Mads Mikkelsen Roasts Journalist Asking Why His 1750s Danish Film Doesn’t Have More Diversity

Jennifer Bowers BahneySep 8th, 2023, 12:37 pm

Actor Mads Mikkelsen didn’t try to hide his disbelief when a reporter at the Venice Film Festival asked why his latest project — set in 18th-century Denmark — didn’t have more diversity.

“This is a cast and Danish production that’s entirely Nordic, and, therefore, has some lack of diversity, you would say. There’s also new rules implied in Hollywood,” the Danish reporter began before a bemused Mikkelsen cut him off, asking, “What are you on to?” while shaking his head.

The reporter tried to explain:

There is some rules of diversity across the Atlantic for competing in the Best Picture, the equivalence of this competition. Since you don’t live up to those standards with this broad cast, there is, just curious — it’s not because of artistic reasons, but lack of diversity that this can’t compete in that competition. Are you worried about that?

“Are you?” Mikkelsen shot back. “I’m serious about this because you’re putting us on the spot, so you answer the question,” Mikkelsen said.

The reporter went on to explain that although the South Korean film Parasite won Best Picture in 2020, a US-Danish movie with an all-Nordic cast was not eligible in 2024. “That’s what I think is a little bit conundrum,” the reporter said.

“Well, first of all, the film takes place in Denmark in the 1750s,” said director Nikolaj Arcel. “We do have a big plot line about a girl of color who is being subjected to racism, which, it was very rare, any people of color in Denmark, almost nobody. She was probably, at the time, the only one in the entire country of Denmark…it’s just how it was in the 1750s.”

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences created new standards in 2020 it called “representation and inclusion standards for Oscar eligibility,” known as RAISE.

An Academy representative told The Hollywood Reporter, “The first two years of the program have seen ‘overwhelmingly high participation,’ noting that the ‘majority of films that submitted Oscar submission forms completed a version of RAISE.'”