22 years old or that I was back home. But it’s often like that when you write a script, come up with a great idea, and you’re high-fiving each other – and then when
There is so little dialogue. What did the script look like?
What did you learn from speaking with the survivalists?
Mikkelsen: “Joe did all the talking when he was developing the story with Ryan. We deliberately just wanted me to be dumped up there in the Arctic, not having a clue what to do about surviving, because that’s basically what happens to the character. He doesn’t have this plan; he’s just on his way home for a nice cup of coffee, and he ends up there. So, we wanted me to go through that same journey, and be as smart as I Issue 123 | April 2019 | 49