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 look at my job as looking at the world from points of view that are different from mine - sometimes radically different from mine.
The best thing an actor can be is flexible, because all directors are different and all actors are different.
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.
Perhaps the itinerant upbringing my brothers and I had has something to do with my continued interest in perspectives different from my own.
Each time I make a movie, it's like a paid scholarship to a different university course.
I've been told that I've arrived many times over the years so I take it with a grain of salt. It's a relatively new situation obviously, but if it all went up in smoke tomorrow, I wouldn't really care that much. There are a lot of things that interest me. As for my fortunes, it's really a crap shoot.
You get all these things, there are all these letters and gifts, sometimes strange ones; most of the time it can be really nice. But at the same time, it's overwhelming. Because I know I'm going to have to look through it. Most of it is filling the corners of my house and I can't respond to it all right away.
I have never been in a natural place and felt that was a waste of time. I never have. And it's a relief. If I'm walking around a desert or whatever, every second is worthwhile.
What keeps the film from being by-the-numbers has a lot to do with David. A lot of directors would have made an exploitation movie.
there he is, I'm watching him, there he goes.
It's one of the best roles I've ever played,
It's also just weird getting that much fan mail from strangers. I may just have to say that if I'm doing a book signing or you catch me on the street, then fine. But otherwise I cannot do it anymore. It takes hours everyday and it takes too much time away from other things I must do.
It's just like with people. You're going to get along better working with them - human or equine - if you ask politely rather than demand that they do things.
It's a simple narrative on the surface, ... The setting, certainly. And there are certain things that remind one of genre imagery that you've seen before, whether it's action movies or crime movies or Westerns. There are a lot of elements that look familiar. But it's kind of like the family itself. Everything that looks normal, in the end, isn't really. And like a lot of David's movies, at the end you say, 'Well, is anyone really normal?'