“We see him after 15 years of silence”

Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen doesn’t find weaknesses in his character.

– He’s a Nazi! Harrison Ford exclaims emphatically.

– Oh yes, it always gets forgotten, Mikkelsen laughs at his colleagues.

The ingredients of a classic Indiana Jones adventure are all there: Nazis, historical myths, action, and in the middle of it all, an archaeologist donning his trademark hat and leather jacket.

When Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were developing the film that premiered in 1981 Hunters of the Lost Treasureneither could have guessed that Indiana Jones would still be picking up the whip more than 40 years later.

Harrison Ford says he’s always wanted to see where Indiana Jones is at the end of his life. It took more than ten years to find a suitable story and script, because Ford promised a fifth adventure already in 2008, when Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull premiered.

– We see him after 15 years of silence. We have gotten to know the character over the course of four films. Now a new phase begins in the character’s life. He’s getting old and retiring from a job that hasn’t been exciting. So we meet him at his lowest point, where we haven’t seen him before, Ford reveals.

In the service profession

Harrison Ford says that he hasn’t really learned anything from Indiana Jones over the past decades, but even more so from the work itself. Ford considers the audience’s reaction to his character to be generous. It also means a lot to him in terms of eyes.

– This is a service profession. We are storytellers: the director is the main storyteller, I am the assistant. The character means the same to me as it means to the audience. I am obliged to do my best for the sake of the story that needs to be told.

In recent years, Harrison Ford has also bid farewell to his other iconic characters. The new Star Wars trilogy saw him last in the role of Han Solo, which Ford first played in 1977. Blade Runner also got a sequel, bringing Rick Deckard to the big screen after 1982.

– Indiana Jones is, and always has been, a special experience. I don’t put it in the same category as other movies. This farewell feels good because I think we made a really satisfying film. We tried to create a story that would bring the character back in an interesting way. This is a grand farewell.

A look into the future

In addition to familiar faces, the film also features new characters. Favorite series From Fleabag became familiar with Phoebe Waller-Bridge will be seen in the role of Jones’ goddaughter Helena. The moment for the meeting between the goddaughter and Jones is just right.

– Indy is at a spiritual dead end in his life. He lives in a time where attention has shifted elsewhere. People look to the future and to the Moon. Others don’t have as much passion for the same things as he does. Helena not only brings memories and a whiff of the joys of the past, she brings a passion for archeology and adventure, which will rekindle the flame in Indy, says Waller-Bridge.

He describes Helena as an independent and resourceful character. It’s also great about the actor that the film depicts a friendship that crosses generations.

– Helena’s weakness is at the same time an asset, she doesn’t look before she jumps. The character’s fearlessness can be misunderstood and interpreted as recklessness. It causes problems, but I love that character trait in him. And he can’t really ask for help.

The director and the actress considered the role of Helena to be a Hollywood star of the golden age Barbara Stanwyckwhich is remembered, among other things, from the movie Eve the woman. Helena had to feel like a modern woman, a bit like Stanwyck in her time.

The master of evil

In the film, Mads Mikkelsen plays German physicist Jürgen Voller, a former Nazi Party influencer who works in NASA’s Apollo space program.

– Voller’s passion for his work, mathematics, science and a brighter future are the character’s strength, but at the same time a weakness. Passion for the party and the Third Reich is his destiny, Mikkelsen reveals.

The Dane’s career is full of the most diverse roles, but a significant number of them are villains. Before Voller’s role, he has been seen, among other things, as the title character Hannibal– series, and as the arch-enemy of Dumbledore and James Bond.

The characters are different, but memorable. Mikkelsen says that you can’t take credit for the characters only for yourself, because the whole is the sum of many factors.

– The task of the director, me and the other actors is to find the contours of the character. I try to find some human aspect in the characters. If I can’t identify with the character or dream about the same things, I replace them with something I can dream about.

Mikkelsen has been involved in Hollywood’s biggest film series at the moment. 007, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Marvel. However, Indiana Jones is the first one he has really grown up with.

– I have lied in other interviews when I said the same about Bonds and Star Wars. This is what I grew up with. I remember how we rented with my brother Hunters of the Lost Treasure and four other films. We ended up watching Indiana Jones five times, none of the others.

Natural emotions

Unlike the first four films, the last adventure will be directed by someone who makes quality films instead of Spielberg James Mangold, who also says that he grew up with movies, admiring its creators. The love for filmmaking was born precisely with Indiana Jones.

