Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Peter Mortensen Jr. /ˈviːɡoʊ ˈmɔːrtənsən/is an American actor. He made his film debut in Peter Weir's 1985 thriller Witness, and subsequently appeared in many notable films of subsequent years, including The Indian Runner, Carlito's Way, Crimson Tide, Daylight, The Portrait of a Lady, G.I. Jane, A Perfect Murder, A Walk on the Moon, and 28 Days...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth20 October 1958
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
I now realize that I was very fortunate to have grown up in many different places, surrounded by all kinds of people, all kinds of points of view.
You can't really divorce yourself and your life from the world you live in.
We all experience many freakish and unexpected events - you have to be open to suffering a little. The philosopher Schopenhauer talked about how out of the randomness, there is an apparent intention in the fate of an individual that can be glimpsed later on. When you are an old guy, you can look back, and maybe this rambling life has some through-line. Others can see it better sometimes. But when you glimpse it yourself, you see it more clearly than anyone.
A lot of people can forget about you in Los Angeles.
In the end, the actor's main power is the power to say, 'No.'
Kids accept where they are because they don't know the past. They know what they have; they know where they are.
You know, real life doesn't just suddenly resolve itself. You have to keep working at it.
With few exceptions, one ought always do what one is afraid of.
Perhaps the itinerant upbringing my brothers and I had has something to do with my continued interest in perspectives different from my own.
You see people on the street yelling and think they're crazy, but maybe they're just happy and expressing what they feel at all times.
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?
My job as an artist, as I see it, is to understand and in some cases to take on various ways of thinking about people and the world that are different from my own, sometimes radically different.
In a lot of ways, I envy someone like Omar Sharif who lived in a hotel for decades.
Most actors can't make any kind of living.