Mads Mikkelsen: Bows and arrows were so cool!

Mads Mikkelsen has joked about playing "Indians" in politically correct Scandinavia.

The 49-year-old has had plenty of chances to be badass onscreen, including a turn as villain Le Chiffre in James Bond film Casino Royale and his latest role as a vengeful family man in The Salvation.

While he's often whipping out guns on screen, Mads' childhood featured more peaceful pastimes.

"In politically correct Scandinavia we were all Indians!" he laughed to Total Film when asked if he ever played kids' favourite 'Cowboys and Indians'.

"Nobody wanted to be the cowboys, so we were just running around being Indians. Also the cool thing about being an Indian is that you could make a bow and arrow, and actually make [it] fly and hit someone! You can't do that just going 'bang-bang'!"

In The Salvation, Mads' character Jon becomes a cowboy hero as he tracks down outlaws alone after being betrayed by his townspeople.

The star revealed what it was like to portray such an intense personality on screen.

"The adrenaline is up there," he admitted. "You're obviously playing with [fake] guns, but they're not un-dangerous. They can f**king do all kinds of crazy things. If you get too close to a person, you get their eye shot off. A lot of flame and sh*t coming out. It might even go off in your eye. So there's a lot of power doing those scenes."

The Salvation also stars Eva Green and Eric Cantona and has an April 2015 release date.