Mads Mikkelsen Reveals Daniel Craig Sucked in ‘Casino Royale’

Mads Mikkelsen once shared a funny behind-the-scenes story from the set of Casino Royale. In an interview with GQ, the actor revealed that his co-star Daniel Craig, who played James Bond, was not very good at poker during filming.

Mikkelsen, who played the villain Le Chiffre, said he was already skilled at the game, which made the high-stakes poker scenes easier for him.

“Everybody knew how to play poker around that table, except for one, Daniel,” he explained. “He had no clue. He sucked. And it was the worst thing ever that he, of all people, had to beat [my character] and win all my money. It was like, ‘This is wrong.’ Well I got him back with the rope, so that’s good.”

He added that the poker hands used in the movie were intentionally extreme to make the betting dramatic but still understandable for audiences who don’t play poker.

“The hands we are playing are insane, so if you’re a poker player, you’ll go, ‘What?’ We just wanted to make the nature of the betting believable, but the hands obviously had to be easily recognizable for an audience that doesn’t play poker, so they were quite crazy hands,” Mikkelsen said.

The 2006 film, directed by Martin Campbell, follows James Bond as he tries to take down Le Chiffre in a high-stakes poker game to topple his organization. The movie also stars Eva Green, Caterina Murino, Jeffrey Wright, and Judi Dench.

Mikkelsen described Le Chiffre as a different kind of villain. “He’s a normal person, he’s not taking over the world,” he said.

“He’s not one of those guys. He’s in it for the money, and if Bond didn’t bump into his way, they would never have met. It’s not that he’s after anyone. He’s vulnerable, there’s people above him, people who are used to violence in a different way than he is. He’s a different kind of villain, that’s for sure.”

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