Celebrated Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen has revealed a story about how his Hollywood career almost ended before it started during a flight.
The actor broke through internationally as the villain Le Chiffre in Daniel Craig’s first James Bond film “Casino Royale” in 2006. In an appearance at the Zurich Film Festival this week, Mikkelsen revealed he lost the film’s script whilst onboard a jet.
He said (via Indiewire) that he was terrified he would be blackballed from Hollywood if the script, which had his name on it, was leaked:
“‘Casino Royale’ was the first screenplay with my name on every single page. Which also means that if you lose it, it’s on you. I got on a plane, started to read it and I fell asleep. Then I got out and just left it there. I was lucky some cleaning person threw it away and didn’t know what it was. That could have been the end of my career, right then.”
Mikkelsen added that he wasn’t familiar with the James Bond franchise before being cast by director Martin Campbell. The weight of it however was brought home to him abruptly:
“I had never watched a Bond movie up to that point and of course I lied about it. I only knew that guy with metal teeth [Jaws]. I didn’t realize how big it was until we had the premiere in London and had to meet the Queen. Or she had to meet us.”
Mikkelsen says he eventually got familiar with the rest of the spy series and now adores it.
Source: Indiewire
