Eastern Promises
Donate
Social Media
Viggo and Cronenberg
Image Thomas Borberg.
© iBYEN.dk.
© iBYEN.dk.
Viggo and Cronenberg
Scorsese and De Niro.
Fellini and Mastroianni.
John Ford and the Duke.
And now ... David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen?
By Robert W. Butler, The Kansas City Star
16 Sept 2007
....exuding from their two films together is a sense of ideal alchemy, as if the sculptured physique and the Sphinx like face of the actor were made for the dry and morally complex thrillers of the Canadian film maker.
Sans Viggo, je n'aurai pas fait ce film
Les Inrockuptibles
Serge Kanaski and Julien Gester
12 November 2007
After two collaborations, they're as comfortable together as a pair of old shoes.
Behind the banter, 'Eastern Promises' actor and director offer serious insights
By Chris Vognar, Dallas News
12 Sept 2007
"Viggo's cheap, he's available and he's obedient!" laughs Cronenberg. "And he's got a great chin."
David Cronenberg
Ties that bind
by Melora Koepke, Hour CA
13 Sept 2007
When I read interviews about History of Violence, the interviews really emphasized the degree to which you two collaborate. Tell me, how do you two work together?
DC: It's a total lie. I do everything, Viggo does nothing. I do all the work. But he pays me to say that he does a lot of stuff.
VM: Also to say that I'm thoughtful and considerate.
Talking Eastern Promises with David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen
By Sara Maria Vizcarrondo
Rotten Tomatoes
12 September 2007
'....you get an immense resource when you get Viggo.'
David Cronenberg
by Quint
Aintitcool.com
18 December 2007
This is the quality of an old-school action star, the ability to hint at lifetimes of unspoken and unseen experience that kept drawing directors like John Ford back to actors like John Wayne, Anthony Mann back to James Stewart, Sergio Leone back to Clint Eastwood, and - twice now - David Cronenberg back to Mortensen. And it's a quality that only gets more menacingly potent with time.
By Geoff Pevere
Toronto Star
6 Sept 2007
"He has the charisma of a leading man but the temperament and talent of a character actor," he enthuses. "He's, therefore, capable of and not afraid to disappear into a role.
David Cronenberg
Cultivating a history of creativity
By Curtis Woloschuk, Westender.com
Sep 13 2007
"...with Viggo you don't just get a violin, you get a whole symphony orchestra."
David Cronenberg
RT talks Eastern Promises
By Sara Schieron, Rotten Tomatoes
12 September 2007
"I love Viggo - it really is a collaboration," Cronenberg says. "It's like a marriage. You might see two people together and not understand why they are, but they know. We know. We feel we can get the best out of each other."
Viggo's 'Promises'
By Sara Stewart
New York Post
26 Aug 2007
So, do when you work with Viggo, is it like being in his skin the whole time?
Yes, that's true. I can tell you that one time the props guy came to me and said, "I'm going to ask you about this because you are Viggo, and Viggo is you--so it doesn't matter which of you I ask." He saw it.
David Cronenberg's existential promises
By Jennifer Merin, New York Press
14 Sept 2007
"..... weirdly enough, Viggo and I have come from some other planet together. I do feel we're brothers under the skin."
David Cronenberg
Blood Brothers
By Walter Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle
9 Sept 2007
"Once Viggo Mortensen decides to take on a role, he's completely into it and the greatest collaborator you can have..."
David Cronenberg.
Eastern Promises Production Notes
20 August 2007
Source: Focus Features
"Viggo's one-man research engine helped mould David's thinking about the script, and fed into the script in a great way. It informed our whole process."[/i]
Paul Webster
[url=?page=1294]Eastern Promises Production Notes
20 August 2007
Source: Focus Features
"I consider myself very fortunate to have done two movies in a row with David. I think that with this movie we explored language a little more, whereas in A History of Violence it was gesture that took precedence.
"Eastern Promises is a logical follow-up to A History of Violence; there are identity issues, explorations of the traditional family structure, people dealing with perilous situations and moral dilemmas and the question 'Is violence ever justified?'"
Viggo Mortensen
Eastern Promises Production Notes
20 August 2007
Source: Focus Features
"....what I love about him as a storyteller is that he doesn't tell you everything. What's going to happen to them now? I really think about that. I gotta see that again. That's a good story. And you don't really feel that way - I don't anyway - with most movies, even by good directors. I just don't get that feeling afterwards."
Viggo Mortensen
A History of Their Collaboration
By Pam Grady, Filmstew.com
11 Sept 2007
"A lot of the information you get about the way a character is thinking and feeling is very subtle," Mr. Mortensen says. "It's a look or a hesitation before saying something or a blink or not looking at someone. You need a director who loves those details and pays attention to them as he's shooting and during editing. Otherwise characters played that way seem very flat and one-dimensional. With David, you know you're in good hands so you feel safe to play big or small."
