Mads Mikkelsen finally made his Marvel debut last year as Kaecilius in Doctor Strange, having originally been attached to play Malekith the Accused in Thor: The Dark World, only for a scheduling conflict to prevent his participation.
Well, it seems he was also in the running for a role in 20th Century Fox’s much-derided Fantastic Four reboot, but he gave up half way through the audition and walked out.
“I’ve had tons of them,” Mikkelsen told Shortlist when asked if he’d had any bad auditions. “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 this? This is fucking mad.’ You feel like an idiot. I think I walked out on the Fantastic Four one. I think I actually said, ‘I can’t do it. It’s not about you, I’m sorry, this is wrong.'”
It’s not clear which role Mikkelsen was auditioning for, but regardless, he probably doesn’t have any regrets that he didn’t stick around given that the resulting film was one of the most derided superhero adaptations of all time.
Originally published March 17, 2017. Updated April 15, 2018.
