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Viggo Mortensen
Birthday:
20 October 1958
Birth Name:
Viggo Peter Mortensen Jr.
Height:
180 cm
Biography
[on A History of Violence (2005)] If not the best, it's one of the best movies I've ever been in. There's no such thing as a perfect movie, but in the way that that script was handled, the way it was shot ... it's a perfect film noir movie, or it's close to perfect I should say.
[on A History of Violence (2005)] If not the best, it's one of the best movies I've ever been in. There's no such thing as a perfect movie, but in the way that that script was handled, the way it was shot ... it's a perfect film noir movie, or it's close to perfect I should say.
[on awards] I don't' think awards make you better, they don't really have any effect. They can have a negative effect on your career, or they can have a positive effect in terms of business, but I don't think they can help you do the job better. I think it's kind of a crapshoot.
[on awards] I don't' think awards make you better, they don't really have any effect. They can have a negative effect on your career, or they can have a positive effect in terms of business, but I don't think they can help you do the job better. I think it's kind of a crapshoot.
[on David Cronenberg] [He] has helped me do really good work, better than other directors. Maybe because he understands my process and because we have some things in common in terms of our sensibility - the kinds of books we like to read, our sense of humor is similar.
[on David Cronenberg] [He] has helped me do really good work, better than other directors. Maybe because he understands my process and because we have some things in common in terms of our sensibility - the kinds of books we like to read, our sense of humor is similar.
[on Peter Jackson] Peter, I was sure he would do another intimately-scaled film like Heavenly Creatures (1994), maybe with this project about New Zealanders in the First World War he wanted to make, but then he did King Kong (2005). And then he did The Lovely Bones (2009) and I thought that would be his smaller movie. But the problem is, he did it on a ninet...
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[on Peter Jackson] Peter, I was sure he would do another intimately-scaled film like Heavenly Creatures (1994), maybe with this project about New Zealanders in the First World War he wanted to make, but then he did King Kong (2005). And then he did The Lovely Bones (2009) and I thought that would be his smaller movie. But the problem is, he did it on a ninety million dollar budget. That should have been a fifteen million dollar movie. The special effects thing, the genie, was out of the bottle, and it has him.
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[on The Lord of the Rings trilogy] In the first movie, yes, there's Rivendell, and Mordor, but there's sort of an organic quality to it, actors acting with each other, and real landscapes; it's grittier. The second movie already started ballooning, for my taste, and then by the third one, there were a lot of special effects. It was grandiose and all that, bu...
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[on The Lord of the Rings trilogy] In the first movie, yes, there's Rivendell, and Mordor, but there's sort of an organic quality to it, actors acting with each other, and real landscapes; it's grittier. The second movie already started ballooning, for my taste, and then by the third one, there were a lot of special effects. It was grandiose and all that, but whatever was subtle in the first movie, gradually got lost in the second and third. Now with The Hobbit, one and two, it's like that to the power of 10.
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[on The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)] I went on opening day to see it. I was actually in Argentina, and I went with a bunch of kids and their parents. It was kind of a party atmosphere, it was fun, it was in 3-D, and they had popcorn. I enjoyed it. In particular it was nice to see some of the landscapes I remembered. It was a nice trip down memory la...
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[on The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)] I went on opening day to see it. I was actually in Argentina, and I went with a bunch of kids and their parents. It was kind of a party atmosphere, it was fun, it was in 3-D, and they had popcorn. I enjoyed it. In particular it was nice to see some of the landscapes I remembered. It was a nice trip down memory lane, where we'd shot near some of the places where I'd gone camping or fishing.
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Y'know, I had a preconceived idea of Freud being very stiff, very formal, a wizened old man, a very rigid personality. And he was anything but. He was very gregarious. Great conversationalist. Someone who lived by his wits.
Y'know, I had a preconceived idea of Freud being very stiff, very formal, a wizened old man, a very rigid personality. And he was anything but. He was very gregarious. Great conversationalist. Someone who lived by his wits.
Be kind. It's worthwhile to make an effort to learn about other people and figure out what you might have in common with them.
