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2012 hasn't exactly been the busiest year for meaty in-depth interviews and publicity events, but though there has been a lack of quantity, there has been quality and I've collected some wonderful gems. Here are my favourite Quotes of the Year and you won't be surprised to discover that quite a few of them are funny. I've presented them all over the last 12 months, but they all deserve another airing. What better way to get into a festive mood?



© 20th Century Fox/Haddock Films.


Q: Everybody has a plan. What´s yours?

A:. I actually don´t have one

"When I wake up I think of death"
By Karmentxu Marín - translated by Ollie, Rio and Zoe
El Pais
9 September 2012



'I'm not usually a suit person? You're lucky I'm wearing shoes!'

Viggo Q&A after accepting the Coolidge Award in Boston
Greendragon posting on TORn
6 March 2012



Viggo Mortensen has so much on-screen magnetism, he'll probably destroy the credit cards of anyone sitting in the first 10 rows.

Wallace Bain
Santa Cruz Sentinel
25 January 2012



Following the press Q&A, as he left the stage, he paused, looked at the huge 'Viggo Mortensen' image on the screen behind him, and said, 'You spelled my name wrong?' There was a horrified moment as the organisers checked in panic ? then he smiled, 'No, just kidding?.'

Viggo after accepting the Coolidge Awardin Boston
Greendragon posting on TORn
6 March 2012



Hi Viggo, aside from knowing your lines, what's the most important thing you do to prepare yourself before you go in front of camera?

Breathe.

Empire On-line Web Chat
31 January 2012



We talked a little about your work as an actor, painter, poet and musician. They all seem linked by story. So I'm wondering what you think is the significance or power of stories? Why are they so important?

We are the stories we tell about ourselves, the stories we tell about others, the stories we read about everyone and everything.

Viggo Mortensen's heroes
Ethan Gilsdorf,
Boston Globe
3 March 2012



What was it that got you interested in A Dangerous Method? Was it mostly working again with Cronenberg, or the psychological theme ? Or both?

Firstly, working with David Cronenberg again. Secondly, the bait that David threw my way, in the form of an elaborate system of undergarments that Sigmund Freud was reputed to have employed on some of his summer excursions deep into the Alps. They included an elaborate system of miniaturised pulleys and wires that assisted in muscular stimulation for the steeper climbs. I was allowed to wear these undergarments in all scenes whether I was climbing or not.

Viggo Mortensen
Empire On-line Web Chat
31 January 2012



I ask if he got to know Freud well enough to guess what the psychotherapist would have made of Mortensen. He cracks his knuckles and gives his first short answer.

"I have no idea."

Viggo Mortensen
By Lucy Kellaway
Financial Times
10 February 2012



DC: As I look at his nose, it appears much more Freudian than it used to.

VM: It's getting bigger, isn't it?

DC: Yeah, it is.

Cronenberg and Mortensen - Dangerous Minds
Shortlist.com
10 February 2012



Mortensen may take a bit of warming up, but once he's off, he goes at it like a fire hose, frequently switching subjects in mid-sentence as a new thought strikes him. Looking through the transcript of our interview afterwards is like reading Molly Bloom's soliloquy at the end of Ulysses.

Viggo Mortensen on 'A Dangerous Method'
By John Preston
Seven Magazine
The Telegraph
11 February 2012



"We had our chances, but things didn´t turn out for us as we would have liked. I was furious, very depressed. I watched the match on my laptop, in the restaurant of a gas station near Boston, USA. People were staring at me, sitting there with my San Lorenzo shirt, behaving like a crazy man, talking to the little screen, shouting at the players."

Viggo on watching San Lorenzo lose
Knowing How To Lose
By Viggo Mortensen - translated by Ollie, Rio and Zoe
Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro
5 March 2012



Mortensen speaks five languages, and seems happy to discuss football in all of them.

Interview: Viggo Mortensen, actor
Scotsman.com
9 February 2012



"Have I behaved? I haven't talked about San Lorenzo too much, right?"

Viggo Mortensen in a Todos tenemos un plan interview
Soledad Villamil - Viggo Mortensen: Brothers In Arms
By Nazareno Brega - translated by Ollie and Zoe
Clarin
29 August 2012



"It comes from a very good tailor in Boedo, in Buenos Aires. San Lorenzo de Almagro".

