Mads Mikkelsen Had to Keep His Inner Fanboy in Check When Working With This ‘Dust Bunny’ Co-Star: “I’m a Fan”
[Editor’s note: The following contains major spoilers for Dust Bunny.]
Summary
- Bryan Fuller’s feature directorial debut ‘Dust Bunny’ is a surreal, whimsical thriller mixing ‘Pushing Daisies’ charm with ‘The Professional’ grit.
- Mads Mikkelsen enjoys collaborating with Fuller, and this role was written for him.
- Sophie Sloan impresses with her TikTok-honed American accent, huge scream, and genuine chemistry with Mikkelsen.
As a longtime Bryan Fuller fan, I was there for every episode of Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls. I’m a Fannibal who’s still waiting for another season for the duo that is Mads Mikkelsen as Dr. Hannibal Lecter and Hugh Dancy as Will Graham to do their darkly sinister and delicious dance around each other. And if Pushing Daisies returns, I will definitely be watching. So, not only was I excited to see Fuller’s feature directorial debut Dust Bunny, I jumped at the chance to chat with Mikkelsen about his role as the Intriguing Neighbor.
In the wickedly fantastical tale, a 10-year-old girl named Aurora (Sophie Sloan) is sure that there’s a monster under her bed that’s eaten her family. When she decides to hire her hitman neighbor to help her, his guilt over concerns that they may have actually been the victim of assassins that could have been after him, he steps up to handle the monsters, whether real or fantastical.
When I got the opportunity to chat one-on-one with Mikkelsen about reuniting with Fuller in a role that was written specifically for him, he discussed why he so enjoys their collaborative relationship, the fun in playing this character, how the chicken homages came about, shooting a fight scene in pajamas, how impressed he was that his young co-star learned her American accent from watching TikTok, getting to work with a giant puppet, and having to keep from getting starstruck while sharing scenes with Sigourney Weaver. He also said that he’s still game to return for more episodes of Hannibal and that he’s surprised that hasn’t happened yet.
Director Bryan Fuller Wrote the ‘Dust Bunny’ Role of Intriguing Neighbor Specifically for Mads Mikkelsen
“Bryan Fuller sees me with many different eyes.”
Collider: Bryan Fuller has said that he wrote this role in Dust Bunny specifically for you. When you read it, did it feel like he wrote it for you, or did you find it surprising that he thought of you for this or saw you this way?
MADS MIKKELSEN: No, he pitched it to me years before he showed me the script, so I wasn’t surprised in that sense. I would say Bryan Fuller sees me with many different eyes, so if it had been a very different character, I wouldn’t have been that surprised. Bryan Fuller sees opportunities in things we’ve never done before, and he wants to try that out. It didn’t feel awkward, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if the character was completely different either.
Having done Hannibal and Dust Bunny with him, what do you like about Bryan Fuller as a storyteller? What is your collaborative relationship like?
MIKKELSEN: First of all, he’s very unique. I do not think that anyone is creating stuff like him, visually or emotionally. Everything is lifted, almost into a surreal painting or a symphony. There’s that artistic touch on everything he does, and then he creates a universe where almost everything is possible inside it, whether it’s realistic or even if it’s with the imagination. His brain is working on a different level than anyone I’ve ever met, so you’re always in for a treat.
Starring Mads Mikkelsen, Sophie Sloan, and David Dastmalchian, ‘Dust Bunny’ is a dark whimsical fairy tale.
Do you guys communicate a lot on set, or do you just have a sense of what he’s looking for, after having spent so much time working with him?
MIKKELSEN: We communicate on set, sure, but we do it mostly before. It’s nice to be on the same page before you have the first shooting day. There will obviously be bumps on the road where we disagree, or we have to clarify things, or we have to adjust things, but all in all, I enjoy that we are on the same page of the tonality of the film before we start shooting the first day. We don’t have time to discuss vital things in the story on the set. We can’t spend three hours doing that. We need to be on the same page before we do that.
What did you most enjoy about playing this character and what you got to do with him? Was there a more playful atmosphere on this, overall, especially working with your young co-star, Sophie Sloan?
MIKKELSEN: That, for me, was the funniest part because they’re two not very socially skilled people having a lot of dialogue together, and they’re talking criss-cross with each other. It was fun to have a character that is scrutinizing this young girl all the time. It was also very important that we spent some time together outside the characters, so she would feel comfortable with me being so scrutinizing in all the scenes. Sophie was just a little bundle of energy and handled it like a pro.
The Chicken Lamp in ‘Dust Bunny’ Is an Homage to One of Mads Mikkelsen’s Previous Films
“There’s always that thing that is off in Bryan [Fuller]’s universe.”
What do you think it says about this man that he has a chicken with a lightbulb up its butt for a lamp? Why do you think he was someone that did what he did for a living, had something like that, but then also seems to get pulled in by this girl?
MIKKELSEN: I think the chicken with the lightbulb says a lot about Bryan and not so much about the neighbor. I’ll just put it that way. It was an homage from Bryan. One of his favorite films that I’ve done is called Men & Chicken. He loves the character I play in that one, so he placed some chicken homages here and there in the film. I don’t necessarily see the neighbor having that chicken, but then again, I don’t see the neighbor necessarily having a big fight in his pajamas that look like something from Persia. There’s always that little thing that is off in Bryan’s universe and is inexplicable, and I like that. In normal situations, I would probably have pinpointed that and said, “I wouldn’t like to wear that cap. I’d rather have that shirt on.” But in this world, it’s a completely different thing, so you just go in there for the ride.
This movie feels like the story you might see if Pushing Daisies and The Professional had a baby. Pushing Daisies had so much color, and this movie has so many patterns. How did you feel about all the patterns, from the wallpaper to the wardrobe? What kind of vibe did that create?
