Mads Mikkelsen On His International Oscar Contender ‘The Promised Land’, Saying Goodbye to ‘Indiana Jones’ And Becoming A New Grandfather

deadline.com:

As a recent new grandfather, Mads Mikkelsen couldn’t be happier, but he doesn’t smile much in his new movie. An earthy 18th-century period piece, The Promised Land sees the Dane play a hard-up veteran, Ludvig Kahlen, who is determined to turn the blasted heaths of Jutland into a thriving farmland.

It’s a Western of sorts, which becomes noticeably clearer when Kahlen starts to cross swords with a competing local landowner, but, for Mikkelsen, it’s a subversive  alpha male story of the kind he does so well, from the brutal Viking fantasy Valhalla Rising to the white-cold survival drama Arctic.

In his homeland, the film has a much more blunt title, Bastarden, which drills much further down into the essence of the character. “The literal meaning in English is being the illegitimate son of someone,” the actor explains, “but it also means, obviously, to be an asshole.

In Denmark, it’s not so much the former meaning, so I think it’s a very appropriate title.” He shrugs. “But that’s not in our hands, so here we are.” That said, Mikkelsen doesn’t judge Kahlen for his behavior. “He has no choice,” he says. “He has to be determined in order to survive.” In this way, the actor sees parallels with his 2013 film Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas, in which he played the lead: a vengeful German merchant who ignites a vicious feud with 16th-century Saxony. “I think Michael Kohlhaas has a lot in common,” he says. “It’s obviously a way older story, but the theme is the same: a man who’s shaping his own destiny, who has a sense of righteousness and justice, and he’s willing to burn down the world to get his way.” As is historically accurate, the finished film makes Jutland look miserable, but Mikkelsen maintains the shoot