Viggo on being asked who tailored his Golden Globes suit
Mortensen highlights his Argentinian team at the Golden Globes
By E J Tamara - translated by Ollie, Rio and Zoe
Publimetro
16 January 2012

In an interview with Indiewire.com yesterday, Cronenberg talked about the plans he and Steve Knight had to take Nikolai's story into the heart of Russia, and the frustrating reasons behind the cancelling of Eastern Promises 11. We were all hoping to see this film so much, not just because we hoped to see Viggo, along with the rest of the cast, take this story forward, but also because Nicolai is one of the most complex and fascinating of characters. Teetering between good and evil, we all had the same question: which way would he would fall?


">www.viggo-works.com/webpageimages/10epnikcap.jpg">
© Focus Features.


Like the movie surrounding him, Nikolai has many layers, and the complexity of his character is testament to how well-thought out Eastern Promises is.

Patrick Herald
Valley Vanguard
September 24, 2007



Nikolai, a man who knows how to hold his tongue and turn off his emotions...

J Sanford
Kalamazoo Gazette
21 Sept 2007



Nikolai, as played by Viggo Mortensen, is icy, reptilian, monstrous and strangely charming all at once. It's the charm, however, that draws you to him - the indication that despite the horrific acts he's capable of, there's still a human being lurking inside.

Eastern Promises - Take Your Breath Away
J Clark Brewer
Atlanta INtown
25 September 2007



Lantern-jawed and taciturn, Nikolai says more with his eyes than with his words; we're often left tensely watching his dark, flashing orbs, seeking some clue as to whether he'll let a slight or an insult pass, or surrender to the suppressed brutality that simmers within his breast.

Promises, Promises
By Mike Gibson
Metro Pulse
3 October 2007



He is indeed a hardened criminal, a tattooed graduate of the Russian prison system, a stone-cold killer. The movies most-heralded scene - the fight for his life in a steam room shows that Nikolai knows how to kill. And yet he can exhibit the most unexpected and inexplicable acts of compassion, a betrayal of the dossier moviegoers are quietly assembling on Nikolai.

Eastern Promises A Gripping Mob Thriller
Robert J Hawkins
Bend Weekly
21 December 2007



Nikolai.... is a living and breathing entity. What the audience doesn't know about him?and Mortensen has endeavoured to discover and put in his performance?is as important as what's explicitly revealed.

Finding Viggo Mortensen
By Susan Thea Posnock
Awards Daily: Oscar Watch
awardsdaily.com



"The better you are at being undercover, the more likely you are to lose your own self. And to become that person. And you can see that this is something that Nikolai's going to have to deal with big-time, because he's basically cut off all ties with his former life by the end of the movie."

David Cronenberg
David Cronenberg & Viggo Mortensen - Eastern Promises
By Peter Canavese
Groucho Reviews
24 August 2007



He immersed himself into the mind of this man born and raised in the former Soviet Union, a dark figure with more good to him than anyone around him can even imagine. Mortensen played Nikolai as a real person (living in a very raw London, thanks to David Cronenberg's direction) and his idealization of this character other actors have similarly played to over-the-top results in many crime stories is among the best in the genre, ever.

THE TOP 10 OPINIONS: PERFORMANCES THAT WON'T WIN OSCARS...
Johnny Alba
The Oscar Igloo
7 February 2008



"The flip-side of Tom Stall," says Cronenberg, Nikolai is also burdened with secrets, though not in the same way according to Mortensen. "I don't think he's deceiving himself. I think he's quite clear on who he is, where he is, what's at risk and what his motives are."

I've taken on too much...
by James Mottram, The Independent / UK.
23 October 2007



"When you see the character sitting alone, he's like a monk. It's like you've given up things of this world for other purposes, to serve something bigger than you. It just happens to be something scary."

Viggo Mortensen
I've taken on too much...
by James Mottram, The Independent / UK.
23 October 2007



The final image of Nikolai is unsettling for being enigmatic. You say it's an honor for Nikolai to receive these tattoo stars, you say it is something he would strive for, and yet it is likewise repulsive and horrifying. When he reveals them to Yuri, Yuri winces and recoils.

Cronenberg: He's gone over a line. There's no coming back, in a way.

Mortensen: The unspoken thing from Yuri is, "Well, we'll make use of you as long as we can, but there may be a point where you're totally on your own, and there might be a time when we are on the wrong side of the fence from each other completely, and I can't vouch for you and won't know anything about you. If I have to, I'll arrest you."

