Mads Mikkelsen might be the smartest man in Hollywood. While he hasn’t completely become a household name to non-cinephiles, Mikkelsen has built quite an impressive resume. However, one film you definitely won’t find on his IMDB page is the recent “Fantastic Four” reboot.The actor auditioned for the movie, presumably as Doctor Doom, but had the quick sense to run for the hills.
For those that forgot about Fox’s 2015 reboot directed by Josh Trank, good for you! The film made a measly $168 million worldwide on a $120 million production budget, and a sports a ridiculously low 9% on Rotten Tomatoes. Mads Mikkelsen must have seen the writing on the wall when he auditioned for a role.
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“I think I walked out on the ‘Fantastic Four’ [audition]. I think I actually said, ‘I can’t do it. It’s not about you, I’m sorry, this is wrong.’ I’ve had tons of them. We’ve all been there. We all show up and it’s a little office room with a desk and some books and they want you to do a scene where you have two lines – maybe not even two lines – maybe just ‘Bleurgh!’ or ‘Get back!’ And you’re hiding behind a palm tree that’s not there. It’s like, ‘Guys, couldn’t you have picked a different kind of scene to do this? This is [frick]ing mad.’ You feel like an idiot,” he told ShortList.
Mads isn’t a psychic, but its probably fair to say that Michael B. Jordan, Miles Teller, Kate Mara, and Jamie Bell all wish that they had his foresight and felt how “wrong” the film ending up being.
Even though he goes on to explain how silly the audition process is for these big budget comic book movies, Mikkelsen did star as the villain in last year’s “Doctor Strange” and as Jyn Erso’s Dad in “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.” [Comic Book Movie]