Mads Mikkelsen Quotes

I've just been lucky. I'd like to have more choices, and I'd like to have a leading part.

Sometimes I wonder if I would've been more successful if I wasn't acting and I concentrated on other things. But I love being on set. I love working with my 100 crew members.

Denzel Washington, Sidney Poitier, Robert Redford, Tom Cruise: those guys have well-planned careers. I'm just on a journey. Wherever I run across a job, I say, 'Okay, I'll do that.'

My career has mostly been jobs I love or cases where I needed money.

All that running around in my underwear put money in my pockets. I can focus on working in interesting movies without having to worry about supporting myself.

I decided in my late teens that I wanted to be an actor, and my dad and I agreed that films were better. I work alongside my dad, you see. I've thought that films were better since I was a kid.

It would have shown people that I was prepared to do that kind of work, although I find myself in a position now where I don't really need to and I could pick and choose the kind of characters I'd like to do.

I wish I knew what was next. I got this movie without planning to. I'm really excited to be continuing in film because it's a great job but I have my portfolio and resume for any other opportunity.

Other acting opportunities had come along, but nothing that was tantalizing enough to me to step away from what I found most interesting.

What career? A man's got a body of film of about four movies in about 10 years or something. I do it because I think I can do a good job of something and I'll enjoy it, do it, and sort of vanish. I don't want to be an actor for hire.

When I got out of school, I didn't really understand the differences in the different aspects of the business. For example, doing a play - where does that take you versus, you know, concentrating on independent films? You might have one thing in your head, but the things you're doing don't really lead down the right road, necessarily.

I always have looked for the best challenge, I guess, that I could take on. I haven't been producing my own work or anything like that, so I've taken the jobs that look most interesting that come my way.

It's never a matter of career decisions. I don't think in those terms. What matters is whether a role is interesting, if I will enjoy playing it, and if I'm confident I can do a good job.

I have never had a plan when it comes to my career: America came to me with an opportunity.

I have always enjoyed my work and have chosen only what I thought was interesting by way of a role.

My job description? It is many things; it is a whole universe created around the things that I like.

I don't think of careers from a functional perspective or from a subject matter perspective. I think of careers as, how do you like spending the time in your day? What makes you happiest? What are you most passionate about?

Had acting not taken off, I would've been glad to become a teacher.

There's a lot to be said for women who want to focus primarily on acting. Other women, on the other hand, aspire to combine their work in acting with other ventures in fashion, business, directing, writing, producing, etc. It's a very personal decision.

People shouldn't choose their careers on whether it's cool or not. They should choose their careers on, 'Are they good at it, do they love it, is it going to give them a good life?'

I didn't think, 'I want to do dramas or I want to do comedies' - I wasn't clear in that way.

Why haven't I made more movies? Nobody asked me.

Don't make career choices on short-term financial gain. Job satisfaction and career enjoyment are far more important.

As actors, you like to think about the luxury of having choices in your career, but for the most part you kind of take whatever comes your way and hope that you carved out something that you're proud of in the end.

I think you have to be really lucky to pick the sort of roles you want to do.