- All right, and we are here
with the director of "Another Round",
Thomas Vinterberg and the star of the film Mads Mikkelsen.
Welcome Thomas, welcome Mads.
Thanks so much for doing this.
- Thanks for having us.
- Thank you, Cameron.
Thank you very much.
- Loved the film.
It is, it's fun to watch
and then it gets very dark at a certain point,
but that's kind of what I like about your films Thomas.
You know, you've made a lot of my favorite films;
"The Celebration", "Dear Wendy", "The Commune", "The Hunt".
And one thing I love is that there's often a very simple
single what if at the center of it, in this case
what if men stay permanently drunk?
You can talk about where that idea came from
and why it was intriguing for you to,
to turn it into a film?
- Well, to start with, I just had to look at my own country.
We drink a lot in Denmark.
But still we talk a lot about health and about, you know,
a reasonable well behaved life.
So there's sort of a gap between our behavior
and our wishful thinking of our behavior.
But then I came across this theory
from a Scandinavian philosopher, thinker
who said that, "Human being was born with a lack
"of a little bit of alcohol in the blood."
- So this theory is real.
This is a genuine philosopher.
- It is actually.
It's a theory that, it's a theory that, that,
that comes from a man who actually claims this
and protects this idea
that if you've been drinking a little bit,
your mind opens up, you don't look back,
you become more receptive to other people,
you become more creative and, and he pointed at big,
well we all point at big elements
in world history where we've been discussing
if Churchill was a little bit drunk
when he decided to send 250,000 civilians
into war, you know,
but he was, he was a little bit drunk every day.
So there's a good chance that he was drunk
at that moment as well.
- I heard he drank a bottle of (network interruption)
for dinner every day.
- What if he was not drunk?
Would he have done the same thing,
which was a crazy thing to do, which changed world history.
And again, what if Adolf Hitler
had been a little bit pissed?
Would he have won?
(laughs)
- Okay, so interesting idea.
And you mentioned about Denmark in particular
because obviously, you know,
most cultures have alcohol as a part of it.
Alcohol affects human beings the same way
all over the world,
but is there something specifically Danish
about the drinking culture there
that was interesting for you?
- Do you want to answer that Mads?
- Well, it's your film,
but I think I can't answer it - You should answer it.
- But I can make a comparison.
You know, if you work in France and you have lunch,
you have a, a three set meal
and then you have a really nice
bottle of red wine on the table
and everybody drinks a glass of wine
and everybody's happy and go back to work.
If there were bottles of wine in Denmark,
people would stay until all the alcohol was gone.
(laughs)
There's a different approach.
And we compared stories the other day
from our childhood when we were young,
how we were introduced to alcohol
and it is quite brutal.
For an American or a Canadian,
I think it will be good stories the way we,
we, we embrace alcohol in a very different manner.
- I had a guest in my country.
She's called Jane Anderson.
She's a wonderful writer.
She wrote "The Wife" and she stayed with me
for a couple of weeks in Copenhagen.
And one day she asked my daughter,
"So Nana, what are you gonna do today?"
And my daughter, who at this point in time
was, you know, 65 kilos, including her school bag.
She said, "Well, I'm going to do the Lake run today."
And Jane said, "so what's the lake run?"
Oh, we have to run around the lake
and empty a box of beer on time.
And Jane looks at me and she's like,
when is this guy going to interfere?
- Right.
- And I was just laughing a little bit and she said,
"Aren't you going to get sick Nana?"
And Nana said, "Yes, but if we vomit in sync,
"time will be deducted."
And Jane was very, very frightened.
- it sounds insane.
And then she says, "What about, what about the police?"
She said, since I didn't do anything.
And then Nana said,
"Oh, but the teachers are there."
(laughs)
So, and then, you know,
and, and suddenly I was realizing there's something
in this country which is, which is rather unique.
But then again, usage of alcohol is,
- Is universal but,
- It's socially accepted everywhere.
- Yeah, but in, in different ways,
obviously, culturally it's in different ways.
You go to Japan, it's a different story.
There's a hierarchy as well.
