Road Scholar(cover Story)
Viggo Mortensen’s latest role— like so many before it—is a hard, rugged man on a mission. Off-screen, this Renaissance man has a softer side.
By Bret Love
Photo by Kurt Iswarienko
In the vast constellation of stars who have made Hollywood the world’s most pop-obsessed galaxy, few have the unconventional glow of 50-year-old Viggo Mortensen, star of this month’s The Road.
It’s not just his talent that makes him singular, although his turn in 2007’s Eastern Promises earned him an Academy Award nod for Best Actor (not to mention The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which received 30 Oscar nominations). Nor is it just his ruggedly handsome looks, which have earned him spots on People’s “50 Most Beautiful People,” VH1’s “Top 10 Hottest Hotties” and French Elle’s “15 Sexiest Men” lists And it’s certainly not his private life, which, since his amicable divorce from punk-rock legend Exene Cervenka (lead singer for X) back in 1998, has been refreshingly tabloid-free.
No, what makes Viggo Mortensen so compelling is the life he chooses to lead when he’s not in the harsh glare of fame’s spotlight. It’s the fact that he’s an impressively skilled horseman who purchased the horses he rode in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and 2004’s Hidalgo. It’s the fact that he’s an accomplished author of several books of poetry, which he has published through his own company, Perceval Press. It’s the fact that he’s a respected painter (his mural work can be seen in his 1998 film A Perfect Murder) and photographer whose work has been the subject of several gallery exhibits and books. And it’s the fact that he’s a jazz musician with numerous CDs to his credit. But most people don’t know anything about these endeavors: The quiet, genuinely humble Mortensen refuses to use his celebrity as a platform from which to promote his art. He didn’t become an artist for the fame.
The Lord of the Rings:
Two Towers“Life is short,” he says when asked about his creative passions, “and 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.
Photography, painting and poetry are just extensions of me and how I perceive things. They are my way of communicating.”
The average filmgoer didn’t seem to take much notice of the half-Danish actor until he was called in at the last minute to replace Stuart Townsend as Aragorn in Peter Jackson’s adaptations of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. But Mortensen’s film career began long before, with a small role opposite Harrison Ford as a young Amish farmer in Peter Weir’s 1985 film Witness, and already included critically acclaimed turns in Brian de Palma’s Carlito’s Way, Tony Scott’s Crimson Tide and Ridley Scott’s G.I. Jane before he was cast as the most fearsome swordsman in all of Middle Earth. Still, he insists that his initial reluctance to take the iconic role of Aragorn had more to do with not wanting to be away from son Henry (who ultimately convinced him to accept it) than any concerns over being typecast.
“I’m not conscious of differentiating between genres or budget size or shooting locations or anything like that on a movie,” he says. “The way I approach my work may be a bit short-sighted, and it’s certainly not the way some people do it, but I look as hard as I can to find something that would inspire me. Either I find it, or I run out of money and then take the best of whatever I’m lucky enough to get.”
Lately, the best that he can get seems to be more than good enough. This month, he’s starring opposite Charlize Th eron in The Road, an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a father leading his young son across the ravaged wasteland of a post-apocalyptic America on a desperate quest to reach the coast, fighting off lawless gangs while armed with a pistol with only two bullets.
“It’s pretty faithful to the novel,” he says of director John Hillcoat’s adaptation. “If anything, it’s grittier and more streamlined. I can’t tell you much other than the fact that the boy, played by Kodi Smit-McPhee, is unbelievable. I’ve never seen such a young child actor do what he did—and very few adult actors, for that matter.”
AppaloosaAt September’s Toronto Film Festival—where he has appeared in previous years to premiere his two Oscar-nominated collaborations with director David Cronenberg, A History of Violence and Eastern Promises—he was attracting more Academy Awards buzz. This time it was for two stunning roles: In December’s Good, he stars as John Halder, a German professor in the 1930s who writes a novel advocating compassionate euthanasia, which is unexpectedly used by the Nazis to support their own sinister ends.
And in the recently released Appaloosa, he and actor-turned-director Ed Harris star as two friends who are hired to restore law and order to a small Western town that is reduced to chaos by a violent rancher (Jeremy Irons). “I was given the book by Ed early on,” Mortensen says, “and I had really enjoyed working with him on A History Of Violence. I thought the script was really well-written. I liked the sparseness of it, the language that they used, and the polite sensibility they had [at that time] that’s mostly gone now. It wasn’t just in the upper class; it was predominant. Th ere was an almost Victorian sort of manners in the way they addressed each other, even when the circumstances were brutal.”
Asked what it was about Mortensen that made him the perfect choice to play Sheriff Virgil Cole’s rifle-toting right-hand man, Everett Hitch, Harris praises his co-star for being more than just a great actor. “We were playing two guys who had to communicate a lot about who they were without really talking about their inner feelings,” Harris says. “I wanted a guy who I could ride next to on a horse for 10 hours without saying a word and feel totally comfortable. He’s the only man I wanted to play the role, and if Viggo couldn’t have done it, I don’t know if I would have made the movie.”