Be kind. It's worthwhile to make an effort to learn about other people and figure out what you might have in common with them.
(On his research for Eastern Promises (2007)) I found some materials, some books and also a documentary a friend of mine made called "The Mark of Cain". It's a hard thing to do but she went into maximum-security prisons in Russia and spoke to people like Nikolai. And I went to Russia as well. I read and listened to and looked up anything I could that had to ...
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(On his research for Eastern Promises (2007)) I found some materials, some books and also a documentary a friend of mine made called "The Mark of Cain". It's a hard thing to do but she went into maximum-security prisons in Russia and spoke to people like Nikolai. And I went to Russia as well. I read and listened to and looked up anything I could that had to do with Russians even loosely connected with this story. The more Russian I could be and seem authentically, the better it would be.
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I'd like to, when it's all said and done, say that I have at least a few stories that I feel proud of. I don't just want to look back and say, 'I was on x number of magazines.' As far as money goes, there's a saying in Denmark: 'Your last suit doesn't have any pockets.' You can't take it with you. You can make all the money you want, but who cares?
I'd like to, when it's all said and done, say that I have at least a few stories that I feel proud of. I don't just want to look back and say, 'I was on x number of magazines.' As far as money goes, there's a saying in Denmark: 'Your last suit doesn't have any pockets.' You can't take it with you. You can make all the money you want, but who cares?
Life is short... I like to pay attention while I'm going through it. Whatever I see, like anyone else, I'm going to filter it and create my own idea of what it is. - on painting, creating music, writing poetry, and taking photographs in addition to acting.
Life is short... I like to pay attention while I'm going through it. Whatever I see, like anyone else, I'm going to filter it and create my own idea of what it is. - on painting, creating music, writing poetry, and taking photographs in addition to acting.
Some people will say, 'Ahhh, he's over the top, it's gratuitous,' [but] I disagree completely. He's one of the most responsible filmmakers today as far as showing violence - which there's very little of compared to other movies. It just stays with you because he shows very little of it. It just stays with you and he's very direct about it. He shows you what ...
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Some people will say, 'Ahhh, he's over the top, it's gratuitous,' [but] I disagree completely. He's one of the most responsible filmmakers today as far as showing violence - which there's very little of compared to other movies. It just stays with you because he shows very little of it. It just stays with you and he's very direct about it. He shows you what happens, and what the consequences are physically and emotionally, in some cases; certainly he does in A History of Violence (2005), and also here [in Eastern Promises (2007)], that makes him very honest - on David Cronenberg.
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(On David Cronenberg) It's comforting to be working with someone you know will make a good movie.
(On David Cronenberg) It's comforting to be working with someone you know will make a good movie.
There is no star in LOTR. The Fellowship is a union.
There is no star in LOTR. The Fellowship is a union.
But I can also publish books by interesting painters and writers and I can afford to do so because my own books sell and there's a public that's interested in that. And the public have gone to see exhibitions I've had - more than they would have.
But I can also publish books by interesting painters and writers and I can afford to do so because my own books sell and there's a public that's interested in that. And the public have gone to see exhibitions I've had - more than they would have.
Seeing who you are playing with is a relief. In The Lord of the Rings we did a lot of things when there was nothing there.
Seeing who you are playing with is a relief. In The Lord of the Rings we did a lot of things when there was nothing there.
Well, I certainly wouldn't be here and my face wouldn't be up there on a poster if it wasn't for the success of Lord of the Rings. It's just a fact: film-making, finance, life.
Well, I certainly wouldn't be here and my face wouldn't be up there on a poster if it wasn't for the success of Lord of the Rings. It's just a fact: film-making, finance, life.
I'm not 23 years old and I don't have plans to make another 20 big Hollywood movies or something.
I'm not 23 years old and I don't have plans to make another 20 big Hollywood movies or something.
I was on my way out of a Sunday rehearsal. When I was walking out of the gym, all sort of sweaty, half in street clothes and half in Aragorn's clothes, waving the sword around, trying to keep a mental picture of what we've just done. Just walking down the street, down to where my car was parked, on a Sunday afternoon, waving the sword around, looking like so...