Where you, if you go to a business meeting,
you have to drink as much as your boss.
And if your boss happens to be a guy or girl,
who's very good drinker, you're in trouble, right?
So there are different cultures when it comes to alcohol
and ours, it's unique in its own way.
- But Cameron, this film is not only about alcohol.
This film is about being alive.
This is about being awakened.
When you're sort of dwelling through your midlife crisis
or in your everyday grave routine.
it's about being reawakened.
Hopefully, at least that's, that's what we tried.
We tried to, of course,
we have this intriguing thought
about celebrating alcohol in some sense,
but there's a deeper level where we try to investigate
being brought back to life.
- Alcohol is just the catalyst.
Mads, I want to ask you about the transformation
your character goes through,
because at the beginning of the film,
as you saying, Thomas, you were a bit,
your character has been dead end just kind of going
through the motions of his teaching career
and his life at home.
Alcohol sparks something in him,
he suddenly joyous in a different way, but then it also,
he goes too far with it.
Can you talk about that journey,
what you need to do as an actor,
because I imagine you're also shooting out of sequence
to, to kind of hit the, the,
the moment of each scene in the trajectory
of the entire film,
because it's, it's a, it's a big arc you have.
- Yeah.
I mean, if it was just gradual development
of a little more, a little more, and then this happens
and unavoidably, we would end in a big, in a big crash.
It would have been predictable for us
and maybe easier to handle,
but it's almost as well, it goes a little back,
a little forth and then something happens
and then a crash happens.
So, so we were very much trying to be
on the same page all the time,
because it wasn't just a normal development.
And, so yeah, we, in terms of how,
how drunk they are when they teach, we, we,
we did some small experiments
(laughs) Before we started shooting.
- Listen to that sentence.
(both men conversing)
- They keep talking about 0.5, right.
And then what happens if it's, if it's 1.0 or 1.5 or two.
So we looked into that and we had a fairly good idea
what happens with your speech,
what happens to your movements
and, and, and then between me and Thomas
and the, and the rest of the cast,
we have, we have enough experience to, to, to go for it.
(chuckles)
So that's how we approached it, obviously.
But I'ma say, it started out with the idea with the alcohol
and, and, and, but it was very clear from the beginning
that this film was,
that was just an excuse to make a film,
which is a big, big tribute to life.
So a tribute to alcohol in one degree
and much bigger one to life.
- Huh?
I am curious about modulating the, the drunkenness
of, of your character through the film though,
because there's a whole history in movies
of actors playing drunk,
some well, some very badly,
when an actor doesn't do it right
and, and its clearly doesn't feel real.
What do you think actors are doing wrong,
and what do you need to do
to play that state of inebriation?
- It's a very tricky question
because the classical way to answer that
would be for any actors to say, if you're drunk,
try to avoid being drunk.
You know, that that's what, most of the time,
we would go for that approach and say, okay,
this guy is drunk and he's doing his very best
not to appear drunk.
- Right.
- And that, that would be as little slower than controlled
a little clumsy, but not too much, right.
And you can do that to a certain degree,
but if you're really, really hammered.
- You're above 1.2.
- Then its something else.
And this is where it becomes quote unquote overacting.
But if you look at people in real life,
it's insane how they behave when they're that drunk.
So we, we spend a few days doing like crazy falls
and, and crazy ways of moving
and, and, and looking at each other
and either laughing because it was really bad
or laughing because it was spot on.
And we actually did a lot of rehearsals for that.
- We did, and alcohol rehearsals, where we simply said,
so 0.5, how does that look,
at this point of situation, at this point of situations.
0.7, how does that look?
You know, and I have to say,
it's a great accomplishment from all,
from all four of them to be having an emotional life,
carry a huge emotional curve and then yet at the same time,
having to deal with all these levels of alcohol.
it took a lot of, it took a very good actor.
- It was obviously very tempting to say,
God, forgot about it, let's just get drunk.
(laughs)
And then we don't remember the lines
and it will be exactly 0.7.
Problem is you can't do that for 12 hours.