David Cronenberg And Viggo Mortensen And The Hard Work Of Killing
By Michael Guillén
Green Cine
10 September 2007



"With Eastern Promises, I think each time you see it you see more and you have more questions."

And with exquisite timing, Mortensen pauses then adds, "And I'm not going to tell you what he was thinking.

"I know what he was thinking, obviously, but it's good that you wonder, you know?"

Eastern Promises A Gripping Mob Thriller
Robert J Hawkins
Bend Weekly
21 December 2007



It's hard to leave Nikolai, though, burning a hole in the screen. Mortensen has played a king of Middle-earth and, for Cronenberg, a man with two lives. This is the first time, though, his performance seemed so much bigger than the film surrounding it. That he manages the feat with so few wasted gestures puts him in line with the greats.

Mortensen Is Driving Force In Cronenberg Film
Boston Globe
By Ty Burr
14 September 2007

It won't be long now and all the waiting will be over. We will finally see The Hobbit up on the Big Screen. It has taken years of negotiations, false starts, meticulous preparation, casting speculation, hard work and herculean planning to get us to this point. But sometimes planning and preparation isn't everything. Who would have thought a casting disaster and a last minute panic to find an Aragorn would have given The Lord of the Rings not only the King of Middle-earth but a man who Elijah Wood called "...our king and inspiration". No small achievement after jumping on a plane, unprepared, to face 14 months of filming. After all these years of accepting that Viggo 'is' Aragorn, it's hard to remember just how amazing that initial commitment to take on the role really was.



© New Line Productions Inc


"We got a script to Viggo and his reaction was to say no! It took three more days to convince him."

Peter Jackson
The Making of the Movie Trilogy
By Brian Sibley
Harper Collins
2002



"Knowing Viggo now, his conversation was incredibly Viggo-like, but at the time it was incredibly off-putting," Mr. Jackson said. "He was asking about the character: how long has he lived with the elves? Where are his parents? If I didn't know the answer, I'd make it up. There would be this terrible long silence, and I didn't know if the phone had disconnected or not, and then he'd ask another question and there would be 30 more seconds of silence."

"At the very end of the call, I thought it had gone very badly, that he wasn't going to do the role," Mr. Jackson continued. "I was thinking, `What are we going to do now?' as I was waiting for the call to end, and then there was another long silence and Viggo said, `I guess I'll see you on Tuesday.' "

Peter Jackson on offering him the part of Aragorn
The Man Who Would Just As Soon Not Be King
By Sarah Lyall
New York Times
2003



"I've never before been in a position to do a job that another actor had already started. Although I was grateful for the role, I felt a little awkward about that. I never even met Stuart. It would have been much worse had he been my best friend or something. He's much younger than me and the character of Aragorn needed to be older. It was just a casting miscalculation - one of those things that happens sometimes. I also had to look older than I am for some scenes and that would have been hard for Stuart."

Viggo Mortensen
I've Loved All My Leading Ladies
By Garth Pearce
Now magazine
January 2002



"...as an actor I was a little nervous, because I hadn't read the book, and I wasn't sure if I would have the time to give them good value for their money, not knowing the material at all. From what they had told me the other actors had already been there for months, preparing and learning all the various skills, dialects and rehearsing."

Viggo Mortensen
Hail To The King
By Lawrence French
Starburst #305
December 2003



"So there I am on the plane for New Zealand, reading that enormous, telephone directory-sized book and then the scripts, and a couple of days later I'm filming. I continued to feel unprepared, but at least I didn't have much time to get nervous, which was probably good!"

Viggo Mortensen
Official Movie Guide



We knew we were blessed in having Viggo - who is part-Danish descent - step into the role of Aragorn when he arrived carrying a copy of the Volsunga Saga that he had taken from his bookshelf!


Philippa Boyens
The Making of the Movie Trilogy



"Viggo paced up and down and said, "Do you think we could just put a few more ties on these boots?" And in that moment - I had known the first time he put that costume on that it was ten times better on him and that was actually to do with the amount of - just Viggo's experience and age and life. He imbued that costume with its own life. The terrifying thing for me was that I might have an actor who simply wanted to get rid of it, but he did not do that.

