Viggo met me down in a canyon near a creek, where we babbled away with the frogs about his wonderful new film A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE. He loves this film and loved working with director David Cronenberg. That’s good for someone like Viggo, whose political beliefs and loathing of Hollywood twaddle have steadily crowded the fantasy out of his head. It’s hard to say how much longer he can suffer the red carpet.

I tried every trick to pry him open. God knows I did. Even asked him what he thought would happen the first time he wanked off. But he flabbergasted me. And I knew it was lame, but I couldn’t resist reading him his astrological birth-chart, which portrays an unavoidably successful life as any kind of artist and the potential to be a persuasive politician or teacher.

It’s hard to imagine anyone less capable of stomaching the greed and maliciousness that attend political life, but what a pity for the rest of us. This cat’s more than slightly feral and cannot be stroked imprudently. Plus, there was something else unavoidable in his chart that made me laugh out loud. He’s a compulsive hero.

THE FILM

People say they are surprised at how warm they find David Cronenberg. Was there anything about him that gave you the chills?

Well he’s got a kind of twisted sense of humour, but I like that.

Did he drag anything out of you that you felt was a miracle?

He just created an environment where you felt you could try things. It takes a director who isn’t insecure. Another director would have made a splatter movie out of it, or some well-intentioned liberal would have made it a very obvious comment on American society. Cronenberg is smart enough to not dilute a thing. He made it a much more interesting story.

I thought William Hurt was fabulous. Were you surprised to see what he was doing?

He’s a smart person and a smart actor; he didn’t take the easy way out. When he arrived, I asked if we could get together and talk a little about what our [characters’] childhood was like. He said, ”Yeah, lets have a cup of coffee.” We ended up sitting there for six hours, listening to the stuff coming out of his brain, going back and forth. His character is such an imposing figure and you realize that has a lot to do with my character’s being the way he is – dealing with that as his older brother.

I think acting, when it works, it’s the easiest thing in the world. You’re like a conduit. Somehow, inside yourself you grease the skids and you clean the fucking tubes so the shit can go through you and come out the other side with your name on it. When it doesn’t work, it’s the hardest and ugliest thing in the world. But sometimes you feel it’s shit and it comes out really well. Sometimes it’s like you’re making a painting and you accidentally do something – smear something, act on impulse – and you’re like, why did I do that? But then you step back and it works.

THE STARS

You said you don’t know if you believe in astrology. But if you saw your chart, you would. It is the most perfect chart I’ve ever seen for an artist. You could be anything – a writer, painter, actor, poet – there’s no escape from it. And I saw something else. You have this thing called a square of Mars to Pluto. Mars is your energy and aggression and drive, and it’s having a conflict with Pluto. In a good horoscope, a square can result in an exalted form of courage. You may desire to perform some spectacular deed. I think it’s funny that you played a number of characters that act that out. But this urge can be carried to unnecessary and foolish extremes. You should always examine the motives behind your sacrifices.

Do you think I should get rid of things in my way to focus on things I should be doing more? I’m very distracted by all the things that go with being in the movie business. Working with Cronenberg has restored my faith that you can still have fun and laugh and tell a really good story that is hard to tell. But all the other stuff that goes with the movie business – all the bullshit attention paid to the gossip and infighting seems to be overpowering. I don’t think people have ever thought they’ve known more about the inner workings of the movie business and the mating habits of those involved in movies. I just find it a waste of time and a distraction from really telling stories.

In spite of having my creative impulses validated by working with David Cronenberg, I still think that the bad in the movie business may outweigh any good or lasting work you can get out of it as a creative individual. I think it may be keeping me from doing the things I should be doing.

When I first met you, I never saw anybody as uncomfortable with celebrity as you. Now I’ve seen you in interviews and you seem to take it more lightly. Maybe it’s a performance.

It’s a role. Fuck it. (Laughs) It’s like a job. But I do feel less threatened. I can talk to people easier. It’s kind of going in a big circle, because now I’m becoming more and more of a hermit.

It looks to me, like it’s excruciating, so I’m not surprised to hear you say that.

I imagine that someone could say that about politics too. A lot of talented potential politicians probably get discouraged because they have to deal with so many nitwits and greedy individuals along the way. They find they’re spending so much time kowtowing to untalented, disreputable people who finance their campaigns that they have very little time left to think about how to be good at governing. The people that are rising to the top are some of the most untalented and in many cases disreputable people available. I think that’s true of the movie business too. People who don’t have very high standards of personal conduct and don’t have much against whoring themselves do well, because it doesn’t really bother them to behave in certain ways. I guess that’s nothing new, but after a while you begin to feel that life is short.

But you don’t want to quit. The people who own the media have a real ideological axe to grind and have taken the wind out of the sails of people who could contribute something to the dialogue of how the country should be. It’s the same thing in the movie business with the kind of movies that get made. Do people even consider them an art form any more, or is it just another show? The hyping of garbage is so overpowering – not that someone should quit something one cares about, but it’s mind-numbing. You have to make a personal decision if you want to be a part of that or not.

