September 22, 2008
By Theresa Smith
Warrior-king, washed-up cowboy, Marine instructor. Since his debut as an Amish farmer in Peter Weir's Witness (1985), Viggo Mortensen has made a career out of playing an extremely diverse assortment of roles, all characterised by one thing - intriguing performances, invariably well-received by critics.
Mortensen is known for immersing himself in his roles. Stuntmen on the Lord of the Rings films were wary of doing fight scenes with him, because he'd get carried away with the intensity of his character, Aragorn, and hit them for real, leaving them badly bruised.
The story goes that he originally turned down the chance to play Aragorn, but his son, Henry, a big fan of the books, persuaded him to take the role, and the rest is film history.
A skilled horseman, Mortensen asked for his Rings character to be given more saddle time than originally scripted.
He also did all of his own riding stunts in the film Hidalgo (2004), including a breakneck bareback ride that the stuntman couldn't handle. He ended up buying the horses he rode in the Rings trilogy and Hidalgo after filming was done.
An accomplished poet, painter and photographer, he actually painted the large murals in his artist's studio in the film A Perfect Murder (1998).
In the same year he was in another remake of an Alfred Hitchcock movie, playing Sam Loomis in Psycho.
The 49-year-old (who looks really good for someone who will turn 50 in October) followed up the success of the Rings trilogy with an intense performance as an ordinary man who is lauded as a local hero because of an act of violence, in A History of Violence (2005).
Masterfully directed by David Cronenberg, who keeps a tight rein, building up the suspense, the film questions America's entrenched institutionalisation of violence as a way to solve problems
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Born to a Danish father and American mother, Mortensen has duel citizenship. He has quite the facility with languages, being fluent in English, Spanish, Danish and French and, apparently, with more than a passing knowledge of Swedish and Norwegian. So, no surprise then that his preparation for Eastern Promises (2007) included going to Russia to research his role.
He found a documentary a friend of his had made quite useful. Called The Mark of Cain, she had gone into maximum-security prisons in Russia and spoken to people like the character Mortensen played in the film, Nikolai Luzhin.
In Eastern Prom-ises, Mortensen's character is a driver for one of London's most notorious Eastern European organised crime families.
Nikolai's carefully maintained façade of implacable hitman is shaken when he crosses paths with a midwife named Anna, played by Naomi Watts. She is trying to find the family of an orphaned child, born under her care. Nikolai's loyalty is tested as he gets to know more about Anna.
Again directed by Cronenberg, the film turns on Mort-ensen's chillingly compelling performance, which earned him an Oscar nomination. The violence is brutal and, while the thought of a much-tattooed and decidedly naked Mortensen in a fight scene may seem like a good idea, the scene itself is unsettling.
He played the lead in the Spanish film Alatriste (2006), which was never released locally, but the next film we will get to see him in is Appaloosa, directed by Ed Harris, who co-starred in A History of Violence.
The two of them star as two friends hired to police a small town that is suffering under the thumb of a rancher.
  
 
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