He just wanted to add to it. I was in love with Viggo from the beginning. (laughs)"

Ngila Dickson
DVDFILE.com Interview



'I'd come to the project very late and worked hard, with little time off,' he says. 'I became worn out and concerned about my ability to be up to the task. I was so tired that sometimes I was practically hallucinating. It was a good job that there was always someone else from the cast to help me out.'

I've Loved All My Leading Ladies
By Garth Pearce
Now magazine
January 2002



"I was jet-lagged when I arrived in Wellington, and they drove me to these old army barracks. Inside was sort of a small gym. Against the wall, kind of vibrating and all tensed-up and sweating, was a whole group of people. It was the stunt team, some of them had real scars and they were very scary-looking, holding all of these rusty, blood-stained implements of destruction.

Bob Anderson, the sword-master, introduced them as the people I'd be fighting with for the next year-and-a-half or so. Then he gave me my sword, pointed me in their direction and said, 'Go.' They all came screaming, running at me. I didn't know quite what to do, so I sort of covered myself and they stopped right in my face, waving these weapons. Bob said, 'OK, good. You didn't run away, that's a start.' That's kind of how I got going on these movies. It was that way with everything."

MVP of Middle-earth
By Bob Strauss
U-Daily News
29 January 2004
U-Daily News



"Even before I spoke a single word of dialogue, I was forced to confront the physicality of my character. It was probably helpful to do something physical before speaking. More than for any other character, Aragorn's actions speak for him. His choices, the decisions he makes, his physicality, his body, tell you a lot about him. He's a man who throws himself into situations. Which is why it was good to begin my work with a swordfight."

Viggo Mortensen
Official Movie Guide



"I'm still shocked that that was the first thing he did," says Wood, who had an early dinner with Mortensen during which he found him hard to talk with. "But when he started working, there was no question. This was Aragorn, this was the man who was meant to play this role. We had an immense amount of respect for him being able to jump in so quickly."

Elijah Wood on Viggo shooting the Weathertop battle as his first scene
The Hero Returns
By Tom Roston
Premiere 2003



The filming was going on at the far end of the [Prancing Pony] set when I noticed this figure in a dark hood, smoking a pipe, sitting in another corner of the set altogether. Then I realized: it was Viggo. He wasn't required in the scene, he was just sitting there, observing the vibe, he was actually being Strider, being the outsider, the lonely man in the corner that no one spoke to.

Costa Botes, Video Documentarian
Official Movie Guide



'Ultimately, you create your own luck. Fate does step in. When we ended up with Viggo, fate was dealing us a very kind hand. Viggo, in hindsight, was the one person who was perfect for this film. He came out of nowhere, and suddenly there was Aragorn.'

Peter Jackson
The Lord of the Rings: The Untold Story
By Ian Nathan
Empire
December 2004

Simona Coppa of Grazia describes Viggo as 'seductive' in our recently translated interview, something that goes beyond beauty and which is a mix of the physical and the intellectual, with a little bit danger thrown in because you never know where it might lead. Heck, he even managed to be seductive as Freud (who both Viggo and Cronenberg thought had a seductive personality) and as Lucifer. So what seduces Viggo, who's probably cornered the market in seductive characters? As always, the answer is very revealing.



© Neo Motion Pictures/Overseas Film Group.


Are you are aware of being very seductive?

"Only when I get into a character. And only if I believe in it myself."

By Simona Coppa - translated by Ollie
Grazia
9 October 2012



Viggo Mortensen is an extraordinarily beautiful man. But his handsome features are merely a suggestion of the tremendous sensitivity and resonant spirit that inform his inner self. He speaks with a gentle yet engaging passion and carries himself with a sense of calm that seems to radiate outwards to anyone in proximity - whether it be the ardent fans he enjoys speaking to while walking up red carpets or the hotel waiter who brings him boiling water so he can brew his cherished maté, a syrupy tea first tasted as a young boy growing up in Argentina.

Viggo Mortensen: "It's my nature to do a lot"
By covermg.com
10 July 2012



Mortensen is a matinee idol with a philosopher's soul ? Jean-Jacques Rousseau trapped in the body of Rudolph Valentino.

