The Road

Watch the trailer to find out why you need to be excited about facing the end of the world with Viggo.

Cinemablend
14 May 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
Il Multicine
2 February 2010


Mortensen is long overdue for an Oscar win and if this film doesn't earn him that honor, there really is little justice (or sense) in the Academy voting system. Hearing the cast and crew talk about the actor's strict dedication to the part is downright inspiring.

Kofi Outlaw
Screenrant
24 November 2009



Some comments in the international press remark on your acting, speculating on a new nomination for the Oscar. What importance do you attach to the Hollywood Academy Award?

As Julio Cortazar wrote, "because yesterday is never/and tomorrow, tomorrow, " that is, if it happens, it happens. And if not, it doesn't. The recognition would be a big help to us in making sure The Road reaches the theatres and audience that this moving story deserves, since North American distributors were of little help with the promotion of the film. I think that awards and nominations are a crap shoot, a game of chance, and one shouldn't think about them too much, Accept it, with gratitude, if the film is nominated, yes. Win or lose with dignity. And that's it.

Of Crows And Condors
By Cristian H Savio - translated by Zooey and Ollie
El Argentino
16 December 2009



"This morning, someone asked him, 'Kodi, what was it like to work with Viggo?'" Mortensen recalls, giving Smit-McPhee the stink eye. "And he says, 'The first thing you have to understand is: he sucks.'"

Smit-McPhee just grins back, making Mortensen laugh.

Viggo Mortensen Walks (and Talks) The Road
By Kat Angus
Dose.ca
15 September 2009



"It is a Norwegian ghost story. It is called 'The Road to Resurrection.' I come back as a Viking ghost and he's in the Italian mob,"

Viggo plans a sequel to The Road with Kodi
'The Road' premieres at Venice
By Colleen Barry
Associated Press
3 September 2009



"Thank God for special effects, makeup the voice dubbing and all that. They completely replaced Kodi, thank God! We had Andy Serkis [who played Gollum in "the Lord of the Rings" movies] do it."

Viggo Mortensen sets the record straight about his acting career, 'The Road' and 'The Hobbit'
By Carla Hay
Examiner.com
25 November 2009



Reporter: You both had to go to some tough emotional places in this movie. How did you turn that off once the take was done?

Mortensen: He'd tell me I sucked.

Smit-McPhee: Then he went back to his room and had a cry.

Viggo and Kodi joking around at the Toronto Film Festival
Where 'Road' takes them
By Jen Chaney
The Washington Post
22 November 2009



While waiting [for a shot to be set up], Mr. Mortensen came back and fretfully studied the monitor. Kodi, meanwhile, dug for sand beetles, showing an especially plump one to Mr. Mortensen.

"Looks like good eatin'," Mr. Mortensen said, and it wasn't entirely clear whether he was joking or talking as a man who was supposed to be starving.

At World's End, Honing a Father-Son Dynamic
By Charles McGrath
New York Times
May 27, 2008



"Oh wow. It's Viggo," says the "Dorian Gray" star. The observation was understated -- no hoots, hollers or autograph mania here. But the surprise was unmistakable as a publicist escorted the handsome British star down a corridor at Toronto's Intercontinental Hotel.

"You sound impressed," the woman comments, hurrying the 28-year-old actor off to another interview.

"Sure I'm impressed," Barnes smiles broadly. "That's Viggo Mortensen!"

Ben Barnes spots Viggo at Toronto
Constance Droganes
CTV.ca
12 September 2009



"Not many child actors could do what he did every day. Just on a technical level, he reacted the way a veteran actor would, seizing on an obstacle and befriending it. I told him, 'You're doing things that are revolutionary -- things that Brando and Montgomery Clift did.' He said, 'Who's Montgomery Clift?' "

Viggo talking about Kodi Smit-McPhee
Big Gun Takes on the Apocalypse
Charles McGrath
New York Times
10 September 2009



'...Viggo would sleep in his outfit. When he went into a local shop one day, security was called to remove him from the premises, thinking he was a homeless bum.'

John Hillcoat
No Country for Any man
Telegraph Magazine
January 2010



Mortensen....was so grime-ridden that he was once mistaken for a vagrant and removed by the production's security team. "They saw that he was in the shot," Hillcoat says, "and presumed he was a homeless person, so they asked him to leave."

The Road: a sure-fire hit for 2010
Kevin Maher
The Times
11 November 2009



Slight, bouncy, and continually moving about, Viggo Mortensen flits around the set of "The Road" looking like somebody who fell off a speeding freight train and then wandered into the midst of director John Hillcoat's crew.

