Mad Mikkeleson Says He Forgot 'Casino Royal' Script, Improvised His Performance

Actor Mad Mikkeleson is known for his sinister and tough persona portrayals with one of his best known films being ‘Casino Royal’ where he played the main villain Le Chiffre.

While attending the Zurich Film Festival to promote his feature ‘The Promised Land’, the Danish actor told audiences that he had in fact forgotten the script and instead improvised for a great duration of the movie, with his partner-in-crime being James Bond actor Daniel Craig in an ironic twist.

Talking to the audience at the Zurich Film Festival, he detailed the incident and said: “‘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 added: “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.”

The ‘Rogue One’ actor also revealed that he was completely unfamiliar with James Bond when he applied for the role. Adding on to this, he said: “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).”

Describing the movie’s end scene where Le Chiffe brutally beats Bond with a rope and how he and Craig pulled it off, he said: “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 b**** with a rope. We had so many ideas and the director just looked at us: ‘Guys, come back. It’s a Bond movie’.”

The actor went on to even ridicule his own character Le Chiffre during the festival, not-so-subtly mocking his on-screen persona: “The ‘smartest’ Bond villain? He lost $100 million to a man who couldn’t play poker. Not that smart.”