The Martin Scorsese movie that blew Mads Mikkelsen’s mind
There’s a genuinely impressive range to the brilliance of Danish acting icon Mads Mikkelsen that has helped to establish his burgeoning reputation on the global stage. After coming through in his native country, Mikkelsen arrived on the international scene for his role in the James Bond film Casino Royale, playing the villain Le Chiffre.
From there, Mikkelsen would prove his versatility, offering up countless commendable performances ranging from a teacher in pursuit of alcoholic inspiration in Another Round to the fearsome Hannibal Lecter in Hannibal, showcasing a deep dedication to his profession.
With such a committed approach to his craft, despite not considering himself a method acting – dismissing such ways as “pretentious” – Mikkelsen has a deep fascination with the history of cinema, and when naming his favourite films in a feature with A-Frame, he turned his attention to a true masterpiece from the catalogue of Martin Scorsese.
“Obviously, Taxi Driver is a fantastic film,” Mikkelsen began. “But when I saw it as a young man, I was used to seeing movies where Charles Bronson comes in, he kills the bad guy and cleans everything up, and it was always super cool, and I loved it.”
The Danish actor added, “So, I actually thought Taxi Driver was going to be a Charles Bronson film but with a guy named Robert De Niro. That’s what the poster made it look like, and the movie just blew my mind.”
Taxi Driver saw Robert De Niro portray Travis Bickle, a Vietnam War veteran turned night-shift cab driver on the murky and decaying streets of New York City, in one of his best-ever performances. In the throes of severe PTSD, Travis’ mental state continues to decline as he turns to violence amid the immorality of the Big Apple.
As Mikkelsen notes, there was something special about Taxi Driver upon its release in 1976 in the fact that so many films prior to that point had offered up a typical hero’s narrative, but Scorsese’s story presented a morally ambiguous anti-hero, one who the audience simultaneously admired and reviled.
“I’d never seen anything like it,” Mikkelsen professed. “I didn’t like the character, then I liked him, then I didn’t like him again. I was constantly being thrown back and forth, and when I stepped out of the movie theatre after it was over, I was shell-shocked. I didn’t want to be an actor at that time. I had no dreams of doing that.”
He signed off his thoughts on the film, “But ever since I saw Taxi Driver, I’ve always tried to create that kind of dilemma in the characters I play. I never play them completely good or completely bad. You have to realize that there’s a human being in there, always. I think Taxi Driver is a brilliant film, and it completely changed my perspective on filmmaking.”
