I just came across this interview with Viggo about "A History of Violence"
AHOV and moviemaking in general
Interview : Viggo Mortensen
Posted by Clint Morris on March 8, 2006
www.moviehole.net/interviews/20060308_interview_viggo_mortensen.htmlIt was a relaxed, almost flower-powered, Viggo
Mortensen, complete with bare feet and decorated
wrist bands, that strolled into his top-floor
apartment at a high up Melbourne hotel.
Put it down to his personality – though
softly-spoken, it’s immediately obvious, since he makes a
point to check your tape recorder is recording
properly before speaking, that he’s one heck of a
nice guy, and far from the egocentric player that
he could’ve easily been – or put it down to the
fact that it’s a genuine honour to talk about a
movie he’s proud of.
After all, says Mortensen, it’s a lot more
difficult travelling the world promoting the hell out
of a movie that’s rubbish. “Oh hell yeah…there
aren’t too many good movies, so this is a small
miracle actually”.
Mortensen, 46, best known these days as the burly
hero Aragorn in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy,
seems genuinely satisfied with his latest film,
the David Cronenberg directed “History of
Violence”, even going so far as to suggest – and
despite having starred in such classics as
“Rings”, Brian DePalma’s “Carlito’s Way”, Tony
Goldwyn’s “A Walk on the Moon”, Gus Van Sant’s
“Psycho”, and Sean Penn’s “The Indian Runner” –
that it’s his best film to date.
“If not the best, in terms of the overall
process, it’s one of the best”, Mortensen gladly admits.
“I’ve never had a more satisfying time working
with a group of people.
In fact, says Mortensen, it “reminded me of the
first movie I was in, the first move I didn’t get
cut out of, and that was Witness, directed by
your countryman Peter Weir. A good time was had on
that set but everyone took their job seriously.
It was well organised and prepared - there was no
shouting, no panicking - just an enjoyable
process of telling a meaningful story in a meaningful
way. 21 years later I had a very similar
experience, so that was nice.”
Though the script grabbed him from the get-go,
the Manhattan-born actor says his interest peaked
in the project when Cronenberg (“The Fly”, “Dead
Ringers”) signed on to direct. In another
director’s hands, the project might have went off
the rails, but Mortensen believed Cronenberg
could be the man to really open this baby up.
“When I read it, I could see obviously the
potential, in it’s unrefined state. I could see that
the character was potentially pretty interesting
- there were a lot of interesting relationships
in the story and an interesting central dilemma.
But I also had misgivings about it because I felt
that most directors would take it and make
something of an exploitation movie of it, without being
thoughtful and layered as David was. I didn’t
know David was going to direct”, he says, but
Cronenberg was the icing on the cake this complex
film so dearly called for. “When I found out he
was going to direct I thought that was
interesting. When I sat down with him I was honest with him
and said ’I was worried about certain things -
what is this that you’re going to do?’ Towards the
end the story took more of a pulp-novel approach
- it was a little mindless, a little gratuitous.
But that changed. We agreed, it felt like we were
on the same page from the beginning - I think
most of the actors felt that way
Mortensen believes every actor Cronenberg has
worked with, has become a better actor because of
it. “Again and again you see actors like Jeff
Goldblum, Geena Davis, William Hurt, Jeremy Irons,
any number of people - they tend to give some of
their best performances. Because he knows how to
work with actors - he’s a great storyteller, but
above all, he’s a great communicator. On one hand
he’s very scientific in his approach, very
organised and analytical about it. By the time he
starts shooting, everyone is on the same page,
everyone is very clear on what the blueprint is -
it’s very lean and refined.
Cronenberg took the film’s storyline of a mild
mannered man whose hidden past comes back to haunt
him and used it to really fleshed out the
mechanics of human behaviour, without trying to
influence his audience into any particular way of
thinking.
“He’s not trying to manipulate you. He just shows
us how we are. We’re strange. We’re all strange.
