Mads Mikkelsen on ‘Indiana Jones 5’ De-Aging

“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” turned heads with its opening scene that featured a de-aged Harrison Ford fighting Nazis in a castle before being pursued by Mads Mikkelsen‘s Dr. Jürgen Voller atop a moving train. But while the technology that allowed Ford to play a younger Indiana Jones attracted the most attention, Mikkelsen’s appearance was also digitally altered to make him look younger.

In a new interview with Business Insider, Mikkelsen reflected on the process of being de-aged and recalled the moment when he agreed to use the technology.

“They de-aged me as well, but with a different technique,” Mikkelsen said. “In the beginning, they thought it was enough just to dye my hair completely black. And then I told them, ‘You know what? My hair’s black, but I look like an old woman now. So let’s just do a little thing.’ I mean, we had to jump 25 years, right? They did something, but not the same technique.”

Mikkelsen went on to say that he’s not entirely against de-aging for specific artistic purposes, but he cautioned against relying on it to permanently mask the aging process.

“The idea of us having to be forever young, I’m not a fan of that. I don’t think anyone is a fan of that,” he said. “But once you can control it like that, jumping back and forth, I think it’s absolutely worth using. You have to be ethical about it.”

The de-aging effects that were used on Mikkelsen were much less significant…