– The opportunity to make this film was wonderful, but the warmth I got from this group was the real reason to do this. It turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life.

Easy Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny accomplishing a project of this size is not. Technically, the film has many challenges. For example, a big movie has a lot of logistics and stunts. Sometimes one scene is filmed in two different locations, which are tried to be seamlessly combined.

However, according to Mangold, the biggest challenge is getting the heart into the film. Although the script and the production framework are polished and planned to the extreme, the actors must be given room to bring humanity into the middle of the heavy process.

His goal was to make a film with a degree of depth, wrapped in a spectacular package. The fifth Indiana Jones is big-budget brain-teaser entertainment, but at the same time delves into the human condition.

– In the middle of all the technology, infrastructure and a huge group of creators, you have to protect that little bubble that can’t be designed in a storyboard or done on a computer. Emotions must happen naturally between these great actors. A candid moment between people is a very different special effect.

Rich characters

The favorite character of everyone who attended the press conference is naturally Indiana Jones. Phoebe Waller-Bridge also brings up Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), which once felt like a new kind of Female Hero.

The director points out that Spielberg’s way of handling the character in the first film broke boundaries and made the character an equal. Indy and Marion’s chemistry works too.

Movies cheer rich supporting characters, both good and bad. Mads Mikkelsen says everyone wants to be Indy, even today. When he watched movies when he was young, he wanted to be the archaeologist Indiana Jones, not the actor playing him.

Mikkelsen also likes the Nazi characters in the film series, but would like to stay for a day In hunters of the lost treasure in the shoes of a flashy supporting actor.

– I would have liked to be the guy in the scene when there was supposed to be a big fight scene and Indiana Jones just shoots the man. There are so many urban legends about that scene. It would be fun to learn that there won’t be a fight. It became one of the most iconic scenes in the film.

The funny scene is one of the most famous in film history. Stuntman and actor Terry Richards had practiced for weeks a fencing choreography in which an Arab swordsman meets Indiana Jones. Ford fell ill with a stomach bug on the day of filming, so the scene was cut short: Richards is playing nicely with his sword while Jones just bluntly shoots him.

Important lessons

Indiana Jones is a teacher by profession, but what have been the most important lessons for the filmmakers?

Waller-Bridge remembers how, during her theater school days, she learned the value of taking risks. Before filming or screening, you should forget what you are doing for a while, because too much self-awareness is not good. Harrison Ford had given him a similar lesson.

– Marlon Brando once gave an actor a piece of advice that you mustn’t care, or it will show on your face. He meant that you should care deeply about what you do, but not care about the success it brings. You have to care about the presence, but you can’t focus on the end result, says Ford.

Mikkelsen has also received similar advice from his teacher. The teacher had said that the actor was a professional liar who must not lie because the audience would notice.

The greatest mentor in James Mangold’s life was the British director legend Alexander Mackendrickwhose most significant films are included The drug of success and Woman killers. He remembers Mackendrick asking the 17-year-old Mangold for a seven-page script every week.

– At that age, I only wrote the pages the day before, of course. The day after the return, he gave me back 19 pages of feedback from the six-page manual I wrote half in the cloud. He didn’t care what I had done to achieve the text, only what was on the paper.

Old and new

Certainly one of the biggest challenges in such a big production is how to keep the old fans satisfied, but the film would also reach a new audience. Mangold says his only goal is to make a good movie, marketing is left to others.

He doesn’t sit around wondering how many people like the movie and how many don’t.

– Making a film like this is a challenge, because many viewers have memories of the character and old films have a legacy, but at the same time you have to create something new. How do I respect the old and refine it so that something new is born? It was a creative challenge whose ultimate answer is: a good story.

You have to clarify the answers to many questions for yourself. Why is the story interesting? Where is Indiana Jones now, why is it interesting? Who is Helena Shaw, why is she interesting?

– Our Nazi in the film has adopted the American way of life. Voller is part of the scientific endeavor in the space race. That small change makes the character different. He is integrated into the country’s way of life, but he has his own mission.

What is interesting about the protagonist is, among other things, the hero’s age. The character and the actor are already elderly, Harrison Ford is 80 years old. Mangold asked himself the question, what does old age mean in the life of Indiana Jones?

– It is not asked very often. How to be someone who has lived such a dynamic life? Life becomes normal and the world continues to spin, but there are no more adventures, and you are not necessarily capable of them. These questions take center stage as the final chapter of his life begins.

The movie is about the awakening of Indiana Jones. About how the character wakes up from his dream, like a jerk, when the world has passed him by.