'Every side is morally compromised in some way': making 'The Road' in a Portland parking lot
By Shawn Levy
The Oregonian
26 November 2009



"He throws himself one hundred and ten percent into a role, it's very intense," said Hillcoat. "And it's an intense role. But that's also what's great about him, that hundred and ten percent. There was only one thing that I was irritated with: he was on a diet of chocolate, really dark chocolate and red meat. That's it. He brought all of these great chocolates from everywhere in the world and shared them with the crew. I'm still addicted to dark chocolate. I can't get away from it."

Hitting 'The Road' with Director John Hillcoat
Matt Mazur
Popmatters
22 November 2009



'He just talked about his kid and my kid, and being dads. I had tons of notes ready to ask him about and a pen, and I was ready to really pick his brain. At the end of the conversation, he asked me, "Well, do you have any specifics about the book?" He hadn't read the script and he didn't want to read the script, which was unusual for a writer. He just said, "It's a different medium. You guys do your thing. But, if you want to talk about the book, is there anything you want to ask? Do you have any questions?"

I looked and I had 50,000 post-it notes in the book, and not one but two pens, in case it ran out of ink. I was ready. And I said, "No, I don't, really," 'cause I realized that conversation we had was all I needed to get going. There was something universal about this adult and this child that anybody can understand.'

Viggo on talking to Cormac McCarthy
Interview: Viggo Mortensen Travels THE ROAD
Christina Radish
IESB.net
9 November 2009



"The Coca-Cola is in the book. I amused myself with the idea that it was a Diet Coke. (laughter). It would have been funny. But they only place their products in family movies. So I called them and told them everything: It's going to look great! Cheaper! Free! If it were Pepsi, it wouldn't be like the book. We filmed it with Pepsi, with Fanta...Things went better with Coke. [laughter]. We sent the scene to them and it made an impression. And they agreed."

Viggo on the Coca-Cola scene
Viggo Mortensen - Passage To Hell
By Ruben Romero - translated by Ollie, Rio and Zooey
On Madrid - El Pais
5 February 2010



After the movie, Viggo came back up on the stage and answered a few questions. When put on the spot to add on a final word he thought for a second then dug into his bag and brought out his personal copy of THE ROAD. There were what looked like a hundred stick-it notes marking different pages and the spine was cracked and worn. It's obviously seen a lot of use.

To close the event he read a bit from McCarthy's description of the sea-area landscape. That was pretty cool...

Quint at the Telluride Viggo Mortensen tribute
Ain't it Cool News
8 September 2008



The Road is no tease. It is a brilliantly directed adaptation of a beloved novel, a delicate and anachronistically loving look at the immodest and brutish end of us all. You want them to get there, you want them to get there, you want them to get there -- and yet you do not want it, any of it, to end.

The Road Is the Most Important Movie of the Year
By Tom Chiarella
Esquire Magazine
12 May 2009



"These characters, the father and his son, in spite of seeming to be very cold, in fact, beneath the rags they wear, happen to have San Lorenzo t-shirts," says the actor, and laughs.

Viggo talking about The Road
In The Name Of The Father
By Natalia Trzenko - translated by Ollie and Zooey
La Nacion
22 June 2010



What woman would not succumb to the charm of "Vig", actor, painter, editor (Perceval Press), poet, jazz musician, photographer exhibited at the Robert Mann Gallery? If, as the U.S. filmmakers prophesy, the great havoc Barjavel announced should occur, we would not be displeased that Viggo Mortensen is the last Adam on earth. More than a lady would certainly follow HIM to the end of the road ...

A la mort, à la vie
By Laurence Haloche
Translated by Chrissiejane
Le Figaro Magazine
27 November 2009



At least we can take solace knowing that in this parched desolate land populated by filthy, unshaven vagrants that Viggo Mortensen is still the sexiest man alive.

In fact, you could say he looks good enough to eat, which might explain why so many of his fellow survivors are licking their chops in anticipation of incorporating him into their next batch of stew.

Movie review: Father and son take a harrowing, honest journey through a post-apocalyptic world in 'The Road'
By Al Alexander
Echo Pilot
25 November 2009



Thank you Viggo Mortensen for accepting the lead role. I have trust that you will dominate the atomic wasteland of your surroundings. And Charlize Theron, it's not so shabby seeing you participate either. Gotta see it! Gotta see it! Come on, The Road!

Movieweb.com
By Alan Orange
22 January 2008



'The Road' was one of my favorite movies of 2009.

I've heard that from so many people. Most of them had seen it after the fact, certainly North Americans, because Americans and Canadians didn't really get a chance at all to see that movie in theaters. It wasn't promoted very well, and we got the shaft. A lot of people looked forward to seeing that movie. But unless the distributor does a little leg work to generate some kind of buzz and keep that buzz through -- say, in case of 'The Road' -- the autumn, it might as well never have been released.

Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Mortensen: 'A Dangerous Method' Taught Me How to Talk in a Movie
By Michael Hogan
Moviefone
23 November 2011