It’s not your good looks, because you’re not good looking. You have an “interesting” face. And I’m not sexually attracted to you. I know you’ve been elected sexiest man in Denmark 6 times, but that’s by people who don’t know you. And we should also be aware that Denmark is a very, very small country.
I actually don’t think it is your special skills as an actor either, I don’t think it’s your devotion and generosity as an actor that makes me sit there in the dark. I think it is probably the unpredictability of your character. I think that you find the irrational small details, so you don’t know what’s gonna happen, what’s gonna come out of the character. Which also sometimes makes them a little dangerous.
I think it’s that everything you do, Mads, has a clarity to it. There’s no fuzzy edges in your acting. It’s clean, it’s graceful and very, very beautiful. I also think that it is behind that very calm, stoic visage you often have in your characters, you can feel the energy behind them that is extremely focused.
And that is why I go and buy a ticket to your film even if it’s an American remake of a Danish film based off the Copenhagen phone book. I sit there in the dark and I watch you and I listen to you, I get sucked into your face, I get sucked into your eyes, and I am very happy.
Stellan Skarsgard awarding Mads Mikkelsen for Achievement in World Cinema