Article - Viggo Mortensen by Elijah Wood
Source: Allo-Ciné
Found by Dom and translated by kaijamin at Viggo Works
AlloCiné: You must have a memory of your collaboration with Viggo Mortensen on "the Lord of the Rings"?
Elijah Wood: I remember a specific day, during the filming of the saga. We were both in a small village lost in the South Island of New Zealand; we filmed a sequence for the FOTR. It was nearly seven years ago. Suddenly, it started to snow and we had to leave the place we were filming, for fear of literally being of being blocked in. Viggo always had a small camera with him; he continuously took photographs, every day, of lots of different things, to capture a daily account of filming. This particular day, he took a photograph of me trapped in the snow, where I had a slightly strange look, and he offered it to me as a personal gift. That touched me a lot. It means many things for me... It is simple, it is just a photograph, but I remember that moment very precisely. I really admired his prints, and that he would give some to me, really moved me. He also gave me a photograph which gathered together many of the actors from the film, sitting in snow having a good laugh. In fact, photographs capture the magic of the filming of Lord of the Rings, of moments which mean a lot for me, which show that the filming was a really beautiful and enjoyable adventure. These moments, and these gifts from Viggo, I will remember all my life.
With Viggo, a work colleague, did you become friendly?
Yes, he very quickly became a faithful friend. I like him a lot. The last time that I came across him, was in London. I was going to start the filming for Crimes in Oxford and he had just finished filming Eastern Promises. We spent a bit of time together, it was really nice. What I am going to say to you seem a bit original, but Viggo is in my eyes an incredible human being, a brilliant actor and, above all, and perhaps people don’t realize it, somebody who is terribly funny, borderline crazy sometimes! But in a good way, of course. He gives out a positive madness. For example, he had left a very strange message on his answer machine some time ago, almost worrying, which lasted five minutes, but I won’t say anything about that to you! (laughter) It’s brilliant, hilarious; he has an incredible sense of humour. I never tire of giving praise about Viggo.
What do you think of him in "Eastern Promises"?
My God, I’m ashamed; I have not seen it yet! (laughter) I’ve heard that his performance is very good, and that doesn’t surprise me
Did you imagine that Viggo would embrace such a career alongside David Cronenberg?
For me, there was no doubt that Mortensen was going to have great career after the Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings. But he didn’t wait for this saga to be excellent, he always made very good career choices, he always took very interesting options. Personally, I find him excellent in The Indian Runner. He is very fastidious in his choices and it is totally apparent in his roles, in a way that I admire. He has a work philosophy close to mine. He is a bit like a big brother. So, his course does not surprise me, I am proud of Viggo, proud also that he is such an accomplice to a director of the talent of David Cronenberg. I wish only one thing for Viggo: that he continues to cut a path in this medium, because the medium needs actors of his caliber, who make films of course, for the public, but also for themselves, their own personal enlightening.
Remarks collected by Clement Cuyer in Madrid, November 14, 2007.