"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



"I try to find something interesting and a little scary," Mortensen explained. "'The Road' was to some degree one of those instances,"

Eugene Hernandez
Indiewire.com
7 September 2009



'I've never been in a movie where the character was dealing with this much sadness and dread all the way through.'

Viggo Mortensen: Grilled
By Steve Pond
The Wrap
25 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."

After "The Road" Viggo Mortensen Looks on the Bright Side: "You Could Always Be Dead"
By Jeffrey Podolsky
Wall Street Journal
17 November 2009



What did you learn from your discussion with the book's author, Cormac McCarthy?

I talked to him one long time before shooting on the phone. We basically talked about his kid and my kid and being dads. I had tons of notes and questions to ask him. I was ready to pick his brain. At the end of the conversation, he asked me, "Do you have any specific questions about the book?" I had 50,000 post-it notes in the book and not one but two pens in case it ran out of ink. I mean I was ready. But I said "Nah, I don't really" because I realized the conversation we had was all I need to get going. His book and his words are so heartfelt and so free of any gimmickry. He just transcends cultures and languages.

Viggo on The Road
By Cindy Pearlman
Chicago Sun Times
22 November 2009



"It's a complex role" the actor tells us, "because [The Man] had no name, no known past, I had few elements from which to create him. So I concentrated on the bond he has with his son, which is the principal theme of the movie. "The Road" is a metaphor for the beginning of a journey along a philosophical pathway which clarifies the relationship between a father and son. I passed enormous amounts of time with my own son and discussed thousands of subjects with him before I could really absorb the full meaning of this unique rapport."

Viggo Mortensen
End of the World
Studio Magazine
By Mathieu Lecerf
June 2008
Translated by Chrissiejane



If anyone could survive in a post-apocalyptic world, the director says, it would be Viggo. "It's such a challenging and extreme survival world that he has to do things that have to be credible," he says. And yet, 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. He's so haunted by the suicide of his loved one-his wife and partner-and yet he has this incredible protective relationship with his son. It is a love story, and in such a challenging and extreme survival world, he has to do things that have to be credible."

John Hillcoat
Interview with Viggo Mortensen, Oscar Contender
Emmanuellevy.com
3 September 2009



'It was a different challenge than I've ever had, as an actor.'

Viggo Mortensen
Interview: Viggo Mortensen Travels THE ROAD
Christina Radish
IESB.net
9 November 2009



"He's very intense. He's very Method. There's no stopping him. He was starving himself. He was going out, rolling in the snow and sleeping in his wardrobe and rubbing the dirt in his eyes and face, I mean, it's extraordinary. It makes the performance all that more incredible. But I think also he's got an incredible face, a very expressive face. To find an everyman that you could buy going through that, because he's a very physical actor as well. 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."

Hillcoat talking about Viggo
John Hillcoat Hits The Road
By Edward Douglas
Comingsoon.net
19 November 2009



Viggo Mortensen is an actor who doesn't do things by half measures. I have never seen anyone who surrenders himself to his character with such passion. I can assure you that his only limits are those of his own life. His physical ability as well as the world of his emotions. Viggo emptied himself out, always. He'd be exhausted at the end of a hard day. He gives everything.

Diary of The Road's Shooting
By Javier Aguirresarobe - translated by Ollie, Remolina, Rio, Sage and Zooey
Esquire (Spain)
January 2010



'He is able to reflect struggle without even speaking, and I knew we needed someone who would not hold back.'

John Hillcoat
No Country for Any man
Telegraph Magazine
January 2010



"I was overwhelmed by the actor's ability to stay focused and stay in role. And I hope I'm not saying something out of school here--and I don't know how Viggo will feel about this--but for the first few days of the shoot, he slept in his clothes to stay in role. He paid attention to every detail. If his shoes weren't wet enough, he would spray himself. He was totally absorbed and obsessed with the part. He became The Man."

Steve Schwartz. (Producer)
Interview with Viggo Mortensen, Oscar Contender
Emmanuellevy.com
3 September 2009



'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 I looked at the movie for the first time, we 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
25November 2009



"Different actors have different processes that they use. What I've seen with Viggo is that he is able to use the environment more so than any other actor I've worked with before to put him where he needs to be emotionally....And maybe it's pouring down rain, and he'll walk away from umbrellas, raincoats. He'll walk away from any tent that's being offered or any blanket to be intentionally cold and wet, and it seems to take him to a place that's quite remarkable. I've seen it happen over and over again in the snow, the rain, cold, the fog - anything that he is able to use that puts him in the world of the character. He's a very physical actor as well, and it's been a remarkable process to watch that. I would imagine it takes an enormous amount of concentration to be able to not let the cold ground or the rocks on the road or whatever it may be break your concentration, but it's taken him to a place that is pretty amazing over and over and over again."

Simmons (producer)
Interview with Viggo Mortensen, Oscar Contender
Emmanuellevy.com
3 September 2009



While he was on a tour doing publicity for another movie, Mortensen would sneak off and talk to homeless people, whose survival-oriented existence paralleled that of his character. "Every major city around the world, there are people that live outside, and they have the same concerns as our characters," he said. "How am I going to get food? How am I going to stay dry? How am I going to keep people from stealing my stuff or hurting me? You can't get any more basic than that."

Viggo Mortensen: 'Road' Warrior
Mortensen talks about playing a father in the post-apocalyptic 'The Road.'
By Sam Adams
18 November 2009



'...the voice that you hear in the voiceover is obviously the voice in the guy's head. So even if I'm so weak that I can barely talk, or if I'm upset, it isn't a real voice. So I thought, well, it's not a real voice - so how does it sound? It's just matter-of-fact. It's really just what McCarthy wrote.'

Viggo talking about the voiceover
Viggo Mortensen: Grilled
By Steve Pond
The Wrap
25 November 2009



"...you feel fortunate that you got offered this role, and then you think "oh, no, how am I going to do this?" In this case, more than usual. When I spoke with the director, I knew he was going to do things right, as far as the locations, actors, crews, but I felt like I had a burden that I had not had before on an emotional level, this turbulence under the surface, of how I was going to make this believable."

The Road's Viggo Mortensen survives post-apocalyptic tale
By Elisa Osegueda
Fandango.com
29 November 2009



"I knew that if we did it right, it would be a challenge emotionally. I would have to go on a journey."

Viggo Mortensen
Interview with Viggo Mortensen, Oscar Contender
Emmanuellevy.com
3 September 2009