Hannibal, Fantastic Beasts and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny star Mads Mikkelsen says he was excited to share the screen with one of his idols, Sigourney Weaver, in the new dark fable, Dust Bunny.
Weaver plays plays 5B's associate, an assassin whose high-heeled shoes are automatic pistols.
"That's one of those situations where you have to take your fan boy hat off now and again because I grew up with her and so did Bryan," Mikkelsen, 60, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.
"But she's a lovely, lovely person," he said of the 76-year-old Alien, Ghostbusters and Avatar legend. "Very, very funny and a fantastic actress. So, it was hard to get the fan boy hat off, but she was so sweet that, eventually, I could."
The Danish actor described his mysterious character as a man who has a single task in life."To be good at his job and then he lives by himself. That's the way he likes it. He would prefer nobody knocks on his door -- ever," he explained.
"Unfortunately, there is a neighbor, a little girl, who keeps knocking on that door and, eventually, he has to open it. He's not a socially skilled person. He's not big on conversations. So, for him, it's a complete upside-down world he's joining now."
"She knows something about him that he's not too pleased about. So, for him, it's all about figuring out how much she knows," Mikkelsen said.
"If she knows too much, he will have to do [option] A. If she knows less than that, he can do B. But then, of course, the film takes turns and whatever she was babbling on about turned out to be true."
The characters' respective flats reflect their personalities.
Aurora's home is richly and imaginatively decorated, while 5B's is stark with no signs of luxury or comfort.
"It reflects the vision of Bryan Fuller. It's a heightened universe because it is a fantasy. It's not realism, even though we play it as realistic as we can within those frames," Mikkelsen said.
Asked about 5B's sad-looking abode, the actor replied: "He does have a chicken on his table, right? I wouldn't have guessed that he had that chicken, but he does."
Adding to the gorgeous, surreal look of the film are the costumes the cast wears.
"They are wonderful," Mikkelsen said.
"Had this been a kitchen-sink, realistic drama, I would have been on top of all the costumes and saying: 'I don't think he would wear that kind of shirt. It would be a different shirt.' But that's not the case here," he added. "Bryan Fuller can show me anything and if he envisioned that for me, it's all about trying to figure out, 'OK, how can I carry this?' Because it makes sense in the film, but it's not a normal character."
Mikkelsen liked the tone of the movie, as well, which moves from horror to heartwarming to black comedy.
"You can get away with a lot of things when you create a universe," he said. "You can throw out big topics, talk about traumas, life-changing events, and not become too pretentious. When you lift the film into something that is not realism, you can touch upon those topics in a different manner. I'm a big fan of that."
Rebecca Henderson and David Dastmalchian co-star in the film, which opens Friday in theaters.