Viggo Mortenson is complicated
By Micjelle Devereaux
San Francisco Bay Guardian
12 September 2007



Mortensen - who, in playing heroes light and dark, has effortlessly come to embody the best of Us - is soft spoken, loyal to a fault, brainy, literate, artistic, hunky, sensual, athletic and strong; he's the ultimate ideal of what a male heterosexual should be. The ladies and the gay men love him and pretty much everyone else does, too. I bet the guy even turns off his cell phone in movie theatres.

Movie review: The Road will rivet you
Marshall Fine
Huffington Post
25 November 2009



There are very few actors that you can truly call an artiste. Someone with a level of talent in other forms aside from putting their face up on the screen to look pretty or handsome. It takes a very special and unique individual to offer up more than just a nice face for the camera, and one of those people would be Viggo Mortensen.

Interview with Viggo Mortensen
by JimmyO
JoBlo.com
14 December 2007



Almost serenading the audience with his Austrian accent, Mortensen is instantly Sigmund Freud without a shadow of a doubt. With a calm, cool and elegant demeanor he walks with confidence, cane at his side and cigar always hanging from his mouth. He seduces the audience and he seduces Jung...

Brad Brevet
Rope of Silicon
10 September 2011



He even manages the tricky balance of being horrible and seductive enough to slip you out of your soul, a balance few Lord of Darknesses achieve. Plus, he manages it in a mullet. Come on, you always knew that Satan not only invented that hairstyle, but rocks the business in the front and party in the back.

Stars in Rewind: Viggo Mortensen in 'The Prophecy'
by Elisabeth Rappe
Cinematical
12 October 2009



Viggo Mortensen, however, is that rare American actor who is both muscular and humane, tough and sensitive, fighter and lover. He seduces us with a threat of danger, his chiseled Nordic physique and stunning blue eyes. Never over the top, for Mortensen, less is more. His performances are slow reveals of hidden information and emotion.

Viggo Mortensen Talks The Road
By Anne Thompson
Indie Wire
13 September 200



I am being seduced by royalty. And not your garden variety Windsor, either. Admittedly, he looks more like a gypsy in his earthy tunic repaired to within an inch of its life, his hands and nails bearing the ingrained grit of a farmer. But he's a king all right: the King, the Lord of Men. He is Aragorn, son of Arathorn, and any minute now he's going to reach out one of those taut brown arms, lift me up on his trusty steed and whisk me away from all this...

The King and I
By Julie Hosking
Sunday Telegraph
23 November 2003



David Cronenberg said that when he first met you to talk about A History Of Violence, his goal was "to seduce Viggo". How did he go about it?

He was honest. I think the most seductive or interesting thing is when people are honest.

In Conversation With Viggo Mortensen
Dorian Lynskey
Empire
March 2008
Empire



All great artists reveal themselves more in their work than in interviews. Every time Viggo's in front of the camera or picks up a pen or a canvas or a camera, he's opening the door to his heart. This is where he's telling you the secrets of his life . . . Viggo cannot strike a fake note. I say with absolute experience that if he doesn't believe it, he won't do it.

Philip Ridley, Director
The Reflecting Skin and The Passion of Darkly Noon
The Telegraph



"I think he has a quality of self-knowing that challenges everyone that he meets - perhaps unwittingly. But the electrical charge of that challenge of 'How well do you know yourself? Cause I know myself real well.' You know, that's kind of the unspoken Viggo experience. He's also fascinated by other people. And when you combine those elements, it's very charismatic. It can definitely be interpreted as sexy."

Diane Lane
The Hero Returns
By Tom Roston
Premiere 2003

He has an ancient Danish name and as a young man, Viggo lived and worked in Denmark for about 5 years, as a dock worker, a rose seller, at a Burger King and as a waiter. He constantly returns there to spend time with family and has brought several exhibitions there. Playing Aragorn helped him find his inner Norseman, Bill Manhire found the 'blood and honey' of Scandinavia in his poetry and Queen Margrethe of Denmark honoured him with the Knight's Cross of the Order of Dannebrog. Very soon he will be getting ready to shoot his first film in Danish. Argentina may be one of Viggo's spiritual homes but Denmark is surely another, making him the world's only American Latin Viking. No wonder it's hard to pin him down.



ROTK: Copenhagen Premiere
Image Thomas Borberg.
© Polfoto.


What is it about Denmark that you like?

I don`t know. It`s just home somehow.

Viggo and Aunt Tulle Meet the Press in Denmark
TVA
22 October 2005



Following university, he travelled to Copenhagen to discover his Danish roots, exploring, picking up work at the docks and in a flower market. "It felt important that I should know about that part of me."

