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Quotable Viggo 2019
Quotable Viggo: 16 February 2019
I loved Vicky Roach’s comment in the Sunday Telegraph (first quote below). With Viggo at the wheel (in a car as in life) you can sit back and relax. Like Nikolai he’s not just a ‘driver’. It’s not about getting from A to B, it’s about the journey, the scenery and coming across the unexpected so that you just have to stop and capture the moment in a photograph. He’s been in more road movies than most, been a Driver three times (in Eastern Promises, Green Book and Vanishing Point) driven buses in Captain Fantastic and in A Walk on the Moon. Heck, he’s even worked as a truck driver in real life. So, what’s it like to be on the road with Viggo and does he make a good back-seat driver?
Image Julian Broad.
© 2006 by the Hearst Corporation.
A road movie with Viggo Mortensen at the wheel? Even at this early point, you know you can sit back and relax.
Vicky Roach
The Sunday Telegraph
19 January 2019
Tell me if this is right: do you still drive the car you bought 20 years ago?
"It's a truck and it works very well."
Mortensen Code
By Sol Alonso - translated by Remolina
Vanity Fair (Spain)
November 2008
"I'd like to learn more about how to fix engines," he says. "I have a 1948 pickup truck, and that's a very simple engine. But today, I think you need to be some kind of specialist."
The Great Dane
By Phoebe Eaton
Men's Vogue
March 2008
As a grown up [Viggo] returned to Denmark and he has lived there several times and among other things worked as a carpenter and lorry driver in Copenhagen and as a waiter at 'Jan Hurtigkarl', and for a short period of time he also earned his living as a truck driver in Esbjerg Harbour.
In Esbjerg?
'I had a girlfriend, a really nice girl, who I wanted to live close to. She lived in Outrup.'
Viggo from Hollywood
By Poul Hoi
M/S Magazine
August 2001
Before, you were saying you are an optimist by nature. What are you doing to protect the environment and prevent the planet from becoming what it is in the movie?
Everything that's in my hands. I have a hybrid car, the first Prius that came out on the market; it still works great. My son shares it with me. I recycle everything I can. I try not to waste natural resources or to pollute. Small things that if done every day, serve to make a better world.
Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Mortensen Interview: "This film has made me feel closer to my father"
By Laura Sacksville - translated by Ollie, Rio and Sage
Cuore
13 February 2010
Two years ago, I spent a few days in Montana with Viggo while he was shooting Hidalgo, and I swear he was never without a camera. One moment he was slamming on the brakes to photograph a horse on a hill, and the next, he was slowing down to take a picture of a cloud.
Editorial
Premiere
November 2004
Viggo Mortensen is one of those few people who doesn't hesitate whether to stop his car or not when passing through an interesting place, or in order to see a friend, or to help anyone in need. "If you are in New Zealand -- he says -- and you are filming a movie, and you drive your car, and you pass through an interesting place and say ' well, I have to come back one day to see it'. NO. You should stop your car at that moment and see it now, although you are a bit late to work, because maybe you are not going to have another chance to see it. As human beings we think so much of 'we'll do it later', or ' I'll call you tomorrow', 'I'll visit you another day', ' I'll read this book next year'. But maybe you don't read it. Maybe you are not interested in reading it the next year. Maybe you are dead ".
Viggo Mortensen finds Alatriste in Curueño
By Miguel Ángel Nepomuceno - translated by Paddy
Diario de León
20 March 2005
VM: Rabbits sometimes run out in front of your car, right? Well, I hit this rabbit on this lonely road in the South Island and I wanted to make sure it was dead. If it wasn't, I'd put it out of its misery. And it was quite dead, so I thought, 'Well, why waste it?' And so I made a little fire and ate it.
Q: Is this something that you thought Aragorn would have done?
VM: As he was driving down the road and if he hit a rabbit? Yeah, he might. If he was hungry, I guess.
The Hero Returns
By Tom Roston
Premiere 2003
'The sound of cars and buses passing by on half-flooded streets quiets me; it´s something that makes me remember with absolute clarity my childhood in Buenos Aires and long afternoons in the countryside.'
Viggo Mortensen
If The Rain Gets Here
By Viggo Mortensen and Fabián Casas - translated by Ollie and Zoe
Sobrevueloscuervos.com
9 October 2014
"When I returned [to Argentina], at age 37, I got off the plane and I went downtown to look for my places. The little park where I played soccer with my friends, for example. I found different things: there was a McDonald's, new immigrants. But the sounds, the smells were the same. I rented a car and took off for everywhere. I went as far as La Pampa, I don't know…It was a lot of fun to stop in any location, take photos, talk to people. I came back because I had unfinished business."
