- Mikkelsen told Vulture he fell asleep on a plane and then forgot his "
Casino Royale " script. - He tried to get back on the plane to retrieve it, but was not allowed.
- "I think somebody who cleaned up that plane had no idea what it was and threw it out," he said.
The Danish actor gained worldwide fame when he was cast to play the creepy Le Chiffre in 2006's "Casino Royale," which marked the first time Daniel Craig played 007.
But the "Hannibal" star revealed to Vulture in a recent interview that a nap on a plane almost resulted in a mistake that would not have just ruined his chances to get the role but could have been a career-ender.
"I got the script before I did the casting, and it was the first time I got a script where your name is printed on every page," Mikkelsen told Vulture's E. Alex Jung. "I fell asleep on the plane, and I forgot it on the plane. I am the reason why they put your name on the script. This is what they're trying to avoid."
Mikkelsen said he didn't realize he left the precious script behind until he was already off the plane. He rushed back to retrieve it but he wasn't allowed to go back on the plane.
"I think somebody who cleaned up that plane had no idea what it was and threw it out," he said. "But that is obviously a complete disaster if it ends up on the front page of The Sun. I mean, this is the worst way of blowing it. I got ahold of those scenes somehow, and I went and did the audition."
Mikkelsen is right, the reason names are watermarked on scripts of high profile projects is so if they are ever leaked the studio knows who to blame. But in some cases, scripts are even more heavily guarded.
"Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood" cinematographer Robert Richardson told Insider back in 2019 that Quentin Tarantino had him read the script in front of him at the director's dining room table. Tarantino watched him like a hawk for the next three hours as he read it. And it didn't even have an ending.
After the script to his previous movie "The Hateful Eight" leaked online, Tarantino had become hugely paranoid and didn't even let his closest collaborators have access to the entire script.
Richardson was finally told the ending half-way through filming.
"While were were in the production office, we went in a room with the ending," Richardson said. "It was taken from a safe and they handed it to only those people who require it to be able to perform their tasks that are necessary."
So, yes, Mikkelsen was very lucky that Bond script didn't go public.