The Outsider
By Martyn Palmer
The Times
17 September 2005



"I spent all my childhood in Argentina and I feel at home in the Hispanic countries and cultures. In Denmark, I discovered the sense of family and a certain work ethic. I am very close to my uncles, aunts, cousins and I am emotionally very open with them. I am a strange mixture of very methodical North and more chaotic South."

Viggo Mortensen - The Anti-star
By - translated by Kaijamin
Paris Match
2 October 2008



"There is no doubt that my heart beats heavily for Denmark and, during my current visit to Denmark, the first thing I did was visit my aunt Tulle in Ringsted to have 'Biksemad'."

My Heart Beats For Denmark
By Kim Kastrup - translated by Rosen
Ekstra Bladet
25 September 2007



Amongst the more than 190 pictures from all over the world that Viggo is showing, there are many Danish themes, including the railway station at Odense and from the Mid-Zealand landscape around Jystrup, where both his Aunt Tulle and Uncle Henry have lived. There is, for example, a picture of a bird in flight over a forest island that Viggo simply calls Midtsjælland.

"I very strongly feel that I share a common past with my family in Denmark. And feel connected to the Scandinavian mythology, when I walk in the forest at Jystrup, where there are many tales told of what has happened. The Danish woods look like Tolkien's, they are the kind that doesn't look dangerous, but if you walk alone by night in the forests of Denmark, you can feel the energies of the past. I felt that already as a child, back then when I played with swords there outside my uncle's farm, played and felt like a Viking."

Viggo Mortensen
The American Dane
By Susanne Johansson - Translation by Majken Steen Thomassen
BT (Berlingske Tidende)
28 November 2001



I'd like to know about the origin of the name Viggo; do you know anything about that?

It's a name that's been in all the generations of my family, in the Danish part of my family. Like all names, it comes and goes. Right now, it's relatively common but when I was born, it was seen as an odd name, an old-fashioned one. Viggo is a name that can be found in Norse sagas; it's a very old name.

Web Chat with Viggo Mortensen
20 Minutos
Translated by Ollie, Rio and Zoe
6 September 2012



"It would be like being called Herbert..."

The Rebel King
Chris Heath
GQ magazine
April 2004



"I really would like to participate in a Danish movie. But to me it is essential that my first Danish movie is shot in Danish. To me it is a big challenge to shoot and talk Danish in an entire movie, so that it is believable."

My Heart Beats For Denmark
By Kim Kastrup - translated by Rosen
Ekstra Bladet
25 September 2007



"I´m in the project of Lisandro Alonso´s next film (La libertad) that will be filmed one part here and the other in Denmark. It´s in Danish. It´s like an experiment. With Lisandro, you never know how everything on the screen will end up," previews the actor."

Soledad Villamil - Viggo Mortensen: Brothers In Arms
By Nazareno Brega - translated by Ollie and Zoe
Clarin
29 August 2012



You have been described as the Robert De Niro of your generation, what are your views on that? And how much are you looking forward to becoming a Lego figure?

I already am a Lego figure! Very proud to be a part of Danish industry in that way. I'm not sure that Robert De Niro is a Lego figure yet, so he's got some catching up to do.

Empire On-line Web Chat
31 January 2012



"It felt like being thrown back into my childhood and I quickly found out that the books are based on things I already knew. As a child I was told a lot of sagas and fairytales as goodnight-reading and I have also been thoroughly informing myself about, for instance, Nordic mythology and the Celtic myths. It felt like I was finding my inner Viking."

Viggo talking about filming Tolkien
"I found the Viking inside me"
translated by Majken
Ekstra Bladet
8 December 2001



[His] poetry works because Mortensen is Scandinavian (Danish father, American mother), says Manhire, "and there is this Scandinavian myth about how poetry is a mixture of blood and honey - his poetry has that mixture."

Bill Manhire, Victoria University, NZ
"I'm a poet" - Rings star Mortensen
by Josie McNaught
Sunday Star-Times 2003



...slowly his trailer starts to get all this character. It was the World Cup at the time, so he's a massive football fan, so all these flags started going in his trailer. He had a picture of the Queen of Denmark up. I was watching him from my trailer, "What's he doing today?" [Laughs] He's a very interesting guy.

