When he was a little boy Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen was sure there was a monster hiding under his bed. “I couldn't look under my bed, and I had to jump into it from a faraway distance knowing something was there,” he says.

“But it could also be other places than under the bed, you know, around the corner, behind the door. I don't know why, but the darkness does something to you for sure.”

That darkness is pursing him again in his new film, “Dust Bunny,” arriving in theaters Friday, Dec. 12. Mikkelsen is known for his sinister villains in films like “Doctor Strange," “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” and “Casino Royale,” and as Hannibal Lecter from the NBC series “Hannibal.”

This time he’s a hero of sorts. Well, actually he’s a hit man who’s hired by a little girl to kill the monster under her bed. For this film Mikkkelsen broke the actors’ rule about not performing with children or animals, as most of his scenes are with little Sophie Sloan.

That’s not a problem, he says. “Children bring a certain innocence, and we tend to focus a little more on them and not on ourselves when we act with children,” he says. “And all of a sudden, you don't focus on yourself at all, and that is often a very good thing for an actor.”

The 60-year-old performer doesn’t concentrate on himself. In fact, he began as a dancer with no thought of acting at all. “I enjoyed tremendously to be a dancer,” he says in his slight Danish accent.

“I started late though, and I was probably more interested in the drama of dancing rather than the aesthetics. And once I touched upon, like, small roles in theaters and musicals and stuff, I thought maybe I should try drama full-time. A few people encouraged me. I don’t know exactly what they saw, but they felt I had a certain vibe around me and that was really nice and helpful.”

He was still a student when he landed his first role. “I was really lucky. I was in drama school and did a film in my third year, and that came out when I graduated, so that did something for me. So that came in handy and I was on my way from the get-go.”

He's not sure why he was drawn to acting, though he says he loves films and the theater. “But I've always had a large imagination, and as a kid I did imagine a lot of things happening. And I did kind of copy other people walking the street because I was wondering how it was to be them. So maybe it's just something I've always been drawn to. I mean, I've never thought about the ‘fame’ of acting or anything — but I've found it interesting to pretend to be other people sometimes.”

The great Dane with his high cheekbones and tousled blondish hair proved famous in his native country but landed in Hollywood by accident. "It was a Danish friend of mine who recommended me to an American director, Antoine Fuqua, for a film called ‘King Arthur,’ and he watched some stuff with me, and wanted me to do an audition,” recalls Mikkelsen.

“So I went, and he gave me the part. So there I was sitting on a horse for six months having a cool sword by my arm. Everything you cannot do in a Danish film was coming alive to me, and I had to obviously think about how I would approach this from now on — if there's more coming my way — if it's my goal. And then I've decided not to think too much about it and let the life do its thing, if something else came up.”

Something else did come up, and he credits luck for his comprehensive career, but falls short of calling it fate. “I don’t think fate is a set-in-stone thing, but life will take its turns if you don’t do anything. I guess I do believe in it to degree, but I also think you can mold it yourself, you can be part of that,” he says.

“I have been fortunate in that I’ve been working in things I really liked. And the miserable state for an actor — which makes it a hard life — is the lack of work. Ninety percent of all actors aren’t working. At the same time, they identify as actors and that’s their entire life. And if you don’t get the work you deserve, it’s the worst and most frustrating job in the world.

“If you DO get the work, it’s a fantastic job, and I’ve been very fortunate with that. But very early on I set my mind — because I did have a lot of colleagues who didn’t have the work — I decided I’d give it the first year and if it doesn’t work, I will get myself a taxi driver’s license, and in my spare time do taxi driving. I want to make some money and not have one dream. I have to have more than one dream. But I just started working a lot, so I never got the taxi driver thing.”

Married with a son, 29, and a daughter, 33, who has presented him with a granddaughter, Mikkelsen says he longs to devote more time to family. “My base is in Denmark. That’s where my family is and has always been,” he says.

“If something super interesting comes along that takes place in the states, I would probably do it, but I won't be away from home for long stretches. I’ve got two children and one grandkid, and I do appreciate the time spending with them. Maybe it’s about time I dial it down.”

Brooks is back in top form

If you're not sick of political movies, “Ella McCay” lands in theaters Friday, Dec. 12. The big deal about that is that James L. Brooks is back in the director’s chair after a dozen years off.

Brooks, is the creative executive producer and director, famous for “Broadcast News,” “The Simpsons,” “Terms of Endearment” and “As Good as It Gets.” What’s more he’s convinced the hilarious Albert Brooks (no relation) to join the film as the departing governor. And it’s been about 10 years since Albert Brooks appeared on the big screen.

He tells me why he enjoys acting. “I like it because I like to immerse myself. It’s a way of getting out of yourself, the easiest way without taking drugs to get out of your brain,” he says.

“It allows you to become another person, allows you to do research and gives you an excuse to find out about other people. And I love that. I've got great curiosity.”

Haysbert narrates Christmas chorale

The prestigious actor Dennis Haysbert is one of the guest artists appearing at the annual Tabernacle Choir concert this year. Called “Hope of the Season: Christmas with the Tabernacle Choir,” the special will air next Monday, Dec. 15, on PBS and stream on PBS.org and the PBS app. BYUtv will air the event on Dec. 18 with repeats through Christmas Day, also streaming on BYUtv and BYUtv.org.

Though he’s been performing since he was 20, Haysbert says he was nervous and awed by the very size of the theater in which he had to perform.

Haysbert’s father was a Catholic and his mother a Baptist, but he says his parents set a spiritual standard for him. “They’re both deceased now but they left me with the foundation of hope, a spiritual awareness that I try to carry on through with the family,” he says.

“My family's very large. I was one of nine children, and all of my siblings have children. And a lot of my siblings’ children have children. So I was blessed to see great-nieces and -nephews and great-great-nieces and -nephews (last) Christmas — along with my family. My entire family could not be there, but we always like to say when that happens, is that we are always there in spirit. And if they're not there with us at the time, well we're on the phone.

“And our belief, that strength in God has never wavered,” he continues.“That's the one thing that's kept our family together through thick and thin and the pain and in love and successes and failures. We still have each other. These are things that are coming to mind when I think about Christmas and Thanksgiving.

“So Christmas is yet to come. So I'm hoping I can be with a lot of my family, and, oh, by the way, I’m a grandfather.”

Patricia Heaton co-stars in 'Merv'

Patricia Heaton, who was so memorable as Ray Romano’s wife in “Everybody Love Raymond,” is co-starring in the new family movie, “Merv,” premiering on Prime Video Wednesday, Dec. 10. The film stars Charlie Cox and Zooey Deschanel, a divorced duo whose split upsets their dog, Merv.

Heaton tells me she couldn’t help but be an actress. “I'm a shameless, needy extrovert since about kindergarten. It’s a necessary requirement for toughing it out in this business,” she says.

“But I’ve just always sort of without prompting gotten out in front of people and sang and acted. I loved the idea of going to those places in those books I read or in the Shirley Temple movies I saw. I would listen to Barbra Streisand albums and would memorize them and then I would go to Sister del Reina, my second-grade teacher, and tell her I had a few songs I would like to perform for the class and just get up and do them,” she chuckles.

“My mother saw it too. She died when I was 12 but up to that point, she would put me in an acting class. She got me braces — nobody else in the family got them. I only got them because she found a dentist who wanted to be an orthodontist but wasn’t quite there yet. So it only cost $500, so he could practice on me and straighten my teeth. She saw it too, and that’s important to get encouragement along the way.”

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