Viggo Mortensen: "Writing and acting are like being a kid again"
By Eduardo Bejuk - translated by Zooey
Gente
25 August 2009
‘[Henry’s] learning to drive now, and I've been trying to teach him to drive, but as soon as he learned a little bit about it and got out the manual he started being very critical of me. And now I feel really nervous around him. I mean, in the car, he's like "Turn signal!", you know. And I'll park and he'll look out and he'll measure it, "You're a foot and a half away from the curb." It's really nerve racking: I'm bumping into cars. It's horrible. But then when he drives - he's got his permit - I'm even worse off. I'm a terrible passenger. So I'm sitting there all the time thinking he's going to hit the parked car and all that. I'm just..I dunno..I never knew that cars were so dangerous. But he'll be alright. He's good. He's much more careful than I am and he's really a good kid.’
Late Night with David Letterman
David Letterman Show
New York
March 2004
Some Sundays, if he's not trout fishing, he'll just get in the car and drive, which is a thing to do in New Mexico, with its jagged, primeval landscapes and pendulum-swing microclimates…
The road is something of a comfort zone. His son was fixated on all things Nordic, and so he indulged them both with a winter trip around Iceland in what felt like one never-ending snowstorm, intrigued by the steaming volcanic landscape. "It was like, it could blow any time!" says Mortensen, laughing.
The Great Dane
By Phoebe Eaton
Men's Vogue
March 2008
We break up; collect nicely all our stuff, all orange peelings, bottle tops, and plastic glasses, and head back to his car, a Dodge Ram 2.500 pick-up diesel. On the dashboard lies dried flowers and what seems to be an Indian rosary, in the CD player is fusion music (new age and jazz), and Viggo Mortensen puts on a classic ranger hat. He seems to be very much at ease, as he sits here well above the driving lane and like a pinball navigates us through the brutal traffic.
'I love driving. Just to drive and drive and drive out of the road. Suddenly you can think again. Like when you are wandering in a hardwood or in the mountains or stand in a big, cold, mirroring lake, fishing. Then you are close to being happy - and what more can a man want.'
Viggo from Hollywood
By Poul Hoi
M/S Magazine
August 2001
In Mortensen’s view, the journey is always more entertaining than the destination anyway.
The happy trails of Viggo Mortensen
Xan Brooks
The Guardian
18 April 2009
Image Julian Broad.
© 2006 by the Hearst Corporation.
A road movie with Viggo Mortensen at the wheel? Even at this early point, you know you can sit back and relax.
Vicky Roach
The Sunday Telegraph
19 January 2019
Tell me if this is right: do you still drive the car you bought 20 years ago?
"It's a truck and it works very well."
Mortensen Code
By Sol Alonso - translated by Remolina
Vanity Fair (Spain)
November 2008
"I'd like to learn more about how to fix engines," he says. "I have a 1948 pickup truck, and that's a very simple engine. But today, I think you need to be some kind of specialist."
The Great Dane
By Phoebe Eaton
Men's Vogue
March 2008
As a grown up [Viggo] returned to Denmark and he has lived there several times and among other things worked as a carpenter and lorry driver in Copenhagen and as a waiter at 'Jan Hurtigkarl', and for a short period of time he also earned his living as a truck driver in Esbjerg Harbour.
In Esbjerg?
'I had a girlfriend, a really nice girl, who I wanted to live close to. She lived in Outrup.'
Viggo from Hollywood
By Poul Hoi
M/S Magazine
August 2001
Before, you were saying you are an optimist by nature. What are you doing to protect the environment and prevent the planet from becoming what it is in the movie?
Everything that's in my hands. I have a hybrid car, the first Prius that came out on the market; it still works great. My son shares it with me. I recycle everything I can. I try not to waste natural resources or to pollute. Small things that if done every day, serve to make a better world.
Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Mortensen Interview: "This film has made me feel closer to my father"
By Laura Sacksville - translated by Ollie, Rio and Sage
Cuore
13 February 2010
Two years ago, I spent a few days in Montana with Viggo while he was shooting Hidalgo, and I swear he was never without a camera. One moment he was slamming on the brakes to photograph a horse on a hill, and the next, he was slowing down to take a picture of a cloud.
Editorial
Premiere
November 2004
Viggo Mortensen is one of those few people who doesn't hesitate whether to stop his car or not when passing through an interesting place, or in order to see a friend, or to help anyone in need. "If you are in New Zealand -- he says -- and you are filming a movie, and you drive your car, and you pass through an interesting place and say ' well, I have to come back one day to see it'. NO. You should stop your car at that moment and see it now, although you are a bit late to work, because maybe you are not going to have another chance to see it. As human beings we think so much of 'we'll do it later', or ' I'll call you tomorrow', 'I'll visit you another day', ' I'll read this book next year'. But maybe you don't read it. Maybe you are not interested in reading it the next year. Maybe you are dead ".