Michael Fassbender on meeting Viggo
Michael Fassbender Explores A Dangerous Method with Movie Fanatic
by Joel D Amos
Moviefanatic.com
25 November 2011



"A Danish journalist once asked me what I would do if Denmark and Argentina were facing each other in a World Cup. I said I would make a shirt, half and half, from the two teams' colors. The following year a gentleman gave me one like that. I'll use it someday, and amuse myself by rooting for both teams."

People And Field
By Viggo Mortensen and Fabián Casas - translated by Ollie, Rio, Sage and Zoe
Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro
30 July 2011



If you could go back in time, where would you go?

To the first Viking ship to land in North America.

Q&A: Viggo Mortensen
By Rosanna Greenstreet
The Guardian
2 January 2010
The Guardian

There is no Viggo performance clearly in the running in this year and you're missing it, aren't you? Snippets and rumours from all the Oscar prediction sites (which are now in Oscar Overdrive), the tension while we wonder if there be a nomination or not (and the joy we experienced with Eastern Promises), the quiet rage while one of cinema's best actors around turns in one of the best performances of the year, the critics love it, but everyone else ignores it. Yup, we don't really care if there is a gold statue gathering dust on one of Viggo's shelves or not and neither, really, does he. But I'm kind of missing all the speculation and excitement this year. So, in a long and indulgent Quotable, this is the reason why...



© Dimension Films/2929 Productions/
New Line Cinema/Focus Features


Philip Seymour Hoffman, certainly one of the great actors of our time, told us in a Venetian hallway of the Hotel Excelsior how he regarded Viggo Mortensen as one of the masters of the profession. A point of view that is totally shared.

Viggo Mortensen in the Shoes of Dr. Freud
By Nicolas Crousse
Le Soir ? translated by Dom
4 September 2011



A Dangerous Method

Fortunately, things improve a great deal once Freud arrrives. Mortensen (aided by probably the most significant nose prosthesis since Nicole Kidman's in "The Hours") is, as he so often is these days, tremendous, bringing a patrician wit and real pathos to the part?..Mortensen caps off a trilogy of perfect performances for Cronenberg (and is the film's best bet for award nods, we imagine).

Oliver Lyttelton
The Playlist
2 September 2011



The Road

In Viggo Mortensen, Hillcoat is working with one of the current cinema's great quiet everymen, and if anyone can make the novel's stolid, unnamed hero empathic and emotionally alive on screen whilst remaining loyal to the novel's aesthetic minimalism, it's this immensely physical, restrained performer. It's a masterstroke of casting that I hope connects with its on-paper potential: if it does, I can see Mortensen leading the film's awards trail.

Kris Tapley
InContention.com
August 2009



Mortensen's performance as the lead is simply unforgettable and a sure lock for an Oscar nomination.

Filmblogger
TheFilmBlogger.com
19 October 2009



Viggo Mortensen's performance is definitely Oscar-worthy and so is John Hillcoat's directing. Do yourself a favor, see this movie as soon as it becomes available. And be ready to cry, scream and enjoy yourself.

The Best Movies from Toronto Film Festival
Worstpreviews.com
13 September 2009



Viggo Mortensen delivers an Oscar-worthy performance as a man whose humanity and strength of will must outlast the end of civilization.

Peter Howell
Toronto Star
13 September 2009



Viggo Mortensen gives one of his most haunting and emotional performances in "The Road," the post-apocalyptic tale from the pen of the great American author, Cormac McCarthy, whose book "No Country for Old Men" deservedly won the 2007 Best Picture Oscar. It may be premature, but I think that Viggo Mortensen's work in this tough, relentlessly grim but ultimately humanistic picture should get a serious consideration comes Oscar time.

Emmanuel Levy
Interview with Viggo Mortensen, Oscar Contender
Emmanuellevy.com
3 September 2009



Viggo Mortensen has never been better than he is in The Road. He arguably gives the best male performance of the year, starving himself down to nothing, and finding the terror in his situation. This is something I've only seen another actor do once: Adrien Brody in The Pianist

Sasha Stone
Awards Daily
14 January 2010



The look in Viggo's eyes secures his nomination, I feel confident. It's going to take a lot of wry grins, curmudgeonly scowls, and other baked ham recipes for any other actor to match the depths this role fathoms.

