There's no vexing Viggo.

Viggo Mortensen, 49, is an actor of some distinction. He also is a painter, photographer, poet and jazz musician who believes that answers to life's vexing questions surface in quiet moments, surrounded by paintbrushes and a blank canvas with "a few candles burning as the day fades into the night."

Also an actor of some distinction, Mortensen thinks our most authentic occupation as people is to discover as much as possible about life and ourselves.

Which may explain his approach to research for film roles, such as his Oscar-nominated turn in David Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises."

"I'm the type of guy who just likes to observe and fade into the crowd," he told an interviewer recently. "I live to be a fly on the wall, soaking up everything and anything. I didn't bring anyone with me, which was an intentional decision. I didn't want my experience to be filtered through anyone else's eyes. I wanted to go and see what I saw, feel what I felt."

Mortensen, whose next picture is "Appaloosa" (his second man-meets-horse outing after 2004's "Hidalgo"), listened to only Russian music, read Russian-language history books and prepared notes in Russian while in the country.

"Russia was perfect. I could go anywhere — any city, town or village — and just be the most ignored person on the planet. It was very freeing. It wasn't until my very last day that a young Russian boy looked at me quizzically, walked over and whispered, 'Aragorn?' "