Entertainment Weekly: First off, what drew you to this project?
Mads Mikkelsen: Predominantly Thomas Vinterberg.
Then when I read the script, everything made sense.
Mads Mikkelsen in ‘Another Round’.Credit: Samuel Goldwyn Films
It’s a beautifully written story about embracing life during the difficult state of your midlife crisis.
It’s an obvious question and, of course, you have to ask it.
One, it’s very hard to communicate with actors who are drunk.
Also, to stay half-drunk for 16 hours a day is not recommendable.
It’s not that we don’t know at all because we’re Danish, right?
So we have certain experiences with alcohol.
But we wanted to test different levels precisely.
Also, we had one guy on set from Alcoholics Anonymous who stopped drinking seven years ago.
It’s a tricky thing and all actors know it.
That’s the way you approach it.
You move alittleslower, alittlemore precise, and, obviously, that gives it away.
You don’t care.
You’re just using your face.
So that was very inspiring.
The look of resigned despair on your face was my favorite moment of the film.
It was fascinating that you were able to convey so much drama while maintaining such an otherwise passive expression.
I’m so happy you said that; it’s one of my favorite scenes as well.
It’s a key scene for the film and a bold way to portray a man.
We were like, “But we don’t know this guy yet.
The camera is focusing on his face.
He could still hear his friends.
He could hear the people singing next door.
Yet we’re told nothing about that.
I had an approach that the man is driving, so he will just have some water.
So we kind of disagreed a little on that and I think we met halfway.
For a movie that’s so much about drinking.
I was trying it the entire time to discern the movie’s attitude toward drinking.
The answer is simply “Yes.”
The answer is “Yes,” to both.
I think you said the smartest thing of all the interviews I’ve done so far.
That’s exactly what we’re trying to put on the screen.
We wanted to remind people that human beings been drinking for 7,000 years.
There’s not a lot of hands coming up.
We also know after a bottle how it’s not that interesting anymore.
I mean, look at Winston Churchill, what he did while he was completely soaked.
Look at Ernest Hemingway what he did while drunk.
So there is something there, and that’s what we saying.
It can go both ways.
And as you said: Is it bad?
Or is it good?
And the answer is “Yes.”
We will never know!
Churchill and Hemmingway are difficult to predict.
It’s just a matter of balancing it.
Many probably don’t realize you have quite a bit of dancing experience.
What was that like to shoot?
I had my doubts when we did it that it was the right approach.
I thought it might risk being pretentious.
But Thomas insisted and he was absolutely 100 percent right and I was wrong.
On another subject, you’ve obviously made headlines for being cast inFantastic Beasts 3.
How is your Grindelwald going to be different than the versions we’ve seen?
Well it’s going to be me, so that’s a difference.
No, this is the tricky part.
We’re still working it out.
And at the same time, I also have to make it my own.
What was it like to get that call under such dramatic circumstances?
Job wise, it’s obviously super interesting and nice.
It’s also a shocker that it came after what happened, which is just super sad.
I wish both of them the best.
These are sad circumstances.
I hope both of them will be back in the saddle again really soon.
Another Roundis now in theaters and available on demand Dec. 18.
