Good Article from Alatriste Conference - More Viggo Method Quirkiness
Pérez-Reverte: There aren’t enough good young actors in Spain to shoot Alatriste
Source: diarioelfarodemurcia
Credit: Chrissie for the article, Graciela for the translation (both from Viggo Works)
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Yesterday was a great day at the “Alatriste: the Hero’s Shadow” international congress as they discussed the movie adaptation of the saga. Pérez-Reverte and the executive producer participated in the discussion, but the director wasn’t there.
MURCIA. In his last contribution to the “Alatriste: the Hero’s Shadow” international congress, Arturo Pérez-Reverte took questions from the audience, which gave them a chance to discuss their concerns and make comments about the movie version of the character. The director of the movie, Agustín Díaz Yanes, wasn’t there because of a last minute business trip, according to José Belmonte, the event coordinator.
Together with the writer and Belmonte, was Iñigo Marco, the movie’s executive producer, who has also participated in four other movie adaptations of Pérez-Reverte’s work.
The Cartagena writer explained that for him, “and maybe for you also”, the Alatriste that appears in his novels, the one that Joan Mundet illustrated, and the flesh-and-blood one played by Viggo Mortensen “are only one; when I see one, I see the other one too”.
For that reason, he stated that selecting Mortensen “was the best choice, although we were also looking at some other names. I can’t see anybody else in that role now.” He also said that he was pleased with the actor’s accent for the role, which was one of the most criticized aspects. “I think it was the right accent; it is better than dubbing a foreigner,” he confirmed.
As much as Pérez-Reverte was pleased with the main character, he was not happy with some other aspects. “They wanted Alatriste to have a beard, and I absolutely opposed it, because the moustache is one of the distinctive features in this character.”
But he could not get away with the choice of actresses: “I don’t like some of them. The problem is that there aren’t enough young good actors in Spain; there are two or three very good ones, and the rest are inferior.”
He said this is because “there are actors who do not read enough, who do not watch classical cinema, and you can’t play a marquess if you do not have that kind of knowledge. We had this problem, and we are going to pay for it very dearly in our movie industry.”
The writer told the audience that “there were some desertions from the ranks of the tercios in the movie, as there had been from the real ones,” but there were also very faithful extras that followed them to every location where the movie was shot - up to 15 - “like a group of gypsies; there was a point when we almost wanted them not to come, for a change.”
Pérez-Reverte said that “it was a show of its own to see Viggo Mortensen, because he is such a perfectionist in his acting”. Anyway, he said that the actor, “like all the great ones, is a bit crazy, and during the shooting Viggo believed he was Alatriste, and when he wasn’t shooting, he still kept his sword and hat. I think he still believes he is Alatriste.”
The executive producer insisted that the actor spent the entire day, “I think even the weekends, filthy and with his make up on, because he said that he had to feel as uncomfortable as the character in order to portray it correctly.” The difference is that, when he wasn’t shooting, due to doctor’s advice, he would take off his boots and walk barefoot, “so in Seville he walked into a store and the owner, an old man who did not know who Mortensen was, gave him a pair of used canvas shoes.”
© El Faro de Mercia