From Hannibal Lecter to a Bond super villain, Mads Mikkelsen has a number of iconic evil roles under his belt.
In 2015, the Danish actor played another villain role in Rihanna’s music video for her banger B***h Better Have My Money.
In the seven-minute-long video, the singer and her friends intoxicate and then later sadistically torture a woman (played by Rachel Roberts) accused to have stolen her money. Mikkelsen plays the woman’s accountant husband, and he doesn’t end up well either.
Mads Mikkelsen Plays The Villain In Rihanna’s Video
“I was the b***h,” Mikkelsen told Jimmy Kimmel about his gig in Rihanna’s video.
The actor admitted he didn’t know who Rihanna was at the time.
“I got a phone call from my agent and they said ‘Do you wanna do the Rihanna thingy?” and I was like, ‘Who is this Rihanna?’” he said.
“I don’t know a lot of pop culture,” he added.
The Hannibal star asked his kids Viola and Karl about Rihanna and they “were over the moon”.
“I got some brownie points there,” Mikkelsen said.
“It was the first time actually that my son wanted to go with me on a movie set, [but] I didn’t let him,” the actor continued.
Rihanna’s video is the first-ever age-restricted Vevo Certified video clip so it isn’t hard to understand why Mikkelsen didn’t want to have his son with him. B***h Better Have My Money was rated MA as it includes graphic violence, nudity, and adult language.
"That’s one of the reasons,” Mikkelsen said of the graphic content included in the video.
“And I think he had a little crush on her and that would have been a little too tricky,” he continued.
Mads Mikkelsen On His New Movie ‘Another Round’
Mikkelsen has more recently appeared on Another Round, a Danish comedy drama directed by Thomas Vinterberg. The movie was nominated as Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globes but lost to Minari.
The film stems from a theory from Norwegian psychiatrist Finn Skårderud, who believes that humans are born with a 0.05 blood alcohol deficiency. He suggests that drinking a small amount of alcohol throughout the day to elevate the blood alcohol content to 0.05 will make you more creative and relaxed.
In Another Round, Gymnasium teacher Martin (Mikkelsen) and his colleagues discuss Skårderud’s theory and decide to try it for themselves.
Another Round is available to view on demand now