A Dangerous Method

"...it was amazing to work with David Cronenberg and Viggo, and Keira Knightley -- she's going to make people sit up and pay attention with her performance. I think she's really stunning in it. And Viggo Mortensen -- he is the most beautiful man in the world! He is! He's just like, wow! He's such a special dude. And Cronenberg is so funny, and obviously brilliant. That was a special experience."

Michael Fassbender
Michael Fassbender, future superstar
By Andrew O'Hehir
Salon.com
8 March 2011



"First of all, I was nervous. I'm about to meet Viggo Mortensen. Then, very quickly we just got along. It was just like that. He's very supportive and generous. Obviously, he's very well prepared. Nobody knows when Viggo is going to arrive, that's the thing [laughs]. It was like, "Viggo will be here one of these days." They started filming with Keira and I first. He arrives, there's nobody at the airport to meet him because nobody knows when he's going to be there [laughs]. He gets a rental car and turns up on the set. And 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. He writes poetry. He takes photographs. He's very artistically rich. I just tried to watch him and learn as much as I could."

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



"Working with Viggo was really special, he's an amazing human being, and obviously a brilliant actor..."

Michael Fassbender
Sam Adams
AVClub.com
8 March 2011



"Viggo and I tried to find the comedy in it, as much as possible. That was fun. I've always been a massive fan of him. He's an impressive human being."

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



"Viggo Mortensen is an absolute joy really, he has his work very methodically put together, he's very precise. But he's also got a great sense of humour, we had a lot of fun, a lot of fun doing our scene's together. The more we did the more fun we had (laughs). It's important as well I think when you're dealing with very heavy material and serious material, that you keep a lightness in-between takes. So when you come to the scene a bit more loose and a bit more relaxed. That helps you find the little nuances within it."

Michael Fassbender
Michael Fassbender Interview For David Cronenberg's 'A Dangerous Method'
Flicks and Bits
21 November 2011



"What I loved about Christopher Hampton's script is that there's no compromise in terms of delivering the intellect of these characters and the way they fought, and how it flowed, and how everything became referenced to sexuality and psychoanalysis, which they thought of as a medical procedure. They were so enthusiastic about it and so protective of it, and there were such struggles. Then of course there was the great split between Freud and Jung. I wanted to bring these people back to life. I never got to talk to Freud but I got to talk to Viggo playing Freud."

David Cronenberg on Freud, Keira and pressing the flesh
Brian D. Johnson
Maccleans.ca
25 August 2010



"In the cafe, when Freud leans in and says to Jung, 'Of course, the problem is that all of us here in Vienna are Jews,' and Jung says, 'Well, I don't see what difference that makes.' Freud says, 'Well, that, my dear Mr. Jung, is an exquisitely Protestant remark.' It's not flashy; it's a delicate moment. He's confiding something, a weakness, a vulnerability, a fear, to this man he hopes will take over his movement because he's not Jewish. Yet this guy is completely oblivious to that factor. It's a lovely, delicate moment, and Viggo does it so beautifully and convincingly, with such humor."

David Cronenberg
A light touch with 'A Dangerous Method'
by Michael Ordoña
Los Angeles Times
3 January 2012



Perhaps the most interesting facet of Mortensen's take on Freud is his ability to convey a roiling complexity below a placid surface. His Freud is a man wracked by anxiety over a demanding, and perhaps unwilling, public. He is an outsider, self-conscious of his radical ideas, terrified of moving too far too fast, of pushing too much and being slapped down for his transgressions. His confidence is a mask draped across his insecurity. But this diffidence is as much about his concern that psychoanalysis is too radical for the people as it is about his own ethnic difference.

The Deliberate Method of Viggo Mortensen as Sigmund Freud in 'A Dangerous Method'
By Stuart Henderson
Pop Matters
17 November 2011



Not to be forgotten in the supporting category is Mortensen, whose Oscar-nominated thug in "Eastern Promises" was as vividly physical as his Freud is wittily cerebral.

Contender: 'A Dangerous Method'
The Contenders 2011
By Bob Verini
The Vote
12 November 2011