Viggo Mortensen finds Alatriste in Curueño
By Miguel Ángel Nepomuceno - translated by Paddy
Diario de León
20 March 2005
VM: Rabbits sometimes run out in front of your car, right? Well, I hit this rabbit on this lonely road in the South Island and I wanted to make sure it was dead. If it wasn't, I'd put it out of its misery. And it was quite dead, so I thought, 'Well, why waste it?' And so I made a little fire and ate it.
Q: Is this something that you thought Aragorn would have done?
VM: As he was driving down the road and if he hit a rabbit? Yeah, he might. If he was hungry, I guess.
The Hero Returns
By Tom Roston
Premiere 2003
'The sound of cars and buses passing by on half-flooded streets quiets me; it´s something that makes me remember with absolute clarity my childhood in Buenos Aires and long afternoons in the countryside.'
Viggo Mortensen
If The Rain Gets Here
By Viggo Mortensen and Fabián Casas - translated by Ollie and Zoe
Sobrevueloscuervos.com
9 October 2014
"When I returned [to Argentina], at age 37, I got off the plane and I went downtown to look for my places. The little park where I played soccer with my friends, for example. I found different things: there was a McDonald's, new immigrants. But the sounds, the smells were the same. I rented a car and took off for everywhere. I went as far as La Pampa, I don't know…It was a lot of fun to stop in any location, take photos, talk to people. I came back because I had unfinished business."
Viggo Mortensen: "Writing and acting are like being a kid again"
By Eduardo Bejuk - translated by Zooey
Gente
25 August 2009
‘[Henry’s] learning to drive now, and I've been trying to teach him to drive, but as soon as he learned a little bit about it and got out the manual he started being very critical of me. And now I feel really nervous around him. I mean, in the car, he's like "Turn signal!", you know. And I'll park and he'll look out and he'll measure it, "You're a foot and a half away from the curb." It's really nerve racking: I'm bumping into cars. It's horrible. But then when he drives - he's got his permit - I'm even worse off. I'm a terrible passenger. So I'm sitting there all the time thinking he's going to hit the parked car and all that. I'm just..I dunno..I never knew that cars were so dangerous. But he'll be alright. He's good. He's much more careful than I am and he's really a good kid.’
Late Night with David Letterman
David Letterman Show
New York
March 2004
Some Sundays, if he's not trout fishing, he'll just get in the car and drive, which is a thing to do in New Mexico, with its jagged, primeval landscapes and pendulum-swing microclimates…
The road is something of a comfort zone. His son was fixated on all things Nordic, and so he indulged them both with a winter trip around Iceland in what felt like one never-ending snowstorm, intrigued by the steaming volcanic landscape. "It was like, it could blow any time!" says Mortensen, laughing.
The Great Dane
By Phoebe Eaton
Men's Vogue
March 2008
We break up; collect nicely all our stuff, all orange peelings, bottle tops, and plastic glasses, and head back to his car, a Dodge Ram 2.500 pick-up diesel. On the dashboard lies dried flowers and what seems to be an Indian rosary, in the CD player is fusion music (new age and jazz), and Viggo Mortensen puts on a classic ranger hat. He seems to be very much at ease, as he sits here well above the driving lane and like a pinball navigates us through the brutal traffic.
'I love driving. Just to drive and drive and drive out of the road. Suddenly you can think again. Like when you are wandering in a hardwood or in the mountains or stand in a big, cold, mirroring lake, fishing. Then you are close to being happy - and what more can a man want.'
Viggo from Hollywood
By Poul Hoi
M/S Magazine
August 2001
In Mortensen’s view, the journey is always more entertaining than the destination anyway.
The happy trails of Viggo Mortensen
Xan Brooks
The Guardian
18 April 2009
Quotable Viggo: 9 February 2019
I thought that this week we'd take a look at what Viggo loves about movies and acting. Despite all the rigors of promoting films and the endless interviews (Green Book is proving an exceptionally long haul), despite the fact he could pursue at least four other successful careers as an artist, he is still an actor, still looking for great stories, still looking for the magic. And soon he'll be telling another great story as Writer, Director and Actor.
© John Harris.
'My goal is just to make movies, whether they're big or small, that I'd like to see 10 years from now. That's sort of the way I gauge it.'
Viggo Mortensen: Lay off the pope
By Andrew O'Hehir
Salon.com
20 March 2013
"I started thinking about acting about a year before I actually tried it," he says. "I just started watching movies in a different way, not just as entertainment. I started to really think about the ones that got to me, the ones that transported me so that, when I walked out of the theater, I'd be surprised. I'm really not in the desert? Or the 18th century? And I started to wonder what's the trick, how does a movie do that to you, technically? I wanted to try and figure that out."
Viggo Mortensen on 'Two Faces of January,' LOTR and what his movies teach him
By Stephen Whitty
The Star-Ledger
21 September 2014
"I'm sort of old-fashioned in that I don't think a movie is fully realized until people have paid a few bucks to go into a room and sit down together, with strangers," he said. "I think there's something about that that's different. You can sort of simulate that in your house, but there's something about the movie house, the movie theater, that I think is valuable. I hope it never completely goes away."