Behind the banter, 'Eastern Promises' actor and director offer serious insights
By Chris Vognar, Dallas News
12 Sept 2007
"What I love most about David.....more so than any other director alive, is that he asks many, many questions, and with each subsequent viewing you find that there are more and more questions, but he doesn't give you any answers. He respects you enough to let you think for yourself and form your own opinions."
Viggo Mortensen
Crimes and Misdemeanours
By Phillip Berk, Filmink
October 2007
"I feel safe bringing things to David that weren't on the page, because he knows it's good for the movie to make people feel safe and like they are truly collaborators."
Cronenberg chuckled. "Yes, essentially I am very lazy, and I only hire people who will do all the work for me."
"And then he can take credit for it," Mortensen said, deadpan.
Mortensen, director discuss their noirish
Eastern Promises
By Dixie Reid, Sacramento Bee,
12 September 2007
"... David is just starting to hit his stride. Usually someone who's been making movies for 30 years starts to tire, but his curve keeps going up and up. It's almost like he's getting younger and more adventurous with every movie."
Viggo Mortensen
By Robert W. Butler, The Kansas City Star
16 Sept 2007
"I enjoy working with iconoclasts, like Gus van Sant. He is an iconoclast, as is David Cronenberg. One thing is for sure, though, I'll definitely work with David again. And if he wants me to fight naked, so be it!"
Viggo Mortensen
My painful decision to fight in the nude
By Will Lawrence, Daily Telegraph
19 October 2007
How did they work to create Mr. Mortensen's Nikolai, covered in tattoos and minimalist of motion?
"I just followed orders," deadpans Mr. Mortensen, 48. "And I just told him to do whatever he wanted," says Mr. Cronenberg, 64.
Behind the banter, 'Eastern Promises' actor and director offer serious insights
By Chris Vognar, Dallas News
12 Sept 2007
"In the movie," said Cronenberg, "Viggo was wearing Armani. We don't allow him on the street like that, because he can't carry off the class when he's being himself."
Mortensen, director discuss their noirish
Eastern Promises
By Dixie Reid, Sacramento Bee,
12 September 2007
On the stillness in Nikolai's character:
Mr. Mortensen: "They had to freeze-frame me." Mr. Cronenberg: "It was stop-motion. I worked him like a puppet."
Behind the banter, 'Eastern Promises' actor and director offer serious insights
By Chris Vognar, Dallas News
12 Sept 2007
Asked about his preparation for the [fight] scene, Mortensen said, "I was paid a great deal of money."
Added Cronenberg: "When we started to shoot the scene we were surprised to discover that Viggo has no genitals so we had to CG [computer-generate] them in."
"I had to give some of the money back," said Mortensen.
"It was very expensive CG," Cronenberg explained.
Viggo and Cronenberg's double act
Tiff Press Conference
By Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail
8 Sept 2007
VM: So do you think (Russian president Vladimir) Putin will like this movie?
DC: Putin will probably love this movie.
VM: I think he'll probably get some of my character's tattoos.
DC: Frankly, I think he has them already.
A Conversation Between David Cronenberg And Viggo Mortensen: The Interview
Transcribed by Patches
28 Sept 2007
DC: I don't think of you as an American. As I said when we did History Of
Violence, I could tell that you were actually Russian-it's obvious from your
cheekbones. I doubt that you'll be able to play any other kind of role now.
They'll say, "You can't cast Mortensen as an American - he's so foreign.....
......I thought it was incredibly bold of me to cast you as an American in
History Of Violence.
VM: Well, yeah, but it was a twisted view of America.
A Conversation Between David Cronenberg And Viggo Mortensen: The Interview
Transcribed by Patches
28 Sept 2007
VM: Well, is there anything else? It's onerous to talk to me, I know.
DC: It's torment. I actually had to take some codeine pills before we
started.
A Conversation Between David Cronenberg And Viggo Mortensen: The Interview
Transcribed by Patches
28 Sept 2007
"We both have such bad memories that neither of us could remember we had worked together," says Mr. Cronenberg. "It was only when I saw photographs that I realized."
Behind the banter, 'Eastern Promises' actor and director offer serious insights
By Chris Vognar, Dallas News
12 Sept 2007
Q: So what's going to be the next Cronenberg-Mortensen movie?
CRONENBERG: We really don't know. I mean, (Viggo) works a lot, and I get very jealous. He works with other directors, but I'll only work with him. So he's the slut in the relationship.
David Cronenberg
Blood Brothers
By Walter Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle
9 Sept 2007
"Well, I'd like Viggo to be in any and every movie that I do, frankly," he offers with a laugh. "And if I can possibly find a role for him in anything I do, I will. That's my promise. That's my Eastern promise."
