Mads Mikkelsen Talks Losing the Script for ‘Casino Royale’ on a Plane and Working With ‘Partner in Crime’ Daniel Craig

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/mads-mikkelsen-talks-losing-script-075035605.html

Don’t trust Mads Mikkelsen with your script.

“‘Casino Royale’ was the first screenplay with my name on every single page. Which also means that if you lose it, it’s on you. I got on a plane, started to read it and I fell asleep. Then I got out and just left it there,” he told the stunned audience at the Zurich Film Festival.

“I was lucky some cleaning person threw it away and didn’t know what it was. That could have been the end of my career, right then.”

In Martin Campbell’s 2006 smash that marked Daniel Craig’s debut as 007, Mikkelsen went on to play Le Chiffre.

“The ‘smartest’ Bond villain? He lost $100 million to a man who couldn’t play poker. Not that smart.”

“I had never watched a Bond movie up to that point and of course I lied about it. I only knew that guy with metal teeth [Jaws]. I didn’t realize how big it was until we had the premiere in London and had to meet the Queen. Or she had to meet us.”

He has seen all of them now, he said. Well, almost.

“I have seen the ones with Daniel Craig. [Back then] he was the new Bond and everything about him was ‘wrong.’ His height, his nose, his hair. I think he was glad I also came from indie films. He had a partner in crime. There was this scene where I tickled his balls with a rope. We had so many ideas and the director just looked at us: ‘Guys, come back. It’s a Bond movie’.”

He would never play Bond himself, however, even with the “fantastic” Christopher Nolan at the helm.

“If they had an issue with Daniel’s nose, I am sure they would have an issue with my accent.”