Mads Mikkelsen on ‘Freezing to Death’ Filming ‘Rogue One’ and How the Script Was ‘Surprisingly Unfinished’: ‘I Don’t Think They Ever Locked a Draft’

While looking back on his career with Variety, Mads Mikkelsen recounted his experience working on the 2016 “Star Wars” prequel “Rogue One,” saying that the script was “surprisingly unfinished” while filming.  

“It kept changing,” he explained. “One would think that that was already done. I don’t think they ever locked a draft. I think they kept working on it and improvised and went back and reshot stuff and then came up with a better idea, which is kind of livable for a character like mine. I mean, I had my mission. I knew what it was, but it was obviously tricky for the two young heroes, not knowing exactly what they were carrying into a room of baggage.”   

Mikkelsen played Galen Erso in the film. He starred alongside actors including Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso, Diego Luna as Cassian Andor, Ben Mendelsohn as Orson Krennic and Donnie Yen as Chirrut Îmwe. Directed by Gareth Edwards, the “Star Wars” anthology film follows a band of resistance fighters as they embark on a mission to steal the plans for the Death Star. 

He also noted that the scene where he says, “It must be destroyed” while water rains down on him was particularly difficult to re-shoot as the story kept changing.  

“That was a brutal, I would say day, but it was days, because there was a lot of changes in the story,” the actor said. “We went back and forth, and it was raining. When you do artificial rain, it is almost impossible to do that in a long scene without having ice cold water. So I was lying there, freezing to death, trying to keep my eyes open.” 

Mikkelsen also revisited his other acclaimed roles including “Casino Royale” for Variety, sharing that he and co-star Daniel Craig were asked to stop improvising during filming, and that Craig was the only cast member who didn’t know how to play poker. 

“He was the only guy in that film who did not know how to play poker, and he ran away with $150 million of my dollars,” said Mikkelsen. 

Most recently, Mikkelsen starred in Bryan Fuller’s feature film debut “Dust Bunny,” which premiered on Dec. 12.

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