How Viggo Mortensen learned to be captain of 6 kids onscreen
Moira Macdonald
Seattle Times
8 July 2016
"Everything begins with stillness, with silence. Movies are light and time. Before the movie begins, there is darkness and nothing is happening. When the movie starts, the clock starts, and we see."
Viggo Mortensen, the Unlikely Leading Man
New York Times
By Thessaly La Force
15 October 2018
"I could have done one big-studio movie after another if the goal was to stay as visible as possible, to make as much money as possible. I guess, because of my temperament, I didn't want to. I wouldn't have been telling good stories. The challenge would have always been to try not to make a total ass of myself, even though I knew the story was really stupid."
Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Talks and Talks
By Zoe Heller
T Magazine
2 December 2011
"I think, any good story, the dramatic part of the story, what makes it interesting, why you'd want to go see it, why you'd want to talk about it afterwards--comes from those moments or periods of time, whether it suddenly happens or it's a gradual realization, that things are not what they seem."
Viggo Mortensen
Capone has a GOOD chat with Viggo Mortensen about politics, THE ROAD, APPALOOSA, and THE HOBBIT!!!
Ain't it Cool News
3 December 2008
"Every film capable of "seducing" me… represents a stage in my development as an actor", says the actor. "But also as writer, painter, editor, poet and photographer. Although I can no longer separate my interests one from the other. Nowadays I need to have strong motivations to accept a new film project. I look for fascinating stories to tell."
Viggo Mortensen: Interpreting the soul of Freud
By Giovanna Grassi
Sette Magazine – translated by Ollie
September 2011
"You put it out there, you promote it, but I can't predict what you or anyone else is going to think of it. I just know if it's a story I want to tell. And, maybe this sounds selfish, but however it turns out, I've still had the great experience of researching it, and studying it, and doing it, and that's the most valuable thing to me. Because that knowledge I've gained — that's something I keep. That's mine."
Viggo Mortensen on 'Two Faces of January,' LOTR and what his movies teach him
By Stephen Whitty
The Star-Ledger
21 September 2014
"I can always count on the benefits of asking the question: "What happened between the cradle and page one for this character?" And that answer is endless, you know? It's as big an answer and as complicated and layered an answer as you want it to be. And I never stop working at that."
Viggo Mortensen
VIGGOOOOOAL!
Scott Feinberg's awards season analysis
andthewinneris.blog.com
20 December 2007
'There are many talented individuals in this art form, but if there is one thing I have learned during the thirty years that I have been working as an actor in the movies it is that there is always a surprise around the corner. Stories and performances you would not expect to work, full of moments of rare beauty, humor, and inspiration. As an audience member, every time the lights go down and the images begin to dance in front of me, I am hoping for that kind of story, those sorts of moments.'
Viggo Mortensen
One-on-one interview with 'On the Road's' Viggo Mortensen
By Steven Lebowitz
Examiner.com
6 April 2013
"…when I was watching the reel of clips, going back to the mid-eighties, I just went on a journey personally about where I was at the time. I'd look at Patricia Arquette [in 'The Indian Runner'] or Diane Lane [in 'A Walk on the Moon'] or how Al Pacino was in that moment [in 'Carlito's Way'], and just the things that happened that are beyond technical explanations, that magical thing that has to do with a leap of faith. And people go, 'How did you get to that place?'
And honestly, in some cases you don't know, we were lucky it happened. You just hope those things happen once in a while."
Viggo talking about the Telluride Film Festival Tribute
Viggo Mortensen: 'A Grown Man in an Era of Boys'
Jay A. Fernandez
Risky Biz
12 September 2009
"…it's like an invocation, an invitation to magic, to the unexplained, to let the unexpected to enter into our lives."
Viggo Mortensen
A Fantastic Leap of Faith
by Brent Simon
Entertainment Today
2001
"That's a perfect universe, movies. It has everything."
Viggo Mortensen - For The Good Of The People
By Elliot V Kotek
Moving Pictures
Winter 2008-2009
© John Harris.
'My goal is just to make movies, whether they're big or small, that I'd like to see 10 years from now. That's sort of the way I gauge it.'
Viggo Mortensen: Lay off the pope
By Andrew O'Hehir
Salon.com
20 March 2013
"I started thinking about acting about a year before I actually tried it," he says. "I just started watching movies in a different way, not just as entertainment. I started to really think about the ones that got to me, the ones that transported me so that, when I walked out of the theater, I'd be surprised. I'm really not in the desert? Or the 18th century? And I started to wonder what's the trick, how does a movie do that to you, technically? I wanted to try and figure that out."