David Cronenberg
Star's Eastern immersion impresses his director
by Steven Rea, Philadelphia Enquirer
16 Sept 2007
Fellini and Mastroianni.
John Ford and the Duke.
And now ... David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen?
By Robert W. Butler, The Kansas City Star
16 Sept 2007
....exuding from their two films together is a sense of ideal alchemy, as if the sculptured physique and the Sphinx like face of the actor were made for the dry and morally complex thrillers of the Canadian film maker.
Sans Viggo, je n'aurai pas fait ce film
Les Inrockuptibles
Serge Kanaski and Julien Gester
12 November 2007
After two collaborations, they're as comfortable together as a pair of old shoes.
Behind the banter, 'Eastern Promises' actor and director offer serious insights
By Chris Vognar, Dallas News
12 Sept 2007
"Viggo's cheap, he's available and he's obedient!" laughs Cronenberg. "And he's got a great chin."
David Cronenberg
Ties that bind
by Melora Koepke, Hour CA
13 Sept 2007
When I read interviews about History of Violence, the interviews really emphasized the degree to which you two collaborate. Tell me, how do you two work together?
DC: It's a total lie. I do everything, Viggo does nothing. I do all the work. But he pays me to say that he does a lot of stuff.
VM: Also to say that I'm thoughtful and considerate.
Talking Eastern Promises with David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen
By Sara Maria Vizcarrondo
Rotten Tomatoes
12 September 2007
'....you get an immense resource when you get Viggo.'
David Cronenberg
by Quint
Aintitcool.com
18 December 2007
This is the quality of an old-school action star, the ability to hint at lifetimes of unspoken and unseen experience that kept drawing directors like John Ford back to actors like John Wayne, Anthony Mann back to James Stewart, Sergio Leone back to Clint Eastwood, and - twice now - David Cronenberg back to Mortensen. And it's a quality that only gets more menacingly potent with time.
By Geoff Pevere
Toronto Star
6 Sept 2007
"He has the charisma of a leading man but the temperament and talent of a character actor," he enthuses. "He's, therefore, capable of and not afraid to disappear into a role.
David Cronenberg
Cultivating a history of creativity
By Curtis Woloschuk, Westender.com
Sep 13 2007
"...with Viggo you don't just get a violin, you get a whole symphony orchestra."
David Cronenberg
RT talks Eastern Promises
By Sara Schieron, Rotten Tomatoes
12 September 2007
"I love Viggo - it really is a collaboration," Cronenberg says. "It's like a marriage. You might see two people together and not understand why they are, but they know. We know. We feel we can get the best out of each other."
Viggo's 'Promises'
By Sara Stewart
New York Post
26 Aug 2007
So, do when you work with Viggo, is it like being in his skin the whole time?
Yes, that's true. I can tell you that one time the props guy came to me and said, "I'm going to ask you about this because you are Viggo, and Viggo is you--so it doesn't matter which of you I ask." He saw it.
David Cronenberg's existential promises
By Jennifer Merin, New York Press
14 Sept 2007
"..... weirdly enough, Viggo and I have come from some other planet together. I do feel we're brothers under the skin."
David Cronenberg
Blood Brothers
By Walter Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle
9 Sept 2007
"Once Viggo Mortensen decides to take on a role, he's completely into it and the greatest collaborator you can have..."
David Cronenberg.
Eastern Promises Production Notes
20 August 2007
Source: Focus Features
"Viggo's one-man research engine helped mould David's thinking about the script, and fed into the script in a great way. It informed our whole process."[/i]
Paul Webster
[url=?page=1294]Eastern Promises Production Notes
20 August 2007
Source: Focus Features
"I consider myself very fortunate to have done two movies in a row with David. I think that with this movie we explored language a little more, whereas in A History of Violence it was gesture that took precedence.
"Eastern Promises is a logical follow-up to A History of Violence; there are identity issues, explorations of the traditional family structure, people dealing with perilous situations and moral dilemmas and the question 'Is violence ever justified?'"
Viggo Mortensen
Eastern Promises Production Notes
20 August 2007
Source: Focus Features
"....what I love about him as a storyteller is that he doesn't tell you everything. What's going to happen to them now? I really think about that. I gotta see that again. That's a good story. And you don't really feel that way - I don't anyway - with most movies, even by good directors. I just don't get that feeling afterwards."
Viggo Mortensen
A History of Their Collaboration
By Pam Grady, Filmstew.com
11 Sept 2007
"A lot of the information you get about the way a character is thinking and feeling is very subtle," Mr. Mortensen says. "It's a look or a hesitation before saying something or a blink or not looking at someone. You need a director who loves those details and pays attention to them as he's shooting and during editing. Otherwise characters played that way seem very flat and one-dimensional. With David, you know you're in good hands so you feel safe to play big or small."
