Most Hollywood producers aren't what you would call household names, but Jerry Bruckheimer is an exception. Beginning his career in the early 1970s, he made a name for himself with big 1980s films like Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun, and Flashdance, and then became famous for his relationship with Michael Bay and franchises National Treasure. He's what industry folks would call a "big deal"... but apparently that status was totally lost on actor Mads Mikkelsen in the making of 2004's King Arthur, as he managed to totally forget who Bruckheimer was not once, but twice during the production.
This funny story recently came to light thanks to a viral post on Twitter featuring an on-camera interview with the Fantastic Beasts 3 star, and you can watch him tell it in full below:
It's not clear what the source of this interview is, but it appears to be from Mads Mikkelsen's home country of Denmark, and it's wonderful. The actor begins the conversation saying that he has a history of having trouble remembering names, and offers up his time on the set of King Arthur as a prime example. His story actually begins rather sweetly, as it suggests the actor is the kind of nice guy who is willing to approach a stranger on a movie set and be friendly, but the way it backfires is hilarious.
The cherry on top, of course, is the Ray Winstone factor. It's funny to think of the gruff English actor just standing at a distance flabbergasted watching Mads Mikkelsen twice introduce himself to Jerry Bruckheimer with totally sincerity and then try to explain the situation later. And as Mads Mikkelsen notes, he winds up being 100 percent correct. Winstone warned him that the behavior would lead him to never working with the producer ever again, and to date that has held true.
Of course, the positive spin to put on this is that Jerry Bruckheimer didn't exactly pull a "You'll never work in this town again," as Mads Mikkelsen's career trajectory has only shot upwards since playing Tristan in Alfonso Cuaron's King Arthur. It was two years later that he joined the legacy of James Bond films playing the antagonist Le Chiffre in Martin Campbell's Casino Royale, and since then he has been dipping his toe in pretty much every major franchise, including the world of Hannibal Lecter (playing the titular cannibal on the NBC series Hannibal), the Marvel Cinematic Universe (playing Kaecilius in Doctor Strange), and Star Wars (playing Galen Erso in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story).
Next he is adding the Wizarding World of Harry Potter to his collection, as he has replaced Johnny Depp as Gellert Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 3, which is currently in production. That particular title is currently on schedule to arrive in theaters on July 15, 2022, but the next time that fans will be able to see Mads Mikkelsen will be alongside Tom Holland and Daisey Ridley in Chaos Walking, which will be arriving March 5, 2021.