Viggo Mortensen on 'Two Faces of January,' LOTR and what his movies teach him
By Stephen Whitty
The Star-Ledger
21 September 2014
"I'm sort of old-fashioned in that I don't think a movie is fully realized until people have paid a few bucks to go into a room and sit down together, with strangers," he said. "I think there's something about that that's different. You can sort of simulate that in your house, but there's something about the movie house, the movie theater, that I think is valuable. I hope it never completely goes away."
How Viggo Mortensen learned to be captain of 6 kids onscreen
Moira Macdonald
Seattle Times
8 July 2016
"Everything begins with stillness, with silence. Movies are light and time. Before the movie begins, there is darkness and nothing is happening. When the movie starts, the clock starts, and we see."
Viggo Mortensen, the Unlikely Leading Man
New York Times
By Thessaly La Force
15 October 2018
"I could have done one big-studio movie after another if the goal was to stay as visible as possible, to make as much money as possible. I guess, because of my temperament, I didn't want to. I wouldn't have been telling good stories. The challenge would have always been to try not to make a total ass of myself, even though I knew the story was really stupid."
Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Talks and Talks
By Zoe Heller
T Magazine
2 December 2011
"I think, any good story, the dramatic part of the story, what makes it interesting, why you'd want to go see it, why you'd want to talk about it afterwards--comes from those moments or periods of time, whether it suddenly happens or it's a gradual realization, that things are not what they seem."
Viggo Mortensen
Capone has a GOOD chat with Viggo Mortensen about politics, THE ROAD, APPALOOSA, and THE HOBBIT!!!
Ain't it Cool News
3 December 2008
"Every film capable of "seducing" me… represents a stage in my development as an actor", says the actor. "But also as writer, painter, editor, poet and photographer. Although I can no longer separate my interests one from the other. Nowadays I need to have strong motivations to accept a new film project. I look for fascinating stories to tell."
Viggo Mortensen: Interpreting the soul of Freud
By Giovanna Grassi
Sette Magazine – translated by Ollie
September 2011
"You put it out there, you promote it, but I can't predict what you or anyone else is going to think of it. I just know if it's a story I want to tell. And, maybe this sounds selfish, but however it turns out, I've still had the great experience of researching it, and studying it, and doing it, and that's the most valuable thing to me. Because that knowledge I've gained — that's something I keep. That's mine."
Viggo Mortensen on 'Two Faces of January,' LOTR and what his movies teach him
By Stephen Whitty
The Star-Ledger
21 September 2014
"I can always count on the benefits of asking the question: "What happened between the cradle and page one for this character?" And that answer is endless, you know? It's as big an answer and as complicated and layered an answer as you want it to be. And I never stop working at that."
Viggo Mortensen
VIGGOOOOOAL!
Scott Feinberg's awards season analysis
andthewinneris.blog.com
20 December 2007
'There are many talented individuals in this art form, but if there is one thing I have learned during the thirty years that I have been working as an actor in the movies it is that there is always a surprise around the corner. Stories and performances you would not expect to work, full of moments of rare beauty, humor, and inspiration. As an audience member, every time the lights go down and the images begin to dance in front of me, I am hoping for that kind of story, those sorts of moments.'
Viggo Mortensen
One-on-one interview with 'On the Road's' Viggo Mortensen
By Steven Lebowitz
Examiner.com
6 April 2013
"…when I was watching the reel of clips, going back to the mid-eighties, I just went on a journey personally about where I was at the time. I'd look at Patricia Arquette [in 'The Indian Runner'] or Diane Lane [in 'A Walk on the Moon'] or how Al Pacino was in that moment [in 'Carlito's Way'], and just the things that happened that are beyond technical explanations, that magical thing that has to do with a leap of faith. And people go, 'How did you get to that place?'
And honestly, in some cases you don't know, we were lucky it happened. You just hope those things happen once in a while."
Viggo talking about the Telluride Film Festival Tribute
Viggo Mortensen: 'A Grown Man in an Era of Boys'
Jay A. Fernandez
Risky Biz
12 September 2009
"…it's like an invocation, an invitation to magic, to the unexplained, to let the unexpected to enter into our lives."
Viggo Mortensen
A Fantastic Leap of Faith
by Brent Simon
Entertainment Today
2001
"That's a perfect universe, movies. It has everything."
Viggo Mortensen - For The Good Of The People
By Elliot V Kotek
Moving Pictures
Winter 2008-2009
Quotable Viggo: 19 January 2019
Now we're once again in Awards Season, I thought it would be great to take another look at why Viggo received so many nominations in 2016-17 when his performance took a small budget, under-the-radar film into the Oscar spotlight with Matthew Ross's wonderful Captain Fantastic. Could Ben Cash possibly be further from Tony Lip?
Image Wilson Webb © Bleecker Street.
Viggo Mortensen overcomes every intrusion of doubt with a performance that is informed, inspired, ideological and overwhelming. He's so sensational that he makes the film's title come true with no strings attached.
