The Last Viking Proves Mads Mikkelsen Can Break Your Heart Even In A Comedy

ScreenRant spoke to Mikkelsen about how he marries the absurd with the absolutely heartbreaking in The Last Viking, why he is drawn to Jensen as a collaborator, and when fans can expect more Hannibal.

Diving Deeper Into The World Of The Last Viking

ScreenRant: You’ve collaborated with Anders Thomas Jensen and Nikolaj Lie Kaas several times before. What draws you back to them again and again?

Mads Mikkelsen: Well, it's a combination of many things. Of course, we have been friends for many years, and that draws me towards them. But on an artistic level, I think that these are some of the best actors we have in Denmark, and Anders Thomas is a unique filmmaker who's bringing life to some of the biggest topics in our lives: life and death, good and evil - enormous topics.

But instead of dealing with them one-to-one, he wraps them in insanity, and he lets insanity go mayhem in the film. The characters do that as well, but the core of the film is very poetic, and he's got something very beautiful in his heart to say. It is a unique way of making films, and I really enjoy it.

ScreenRant: The film is something of a dark comedy and has a manic energy to it, but Manfred is also a character who has suffered severe trauma and who is dealing with a debilitating condition in his daily life. How do you merge those dissonant tones together in your performance?

Mads Mikkelsen: I think that he suffered trauma in the same way that his brother has suffered trauma, and obviously, their paths have gone in completely different directions. Manfred probably has a diagnosis, and he has had it since he was very small.

In our world, he wanted to be a Viking as a kid. You can obviously place whatever you want in there as a metaphor, but unfortunately, he's in a world where it's not allowed to be a Viking. He doesn't evolve to what he is today because of the trauma; this is who he is. He wants to be a Viking, but that path is so tricky for him, so he picks John [Lennon] instead, because it's an easier choice. Everybody loves John, and if everybody loves John, there's a big chance that his brother will love John as well, and maybe he will stay this time. It's very simple math for my character, who wants his brother back and can't live without him.

ScreenRant: Speaking of his brother, can you talk about diving into that relationship with so much history, most of which we don't get to see onscreen? Did your offscreen relationship with your costar help create a shorthand for that?

Mads Mikkelsen: Yeah, I think that from the get-go, when we did the very first film 27 years ago, that was always a core of our process. It's funny, we know it's crazy, and we love the sense of humor. But there's a cause, and there's something very poetic and deep in his films, so we've been insisting on that core every time we see a new draft.

This time was no exception, and we delved right into it. Yes, we will make it funny, I'm sure it's going to be funny, but let's figure out what the heart of the film is. That was very important to us, but also to Anders Thomas, that we had little moments with the brothers, where it's not just a conflict, but it's also something that can make one of the characters smile a little. Manfred would see his brother do something without his brother noticing that he watched him, and these little moments were very important for us to have in there for us to be able to buy the ending.

ScreenRant: You mentioned Manfred wanting his brother to stay, but we also have his sister, Freja, who has stayed with him. How different is that relationship, and can you talk about exploring it with Bodil Jørgensen?

Mads Mikkelsen: Freja has been there always, and she's the oldest. I'm the middle, and Anker's the youngest. She's a little more like a grandmother who's given up. She's just doing it because she has to do it, whereas my brother has always seen me, and he's always protected me. He's always been there. It's always been me and him against the world, right?

When Anker develops and becomes a teenager, of course, he realizes he can't stay around these people after the trauma they went through together. This is insane, he has to be free, and so he does what he does, and he ends up in jail. Now, he has to come out of jail, find the money, and get out of there. I don't blame him at all. As cute as my character is, he is impossible to live with. It is insane to live with this character! So, I don't blame him.

ScreenRant: Obviously, there are a lot of wild and wacky sequences in the film. Was there a scene that was the most challenging or exciting for you to do, whether it was throwing yourself out of a vehicle or being John Lennon and playing songs with your bandmates.

Mads Mikkelsen: It's always fun to be John, because my character has no idea who John is. He just picked him because he was aware that people loved him. He made no effort to look like him or have any of his talents, so it was fun to dive into that. He gets a guitar, and he's super nervous that he's going to play, but he finds a unity with some other far-out, insane people. That was really fun.

But I would say some of the group scenes where there's a lot of things happening, and people are commenting and playing in their own little universes - it's fun to make that a fluid scene that actually makes sense. Then you have my brother being an audience to this, and he has to live with this s--t. That's always funny to find that rhythm of filling in the holes while being in the same scene.

ScreenRant: You mentioned Manfred's desire to be a Viking is a metaphor. What does that desire of Manfred represent to you? Do you have something in your own life that would be the equivalent?

Mads Mikkelsen: That's for everyone else watching to question and wonder what they would put in its place? It's any metaphor you want to put in there, depending on the kind of society you live in.

When they were kids, it was back in the early '70s, and they have kind of a hippie father. There's no specific taboo, [like] sexuality; that's not what we wanted to do. We just say it is, for this specific place and at this specific time, unbearable for his father that his son is a Viking. That's more important than imagining a more specific taboo.

What’s Next For Mads Mikkelsen

ScreenRant: This was your sixth collaboration. When can we expect the seventh? Are you guys already working on your next project together?

Mads Mikkelsen: No, we're not, but I'm sure that he's working overtime in his head. He's always one step closer to saying, "Listen, I'm gonna make the next thing I do a real drama. I don't want it to be my universe of insane humor. I want to make a drama." And we all go, "Yeah, sure. He's not doing it." He can write fantastic dramas for other people, but I'll believe it when I see him [write one for himself]. I'm sure he has something, obviously, and I'm sure that if he asked me, I would be part of it.

ScreenRant: You recently reconnected with Brian Fuller for Dust Bunny, and I know he's talked about wanting to adapt more Hannibal stories. Is that something that you would like to explore, and is there anything from Hannibal that you want to go back to?

Mads Mikkelsen: Yeah, I think that the Hannibal that he created is a TV animal. He can persuade me to make a film, sure, but it's only an hour and a half, and I think that his way of writing and his way of developing characters and stories are much more suitable for 13 or 14 episodes.

I don't think there's anyone who wouldn't want to go back and do it, but I also think that time is tick-tocking away. It's been 10 years now, maybe even more. We stay as young as we can, but all of a sudden, we're just too old, right? So, it's going to [have to] be one of these years soon, and I think everybody would enjoy it.

ScreenRant: You've run the gamut of roles in your career, and you've worked with all kinds of directors in all kinds of genres. Is there any one genre or theme that you feel you've left untapped? Is there something you would like to try your hand at more in your career?

Mads Mikkelsen: Well, I have done quite a lot of action in my life, but it hasn't been fully-blown action films. I've done enough action, so I don't miss that, but I haven't done straightforward horror. You can say Hannibal has a horror element, but it's much more aesthetic and psychological horror. I'd like to do straightforward horror.

Even though there's a lot in that genre that's really bad, there's also some of it that's really good. Maybe throw in a zombie there, and I will be happy.