Appaloosa marks Mortensen’s second Western in the last four years (aft er Hidalgo), and many critics have pointed out the similarity in structure between A History of Violence and the classic Westerns of yesteryear. But the actor admits that he finds most Westerns to be pretty terrible in terms of acting and artistic achievement, although he finds interesting points in some of them.
“I’ve watched a lot of Westerns over the years,” he says. “High Noon is an interesting one. Man of the West was an interesting movie, with Gary Cooper when he’s older, and then there are newer ones like Missouri Breaks and One-Eyed Jacks. One that has some really nice things about it is Kevin Costner and Robert Duvall in Open Range, which centers on the relationship between two men and handles the gunfighting scenes very messily, direct and quick. I like how Ed respected the genre [in Appaloosa], and you do see all these great landscapes and the beautiful design of the clothes and the town, but then he edits it together to give it dramatic tension so it wasn’t slow and ponderous. It harkens back to those great old Westerns.”
Mortensen is no stranger to dramatic tension: He’s shy by nature but rises to the challenge of being eloquent and likeable when playing his role as a big-time movie star. Sipping on his favorite Argentinean mate, flipping over a reporter’s tape after it clicks to a stop, and actually crossing the street to shake hands and sign autographs for fans outside of the Appaloosa premiere in Toronto, his openness seems almost old-fashioned. Perhaps that explains why his star seems to shine brightest in films set in simpler times.
Given Mortensen’s pedigree and the fact that last year’s McCarthy adaptation, No Country for Old Men, was nominated for eight Oscars (winning four, including Best Picture), it stands to reason that we could be seeing Mortensen at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre for the 81st Academy Awards. But Oscars aren’t what’s on his mind when he’s choosing roles. Whether saving townsfolk in the Old West past or saving his son in the dystopian future, Mortensen seems like a man born in the wrong time, reminding us of the stoic, heroic archetype most men yearn to be and most women yearn to be with. And while the actor may deny preference for any specific sort of film, he acknowledges the great time to be had in films such as Th e Road and Appaloosa.
“When I first started out in my career,” he says, “I could never play what people consider a bad guy. Once you do that once, if people go see that movie, then they want to put you in more roles like that. As an actor, you have to find a way to get lucky and get the roles you want. But people have seen me in this kind of movie, and they’ve done well. I do enjoy period pieces, and I do think that—storytelling-wise and as far as philosophy or morals—being in films set in another time or place allows you to learn something about yourself. And it is fun to make these kinds of movies. I love being outdoors, riding horses and dressing up in costumes. There’s a childlike element of fun about it that I still love.”
 Eastern Promises |
 The Road |
 Good |
 A History of Violence |
EASTERN PROMISES
(2007) Mortensen
(with costar Naomi
Watts) was nominated
for an Academy
Award for Best Actor
GOOD
(2008) Mortensen,
playing professor
John Halder, opposite
Jason Isaacs
THE LORD OF THE
RINGS: THE TWO
TOWERS
(2002)
Mortensen as Aragorn
in the adaptation of
Tolkien’s trilogy
THE ROAD
(2008) Mortensen
with onscreen son
Kodi Smit-McPhee in
this month’s release
A HISTORY OF
VIOLENCE
(2005) Mortensen
starred opposite
Maria Bello in this
Oscar-nominated film
APPALOOSA
(2008) Mortensen
is the good guy
to Jeremy Irons’
villainous character
Quadruple Threat
Viggo Mortensen can do more than just act. He’s also an artist, photographer and musician who started an independent publishing company, Perceval Press, which specializes in art, critical writing and poetry. Here’s a taste of what this Renaissance man has created over the years:
BIBLIOGRAPHY
 |
RECENT FORGERIES (1999) documents Mortensen’s first solo art exhibit, as well as works that appeared in A Perfect Murder. Foreword by Dennis Hopper |
 |
COINCIDENCE OF MEMORY |
 |
SIGNLANGUAGE (2002) accompanied a 2002 exhibit and features photos and paintings primarily created during his stay in New Zealand from 1999 to 2001. |
 |
THE HORSE IS GOOD (2004) showcases his love for horses through photos taken around the world. |
DISCOGRAPHY
 |
PANDEMONIUMFROMAMERICA (2003) is a musical collage and collection of spoken word exercises featuring guitarist Buckethead. |
 |
PLEASE TOMORROW (2004) is an eight-part instrumental series that explores an autumn day, from dusk to dawn. |
 |
INTELLIGENCE FAILURE (2005), also with Buckethead, is an ode to the dream of preserving a loving society in trying times. |
 |
TIME WAITS FOR EVERYONE (2008) features piano improvisations inspired by Hungary, Germany, Poland and Russia. |
Bookmark This Post