Super-Dad: 'Captain Fantastic' Enthralls the Senses and Engages the Mind
By Rex Reed
The Observer
5 July 2016
The clan's father isn't a superhero, but because he's played by Viggo Mortensen he's the next best thing.
Manohla Dargis
New York Times
7 July 2016
Mortensen is outstanding in the film giving one of those rare performances that deserve the term breathtaking.
John H Foote
Thecinemaholic.com
2 August 2016
...The beauty of the film lies in its refusal to paint Ben as a deluded tyrant or principled pioneer. He doesn't have two faces — thanks to the script, as well as Mortensen's squirrely brilliance, he has hundreds.
Charlotte O'Sullivan
Evening Standard
9 September 2016
Mortensen sets about captaining this ship so well, with such fine shadings of distant grief, self-reproach, humility when it's necessary, defiance when it's not, that you can't imagine anyone else in the role, and wouldn't want anyone else near it.
Tim Robey
The Telegraph
8 September 2016
I really can't say enough about the work Viggo Mortensen. He's able to give this character so much life that you're under his spell; whether you agree or disagree with Ben's view of the world and outlook on raising his children. We see the best and worst of him, with Mortensen showcasing that brilliantly.
Joey Magidson
awardscircuit.com
7 July 2016
Viggo Mortensen gets the role he may well have been born to play, not as a superhero, but as a super-dad determined to raise his kids on his own terms.... The inspired choice of casting Mortensen — a natural Papa Bear, who taps into both his physical strength and spiritual gentleness — shows through best when interacting with the kids, though the actor also shines when forced to defend his choices to others.
Peter Debruge
Variety
23 January 2016
Every now and then, a movie comes along that plays out almost entirely on a gifted actor's face; you feel as if you could watch the whole thing in quiet close-up, and catch every nuance of the story. I think of Cate Blanchett in "Blue Jasmine," Brie Larson in "Room," Denzel Washington in "Flight," to name just a few — and now, Viggo Mortensen in "Captain Fantastic."
Moira Macdonald
Seattle Times
14 July 2016
Mortensen gives the performance of his life in the film's final act, visibly aching, filled with callously crushed desires and a deep well of sorrow.
James Robins
The Listener (NZ)
3 October 2016
At the heart of it all is the ever-brilliant Viggo Mortensen. Ben is a complex character that has every fragment of thought etched into Mortensen's expression. He's taken a hold of this character unlike any since Aragon. He embodies Ben perfectly, and the film can't be imagined without him.
By Amie Cranswick
Flickeringmyth.com
9 September 2016
Mortensen imbues Ben with such an easy, thoughtful, virile confidence that it is easy to see why his wife Leslie (Trin Miller) and children would think that hiding in the forest with him seems like the best possible option.
John Lui
Straits Times
12 July 2016
Mortensen, a spellbinding leading man who's got as firm a grip on the audience as his character does on his brood. He sells and sells and sells, and we buy, buy, buy; every idea Ben projects onto his kids, even the zany ones, sound perfectly logical when spoken by a voice so even and wise and alluring. He's so convincing that when he finally comes to the realization that he may actually be a much bigger threat to his children's health and safety than capitalism, smartphones or even Kanye West and the Kardashians, our hearts break for him.
Bernard Boo
wegothiscovered.com
11 July 2016
With any luck, Mortensen will get an Oscar nomination for his wonderfully soulful performance. As a real-life renaissance man (Mortensen is also a painter, author, photographer, and musician) with an intellectually rebellious streak, it's a role he was born to play…
Jonathan Kim
Huffington Post
15 July 2016
It's the ruggedly paradoxical, gentle-but-brute presence of Viggo Mortensen, more than anything else, that makes "Captain Fantastic" a twisting Rubik's Cube of blue and red.
Owen Gleiberman
Variety
13 July 2016
Image Wilson Webb © Bleecker Street.
Viggo Mortensen overcomes every intrusion of doubt with a performance that is informed, inspired, ideological and overwhelming. He's so sensational that he makes the film's title come true with no strings attached.
Super-Dad: 'Captain Fantastic' Enthralls the Senses and Engages the Mind
By Rex Reed
The Observer
5 July 2016
The clan's father isn't a superhero, but because he's played by Viggo Mortensen he's the next best thing.
Manohla Dargis
New York Times
7 July 2016
Mortensen is outstanding in the film giving one of those rare performances that deserve the term breathtaking.
John H Foote
Thecinemaholic.com
2 August 2016
...The beauty of the film lies in its refusal to paint Ben as a deluded tyrant or principled pioneer. He doesn't have two faces — thanks to the script, as well as Mortensen's squirrely brilliance, he has hundreds.
Charlotte O'Sullivan
Evening Standard
9 September 2016
Mortensen sets about captaining this ship so well, with such fine shadings of distant grief, self-reproach, humility when it's necessary, defiance when it's not, that you can't imagine anyone else in the role, and wouldn't want anyone else near it.
