Quotes from Mads Mikkelsen

I fancy myself at being pretty good at understanding a script and finding the weaknesses, and then making them more radical than they are. People tend to listen to me.

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.

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 will never be a fan of any kind of political correctness: I think it's instant death to creativity.

I became a dancer late and an actor late.

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.

The script is always the main preparation for me. 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 vividly remember Charles Bronson's face in 'Chino.' The western genre is screaming for a face like that.

Denmark is a small place. We all know each other.

The day before I was famous in Denmark, nobody looked my way. The day after, everybody wanted to talk to me.

We were in love with 'Mean Streets' and 'Taxi Driver.' We had no idea why nothing remotely like that was done in Denmark.

I've never been specifically attached to westerns, but there are those I like - one of the best westerns I've seen is 'Unforgiven.' I think the genre has something extremely powerful that can allow them to talk about good and evil in a very straight way.

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.

I've always been extremely physical.

I'm not ambitious about my career, but I am ambitious with each job. I can be fairly annoying to work with.

I always work with the tempo of the energy of the character, whether he's fast or slow, or heavy or light.

I'm very proud of 'Valhalla Rising.'

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 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.

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.

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.

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 try not to carry any character back home because that would be extremely frustrating for my family.

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.