He just peels away a layer of so-called normalcy
and shows that we’re all very unpredictable”, he
explains. “No matter how strange his movies are -
the behaviour, generally speaking, is very
accurately human”.
What’s great about Cronenberg is that he’s a
director that’s not afraid to take risks, says the
actor, and it reflects in his catalogue of vastly
different films. “He’s not pigeonholed [as any
particular type of filmmaker]. Some directors
just do the same thing one after another, he
doesn’t.” Says the actor, finding it hard to pick
a favourite of the Cronenberg back catalogue,
because “they’re all so different”.
“He doesn’t really repeat himself, and like a lot
of directors with long and respectable careers,
he continues to grow. A lot of directors don’t.
But I think he takes very seriously what he does
but he doesn’t take himself that serious. It
allows him the freedom to roam and try new things. He
said at one time that the reason he makes a movie
is to find out why he wanted to make it. The
only way he can find out what the movie is really
about is by making it.
It was also good, says Mortensen, to get back to
films that were a little more intimate, after
working on the “sprawling” production that was
“Lord of the Rings”. “We had all these units
shooting on that one, on this, it was just the
one unit”.
With “Violence”, Mortensen could concentrate on
really examining a character again, and it gave
him the chance to share scenes with some of
today’s best actors, including William Hurt, Ed Harris
and rising star Maria Bello. “She is fantastic.
Just the way she opened herself up so emotionally,
like that. It could’ve gone either way”.
Though he admits that the finished film didn’t
exactly grab him until about 20 minutes in (“I
thought it was a bit strange”), he realised that,
by the end, he had just watched one of the best
films he had ever seen, one that he believes
“they’re going to study it in schools” in a few years
time. “There’s some films that you watch and
think they’re great, but when you revisit them, you
realise they don’t really stand-up. This is one
of those films that will stand up.
“What I would say about this story is it’s called
A History of Violence but in a sense it’s A
History of Anti-Violence. You realise the man I’m
playing is someone who, in spite of his
upbringing and the social pressures on him, has
been trying to find another way of living. He’s
made any number of approaches and while they may
not have been effective at least he’s always
tried to find another way than violence in
resolving conflict. What I think is positive about the
story is that he continues to try. What it says
to me is that anyone, no matter what their history
is, what their behaviour has been, not matter how
badly they’ve screw things up, can always
change. It’s never too late to make amends. And
that can go for nations and governments as well as
people.
He continues, “It confirms to my mind that if you
want to tell a story or make a work or art that
has universal application, that’s understood by
everyone, deal in specifics. Be very specific. And
that’s what happens here. Some people say it’s
about America, about violence in America. Well, we
can talk about that but it’s so little a part of
what this is that it’s no accident people have
understood it and related to it all over the
world. Generally speaking, there’s an approval and a
gratitude when it comes to the movie
because...well, it’s a good movie. And that’s a small miracle
because it doesn’t happen all that often. A good
script, a good director, the appropriate cast.
Then it turns out well. Then it gets
overwhelmingly good reviews and it makes money - all those
things don’t come together very often.”
Mortensen has praise for most of the people he
has worked with though, even when some of the films
haven’t made money, well…all but one. Renny
Harlin, who the actor worked with on the little-known
80’s dud “Prison”, was a “screaming,
authoritarian….and when someone behaves like that, I just
assume that they’re insecure.”
The latest director he worked with was Agustín
Díaz Yanes on a Spanish film called “Alatriste”.
Due for release in America in September, it’s the
story of a Spanish soldier-turned-mercenary who
was one of the heroic figures from the country's
17th century imperial wars.
The film re-teamed Mortensen with legendary
swordsman Bob Anderson, who worked with him on the
“Rings” films. The Spanish loved the “old
pirate”, smiles Mortensen, who Anderson claims to be one
of the best actors he has ever worked with, who
apparently taught him a “different style of
fighting” this time around. “I’m really looking
forward to this one. It’s a good film”.
- CLINT MORRIS
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE Commences Thursday around
Australia
