Green is full of praise for producers Broccoli and Wilson’s distinctive approach to moviemaking. “They are passionate about filmmaking and will do anything to make it work. I’ve never had such positive involvement from producers before. In the beginning they helped me enormously with the character. They made me feel as if I was part of this big family. Being surrounded by calm people keeps the pressure off, and I could just focus on the work at hand.”
Green believes CASINO ROYALE’s involving storyline and romance gives it the potential to attract moviegoers beyond the legion of die-hard 007 fans. “Of course it’s an action movie and a thriller, but it is also a love story, and I think women will identify with Vesper and be moved by her predicament. In comparison to other Bond films, it’s more gritty and realistic and based more on characters than action. This is a different James Bond – raw and sensitive. People will see him in a different light. You see his flaws and watch him become the Bond you think you know.”
Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen was thrilled to take on one of cinema’s most despised (and prized) roles: the Bond villain. “I’m attracted to scripts where my character might have some secrets, so to be offered the role of Le Chiffre, ‘the Cipher,’ a man with no real name, was perfect. Many actors say that playing the villain is more interesting than playing the good guy because he always has a twist in his character. But I think if you are playing the bad guy, you try to show a good side to him sometimes, and if you are playing the good guy, you try to show a flaw in him, so it’s not one-dimensional for the audience. My favorite Bond villain was Christopher Walken in A View to a Kill. He’s got what it takes to be a good villain. There is something good and bad about him at the same time.”
Mikkelsen purposely chose not to read the Ian Fleming novel before production began on CASINO ROYALE, preferring instead to develop his character exclusively from the screenplay and his extensive discussions with director Martin Campbell. He notes that Le Chiffre isn’t the typical Bond-movie bad guy: Rather than a megalomaniacal madman looking to take over the world, Le Chiffre is an amoral criminal mastermind with a thirst for hard currency.
“He’s living in the contemporary world and trying to make as much money as possible, just like everybody else,” says Mikkelsen. “He’s smart and clever and doesn’t boast about his successes. He rarely gets his own hands dirty, but he will if he has to. When we meet him he’s rich and successful, but Bond is on his tail. And when the chips are down he doesn’t show his emotions. He’s ice cold.”
In order to recoup his massive stock-market losses, Le Chiffre organizes a poker game in Montenegro for international high rollers with a $10 million buy-in. The actors took poker lessons and rehearsed the games before filming began in order to keep the performances fresh as the hands were played and replayed over several days.
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