MIKKELSEN: It creates the vibe that this is lifted and that the film is going to work for us. It’s going to add some things to what we do. We’re not alone in the room. If it’s a little surreal, what we’re seeing and doing, we can rest assured that the surroundings are also a little surreal. It’s nice to know because then we’re in a special universe that we can lean into and try to serve that.
Weaver joins ‘Dust Bunny’ director Bryan Fuller at TIFF 2025 to discuss their dark fairy tale, ‘Alien: Earth,’ Star Wars, and more.
The young girl in this, Sophie Sloan, who plays Aurora, seems wise beyond her years. It seems like there’s no point that you’re ever really working with a child because you guys seem like equals throughout the film. What did you learn from spending time with her and sharing scenes like that with her, in the way that she saw her character and worked throughout this? There’s just something so beautiful about your relationship.
MIKKELSEN: Yeah. I might be able to answer what I learned in a few years, but I get inspired and I get joyful watching a little kid. We needed a kid. We needed her to have that kid energy. But she also, as you say, has to be a little wiser than her age to digest this whole film. She had both sides. She was a little kid. But then again, she was also smarter than her age, which is the fantastic combination that we were looking for. What did I learn? Maybe I learned that apparently you can adopt an American accent in two weeks if you look at TikTok. I haven’t learned that yet, but she did that and she was just amazing. She’s Scottish and she has a very heavy Scottish accent, and she got rid of it. I was like, “Damn, I’m too old for that.” I’ll have to learn that one day.
I just thought she was terrific. I love that she has that scream, but it’s so far into the movie. You expect a kid to do something like that at the beginning of a story like this, when everything starts happening.
MIKKELSEN: I promise you, I was in the room when she had that scream and my eyes went like, “What?!” It went on forever. She could hold her breath for almost a minute. It was like, “She’s going to break the windows now.” It was insane.
You have a pretty lengthy fight scene in the hallway with another man in this. As a dancer, I always really enjoy a physical fight scene where you have to use your body and anything that you can grab. Do you enjoy that kind of fight scene? Did you enjoy that scene in particular?
MIKKELSEN: Yeah, that was a specifically fun thing to do. We obviously had ideas of what we wanted to do, to build a little make-believe corridor, and came up with ideas. But once we got there and we saw the lamps and the different opportunities, we adapted to that because it was supposed to be whatever was within the reach of your hand. The guy I was fighting used to be a dancer, like I was, so it became a little more choreographed in a non-realistic fight way, but more suitable for this kind of film, again lifted. It was fun to actually have a real dance again.
Mads Mikkelsen Is Definitely on Board With Making More Episodes of ‘Hannibal’
“We’ve got to move now.”
There’s no way that I’m never not going to be salty that I still haven’t gotten more Hannibal. It feels like the return of Dexter proves that you can successfully revive serial killers. So, are you still holding out hope that you’ll get to do more someday?
MIKKELSEN: Yeah. Listen, if that happens, we will all just jump on board without hesitation. It also has to be within a realistic time frame. If I become a great-grandfather, it will be a little tricky. So, we’ve got to move now, in the next couple of years, and we will all be up for it.
Are you surprised that it hasn’t happened yet?
MIKKELSEN: I’m a little surprised, yeah. I don’t understand what numbers you’re supposed to have. I don’t understand exactly what kind of ratings you need to have. I’m not into that. I’m not a producer. But when I see a massive group of fans around the world, and it has such a cult following, and it’s a sizable one – it’s not a small group, there’s a lot of people – in my world, there must be grounds for doing a season, just based on that.
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Hannibal’s time was cut short 10 years ago.
Do you know what you’re going to do next? Do you know what the next thing is that you’ll be shooting?
MIKKELSEN: I don’t know. Actually, it’s one of those situations where I’m waiting to hear if the phone [rings]. If it doesn’t, I have plenty of stuff to do back home.
Are you in constant conversation with Bryan Fuller? Do you guys want to work on something again?
MIKKELSEN: Yeah, we would love to work [together] again, for sure. We don’t visit each other all the time, but we are in touch, obviously, with this film now, and I’m sure we will be in the future as well. We bump into each other at some of the Fannibal reunions and stuff that we participate in, with Hugh [Dancy] as well. Hopefully, in the future, we’ll do something again, and hopefully with Hugh Dancy as well.
“It was all about making that work.”
When it came to the moments where you’re face to face with the monster, did you have anything to react to? Did they basically have a mark on a stick? What were you reacting to in those moments?
MIKKELSEN: Both. We had a mark on a stick or a tennis ball on a stick for a lot of it, for our reactions. But there were quite a few times when we were in scenes together with the monster, and they had a giant puppet with puppeteers. It was like nine feet tall with a gigantic mouth. It was really fun. But it was also tricky because there was a small room with two actors, and a hippo, and three puppeteers, and a giant monster, and a bed. It was all about making that work.
The other important relationship that your character has in this is with Sigourney Weaver’s character. It’s such an odd, undefined relationship for most of it. What was it like to work with her to find that dynamic?
MIKKELSEN: The characters are two very professional people, me as the hitman and she as the handler/fixer. There’s an undercurrent of something odd between them, and we realize what that is at the end of the film. It was wonderful. I’m a fan. I had to force my fanboy hat off my head while I was with her in that scene. Bryan Fuller [and I] were both starstruck. You can’t be starstruck when you work with people, but it was difficult not to. She was so sweet, so good, and also is a very funny person, so it made it much, much easier.
She seemed very game, and you seemed very game on this. It seems like it must have been a lot of fun to do this.
MIKKELSEN: It was, for sure.
- Release Date
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December 12, 2025
- Runtime
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106 minutes
- Director
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Bryan Fuller
Dust Bunny is now playing in theaters. Check out the trailer:
