Iolanthe's Quotable Viggo
18 January 2020 09:59:09 Found By: Iolanthe
The Oscar nominations are out and – as often the case – I read them and think ‘Viggo really should have got an Oscar for The Road’. How on earth did he not even get nominated? It is, IMHO, one of the great oversights in the Academy’s history. It was a very demanding role and the film took a huge toll on him and Kodi Smit-McPhee, both physically and emotionally. And no one else could have brought to The Man the depth of sensitivity and courage that Viggo did. OK… getting down off my soap box now!
"Viggo has the perfect qualities as a man and as an actor to do this part. He’s got incredible depth of soul.”
Nick Wechsler
Interview with Viggo Mortensen, Oscar Contender
Emmanuellevy.com
3 September 2009
Before accepting the role, he was coming out of two solid years of non-stop intense work and had sworn to take a rest. He had arranged a series of exhibitions of his photography, but as soon as Hillcoat got him to read the script of The Road, he understood that he could not refuse the role.
Premier Magazine
By Gérard Delorme - Translated by Chrissiejane
June 2008
Mortensen felt drained after reading both the book and script in the same day. “Yeah, I was worthless that day,” admitted Mortensen. “I was at my mother’s house, actually, visiting her and she said, ‘So, what do you want to do for dinner?’ ‘Dinner?’ I said, ‘How can I eat now?’”
Viggo Mortensen Talks About ‘The Road’
Rebecca Murray
About.com
23 November 2009
“I was trying to think of an everyman, yet someone you could really buy as credible in making that journey,” Hillcoat said. “Actors come with baggage, as well. Sometimes that baggage can help, like Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler. His baggage was part of the performance. With Viggo, there’s something slightly elusive about him, and he has quite a wide range, and yet, also, there’s this real physicality about him. And there’s this tenderness.
”And his face also reminded me of Grapes of Wrath, the Dorothea Lange photos of the Great Depression, Midwest people struggling with the collapse of the environment and the economy.”
On The Road with Viggo and Kodi:
By Jay Stone
Canada.com
18 November 2009
“A lot of times I take on roles because they scare me.” That, he explained, was what brought him to The Road. Viggo had read the book and was afraid. Afraid of a role he thought might be the most physically and emotionally demanding performance of his career.
Viggo Mortensen
AFI Fest: Viggo and The Road
The Bloggomist: The Local Boy
Evil Monito Magazine
17 November 2009
…the role requires not only physical verisimilitude, but the ability to show tenderness and inner strength. "For some actors it might be a stretch that they’re so tender and sensitive to a child and yet be able to physically do what he has to do. Viggo’s very intense and very wound up, and that is what the father is all about."
John Hillcoat
Interview with Viggo Mortensen, Oscar Contender
Emmanuellevy.com
3 September 2009
"Viggo emptied himself out, always. He’d be exhausted at the end of a hard day. He gives everything."
Javier Aguirresarobe
Diary of The Road's Shooting
By Javier Aguirresarobe - translated by Ollie, Remolina, Rio, Sage and Zooey
Esquire (Spain)
January 2010
"It was a hell of a thing for him to undertake, because there’s nowhere to hide. He’s in every single frame almost, throughout every scene, and every emotion he has to delve into, every emotion. The journey is very extreme, so it’s a lot to ask of someone.”
John Hillcoat
John Hillcoat Hits The Road
By Edward Douglas
Comingsoon.net
19 November 2009
“…the book was my constant companion. It’s pretty well-worn. The interior life of the characters are so beautifully written, so poetic that it was what I kept going back to. But this movie is about man’s humanity, this flower that blooms in a desert between two people.”
Viggo Mortensen
After “The Road” Viggo Mortensen Looks on the Bright Side: “You Could Always Be Dead”
By Jeffrey Podolsky
Wall Street Journal
17 November 2009
Luckily for Smit-McPhee, one of our greatest actors shares every scene with him. Viggo Mortensen is perfectly cast. Was anyone even surprised when he was announced as The Man? It’s a challenging role for any actor, but one can’t help but see it as something as a culmination of the excellent work he’s been doing since appearing in that little fantasy film a few years ago.
Brian Kinsley
Incontention.com
September 2nd, 2008
"It’s true that when you’re traveling through these suffering landscapes, these devastating landscapes, it’s so real, and it was definitely cold, and we were definitely wet. Everything was so real visually and physically for us that we could not be anywhere else other than at that level. We had to reach that somehow in terms of our emotions and our relationship. It had to be credible, and I think it was a great help to us."
Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Hits The Road
By Roger Durling
Santa Barbara Independent
22 November 2009
...when an actor like Viggo Mortensen is in front of the camera, it's best to just let the camera run and let him be. Mortensen gives a brilliant, genius performance. His character's every breath is not just his own, but a breath for his son, a breath for hope, and Mortensen conveys that with harrowing accuracy.
Brandon Lee Tenney
FirstShowing.net
25 November 2009
Mortensen captures the wounded man’s pain in his wonderfully expressive eyes, and despite being faced with death all around him, he is a life force for whom survival is paramount.
John Foote
Screenrant
14 September 2009
“When I looked at the movie for the first time, [Kodi and I] were sitting next to each other in Venice, I was shocked sometimes. It’s beyond the makeup; there’s something in our faces that’s more lean, more suffering, beyond what I thought was happening. And I think that has to do with committing mentally and emotionally to the material.”
Viggo Mortensen sets the record straight about his acting career, ‘The Road’ and ‘The Hobbit’
By Carla Hay
Examiner.com
25 November 2009
‘My favourite line of the film happens to be in voiceover, where [my character] says that by the end, the boy has helped him accept his fate and accept the way things are and appreciate life. He says, “If I were God, I would make the world just so, and no different.”’
Viggo Mortensen
Against all odds
Melora Koepke
Hour.ca
12 November 2009
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