Danish actorMads Mikkelsenbroke into mainstream stardom for his role as the main villain of the 2013 NBC television series,Hannibal, but this was far from his first crack at show business. Fans ofHanniballooking for more Mikkelsen should turn to his work in movies, where some of his finest performances can be found. Mikkelsen has had a long and varied career as a film actor. He got his start in Denmark with the 1996 crime dramaPusher, and he’s been on a hot streak ever since. Going back and forth between Danish and English-language productions, Mikkelsen has improved his range and fueled his fame with increasingly notable roles. Just this year,he took over for Johnny Deppto play Grindelwald inFantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.
Audiences will be seeing more of Mikkelsen in the near future. He recently joined the cast of the upcomingIndiana Jones 5, and shows no sign of slowing down as he enters his third decade as an actor. While Mikkelsen’s fame continues to ramp up, it’s worth looking back at his illustrious career to see how he developed himself into the major star he is today. To that end, here are Mads Mikkelsen’s best film performances to date, ranked.
8Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Mads Mikkelsen’s role inRogue One: A Star Wars Storyisn’t the biggest in the film, but it’s certainly one of the most memorable. He plays protagonist Jyn Erso’s father, Galen Erso, and he commands just about every scene he’s in. Mikkelsen chose to play the character with the kind of restrained power and stoicism he excels at, and the movie is better for it. Even though he appears infrequently and has few speaking lines, Mikkelsen manages to speak volumes with his face alone.
7Arctic (2018)
In thisgripping story of Arctic survival,Mads Mikkelsen plays Overgård, a pilot who becomes stranded in a hostile, freezing landscape after a crash. Mikkelsen looks the part with his frosty beard and sun-weathered face as he traverses a sparse Arctic wilderness in search of rescue. When he suffers with cold and hunger, the audience suffers with him. And, according to KFTV,Arcticwasfilmed on location in Iceland, meaning that Mads couldn’t fake it even if he wanted to.
Related:Mads Mikkelsen Blasts Method Acting: ‘It’s Just Pretentious’
6Casino Royale (2006)
A James Bond movie is only as good as its villain, and that holds true forCasino Royale, the smash-hit spy thriller from 2006. Though Daniel Craig plays an excellent Bond, it’s Mads Mikkelsen who steals the show as Le Chiffre, the steely-eyed criminal banker with a shadowy past. Fans of the film will recall itsshockingly tense torture scene, wherein Mikkelsen shows himself to be the perfect Bond villain: cold, clinical, and merciless. It’s a powerhouse performance, and one Bond fans are still talking about today.
5Bleeder (1999)
Bleederis a little-known Danish movie from now-acclaimed director Nicolas Winding Refn, and it stars Mads Mikkelsen in a more casual role than audiences might expect. He plays Lenny, a soft-spoken film buff who works at a video rental store in Copenhagen. Now,Bleederis a crime drama, but Mikkelsen’s best scenes are those in which Lenny flirts with a local girl who frequents his store. These quiet, undramatic scenes give Mikkelsen a chance to shine in ways we don’t often see in his darker pictures. Lenny is somehow both awkward and charismatic at the same time, and so it’s even more tragic when we see him drawn into a world of violence as the film progresses.
4Valhalla Rising (2009)
You might begin to see a pattern here. Mads Mikkelsen excels at roles where he says little, where he speaks with his eyes and his actions as much as with his mouth. InValhalla Rising(also directed by Nicolas Winding Refn) Mikkelsen says nothing, carries an axe, and carves his way through a misty Scottish landscape. He play the mute medieval warrior, One-Eye, who sails with a mysterious boy down a river towards unknown and hostile lands. Mikkelsen proves his range as a performer by holding this strangeviking movietogether without speaking a single line. It’s a feat not many actors have accomplished.
3Pusher II (2004)
For Mads Mikkelsen fans who want to see him in serious dramatic roles, look no further than his Danish-language movies.Pusher IIis yet another Refn-directed crime drama set in Copenhagen, Denmark. But this time, Mikkelsen occupies the central role. He plays Tonny, a troubled young man, fresh out of prison, whose problems do not end when he leaves his jail cell. Tonny owes money to the wrong people, and is being asked to pay child support for a son he didn’t know he had. Mikkelsen portrays the character as a sensitive, confused man looking for a better life. It’s an impassioned performance that finds empathy in the most unexpected places.
Related:Fantastic Beasts 3 Critics Agree: Mads Mikkelsen Better Grindelwald Than Johnny Depp
2Another Round (2020)
The most recent film on this list,Another Roundis a 2020 Danish drama directed byThomas Vinterberg. Mads Mikkelsen is our protagonist, Martin, a depressed, middle-aged schoolteacher who joins three of his friends in a pact to remain continually drunk: at work, at home, everywhere. That is, until the pact backfires and things become increasingly chaotic for Martin and his friends. Mikkelsen gives the second-best performance of his career here by following Martin through the stages of alcoholism and depression. There’s something celebratory about his performance, too, so that happiness and sadness are blended in equal measure.
1The Hunt (2012)
The Huntis another Thomas Vinterberg-Mads Mikkelsen collaboration featuring Mikkelsen in the starring role. Once again, he plays a schoolteacher who gets wrapped up in a crisis that threatens to destroy him. Lucas, who works at his local kindergarten, is accused of a crime he didn’t commit, and it completely uproots his life. Mikkelsen’s depth and control here are staggering. Lucas is a man pushed to the outskirts of a community he once called home, and Mikkelsen puts the full range of his dramatic abilities to the test to bring him to life. The role won Mikkelsen much acclaim, including a best actor award at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, perThe New York Times. It’s well deserved, as this is by far and away his best performance to date.
