Mads Mikkelsen talks ‘Hannibal’ as NBC set replay of Hannibal Lecter debut episode
Mads Mikkelsen, Casino Royale villain, stars as Hannibal Lecter in the NBC crime drama which is set as a prequel to the Silence of the Lambs killer’s murdering heyday.
Deadline confirms that NBC will be replaying the inaugural episode on April 10 with the second episode airing the following night at its regular time, Thursday 10 PM.
Mikkelsen spoke to Dredd Central about the character, his unique stylish approach to eating, well….human flesh.
“…I look in the mirror and see the three-piece suit, and that brings me back into character. But the food is a story all on its own”
He cautions that the doctor’s cultured appearance may not have rubbed off on him quite yet.
“I hope so! Because I’m not that cultured to begin with. Yeah, we pick up things down the line, but it’s the drama that’s still the focus for all of us. But we do pick up little things.”
Mikkelsen does reveal his mindset when “eating” the gross dishes.
“I do think that when you play something that is horrific or just not understandable for us, you’ll have to put something else out there that you imagine. So, when I eat something that is apparently a foot or a liver, well, I just treat it like something I love. So I often tend to find myself placing other things in my imagination instead of the real thing. I guess if you’re playing Hitler… and I guess I can compare Hannibal to that because he’s up there, right?… you have to imagine how anyone can hate so much and you will find the hate and then you replace it. That’s been my way of working always.”
On this series, Laurence Fishburne’s character will bring together two minds to help him find a serial killer. The first mind belongs to Hugh Dancy. He will play Will Graham. He is a criminal profiler who is now teaching college.The second man he will approach is Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
“It’s about honoring the genre and respecting the source,” creator Bryan Fuller told the Los Angeles Times.
“Those familiar with Silence of the Lambs will have a certain expectation to the material, and at a certain point we have to deliver those ingredients.”
Fuller also promised that the show will not hold back on “adult content”, despite airing on network television.
“Silence of the Lambs was beautiful and scary, but it was also graphic,” he reasoned. “We don’t want to offend anyone, but this is an adult content show.”
Mikkelsen confirms the rudeness and offending his character may get them a place on the table.
“…people who are rude definitely have a big chance of ending up on his table. He doesn’t like rudeness. Anything that’s banal he can either just avoid, or they also have a good chance ending up on his dinner table. But anything that’s beautiful or refined or strange in a fascinating way, he finds interesting. So he’s divided the world up into banal and not banal, and people who are rude are standing a very bad chance.”
Check out the complete interview here