17 best roles of Mads Mikkelsen - Bond's enemy, evil magician, cannibal, knight of justice and others (18 photos)

Over the course of a 30-year career, Mads Mikkelsen has gone from being a local star of Danish cinema to an actor known all over the world. He is adored not only by the viewer, but also by the professional film community.





His collection includes awards from the European Film Academy, the Cannes Film Festival, the San Sebastian Festival and many others. In 2023, the actor’s filmography was expanded with two radically different projects: Masds starred in the Hollywood studio film Indiana Jones and the Wheel of Fate, as well as in the Danish drama The Sword of the King, which was celebrated in Venice. Film critic Elena Zarkhina talks about these and other important roles of the actor.

1. "Dealer"/ Pusher (1996)

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn

Cast: Kim Bodnia, Zlatko Buric, Laura Drasbeck, Slavko Labovic



The actor's debut role in the drama of another newcomer - director Nicolas Winding Refn. Mikkelsen played a drug addict, and did it so talentedly that his supporting character came to the fore in the second part of the crime franchise. The same work gave rise to a successful collaboration between two Scandinavians: in addition to the continuation of “The Dealer,” Refn invited Mikkelsen to star in the gangster saga “Bleeding” and the historical drama “Valhalla: The Viking Saga.”

2. “Flickering Lights”/ Blinkende lygter (2000)

Director: Anders Thomas Jensen

Cast: Søren Pilmark, Ulrich Thomsen, Mads Mikkelsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas





Presented in the form of a crime story, a philosophical parable about how the past is the only thing that always follows you. The main character of the film, Thorkild (Søren Pirmalk), is an experienced bandit who decides to retire. Finally, he agrees to carry out a task for the mafia boss, and three younger bandits go with him. One of them, Arne, was played by Mikkelsen. The heroes' original plan collapses: Torkild plans to outwit his companions and escape to Barcelona, ​​their car breaks down in the wilderness, and one of the bandits is wounded. Waiting in an old abandoned house, each of the characters imagines how his life would turn out if they were able to break the vicious circle of their illegal activities.

3. “Open Hearts”/ Elsker dig for evigt (2002)

Director: Susanne Bier

Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Sonja Richter, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Paprika Steen



The story of the doomed and forbidden romance between Cecile (Sonja Richter) and her therapist Nils (Mikkelsen). Their relationship is based on a common tragedy: Nils’s wife accidentally hits her husband Cecile with a car, who remains alive after the incident, but is completely paralyzed. Unable to console her husband, Cecile herself seeks consolation in Nils, who willingly responds to her emotional impulse. It gradually becomes clear that his own family has long lost its former impulse of love. The hero secretly dreams of destroying what he has in order to build something new in its place - if fate gives him and Cecile a second chance.

4. "Adam's apples"/ Adams aebler (2005)

Director: Anders Thomas Jensen

Starring: Ulrich Thomsen, Mads Mikkelsen, Nicholas Breaux, Paprika Steen



This is a story about a neo-Nazi who served time in prison and is obliged to undergo re-education at the church. Mikkelsen played the role of Ivan, a kind of clergyman who prefers scout shorts and a shirt with a puffy collar to the traditional cassock, and looks at the world with almost childlike spontaneity. Ivan takes on the task of re-educating a newly arrived guest, whose views on life are radically different from his own. A strong emotional tension arises between the heroes, in which one thing will win: either the destructive power of the prisoner, or the creative talent of the priest.

5. “After the Wedding”/ Efter brylluppet (2006)

Director: Susanne Bier

Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Rolf Lassgaard, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Stine Fischer Christensen



A touching drama by Susanne Bier, with whom Mikkelsen had previously worked in Open Hearts. The film “After the Wedding” tells about another hero with an open heart - Jacob Petersen. All his life he has been helping those in need - in particular, saving poor children in India. When his orphanage faces bankruptcy, he receives an unexpected financial offer from a wealthy Danish businessman. The man is ready to offer Jacob $12 million, but in return he puts forward his own conditions: Petersen will attend the wedding of the businessman’s daughter. This event completely changes the life of the main character and reveals an unexpected truth about his past.