Tim Robey
The Telegraph
8 September 2016
I really can't say enough about the work Viggo Mortensen. He's able to give this character so much life that you're under his spell; whether you agree or disagree with Ben's view of the world and outlook on raising his children. We see the best and worst of him, with Mortensen showcasing that brilliantly.
Joey Magidson
awardscircuit.com
7 July 2016
Viggo Mortensen gets the role he may well have been born to play, not as a superhero, but as a super-dad determined to raise his kids on his own terms.... The inspired choice of casting Mortensen — a natural Papa Bear, who taps into both his physical strength and spiritual gentleness — shows through best when interacting with the kids, though the actor also shines when forced to defend his choices to others.
Peter Debruge
Variety
23 January 2016
Every now and then, a movie comes along that plays out almost entirely on a gifted actor's face; you feel as if you could watch the whole thing in quiet close-up, and catch every nuance of the story. I think of Cate Blanchett in "Blue Jasmine," Brie Larson in "Room," Denzel Washington in "Flight," to name just a few — and now, Viggo Mortensen in "Captain Fantastic."
Moira Macdonald
Seattle Times
14 July 2016
Mortensen gives the performance of his life in the film's final act, visibly aching, filled with callously crushed desires and a deep well of sorrow.
James Robins
The Listener (NZ)
3 October 2016
At the heart of it all is the ever-brilliant Viggo Mortensen. Ben is a complex character that has every fragment of thought etched into Mortensen's expression. He's taken a hold of this character unlike any since Aragon. He embodies Ben perfectly, and the film can't be imagined without him.
By Amie Cranswick
Flickeringmyth.com
9 September 2016
Mortensen imbues Ben with such an easy, thoughtful, virile confidence that it is easy to see why his wife Leslie (Trin Miller) and children would think that hiding in the forest with him seems like the best possible option.
John Lui
Straits Times
12 July 2016
Mortensen, a spellbinding leading man who's got as firm a grip on the audience as his character does on his brood. He sells and sells and sells, and we buy, buy, buy; every idea Ben projects onto his kids, even the zany ones, sound perfectly logical when spoken by a voice so even and wise and alluring. He's so convincing that when he finally comes to the realization that he may actually be a much bigger threat to his children's health and safety than capitalism, smartphones or even Kanye West and the Kardashians, our hearts break for him.
Bernard Boo
wegothiscovered.com
11 July 2016
With any luck, Mortensen will get an Oscar nomination for his wonderfully soulful performance. As a real-life renaissance man (Mortensen is also a painter, author, photographer, and musician) with an intellectually rebellious streak, it's a role he was born to play…
Jonathan Kim
Huffington Post
15 July 2016
It's the ruggedly paradoxical, gentle-but-brute presence of Viggo Mortensen, more than anything else, that makes "Captain Fantastic" a twisting Rubik's Cube of blue and red.
Owen Gleiberman
Variety
13 July 2016
Quotable Viggo: 12 January 2019
All I’m going to say is, BAFTA voters and Academy Members, please take note…
© Universal.
Viggo Mortensen, as far as I’m concerned, could do a Rubix cube on screen for two hours and I’d still want to watch him, the guy is that good.
Metal Gear Solid Movie: Eight Actors Who Could Play Solid Snake
By Liam Hoofe
Flickering Myth
15 September 2017
Viggo Mortensen is one of the greatest actors working today. Of that, I have no doubt.
Talking with Viggo Mortensen and Matt Ross of CAPTAIN FANTASTIC
Silverscreenriot.com
Matt Oakes
22 June 2016
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
Mortensen, perhaps the only actor alive who could play Sigmund Freud, William Burroughs and a Middle-earth king...
Uday Bhatia
Live Mint
11 September 2015
He's the kind of star directors dream about: professional, playful and eager to make a movie that doesn't wrap itself up in a neat pre-digested bow.
Viggo Mortensen on Everybody Has a Plan, Argentine Popes and His Beloved San Lorenzo
John Lopez
Huffington Post
21 March 2013
Viggo Mortensen is one of the most fascinating stars in contemporary cinema. The image of his penetrating gaze and wide jaw seems to have traversed all the corners of the globe and of Planet Cinema.
Manu Yáñez
Fotograma
13 August 2014
“...what was surprising to me about working with him is that I could never catch him acting. He doesn't have any false moments."
Matt Ross
Dr. No: Viggo Mortensen Has Made Turning Down Roles Into an Art Form
By Oliver Jones
The Observer
6 July 2016
When it comes to cutting an effortless master like Viggo Mortensen, what can I say besides you’re just trying to pick the best of the best and make sure it all hangs together in the right way. He makes it look easy.
Interview with Joseph Krings, Editor of "Captain Fantastic"
Manhatten Edit Workshop blog
20 July 2016
Good acting isn’t just about showboating speeches, about also about tiny vocal inflections and precise body language. Mortensen’s got it nailed.