Ryan Adams
Awards Daily
October 2009



Just look at how skinny and dirty Viggo is in the picture -- give that man an award, 30 seconds of acceptance speech time and a sandwich.

IFC.com comment about the publicity photos
19 August 2008



When I left the Sala de Proyección after seeing this marvel, I did it with the conviction that this film would be one of the Hollywood Academy's important options for this year's Oscars. But the nominations announced this week make no sense to me when faced with a handful of films that in all cases don't even come close to surpassing the merits of The Road. The ways of Hollywood are inscrutable, leaving a great Viggo Mortensen out of the running in an especially unjust way.

Javier Lacomba Tamarit talking about The Road
Il Multicine
2 February 2010



Appaloosa

In 2000, Ed Harris made his directorial debut with the fantastic Pollock. Hollywood pundits fawned over the film and the actor-turned-director ad nauseum. Strangely, his follow-up, the wonderful western, Appaloosa got largely lost in the shuffle. Even more irking, the always-strong Viggo Mortensen got little recognition for a nuanced supporting turn. With the moustache of the year (that should be an award), Mortensen turned a rather standard best-friend part into a quiet tour de force.

Oscar nominations 2009
Scott Taverner
martiniboys.com
January 2009



Mortensen's Oscar-class performance as Everett Hitch was masterful as a poetic yet fierce officer of the law.

Parimal M. Rohit
Buzzine.com
19 September 2008



Eastern Promises

It's a watershed role for Mortensen and, such is the commitment he offers, it's not too rash to compare his performance to Robert De Niro's Oscar-winning turn as the young Don Corleone in The Godfather Part II.

Eastern Promises
I've taken on too much...
by James Mottram, The Independent / UK.
23 October 2007



Here is my personal take on the Oscar-nominated performances I believe will survive the "test" of time:

As driver/hitman Nikolai Luzhin, Viggo Mortensen not only mastered the Russian accent and dare to bare much more than his soul. He immersed himself into the mind of this man born and raised in the former Soviet Union, a dark figure with more good to him than anyone around him can even imagine. Mortensen played Nikolai as a real person (living in a very raw London, thanks to David Cronenberg's direction) and his idealization of this character other actors have similarly played to over-the-top results in many crime stories is among the best in the genre, ever.

THE TOP 10 OPINIONS: PERFORMANCES THAT WON'T WIN OSCARS...
Johnny Alba
The Oscar Igloo
7 February 2008



...a piece of complete immersion that I'm convinced will be remembered as 2007's defining male performance....Any clip from the bath house scene would make the best darned Oscar clip ever.

Daniel Feinberg
zap2it.com
23 December 2007



Mortensen is one of the most diverse, least mannered but most overlooked actors working in Hollywood...

Emanuel Levy
emanuellevy.com
1 Sept 2007



Someone, nominate this man for an Oscar already!

Jason Turer
Cornell Daily Sun
14 Sept 2007



A History of Violence

'Viggo Mortensen probably gave the best performance I have seen in a motion picture in as long as I can remember in A History of Violence .... Bill Hurt got a nomination for a rather bizarre, overly done performance in that film, but Viggo Mortensen is probably the premier actor in the business.'

Dale Olson, publicist
Oscar, You Insensitive Lout
by Sara Vilkomerson, New York Observer,
February 2006



The beating pulse of the movie comes from Bello and Mortensen, both of whom are award worthy. Viggo might have had a haircut since his middle-earth days, but he's lost none of his power. Look into his eyes, you'll see his soul.

Paul Greenwood
Future Movies
29 September 2005



And finally, there is Viggo Mortensen. If anyone has ever been more perfectly cast than he is here as Tom Stall, I haven't seen the film.

Nathaniel Rogers
Film Experience
September 2005



Fantastic performance from Viggo Mortensen.....he is absolutely a brilliant actor, he is the Robert de Niro of his generation, the Marlon Brando of his generation, the man is a genius.

Mark Kermode
BBC Radio Five Live
30 September 2005



But - thank goodness for this...


"I would rather see San Lorenzo win the tournament than get an Oscar, definitely."

Viggo Mortensen
By Juan Cruz Sanchez Marino - translated by Graciela
GENTE
26 December 2008



Have you ever thought what you would say if you won an Oscar?

Thank you.

El Mundo Webchat With Viggo Mortensen
By - translated by Ollie, Rio and Zoe
El Mundo
21 November 2011