For the record, Viggo Mortensen is not quitting acting.

Mortensen, at the Toronto film festival today promoting his latest film, The Road, was quoted by Men's Journal as saying he has "no plans" to do another movie.

In fact, a slightly ticked Mortensen said today what he actually said was that he didn't have another film project lined up.

"I guess I should have been a bulls---er, like a lot of actors are. When they say, 'have you got anything lined up?' 'Oh, I've got 20 (projects) I'm not at liberty to discuss,'" Mortensen said.

"I was just honest with someone a little while back who asked, 'have you got a movie lined up?' and I said, 'No.' It's oh, he's quitting. I never said that," he added.

In fact, Mortensen said his next gig will be acting on stage in Spain.

"I think if you're in a play, that's considered acting as well," Mortensen added dryly.

In The Road, based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, Mortensen and young Australian actor Kodi Smit-McPhee play a father and son trying to survive in a world in the aftermath of an unspecified apocalyptic event.

Director John Hillcoat said the focus on the film is not the end of the world where people have resorted to cannibalism, it's about how humans behave under extremely adverse conditions.

"The question is asked, what happened? But that's irrelevant because actually it's about this journey ... and how we behave as humans, what makes us human, do we descend into animals or do we attach ourselves to the things that makes us special?" Hillcoat said.

Smit-McPhee, 13, whom Mortensen described as a "prankster" on set, said one major thrill came from seeing real snow falling.

"It does get pretty cold in winter in Australia but it doesn't snow, so that was actually pretty exciting for me to see the snow ... falling from the sky for the first time," Smit-McPhee said.