He’d have to be Mads not to eat, drink and be scary like Hannibal Lecter

MADS Mikkelsen continues to rejoice in a role he can really sink his teeth into – gourmet cannibal psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter, writes Fiona Purdon.

SIR Anthony Hopkins will forever be remembered as cannibal psychiatrist Dr Hannibal Lecter – chosen by the American Film Institute in 2003 as the number one movie villain of all time.

Hopkins masters Lecter’s eerily penetrating voice in the tension-filled scenes between the brilliant serial killer and Jodie Foster’s FBI trainee agent Clarice Starling, set in a high-security prison basement dungeon, in 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs.

Hopkins was on screen for only 16 minutes but his performance was so mesmerising that he won the 1992 Academy Award for Best Actor – the shortest lead role ever to win an Oscar.

So it is not surprising that Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen admits it was intimidating to take on a role that Hopkins made famous and make it his own for the critically acclaimed Hannibal television series, with season two returning tomorrow night.

“There are a lot of challenges there to not to try and copy anything that Anthony Hopkins did,’’ Mikkelsen says. “Hopkins is immaculate but it’s important we try our own story and own interpretation of the character.

“But it’s also important not to detach ourselves totally from the Hannibal character with his love of fine culture and fine foods so there are certain things I have to include in my interpretation.’’

Mikkelsen is not only a superstar in his home country of Denmark but has become one of the world’s most highly regarded movie stars, reaffirmed by his Best Actor win for the Danish film The Hunt at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.

He says he has become an “opening night friend’’ of Australian-born Crown Princess of Denmark Mary and her husband Crown Prince Frederick, who have attended many of his movie premieres. He is impressed with how quickly Princess Mary has learnt Danish.

“I’ve come to know Princess Mary and her husband as well as you can know people in that position,’’ says Mikkelsen, who is keen to return to Australia after visiting several years ago.

“Princess Mary is a fantastic first lady of our country. She is not only pretty but very intelligent and has picked up Danish so quickly. Danish is a very difficult language to learn but she has gone to school and learnt the hard way and her Danish is immaculate.’’

Mikkelsen feels fortunate that he receives many juicy acting roles, especially after his star-making turn as Bond villain Le Chiffre, who weeps tears of blood in Daniel Craig’s blockbuster debut Casino Royale (2006).

“The pile of scripts I’ve been offered has become slightly bigger over the last few years but I continue to do things the way I always have done, I only say yes to things I find interesting,’’ he says.

The latest character to pique Mikkelsen’s interest is of course the title role in Hannibal, based on the character from Thomas Harris’ first novel about Dr Lecter, Red Dragon (1981).

Mikkelsen bonded quickly with Hannibal executive producer and writer Bryan Fuller, who was impressed with the actor’s approach.

“I see him as a double for a fallen angel who sees beauty as well as the horror in the rest of us and then has a fascination for this ... this is how he feels alive,’’ Mikkelsen says.

Season two will continue to focus on the relationship between FBI special investigator Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) and Lecter, who is destined to become Graham’s most-cunning enemy, especially after framing the criminal profiler for murder.

Mikkelsen says season two is even more intense. Graham, who is locked inside a hospital for the criminally insane, is in custody for murder. FBI special agent-in-charge Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne) asks Lecter to take on Graham’s duties as criminal profiler when bodies are washed up on the bank of a Maryland river. The episode has an explosive start with a spectacular, extremely physical five-minute flash-forward fight between Lecter and Crawford, set weeks later, after Crawford guesses Lecter’s dark secret.

“Season two is quite explosive. There are a lot of things happening and the series becomes more and more violent but scenes are even more beautifully shot and emotional,’’ Mikkelsen says.

Mikkelsen, whose film Michael Kohlhaas was in this year’s French Film Festival in Brisbane, attended this year’s Academy Awards after Danish movie The Hunt was nominated for Best Foreign Film. Mikkelsen plays a gentle kindergarten teacher falsely accused of sexually assaulting a student.

“For any film to travel across borders it has to have a universal theme and people from any culture will recognise the true horror of this story ... when your friends suddenly see you as a devil of a man standing in front of them it is anyone’s worst nightmare but it is happening all around the world,’’ he says.

Hannibal returns to Fox 8 tomorrow at 8.30pm.

The Hunt is available on DVD.

Mads Mikkelsen in season 2 of Hannibal.