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Viggo Mortensen has it all. The right amount of mysticism, the classic hunky looks and the major movie parts. But when he's not on the big screen he's a shy, artistic soul who would rather spend his time with his son and his ex-wife. Vecko-Revyn met him in Los Angeles.

Viggo Mortensen is shy. He finds it embarrassing to be a celebrity, and he avoids publicity when he can.

'I'm not an actor to be a celebrity,' the shy half-Dane states when Vecko-Revyn meets him in Los Angeles. In fluent Danish he continues, 'to be totally honest, I make movies to earn money. The Lord of the Rings movies were different, those I wanted to be a part of, also because the experience would enrich my soul.'

Viggo threw himself into the work and toiled harder than anyone else. He says that he wanted to live like his character Aragorn, to really feel at home in the part.

'I walked barefoot and rarely changed clothes, instead I wore my Aragorn costume even when I had time off. I often slept under the open sky and I learned a lot by playing Aragorn. Parts of his personality have become part of me.'

He then says that he doesn't mind being a bit like the parts he is doing, but that he enjoys being an artist where he is doing the creating.

'When it comes to poetry and photography, that is my art, then I'm not a part of someone else's vision.'

Viggo is a hippie from head to toe. He prefers to walk barefoot, and talks about love, peace and understanding, the universe and other major things. What you might not know is that he's published several books with poetry, photos and paintings.

'I am fairly versatile as an artist and I record CDs as well, often with a mixture of music and poetry reading.'

His love of the outdoors life comes from his summers spent in Denmark.

'My father is Danish, and I spent every summer at my grandparents' farm. There I would play outdoors all day.'

One of the things Viggo does not like to talk about is the fact that he is rated as one of the most attractive single men in the world.

'I have no desire to talk about my love life,' he states, in a friendly but firm way. 'I will tell you, though, that I am great friends with my ex-wife, and the entire family spends a lot of time together.'

The ex-wife is Exene Cervenka - artist, musician and singer in punk band X. The couple have a son; 14-year-old Henry.

Viggo has been listed among the most attractive men in the world several times and surely has no problem meeting girls. If he wants to, that is.

'Someone said that women are lining up to meet me,' he says, 'but I can't say I've noticed that. I am pretty shy. When I was younger I barely had the nerve to talk to girls, never was a ladies man.'

He squirms uneasily. The talk about girls and his looks has him making a face that clearly shows he thinks women are a slightly uncomfortable topic of discussion.

'Viggo has no idea how attractive he is to women,' says friend Elijah Wood. 'He finds all the attention embarrassing. He is really not the celeb type, prancing around at fancy Hollywood premieres. Dear god - we're talking about a guy who runs around barefoot and speaks about spiritual art!'

Elijah laughs and concludes, 'Viggo is a wonderful mate. He's an unusual and very special guy, and I admire him because he will never adjust to other people's ideas of how he should be.'