(laughs)
- Well, you never tried.
- Yes, you don't actually try.
(laughs)
Mads, people who watch your Hollywood work in TV and film
will often have seen you play some pretty scary characters,
whether it's Hannibal or Le Chiffre or others,
but you're working in Denmark and in Europe generally
can often be very different.
When you're acting, how conscious are you
of your public persona now,
and how much can you just kinda let that go
and just play the role.
- While I'm acting when I'm doing the job?
- When you're preparing for the job, yeah?
- What I would like to say
that I don't think about it at all.
And I do believe that's true, actually.
I think that bringing any backpack or any history,
when you enter the, the holding room
of, of a director slash actor, starting from scratch,
and we're no one and we're somebody else.
So I would like to believe that's the case.
And I actually do believe it, yeah.
- Okay.
I wanna ask you a little bit about bringing this film
out into the world in the middle of a pandemic,
your film was named as one of the Cannes 2020 titles
playing at our festival.
It will play at the San Sebastian Film Festival as well.
How, what is that like for you?
You spent, you know,
a long time making the film together before the pandemic,
and now you're releasing it in a very different world.
How, how is it, how is it feeling for you now?
- Well, if you look at the film and the content of the film,
it would play best at the end of a pandemic.
- Oh, okay.
- It would play best at the end of a pandemic.
- Huh?
- At the end of a pandemic.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
- Yeah, yeah.
- It is news to me as well.
- Why at the end of a pandemic?
- Because I think as Mads say,
this is a celebration of life and it now lands in a world
where people die from a pandemic.
And so, so there's, there's a clash there that I'm not sure,
I don't know how that,
how well that works.
- And people isolating, - Exactly.
- Which is also seen in the film.
- Or maybe they need the two hours.
- Maybe that's what we need most right now, yeah.
- It's a big question for us.
Like, how does this play in a world of a pandemic?
How, how does this play in America?
How does this play in Canada?
We, we don't know yet.
And I'm curious about that.
It's, it's a strange feeling to be in Toronto
without being in Toronto.
- Yes. Yeah.
- So we would love to be there.
It's a very sympathetic experience every time.
And I always say you have
the world's best audience in Toronto.
So, so we are very sad not to be able to go.
And the same thing with Cannes,
it would have been wonderful to be
at (voice drowned by Cameron speaking) of this movie.
So it's a disappointment obviously.
- Well, this is the last thing I wanna ask you.
You have both, both have been to Toronto numerous times
and we desperately miss you this year.
Do you have memories, particular fond memories of Toronto.
Things that you, you recall
from bringing films here in the past?
- Well, yeah, no matter how complicated my film have been,
there's been a so receptive and honest
and wonderful audience every time.
And so that's not a specific memory,
but it's, it's specific enough.
- Yeah, I think the audience here loves your films.
And Mads, I know you've, you've done work,
you brought films here, any recollections and until.
I remember that I thought Canada was always cold
and when it turns out it's only,
the hottest time of year when you're having a festival.
So I was there for first time visiting a friend at a hotel
exited the hotel and a journalist recognized me.
This is quite a few years ago, and there was a lot of,
you know, paparazzi and he took some photos
and they all came running
and they all scream my name, Vico, Vico, Vico
(laughs)
And I was like, and it was too late for me to correct them.
So I just said, what the hell I'm Vico (mumbles)
- Why not? (laughs)
And I loved that, I just loved the atmosphere there.
And then as you see years later on,
I went back there and it became my home
for three years.
I love the city and I love the festival.
- You have to hear my first time in Canada.
- Was that a cold mess.
- Nope, I was in a limo
and I was driving through the crowds
of screaming people and they screamed and they screamed
and I was like, Jesus Christ,
I'm already experiencing this and I'm 20 something.
And then I, I took the window down
and everyone was screaming, who are you?
Who are you?
(laughs)
- They are very excited, they just don't know who you are.
I love it.
Guys listen, thank you so much for joining us
and thanks for bringing "Another Round".
Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Vinterberg, thank you.
- Thank you.
- Thank you for having us.