Behind the banter, 'Eastern Promises' actor and director offer serious insights
By Chris Vognar, Dallas News
12 Sept 2007
"What I love most about David.....more so than any other director alive, is that he asks many, many questions, and with each subsequent viewing you find that there are more and more questions, but he doesn't give you any answers. He respects you enough to let you think for yourself and form your own opinions."
Viggo Mortensen
Crimes and Misdemeanours
By Phillip Berk, Filmink
October 2007
"I feel safe bringing things to David that weren't on the page, because he knows it's good for the movie to make people feel safe and like they are truly collaborators."
Cronenberg chuckled. "Yes, essentially I am very lazy, and I only hire people who will do all the work for me."
"And then he can take credit for it," Mortensen said, deadpan.
Mortensen, director discuss their noirish
Eastern Promises
By Dixie Reid, Sacramento Bee,
12 September 2007
"... David is just starting to hit his stride. Usually someone who's been making movies for 30 years starts to tire, but his curve keeps going up and up. It's almost like he's getting younger and more adventurous with every movie."
Viggo Mortensen
By Robert W. Butler, The Kansas City Star
16 Sept 2007
"I enjoy working with iconoclasts, like Gus van Sant. He is an iconoclast, as is David Cronenberg. One thing is for sure, though, I'll definitely work with David again. And if he wants me to fight naked, so be it!"
Viggo Mortensen
My painful decision to fight in the nude
By Will Lawrence, Daily Telegraph
19 October 2007
How did they work to create Mr. Mortensen's Nikolai, covered in tattoos and minimalist of motion?
"I just followed orders," deadpans Mr. Mortensen, 48. "And I just told him to do whatever he wanted," says Mr. Cronenberg, 64.
Behind the banter, 'Eastern Promises' actor and director offer serious insights
By Chris Vognar, Dallas News
12 Sept 2007
"In the movie," said Cronenberg, "Viggo was wearing Armani. We don't allow him on the street like that, because he can't carry off the class when he's being himself."
Mortensen, director discuss their noirish
Eastern Promises
By Dixie Reid, Sacramento Bee,
12 September 2007
On the stillness in Nikolai's character:
Mr. Mortensen: "They had to freeze-frame me." Mr. Cronenberg: "It was stop-motion. I worked him like a puppet."
Behind the banter, 'Eastern Promises' actor and director offer serious insights
By Chris Vognar, Dallas News
12 Sept 2007
Asked about his preparation for the [fight] scene, Mortensen said, "I was paid a great deal of money."
Added Cronenberg: "When we started to shoot the scene we were surprised to discover that Viggo has no genitals so we had to CG [computer-generate] them in."
"I had to give some of the money back," said Mortensen.
"It was very expensive CG," Cronenberg explained.
Viggo and Cronenberg's double act
Tiff Press Conference
By Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail
8 Sept 2007
VM: So do you think (Russian president Vladimir) Putin will like this movie?
DC: Putin will probably love this movie.
VM: I think he'll probably get some of my character's tattoos.
DC: Frankly, I think he has them already.
A Conversation Between David Cronenberg And Viggo Mortensen: The Interview
Transcribed by Patches
28 Sept 2007
DC: I don't think of you as an American. As I said when we did History Of
Violence, I could tell that you were actually Russian-it's obvious from your
cheekbones. I doubt that you'll be able to play any other kind of role now.
They'll say, "You can't cast Mortensen as an American - he's so foreign.....
......I thought it was incredibly bold of me to cast you as an American in
History Of Violence.
VM: Well, yeah, but it was a twisted view of America.
A Conversation Between David Cronenberg And Viggo Mortensen: The Interview
Transcribed by Patches
28 Sept 2007
VM: Well, is there anything else? It's onerous to talk to me, I know.
DC: It's torment. I actually had to take some codeine pills before we
started.
A Conversation Between David Cronenberg And Viggo Mortensen: The Interview
Transcribed by Patches
28 Sept 2007
"We both have such bad memories that neither of us could remember we had worked together," says Mr. Cronenberg. "It was only when I saw photographs that I realized."
Behind the banter, 'Eastern Promises' actor and director offer serious insights
By Chris Vognar, Dallas News
12 Sept 2007
Q: So what's going to be the next Cronenberg-Mortensen movie?
CRONENBERG: We really don't know. I mean, (Viggo) works a lot, and I get very jealous. He works with other directors, but I'll only work with him. So he's the slut in the relationship.
David Cronenberg
Blood Brothers
By Walter Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle
9 Sept 2007
"Well, I'd like Viggo to be in any and every movie that I do, frankly," he offers with a laugh. "And if I can possibly find a role for him in anything I do, I will. That's my promise. That's my Eastern promise."
David Cronenberg
Star's Eastern immersion impresses his director
by Steven Rea, Philadelphia Enquirer
16 Sept 2007
Last edited: 13 September 2011 04:53:11