Mads Mikkelsen on Arctic - Full CNN's Christian Amanpour interview

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: And turning

most recognizable villains.

You might remember the Danish actor Mads

Mikkelsen from James Bond's "Casino Royale,"

"Hannibal," "Dr. Strange."

But his latest movie, "Arctic," sees him

all alone as one of the few survivors of a plane crash,

trying to make it out alive.

I spoke to Mikkelsen about what it

took to shoot in the harshest of conditions,

whether he feels he's being typecast, and coming

late to his acting career.

Mads Mikkelsen, welcome to the program.

MADS MIKKELSEN: Thanks for having me.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: So this film,

"Arctic," is really grueling.

I mean, you look like you went through a really

grueling process either in preparation

or during the shooting.

Tell me what it took to actually play that role.

MADS MIKKELSEN: Well, a lot of painkillers, for starters.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: [chuckling]

MADS MIKKELSEN: It was as brutal as it looks.

We were-- we were nominated to shoot for 30 days,

and we had a lot of prep as well,

but we ended up shooting for 19 days,

because we lost a lot of the days to the weather conditions.

So they were long days, grueling cold, and quite brutal.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: And it was in Iceland, correct?

MADS MIKKELSEN: It was in Iceland,

and you know what they say there--

if you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes.

And so that's what we were struggling with.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Yeah.

I'm going to play just a little clip,

because it shows sort of the length of time

it took you to do anything, whether it was walking,

whether it was digging, just play a little clip,

and then we'll have you talk about it.