Mads Mikkelsen Delivers Another Wild Look in Anders Thomas Jensen’s Boundary-Pushing ‘The Last Viking’: ‘Part of Him Wants to Be Ugly’

Danish director Anders Thomas Jensen makes Mads Mikkelsen look bad. Literally. 

“It actually comes from him. Everybody thinks about Mads as this iconically beautiful man, so a part of him wants to be ugly,” he tells Variety.

“I thought that [2003] ‘The Green Butchers’ was bad, but now we took it to the next level. His masculinity is just gone. But it was very much his own idea to have these glasses and curls.”

In Zentropa-produced “The Last Viking” — sold by TrustNordisk and premiering in Venice and TIFF —Mikkelsen plays Manfred, eager to welcome his brother Anker after his release from prison. Many years ago, Ankar (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) asked him to bury the money from the heist. The problem is, traumatized Manfred forgets just about everything. 

“When a character is as awkward as Manfred, you need to go along with it. Also, I’m sure this guy exists. He could be sitting next to you on a train, right? But yeah, he’s not very pretty,” laughs Jensen, who doesn’t care about perfection in his latest film. Instead, he makes a case for a different philosophy: if everyone is broken, nobody is broken. 

“In Northern Europe you have to excel, because it’s good for the economy. But people aren’t like that. I always say that when I like someone, it’s not because of their talents — it’s because of their flaws. It’s easy to love perfection. But if you love someone with a lot of bad habits, it must be true.”  

As the brothers try to locate the money, accompanied by a gallery of odd characters, things get dark. They also get funny. 

“That’s the whole thing: trying to find the balance between really, really nasty and deeply unsettling drama, and then ‘massage’ fun and comedy into it. It’s something we keep on investigating with the actors. How far can we go? We have this rule that if we have to choose between laughter and emotion, we always choose the emotion,” explains Jensen.

In his films, such as “Adam’s Apples” and “Riders of Justice,” he often comes close to what’s considered inappropriate.  

“I fool myself by saying I don’t care, but of course I’m affected by it. I have four kids who are yelling at me all the time. ‘Dad, you can’t say THAT!’

“I try to behave, but I also like to push the boundaries. I think it all goes down to what your intention is. You have to feel something human beneath it all, even though some people might still get offended. People have been offended ever since I made my first film, but it’s not my problem — it’s theirs. You can’t make art without someone getting mad.” 

Despite its animated intro, heist setup and violent sequences, “The Last Viking” is really a family drama.

“Also, every movie in Denmark is about families. Why? Because that’s where the drama is. Denmark is so refined. There are no natural disasters, no poverty. Nothing really happens unless you get cancer or die in a car accident. I turn to family, because people are being themselves: you get their best sides and their worst sides.”

As well as surprising twists and turns, or even a musical interlude. 

“There are great directors who’ve made 70 films without ever surprising the audience. It’s fine — these are well-told stories. But I like it when stuff happens on the screen that I didn’t expect. For me, drama is about surprising people,” he says. 

Over the years, Jensen has developed a signature, black humor-tinged style. But he wouldn’t mind heading into another direction. 

“Every time I finish a film, I go: ‘Ok, next time I’m going to do a black-and-white drama.’ 

But this is who I am, you know? I would love to do a western or sci-fi, but it always ends up with a group of men trying to find a family — and themselves,” he says. 

“Maybe next time they could do it in space.”