The man who was the heroic Aragorn of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and the skilled swordsman Alatriste attributes his success to “working with very talented people’”

Viggo Mortensen is very clear: in terms of box office it would be almost impossible to beat the success of the trilogy ‘The Lord of the Rings’ that turned him into one of the most famous actors on the planet, shoulder to shoulder with Chow Yun Fat, Jackie Chan, Tom Cruise, George Clooney, Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt, among a select group of international leading men.

“I have had a lot of luck with the quality of films that I have been able to do lately, and that comes as a result of the luck that I have had with ‘The Lord of the Rings,’” Mortensen assures us in Castilian with an Argentine accent.

During the recently ended Miami International Film Festival (MIFF), Mortensen was in the city to talk about one of his recent films, the Spanish epic Alatriste, directed by the resident of Madrid, Agustín Diaz Yanes, in which he portrays the title role created by Arturo Perez-Reverte for a series of books that in Spain could easily be as -or perhaps more- read than J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy.

About his own fame, Mortensen confesses that he is not sure how long it will last, but he says it, because he is an elegant man with good taste, without a drop of arrogance. Obviously, the mega-lucrative tale based on the books of the British Tolkien, directed by New Zealander Peter Jackson, did more than launch him towards superficial popularity: it turned him, like others in the cast, into one of the main cinema icons of the 21st Century.

“I haven't chosen to do many films after ‘Lord of the Rings’, which is one of the greatest Hollywood [productions], so I don't know if I am going to stay as famous, but at least I feel good because I've been able to choose things of quality and work with talented people in very interesting stories, and that’s what matters,” observes the actor.

When we spoke with Mortensen in one of bungalows of the beach front hotel Shore Club, there was no lack of yerba maté infusion, which he savoured during the interview. Although he was born in the United States, he lived in Argentina during his formative years, and speaks a broader and more polished Spanish than many natives of Latin America. In the contemporary film industry, he is one of the few superstars, together with Antonio Banderas, who has worked in Hollywood and Spanish productions.

The father of a boy, Mortensen was born in Manhattan, New York, on 20th October 1958. On his father’s side, he is of Danish ancestry; on his mother’s side, American. In a previous interview he told us that he decided to have a career in the performance of one of his innate characteristics: curiosity. But he didn't take it lightly. He trained formally with the recognized acting coach Warren Robertson in the Big Apple, later made his debut on American television in the miniseries George Washington (1984) and, years later, in one of best films of the decade, the drama ‘Witness’, with Harrison Ford.

In addition to ‘The Lord of The Rings’ and ‘Hidalgo’, Mortensen collaborated with the Canadian director David Cronenberg in the acclaimed psychological thriller ‘A History of Violence’, with Maria Bello and Ed Harris. Recently, he starred in another film directed by Cronenberg -still without a title-, in which he shares honours with the Briton Naomi Watts.

It is difficult, when speaking with Mortensen, to ignore the passion that he feels for the language of Cervantes, the Latin American culture and his starring role in Alatriste, which had its Miami Premiere at MIFF, but which hasn't yet been scheduled for commercial release in the United States. That passion is evident when he speaks about his preparation for the film.

“For me, the best thing about making films, about this profession, is that it is like going to school, to university, and that they pay you,” he says. “For example, with Alatriste, I threw myself completely into everything to do with the history of Spain, the consequences of the Spanish empire for Europe, for Latin America. What the world is today has a lot to do with that Spanish empire, good and bad. It was such a rich era [the one that Alatriste takes place in], so interesting, that I was very scared but I also had a good time”. About the strong Hispanic presence in the awards of the Academy of Arts and Cinematographic Sciences this year, Mortensen affirms that “it would have been strange if it didn't happen sooner or later.”

“There are [many] people who speak Castilian in the world and the United States. It is a huge market and they want to see films in their language,” he stresses. ''I think that Alatriste has the opportunity to be [more] than an art house movie, or a film which is only shown in a few cinemas in Miami, New York, Los Angeles or Dallas and that’s that. I think that many people in North America could also see it. It’s a well-made film, well filmed in Spain,” he says.