Today it was all happy faces in Sitges. The festival director, Ángel Sala, communicated that the present event had beaten the historical attendance record : 60,000 tickets had been sold, 20% more than the previous event. Things have gone well in Sitges: impeccable organization, good films, and to the delight of everyone, the visit of big stars from the fantasy genre. Today, along with the director John Hillcoat, Viggo Mortensen presented the impeccable and balanced, The Road.

Viggo Mortensen is the son of an American mother and a Danish father. Nevertheless he spent his childhood in Argentina and Venezuela. As a result, he speaks perfect Spanish, with an Argentine accent and style. It is very odd to see the protagonist of The Lord of the Rings in a press conference: apropos of nothing he raises the subject of the Argentine soccer team, talks about barbecue and is not joking. I dare say that Viggo Mortensen's heart is Argentinian.

I'll tell you a little of what Viggo and John said in the press conference that was held today at 11:30 in the midst of great expectation, absolutely packed with journalists and some fans who managed to slip in. Viggo, having just sat down, said thank you, in Catalan, to the festival for inviting him and to those present for coming.

"The protagonist of The Road is a wolf and a lamb. In extreme situations we can all come to do very evil things since we are completely ruled by fear. It is clear that we can lose our humanity, but in the end we can always choose."

"The filming was very hard. We filmed in the middle of winter, in outdoor settings, in more than 50 locations spread over 4 different states. All this to give the film a greater dimension."

"I believe that an actor always has to be afraid to take on a role. Personally, I am afraid of not being up to par, of not being able to contribute anything. This time I was also afraid of not finding a good actor that could interpret the role of my son in the film. This issue was very important. But we hit upon the perfect person. Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce, we were all amazed by him. They asked us where we'd gotten him from. I needed to have chemistry between the boy and myself, because he had to pull a lot out of me. That can't be conveyed to the audience with special effects."

"I had to slim down a lot to prepare physically for the role. Quit eating tortillas. Then I did like always: read poems that convey the necessary emotion, listen to certain music, etc. In this film it was most important to try to tell the truth using only the word."

"The thing about the can of Coke was in the book. It was not covert advertising. We didn't collect even a dollar for it. I wanted it to be Diet Coke given the state of the protagonists; it would have been funny. It cost a lot for Coke to give us permission since they want their trademark to appear only in family films with a positive message."