Mads Mikkelsen shows he’s not a fan of the game’s method, calls the whole approach “nonsense” and says he’s not impressed with it.
Mads Mikkelsen reveals the reasons why he doesn’t like the acting of some actors. After Mikkelsen became known to the American public for his role as a villain in Casino Royale 2006, he went on to play another villainous character in the famous NBC series Hannibal. Mikkelsen made his MCU debut in 2016’s Doctor Strange, in which he once again played the villain, and he will also appear in Fantastic Beasts: Dumbledore’s Secrets and Indiana Jones 5.
The acting style is a practice used by some actors to immerse themselves more fully in a character. Daniel Day-Lewis is known for his methodical approach to the game, a strategy that seems to be paying off as he has won three Oscars for Best Actor. Jared Leto is another actor who uses the method approach for his roles, most recently in Morbius. Director Daniel Espinosa recently confirmed that Leto on Morbius would use crutches to stagger to the bathroom between takes, a practice that took so long that the actor was eventually asked to use a wheelchair to speed up the process.
In a new interview with GQ, Mikkelsen shared his views on the course of action, ultimately calling the practice “nonsense.” Mikkelsen explains that such preparation, especially if the film turns out to be bad, simply isn’t impressive and deserves no credit. Watch Mikkelsen’s full commentary below:
‘What if it’s a bad movie, what do you think you’ve accomplished? Am I impressed that you haven’t lost your temper? You should have dropped it from the start! How do you prepare for a serial killer? Will it take you two years to figure it out?
While Day-Lewis has been successful with his methodical approach to acting, Leto is an example of an actor for whom a methodical approach often doesn’t pay off. To prepare for the role of the Joker in Suicide Squad, Leto reportedly performed some strange pranks on his co-stars, and this film turned out to be a huge disappointment to audiences. Morbius was not greeted very warmly either. Likewise, Benedict Cumberbatch is said to have taken a methodical approach to get the part in “The Power of the Dog”, which went out of appearance for a long time and even got on the nerves of his film partner Jesse Plemons at one point.
Mikkelsen’s stance on the game’s method is certainly understandable, given how often stars make headlines for doing strange things in an attempt to land the role. Actors will, of course, have different methods of getting into roles for each movie they make, but sometimes these methods, taken to the extreme, can annoy colleagues or even slow down the production of a movie. When the method of action actively distracts from the experience of others on set, as in Leto’s approach to Morbius, for example, it becomes questionable whether these methods should be allowed at all. After all, Mikkelsen asks a good question with his comment about preparing for the serial killer role – at some point the game’s method gets a little ridiculous.
