As the new face of Gellert Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts 3, Mads Mikkelsen does not wish to fully imitate his predecessor Johnny Depp’s performance.
“Nobody’s interested in me going in there and trying to copy anything, that would be creative suicide immediately, especially when it’s been done before and masterfully,” Mikkelsen told Collider. Rather, the actor wants to evolve Grindelwald’s character without making him feel derivative of what Depp did before.
Mikkelsen continued, “So everybody’s expecting us to find a different path. Having said that, we need a bridge between what he did and what I’m gonna do, so those bridges you have to find together, whether it’s a certain look, whether it’s a certain attitude in certain situations, but you have to make it your own. Anything else would be plainly just creatively stupid.”
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In addition, Mikkelsen spoke out about what joining the Fantastic Beasts franchise means to him as an actor. “I’m a big fan of the Potter universe, and it’s a kind of genre that you don’t touch upon in my part of the world,” he said. “You can’t get away with that budget-wise in Denmark, so obviously when it came my way it was a fantastic opportunity.”
Mikkelsen’s replacement casting was confirmed in November after Depp, who previously played Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, announced that he would be stepping down from the part. This departure came shortly after the actor lost a libel case with The Sun regarding claims of abuse toward his ex-wife Amber Heard. In addition to the change in actors, Fantastic Beasts 3 was forced to halt filming again in February after a crew member tested positive for COVID-19.
Directed by David Yates and written by J.K. Rowling and Steve Kloves, Fantastic Beasts 3 stars Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Ezra Miller, Mads Mikkelsen and Jude Law. The film arrives in theaters July 15, 2022.
Source: Collider
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