6. Casino Royale (2006)

Director: Martin Campbell

Cast: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Judi Dench



The role of the sophisticated James Bond adversary Le Chiffre divided Mikkelsen's professional career into before and after. This work brought him into the rank of first-rate actors and gave him a golden ticket straight to Hollywood. The moist-eyed villain (Le Chiffre suffers from hemolacria, which causes him to cry uncontrollably with tears of blood) performed by Mikkelsen turned out not to be just another operetta antagonist, but a lively and contradictory hero, following his own ideas about the world. His deceptive external vulnerability is combined with the indomitable energy of a wild predator, ready to hit the enemy at any moment. Probably, no other actor on both sides of the Atlantic could have played this hero so subtly and brilliantly.

7. “Prague”/ Prag (2006)

Director: Ole Christian Madsen

Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Stine Stengade, Borzivoj Navratil, Jana Plodkova



If in “After the Wedding” Mikkelsen played the father wanted by his daughter, in “Prague” he himself played the role of a once abandoned child. His matured hero Christopher, together with his wife Maya, goes to Prague to pick up the body of his deceased father for burial in his native Denmark. This trip turns into a complex inner journey for the hero, deprived of the opportunity to recognize his parent, as well as to find out the circumstances due to which he left his wife and little son a quarter of a century ago. But Christopher does not give up and is looking for a way to reconcile with his departed father, wanting to throw off the heavy stone that he has been carrying for 25 years from his soul.

8. Valhalla: The Viking Saga/ Valhalla Rising (2009)

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn

Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Maarten Steven, Gary Lewis, Evan Stewart



In his next collaboration with Nicolas Winding Refn - the ascetic film "Valhalla: The Viking Saga" - Mikkelsen proved how little he needs to create a full-blooded and living hero who evokes a real storm of different feelings. This is a bloody and merciless story about a mute warrior nicknamed One-Eye, who was captured and endowed with the gift of foresight. The plot of the film is partly based on ancient legends about Vikings from dark Scandinavian tales. Throughout the entire film, Mikkelsen does not utter a word, but it is impossible to tear yourself away from him - with just his face and body, the actor plays out on the screen the great tragedy of a man who has lost everything except fortitude.

9. “Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky”/ Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (2009)

Director: Jan Kunen

Cast: Anna Mouglalis, Mads Mikkelsen, Elena Morozova, Natasha Lindinger



Not the most historically accurate biopic, it focuses on the forbidden passion that broke out between French fashion designer Coco Chanel (Anna Mouglalis) and composer Igor Stravinsky. The film explores the very nature of the relationship between the two creators and how this romance hurt their loved ones. Mikkelsen plays Stravinsky sensitively, but carefully - without turning him into a monument of marble and leaving him the right to make mistakes, like a mere mortal.

10. “Hunting”/ Jagten (2012)

Director: Thomas Vinterberg

Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Annika Wedderkopp, Lasse Vogelström



Mikkelsen's character Lucas is an intelligent schoolteacher who, at the instigation of adults, is falsely accused of violence against a student. Alarmed by these accusations, the small town turns against Lucas, isolating him in personal grief. For this role in 2012, Mikkelsen was recognized as best actor at the Cannes Film Festival. And the film itself, by Thomas Vinterberg, was nominated for an Oscar in the category “Best Foreign Language Film” two years later. Mikkelsen created a subtle image of a transparent man who has nothing to hide, but who has lost the opportunity to defend justice.

11. “Noble Robber”/ Michael Kohlhaas (2013)

Director: Arnaud de Pallières

Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Melucine Mayans, Delphine Chiyo, David Cross



In Arnaud de Pallier's film, the actor again returned to his favorite screen image of a martyr. The script is based on the novella “Michael Kohlhaas” by German playwright Heinrich von Kleist, the events of which unfold in the 16th century. Mikkelsen played the role of successful merchant Michael Kohlhaas. The hero faced monstrous injustice, having lost everything that was dear to him, and now his heart is burning with a thirst for revenge. He gathers his own army and turns from a pious man into a criminal who decides to respond to violence with violence.

