Mads Mikkelsen is dying to see himself battle Darth Vader

With cheekbones that could slice a finger and a steely glare to haunt your dreams, Mads Mikkelsen has been slowly cornering the market in Hollywood tough guys. The 51-year-old Dane is 6 feet of manifest presence, and whether portraying a harried Norse warrior in “Valhalla Rising,” a self-sacrificing king’s guard in “Clash of the Titans,” a flesh-eating serial killer in “Hannibal,” a medieval knight in “King Arthur,” an egomaniacal genius in “Casino Royale” or a twisted sorcerer in “Doctor Strange,” Mikkelsen has been relentlessly on point.

Which makes it all the more surprising to find this persuasive master of the notorious at his home in Copenhagen, Denmark, doing what responsible husbands and fathers of two do: painting a set of drawers he’s been meaning to get around to for the past 10 years. “I actually built them years ago and I’ve been . . . busy,” he says, in a stark understatement. “I’m very much a family person, and these are the things you do.”

The things that Mikkelsen does are often at odds with expectations. He’ll next be seen on screen as the scientist Galen Erso in the most highly anticipated movie of the year, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” — more on that later. However, for all of his imposing Hollywood successes, he’s remained a leading light in independent Danish and European cinema, portraying mere mortals like butchers, encyclopedia salesmen, country vicars and kindergarten teachers.

“I enjoy the balance,” he says. “If I was flying around for five films in a row and doing wire stuff — which I love — then I might just get fed up with it and want to get to a small studio and do something very intimate. For now, though, I don’t have to choose. I’m trying not to plan it too much.”

There’s been surprisingly little planning in Mikkelsen’s meteoric career. The son of a nurse and a bank teller, a vocation in the arts was never on the agenda. But a love of gymnastics led to dance, and from dance it was a relatively short pas de deux into theater. Unexpectedly, from modest roots, both he and his brother, Lars — who starred as Viktor Petrov in the past two seasons of “House of Cards” — have made highly successful careers as actors. Which raises the question: What in their upbringing led them on this path?

“We’ve asked ourselves that question a few times,” Mikkelsen says. “We did listen to a lot of radio theater with my father, and you create your own images while you’re doing that. Then we fell in love with ‘Monty Python,’ and we went a lot to movie theaters and watched a lot of films together. We let ourselves be embraced by the magic of that world.”

Equally as important as a career, however, was marriage and a family, and Mikkelsen has been with his wife, Hanne, a former professional dancer, for more than 30 years. Together, they’ve raised two children — daughter Viola, 23, and son Carl, 19.

“I’ve been ambitious on every project, but not so much on my career, so she’s not been living with a guy that wanted to go somewhere,” he says of his relationship with Hanne. “And my success has not changed anything between us. I think the secret is that I really, really like her. I really love her. That has to be part of it — that you love each other, and from there you can hopefully conquer whatever comes your way.”

Mikkelsen’s almost accidental conquering of a movie career has left his family much to be proud of. He’s been knighted in both Denmark and France — “Yes, I’m a double knight, and it was a big honor” — and successfully transitioned a local career into an international one. He took his entry to Hollywood with a healthy dose of skepticism.

“I had all these meetings with people who said, ‘Oh my God, you’re awesome, we love you. What’s your name again?’ So there’s a lot of surface stuff to get through, but there’s a lot of creative people over there. Once you pass that, it’s all good, all rock ’n’ roll.”

For all his success in blockbusters, there was one small job that really boosted his cool factor at home: a co-starring role in Rihanna’s “Bitch Better Have My Money” video.

“Yeah, that was definitely up there,” he says. “I mentioned it to my son and in very few words he made it clear that he would kill me if I didn’t say yes. That was when it became surreal for them, because their dad is 50 and he’s with the coolest chick in the world.”

Mikkelsen is also set to get another credibility boost, with the Dec. 16 release of the first in a series of standalone “Star Wars” movies, “Rogue One,” this one set shortly before the events of 1977’s “A New Hope.” As with all things “Star Wars,” “Rogue One” is shrouded in mystery, and Mikkelsen is sworn to secrecy . . . but we play the game and we probe.
 
Alexa: So Galen is the father of Jyn, the lead character?
Mikkelsen: Yes.
A: Is it possible he may have designed the Death Star?
M: Well, according to the trailer, it doesn’t look like it.
A: But he’s definitely a scientist?
M: Yes, and he’s working on something on a scale that can change the world for good or for worse. We don’t know.
A: It looks from the most recent trailer that you get to fight Darth Vader.
M: Does it? That’s news to me — they might have done some re-shoots I haven’t heard about. If that’s in the trailer I should keep my mouth shut. I’m dying to see that scene — let’s put it that way.
A: Is Galen good or bad?
M: We are more 80/20 — he is a good person. Though that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s always doing the right thing.
A: He kind of looks like a hobo . . .
M: Yes! In some of the sequences, he does, but there’s a time lapse in the film and I do have two different looks. We are spanning 10 to 12 years, so there are different looks for all of the characters. I’m afraid I’m going to give something away, but he is at a place in his life where he’s trying not to be found.
 
And with that, he skillfully pulls the topic to a close — our time is coming to an end, and an unpainted chest of drawers beckons. After many months of wire work, he’s taking a well deserved break, and is studiously back to the non-planning that has inadvertently guided his career. Next up? Who knows?

“I’m going to go with the flow again, as I have my whole life,” he says. “I’m not afraid of long breaks anymore — I’m more afraid of jumping onboard something I know I don’t like. That’s way more scary to me.”