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Iolanthe's Quotable Viggo
8 October 2017 12:16:24 Found By: Iolanthe
I thought I'd stick with A History of Violence this week and move away from the reviews to quotes related to the casting and filming. HOV was the start of Viggo's collaboration with Cronenberg and a film which finally opened critics eyes to Viggo's range as an actor. The film is, indeed, a 'complex piece of music' which rewards you with new insights every time it's watched.
'It's like a great thoroughly satisfying and complex piece of music to me, this movie.'
Viggo Mortensen
Teen Hollywood
2005
Olson said he pictured Mortensen in the role of Stall, something the actor found "flattering and disturbing at the same time." Just to keep the star in line, Cronenberg told him Olson hadn't really written the role for him. "You were second to Brad Pitt."
Cannes Press Conference
National Post Cannes Review, by Chris Knight
17 May 2005
He's got the sort of quintessential type of American look to him. He reminds me of Kirk Douglas sometimes in darker films that he did.
Josh Olson on Viggo Mortensen
Interview with Jock Olson
by Rebecca Murray
About.com.
August 2005
"Viggo's my kind of actor," smiles Cronenberg… "He is a maniac for detail, which I love. He is very focused and obsessed with details of how his character would move, speak and dress. It's really quite spectacular to watch him work and to interact with him," says the director, who admits, that after two weeks of working closely with Mortensen, they felt like brothers.
David Cronenberg, Director
Cannes Film Festival 2005 Press Kit
'It felt good to shed my hero's costume'
Viggo Mortensen
The Anti-Hero
by Renaud Baronian
Metro 18 May 2005
"The challenge in preparing and playing Tom Stall was to be thoroughly honest and specific with behaviour, to lie as truthfully as possible. But that's what actors are always ideally trying to do anyway."
Viggo Mortensen
V-Life magazine
Jan 2006
"Viggo is not pompous or pretentious. He doesn't arrive with an entourage. He's grounded, quirky, and observant. He is artistic. I deeply appreciate that since I basically arrive on the set with my shovel in hand and go to work as well. And I love it when someone else does that."
William Hurt
Cannes Film Festival 2005 Press Kit
William Hurt killed me. He's so into what he is doing that it's extreme. He'd say, "Viggo! You're laughing again!"
I was trying so hard to be in the shadows. I wasn't laughing, but he could see that there were tears in my eyes.
Viggo Mortensen
Viggo and Cronenberg talking about the dangers of filming the fight scenes
Listening in: David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortenson introduce AHOV at Tiff
Next Projection.com
14 January 2014
'......even though emotionally there was a lot of difficult days on the set, you know, uncomfortable. There was always a lot of joking going on. It was a lot of fun making this movie. He has a very good sense of humour, maybe a very dark sense of humour, [laughs] but a good one.'
Viggo Mortensen - Cannes Interview
ARTE TV
By Lionel Julien, transcription by Chrissie
16 May 2005
"I'd wanted to work with him Indian Runner. He's holy and ridiculous. I've never worked with anyone so determined to create an interesting character. He's a good human being, and he's very, very hot."
Maria Bello
ThebookLA.com
January 2005
'[Cronenberg] continues what he's always done, which is taking people apart, almost like they were a machine or an engine, but now more taking their brains apart than their bodies, I suppose. It's more a psychological autopsy and the results are always a little disturbing. Not because he's disturbing, but because we are. As an audience and as a subject.'
Viggo Mortensen, Actor, poet, photographer
Philip Matthews
New Zealand Listener
March 18-24 2006
'The Stall family is monstrous because it's too normal. That effort to make everything work well, of being extra careful...there's always a little power game. There's a great deal beneath what one appears to be as a parent, a couple, a son. The effort to conceal that is disturbing.'
Viggo Mortensen
The Other Mortensen
By Mariana Enriquez - translated for V-W by Margarita
Página 12,
20 November 2005
In the end, do you think that this is ultimately a hopeful movie ?
Maria Bello: I think it's whatever anyone thinks it is. But for me, that day...we'd spent three months together and it did feel like a family. David said, 'I don't know what this scene is going to be. You guys have been in these characters for three months; you figure it out. When he walks in the door you'll know.' And it's true. As soon as we heard the door slam, Ashton (Holmes), Heidi (Hayes) and I kind of jumped and just immediately like welled up, all of us. And to look up and see his sweet face, this man who we've loved for three months, as Viggo and as this character, to be so unsure and to still love this person, yes I think there is a hopefulness in that.
Maria Bello on working with Viggo
JoBlo.com, by Thomas Luepp
27 September 2005
'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
"I dunno, maybe I'm channeling some barbaric ancestor or something."
Viggo Mortensen on his convincing performance
E online
22 Sept 2005
You will find all previous Quotables here.
© Viggo-Works/Iolanthe. Images © New Line Productions, Inc.