12. Hannibal (2013–2015)

Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Hugh Dancy, Laurence Fishburne, Caroline Devernay



In the series, which expands the original universe of the book series by Thomas Harris, Mikkelsen played Hannibal Lecter. Although, in fact, the authors took only the image of the main character as a basis, completely rewriting the literary source for new heroes.

The actor himself initially refused to take up the role of Lecter after Anthony Hopkins. But the producers managed to convince him, luring him into the project with a completely original story. In his performance, Hannibal Lecter is still as perspicacious and dangerous. And he is still partial to human flesh, unable to restrain his cannibalistic tendencies.

13. Doctor Strange (2016)

Director: Scott Derrickson

Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Tilda Swinton, Mads Mikkelsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor



A year after finishing Hannibal, Mikkelsen got his own hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Accustomed to using the actor's negative charisma, Hollywood entrusted him with the role of the villain in Doctor Strange. The actor played the master of mystical arts Kaecilius, the main opponent of Stephen Strange played by Benedict Cumberbatch. Mikkelsen's hero again turned out to be ambivalent: he is merciless in his desire to change the world, but explains his goal with an almost Shakespearean desire to free people from the power of time.

14. “Lost in the Ice”/ Arctic (2018)

Director: Joe Penna

Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Maria Thelma Smaradottir, Tintrinai Tiknasuk



In Joe Penn's drama, Mikkelsen practically repeats the acting feat of Robert Redford in the wordless drama "Hope Never Fade." Redford played the hero, forced to escape alone on a small ship in the midst of a merciless storm. Mikkelsen played the role of a pilot whose plane crashes in the Arctic ice. Not counting on the help of others, he makes every effort to survive and escape from his snowy imprisonment. But the rescuer who went in search of him also loses the battle with the elements. And from now on the hero is forced to fight for two lives: his own and someone else’s.

15. “One more”/ Druk (2020)

Director: Thomas Vinterberg

Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Magnus Millang, Lars Ranthe



Another successful collaboration between Vinterberg and Mikkelsen after “The Hunt,” this time crowned with an Oscar. In “One More at a Time,” the actor played school teacher Martin, who, together with three friends, decides to conduct a scientific experiment. An unproven theory states that a person suffers from a lack of alcohol in the blood from birth. Friends undertake to test this hypothesis and begin to drink a small amount of alcohol every day. But something in their clear plan goes wrong: the alcohol consumed does not liberate them and does not make them happier, but releases pain that has been hidden for years.

16. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022)

Director: David Yates

Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Ezra Miller, Dan Fogler



After Johnny Depp left the franchise, the role of the villain Grindelwald was taken up by Mads Mikkelsen. In his version, Grindelwald is a character who has been on the border of worlds for a long time: in his youth, he was close friends with Albus Dumbledore, whom he later tries to kill. This ambiguity of an evil, but not one-sided character could only be embodied by such a master as Mikkelsen.

17. “The Sword of the King”/ Bastarden (2023)

Director: Nikolay Arcel

Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Amanda Collin, Gustav Lind, Kristin Kuyat Thorp



Denmark XVIII century. Former military man and bastard Ludwig von Kahlen decides to develop the rootless lands in the swamp. If, thanks to him, a new crop - potatoes - takes root in Denmark, King Frederick V promises such farmers ownership of the land they develop, as well as a noble title. But von Kalen’s obstinacy and activity irritates landowner Frederick Schinkel, who lives nearby. Using all his power and financial capabilities, he in every possible way interferes with the hero’s plans, encroaching on his territory. Schinkel poisons the life of Mikkelsen's hero, but he never manages to poison his heart. The hero, day after day, despite all obstacles, moves towards his goal, finding himself on the verge of death. The world premiere of the film took place at the 80th anniversary film festival in Venice, where the film was awarded a special prize from the World Catholic Association for Communications. The film was also awarded three European Film Academy awards: for Best Actor, Cinematography and Artistic Work.