© 2007 TV2 Danmark.
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This is a transcription of Viggo's appearance on the Danish TV2 programme
Go'Aften Danmark, hosted by Hans Pilgaard.
HP: Welcome Viggo Mortensen and congratulations on your new film [shaking hands], an outstanding movie...
VM: Yes, thank you.
HP: ...where you play a Russian mafia gangster-type driver. I suppose it is far away from the person you really are, so how did you prepare for the role?
VM: I started by learning Russian, or at least enough for the movie, and then I went to Russia; luckily I knew some Russians with similar experiences.
HP: So you simply met a real mafia boss?
VM: Or people that have been in prison and had some tattoos made.
HP: How was it, cause you seem so incredibly cool in the movie, to meet these people in real life?
VM: I am very nervous right now...
HP: Really? Please don't be. Is it because I am the one who knows the script and you don't?
VM: No, no, no, it's fine really.
HP: Cause it is right here [handing it to him]...
VM: No, that's even worse.
HP: When sitting opposite a real mafia boss who might have lives on his conscience. How was that?
VM: No, he wasn't a mafia boss, but I have talked to people who know the tattoos and the language and the kind of Russian I was to speak. Because at first I got help from a professor in the USA, a Russian, and when I met the others they said "It's correct, but it sounds like a professor. We would probably say it like this or in this way." That helped a lot. Then I could pass it on to David Cronenberg.
HP: Do you still remember some of the Russian words?
VM: Yes, but I only remember awful words that are not so nice to say here on TV.
HP: We do not understand anyway, so you can say whatever you want. There was also something about the Russian tattoos you see in the movie. There are some pictures where you can see those on your entire body. There are also some on your hands and something about you going out in London still wearing them.
VM: Yes, there were about 40 to 50 pieces. I had them on my hands and...yes...after the first fourteen days, I did not wash them off entirely, then there would be less work for the man who has to do them every day. Cause it took a long time.
But when I met some Russians, or they saw me, they got a bit nervous, so I thought I'd better wash them off every day.
HP: So there was someone who could see your tattoos and knew what they meant?
VM: Yes, there was. I was sitting in a bar having a beer and suddenly they stopped talking. I just wanted to see if I could understand some of what they were saying. And suddenly they stopped talking and looked at them [the tattoos]. I could see they were afraid and looked at my hand.
HP: If you looked at them as Nikolai does, I understand they were afraid.
VM: No, I just thought it was awful, but apparently we had done a good job.
HP: It is awful and the story behind the movie about Russian girls coming to London in hope of a better life is awful too. Do you remember or do you know that feeling of...what you dreamt about when you were young?
VM: Yes, being an actor, sort of, getting the role in a movie like this, telling interesting things. And the movie is hard and sometimes brutal but it is also beautiful. And there is an interesting relationship between Naomi Watts' character Anna and my Nikolai and the French Vincent Cassel, who plays the son of the mafia boss. I am a driver. He is really good.
HP: That is true, but as you mention, it is very brutal. There are scenes where you want to turn away in disgust but this also happens in real life. Another significant thing in the movie is that there is a scene where you are completely naked and where you are fighting. I will not reveal what happens since it is a very brutal scene, but how was it to play it? How did you feel playing it? I mean, you seem to be a very shy person. How was it to play naked on screen? It must be very difficult?
VM: Well, I was bothered a bit, but not more than I should be. At first it was a bit unusual, but mostly it hurt. I was kicked around in that sauna. But I think it was made very well and the director did a good job. And what I appreciate with the director David Cronenberg is that, in comparison to many directors, he is responsible with violence. He shows how horrible it is, the consequences you may say. It is not covered up, you see how it is and how horrible it is, and I think that is a good thing.
If you need to show it, show it like it is.
HP: A little like the old spirit of Stanley Kubrick. Showing how beautiful it is to show how awful it is?
VM: Yeah, maybe.