Robert Horton
Seattle Weekly
27 November 2018
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
"He is methodical, exacting in his work, he carries out meticulous labors to do something that looks true, and projects it. He is like Robert Mitchum or William Holden, the class of actors whose work seems effortless."
Ray Loriga
Chiaroscuro: Viggo, Light And Dark
By Rocio Garcia - translated by Graciela, Remolina, Sage and Zooey
El Pais
26 June 2009
Mortensen is one of the most diverse, least mannered but most overlooked actors working in Hollywood.
Emanuel Levy
emanuellevy.com
1 Sept 2007
“Viggo's … a real artist. He cares about what speaks to him. He doesn't care about how much he's paid, doesn't care where he lives, doesn't care how nice the hotel is. He's a horse. I feel like he could go all day, work all day and he's polite and creative and generous. That made it easy. Not only is he physically gifted, he’s graceful and tough.”
Garret Dillahunt
Fred Topel
CraveOnline
20 March 2009
Mortensen, who radically rejects any clichés and stereotypes, has become one of the most interesting and idiosyncratic actors of his generation. And incidentally, so to speak, a world star of cinema.
Venniale Tribute publicity
August 2014
‘I would want to watch Viggo Mortensen in any language.
Sanford Panitch, President of Fox International
Fox International Acquires Worldwide Rights To Viggo Mortensen-Starrer 'Everybody Has A Plan'
By Mike Fleming
Deadline.com
5 May 2011
© Universal.
Viggo Mortensen, as far as I’m concerned, could do a Rubix cube on screen for two hours and I’d still want to watch him, the guy is that good.
Metal Gear Solid Movie: Eight Actors Who Could Play Solid Snake
By Liam Hoofe
Flickering Myth
15 September 2017
Viggo Mortensen is one of the greatest actors working today. Of that, I have no doubt.
Talking with Viggo Mortensen and Matt Ross of CAPTAIN FANTASTIC
Silverscreenriot.com
Matt Oakes
22 June 2016
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
Mortensen, perhaps the only actor alive who could play Sigmund Freud, William Burroughs and a Middle-earth king...
Uday Bhatia
Live Mint
11 September 2015
He's the kind of star directors dream about: professional, playful and eager to make a movie that doesn't wrap itself up in a neat pre-digested bow.
Viggo Mortensen on Everybody Has a Plan, Argentine Popes and His Beloved San Lorenzo
John Lopez
Huffington Post
21 March 2013
Viggo Mortensen is one of the most fascinating stars in contemporary cinema. The image of his penetrating gaze and wide jaw seems to have traversed all the corners of the globe and of Planet Cinema.
Manu Yáñez
Fotograma
13 August 2014
“...what was surprising to me about working with him is that I could never catch him acting. He doesn't have any false moments."
Matt Ross
Dr. No: Viggo Mortensen Has Made Turning Down Roles Into an Art Form
By Oliver Jones
The Observer
6 July 2016
When it comes to cutting an effortless master like Viggo Mortensen, what can I say besides you’re just trying to pick the best of the best and make sure it all hangs together in the right way. He makes it look easy.
Interview with Joseph Krings, Editor of "Captain Fantastic"
Manhatten Edit Workshop blog
20 July 2016
Good acting isn’t just about showboating speeches, about also about tiny vocal inflections and precise body language. Mortensen’s got it nailed.
Robert Horton
Seattle Weekly
27 November 2018
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
"He is methodical, exacting in his work, he carries out meticulous labors to do something that looks true, and projects it. He is like Robert Mitchum or William Holden, the class of actors whose work seems effortless."
Ray Loriga
Chiaroscuro: Viggo, Light And Dark
By Rocio Garcia - translated by Graciela, Remolina, Sage and Zooey
El Pais
26 June 2009
Mortensen is one of the most diverse, least mannered but most overlooked actors working in Hollywood.
Emanuel Levy
emanuellevy.com
1 Sept 2007
“Viggo's … a real artist. He cares about what speaks to him. He doesn't care about how much he's paid, doesn't care where he lives, doesn't care how nice the hotel is. He's a horse. I feel like he could go all day, work all day and he's polite and creative and generous. That made it easy. Not only is he physically gifted, he’s graceful and tough.”
Garret Dillahunt
Fred Topel
CraveOnline
20 March 2009
Mortensen, who radically rejects any clichés and stereotypes, has become one of the most interesting and idiosyncratic actors of his generation. And incidentally, so to speak, a world star of cinema.
Venniale Tribute publicity
August 2014
‘I would want to watch Viggo Mortensen in any language.
Sanford Panitch, President of Fox International
Fox International Acquires Worldwide Rights To Viggo Mortensen-Starrer 'Everybody Has A Plan'
By Mike Fleming
Deadline.com
5 May 2011