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I was on my way out of a Sunday rehearsal. When I was walking out of the gym, all sort of sweaty, half in street clothes and half in Aragorn's clothes, waving the sword around, trying to keep a mental picture of what we've just done. Just walking down the street, down to where my car was parked, on a Sunday afternoon, waving the sword around, looking like some desperate Rasputin character. Cops car comes: there's been some report...
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I'm the one who said yes to these movies, and now I'm having to pay the price for it. I mean if I had my druthers, I wouldn't do any movies anymore, frankly.
I'm the one who said yes to these movies, and now I'm having to pay the price for it. I mean if I had my druthers, I wouldn't do any movies anymore, frankly.
Photography, painting or poetry those are just extensions of me, how I perceive things, they are my way of communicating.
Photography, painting or poetry those are just extensions of me, how I perceive things, they are my way of communicating.
I don't plan [my career]; I wait and hope the right thing will find me.
I don't plan [my career]; I wait and hope the right thing will find me.
On the role of an actor in film: "It comes down to the fact that you supply the blue, and they supply the other colors and mix them with your blue, and maybe there's some blue left in the painting and maybe there isn't. Maybe there wasn't supposed to be any there in the first place. So have some fun and make a good blue and walk away."
On the role of an actor in film: "It comes down to the fact that you supply the blue, and they supply the other colors and mix them with your blue, and maybe there's some blue left in the painting and maybe there isn't. Maybe there wasn't supposed to be any there in the first place. So have some fun and make a good blue and walk away."
Viggo Mortensen
Since his screen debut as a young Amish Farmer in Peter Weir's Witness (1985), Viggo Mortensen's career has been marked by a steady string of well-rounded performances.Mortensen was born in New York City, to Grace Gamble (Atkinson) and Viggo Peter Mortensen, Sr. His father was Danish, his mother was American, and his maternal grandfather was Canadian. His parents met in Norway. They wed and moved to New York, where Viggo, Jr. was born, before moving to South America, where Viggo, Sr. managed chicken farms and ranches in Venezuela and Argentina. Two more sons were born, Charles and Walter, before the marriage grew increasingly unhappy. When Viggo was seven, his parents sent him to a a strict boarding school, isolated in the foothills of the mountains of Argentina. Then, at age eleven, his parents divorced. His mother moved herself and the children back to her home state of New York.Viggo attended Watertown High School, and became a very good student and athlete. He graduated in 1976 and went on to St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. After graduation, he moved to Denmark - driven by the need for a defining purpose in life. He began writing poetry and short stories while working many odd jobs, from dock worker to flower seller. In 1982, he fell in love and followed his girlfriend back to New York City, hoping for a long romance and a writing career. He got neither. In New York, Viggo found work waiting tables and bar tending and began taking acting classes, studying with Warren Robertson. He appeared in several plays and movies, and eventually moved to Los Angeles, where his performance in "Bent" at the Coast Playhouse earned him a Drama-logue Critic's Award.He made his film debut with a small part in Witness (1985). He appeared in Salvation!: Have You Said Your Prayers Today? (1987) and married his co-star, Exene Cervenka. The two had a son, Henry Mortensen. But after nearly eleven years of marriage, the couple divorced.In 1999, Viggo got a phone call about a movie he did not know anything about: The Lord of the Rings. At first, he didn't want to do it, because it would mean time away from his son. But Henry, a big fan of the books, told his father he shouldn't turn down the role. Viggo accepted the part and immediately began work on the project, which was already underway. Eventually, the success of Lord of the Rings made him a household name - a difficult consequence for the ever private and introspective Viggo.Critics have continually recognized his work in over thirty movies, including such diverse projects as Jane Campion's The Portrait of a Lady (1996), Sean Penn's The Indian Runner (1991), Brian De Palma's Carlito's Way (1993), Ridley Scott's G.I. Jane (1997), Tony Scott's Crimson Tide (1995), Andrew Davis's A Perfect Murder (1998), Ray Loriga's La pistola de mi hermano (1997), and Tony Goldwyn's A Walk on the Moon (1999).Mortensen is also an accomplished poet, photographer and painter.
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