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'm sort of contrary and stubborn sometimes. When everybody says, 'You have to read this book! You have to read this book!' I'm like 'Oh, I'll get around to it.'
As [John] Tolkien himself said, the story [Lord of the Ring ] is not allegorical. He said so when people tried to make analogies to World War II and the fight against Hitler and his fascist coalition.
If there's one thing I've learned from traveling, it's that it is definitely more important how you are than where you are. You can say, 'Oh, I hate X city, I hate that country, or I prefer this city,' but it's a little bit up to you to find some kind of happiness.
I like stories that leave you wanting more, leave you wondering, but don't tell you everything.
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.
Joseph Campbell said the privilege of a lifetime is being yourself. That's his feeling. And I guess it's mine too.
Each time I make a movie, it's like a paid scholarship to a different university course.
More often than not, the experience of shooting the movie has been disappointing and the end product has been a mere shadow of what I hoped it would be. But immersing myself in the story - that's what I like best of all.
It's hard not to get depressed when you pay attention to the world and how strangely and corrupt the people in it sometimes behave.
Photography, painting or poetry - those are just extensions of me, how I perceive things; they are my way of communicating.
I wrote a letter to the magazine [Time magazine] pointing out that [Richard] Corliss's comparison of Christopher Lee's Saruman to Osama Bin Laden, and the vastly outnumbered defenders of Helm's Deep united against the Orcs to the "Coalition of the Willing" fighting the good fight against Muslim hordes, displayed the simplistic, xenophobic, and arrogant worldview that makes the government of the United States feared and mistrusted around the world. The editors claimed they had no space to print my brief letter, which I felt was dishonest and cowardly.
I think every family is dysfunctional, and some manage to control it better than others.
Any nominations a movie gets helps to raise the level of curiosity in the public, so in that sense awards and nominations are important.
One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from a horse master. He told me to go slow to go fast. I think that applies to everything in life. We live as though there aren't enough hours in the day but if we do each thing calmly and carefully we will get it done quicker and with much less stress.