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
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.
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.
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.
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.
I'd rather be voted 'the sexiest man in Denmark' than 'the ugliest man in Denmark'.
I was a gymnast for many years before I was a dancer, so it comes in pretty handy when we do stunts.
I will never be a fan of any kind of political correctness: I think it's instant death to creativity.
There's no such thing as easy, but it's easier when a script is good.
Being physical and doing my own stunts - it is fun to do these kind of films once in a while, especially before you get too old.
If you're not bruised up, then you're not doing an action film in a real way.
I felt perhaps 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' was a little premature. It was a huge hit around the world - it was still running in the theatres - and the Americans at that time were already shooting the remake, and I was like, 'Whoa! Give it a break of five or six years and get a little inspired, and then do it.'
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.
I don't want to be the stupid blond. I want to be an actor.
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.
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.
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.
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 have an enormous metabolism, so I'm lucky.
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.
If you're playing the bad guy, you have to find what you like about them.
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 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.
We are filmmakers, and we are specifically trying to entertain people.
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.
We were in love with 'Mean Streets' and 'Taxi Driver.' We had no idea why nothing remotely like that was done in Denmark.
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'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.
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.
I did a crazy version of 'Romeo and Juliet' once, and I played Romeo.
'Clash Of The Titans' is one of the biggest movies I've done; it was certainly the most effects I've worked with.
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.
Once you do one bad guy, usually all you get offered is bad guys. But I've been able to do different things.
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.
Danish film is spreading in a fantastic way.
If you spend a week at a casino you will very easily see that people have a certain way of behaving in a casino.
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 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.
I tend not to have any references to anything. I just jump into the script in front of me. If you reference too much, you have no idea if the performances are right.
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.
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 can be intense in a lot of ways, but not the way you see the guy in 'The Salvation.'
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?'
Sometimes you have a period piece where you have to research around it but, if the writers have done their homework well enough, the information is all in the script.
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.
If David Bowie wants, I'll put him in my phone book.
I'm not ambitious about my career, but I am ambitious with each job. I can be fairly annoying to work with.
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.
I can never wink at the audience.
I like to stay home with my family.
