Mads Mikkelsen has worked with every kind of director, but the “Casino Royale,” “Another Round,” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” worries about working with the same one twice.
In a video interview featuring Mikkelsen and “The Promised Land” director Nikolaj Arcel, moderated by Alicia Vikander and exclusive to IndieWire, Mikkelsen discusses the “risk” of getting too comfortable with one director. Mikkelsen, along with Vikander, starred in Arcel’s “A Royal Affair” a decade prior to leading “The Promised Land.”
“I think there’s a risk if you do too much together. There’s a risk in getting lazy,” Mikkelsen said. “You really have to pay attention to that stuff so it’s not going to happen. What we do need from each other is to be more comfortable so you can push each other and go further.”
Mikkelsen and director Arcel actually lived next to each other during production, with their respective balconies facing one another. Perhaps too close for comfort?
“From day 1, it was totally fluid and we were coming up with ideas right away,” Mikkelsen said of their reunion.
Vikander doesn’t seem as concerned as Mikkelsen.
“I totally understand that now. When I was young in the beginning of my career, I always wondered why some people ended up doing so many films, and it’s so clear why because you just end up having a direct language,” she said. “You don’t have to say much on set and you can really read each other and focus, especially because you have so little time on sets.”
In “The Promised Land,” Mikkelsen portrays 18th-century military veteran and farmer Ludvig von Kahlen. The film was released on VOD February 23 from Magnolia Pictures. While Ludvig isn’t “necessarily a likable person from the get-go,” per Mikkelsen, the character arc is well-paced thanks to Arcel’s script.
“It takes quite a while for us to see some glimpse of humanity in [Ludvig]. It takes a little bravery to trust each other and say, ‘Yes, it’s going to happen. Page 68, it’s going to happen,’” Mikkelsen continued. “So probably with a different director or a different actor, you’d say, ‘Let’s do it a little earlier, get it out.’ But we look at each other and say, ‘That’s what we decided on and that’s what we’ll do.’”
Mikkelsen called their collaboration on “A Royal Affair” more elaborate. (Arcel went with “lavish.”) “The Promised Land” is “quite simple,” Mikkelsen said.
“There are people in this class and there are people in that class, and then there is one man who has an ambition and basically creates his own fate,” Mikkelsen said. “He’s the problem in his own life. It’s the most simple structure compared to the previous film.”
Arcel agreed, calling “The Promised Land” the first time he’s made a film with a main character “who was not so much of a hero.”
“I don’t think I could have done that 10 years ago,” he said. “I think that’s something that has changed within me, a little more bravery or courage.”
Mikkelsen is also getting braver: he and Vikander both expressed a desire to work with Arcel again, despite those earlier concerns. Arcel is in.
“Let’s complete a trilogy,” Arcel said.
Watch the full video above; read IndieWire’s interview with Mikkelsen here.