I don’t know if you can really make a decision; that would be like me saying the art world stinks. It has a lot of the same problems you’re talking about, but I can’t quit. It’s not like I have a choice here.

Yeah, you make things and you do things. I do enjoy acting and I enjoy storytelling. I just feel that times a-wastin’ and I have things I want to do.

THE SALACIOUS MATERIAL

I want to switch gears a bit and get into the salacious material. It’s what Mean readers want to know. Not “What was it like to work with Cronenberg?” but “How was it to sleep with Cronenberg?”

Surprisingly gentle

Was he? He wasn’t creepy at all?

Well, I know he was looking at me a lot when I was asleep.

This is what I always ask my boyfriends: The first time you wanked off, what did you think was going on? I personally thought I was going to sneeze. My favourite is a boyfriend, who told me he thought he was going to die, but he kept going.

Why die? Because of guilt?

No, he just thought he was going to exit this world.

Well, I knew what was supposed to happen, sort of.

You did? I hadn’t had one single human being say a peep to me about it.

I guess I think I thought I was going to pee.(Laughter.)

That isn’t very sexy, Viggo! That’s not what your girls want to hear!

I don’t know. I don’t remember what I thought was going to happen.

Were you at home sick?

I was. I think it’s because you’re just there and you have time on your hands. Obviously I just started doing it one day, because it felt good.

Time on your hands, so to speak. How old were you?

Twelve

Twelve? I’m so repressed. I was 17 and from some of my friends in Texas, I know I was the pioneer. Cronenberg has said that he thinks sex and violence are inextricably linked. To me that’s like saying you’re getting horny when you get a root canal, but everyone else seems to think they’re connected.

Well, sex and violence go together in movies all the time. I think [Cronenberg] might mean violence in terms of things that are disruptive, which sex can be – in a good way. It can be a shock, and suddenly the day is changed. In a subtle way Cronenberg shows that there’s violence going on all the time in small ways, just for life to exist or a plant to grow or a birth to happen. In conversations between mates, between father and son, in a community – there’s always some underlying potential for violence or actual violence going on. To me, that’s what he’s saying, which I find interesting.

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM

I found a hawk one time when I lived in Argentina. I was probably 8 or 9, riding horseback by myself. Somebody had caught this hawk and tied one leg to a bush. It was hopping around and looked crazy – understandably, he was really dehydrated, I’m sure. I kept circling around until I got him from behind and grabbed both his wings. I untied him and put him under the flap of my saddle in between my leg and the horse. I got back to the casa and said “Look what I found.” At this point it had stopped biting me and was just sort of looking around with total hatred at everything probably just thinking, “How the fuck do I get out of this?” I just sat with him for a while, I tried to give him water but he didn’t want anything, and I’m sure he was thirsty. Finally I let go and he was just sitting on my hand. Then he took off. It was really nice. Watching him fly away was just cool. He wasn’t damaged, he was just trapped.

Did I tell you this story about my son, Henry? Exene and I had dabbled in vegetarian cooking, which made Henry curious. He was like, ”Why don’t some people eat meat?” I said, well some people don’t like the taste of it, but most people who don’t eat meat are against killing something.

Yeah, something having to sacrifice its life for your taste buds.

Right. So he said, “Well that’s what I’m going to do.”

But he loved pickled herring. That’s something he fuckin’ loved when he was a little kid; he’d ask for it for breakfast sometimes. One day on the way to school, he was about 6 or 7, he started crying and I had to pull over. I said, “What’s going on?” and he was like, “Wah wah wah!” I said, “What is it?” And he said, “I can’t eat herring any more!” I said, “Oh yeah, you can. You can make the rules. That could be the one thing, it could be just a herring thing,” he said, “No, That would not be right!” He never had it again.

Have you ever had to kill a roadkill or anything?

No, I thank God, I haven’t had to do that.

Have you ever eaten a roadkill?

No, no sir, have you?

Um-hum.

What was it?

A rabbit.

What, did you decide that since you hit it you should go ahead and honor it by making it part of your energy field?

No, it wasn’t that. It seemed like something to do. I was not going to be having any dinner that night, and it was dead. It seemed like an okay thing to do. I was conscious of it.

HEARTBREAK

You strike me as a person who is extremely gifted at exerting your will and getting what you want. Sometimes the most evolved thing to do is to accept that you didn’t get what you wanted, and it was probably a gift.

You realize that with things like relationships, don’t you? You had to be with that person, then later on you realize, Jesus Christ, what was I thinking.

And thank God for separating me!

For making it not happen, even if it meant feeling humiliated.

Did you ever feel that? We think that you’ve just been a heartthrob from forever and you could get whatever you want. Have you ever been totally disappointed?

Yeah, definitely. But if you realize that it wasn’t allowed to happen for some reason, you can feel better if you haven’t made a fucking ass of yourself. Unfortunately, sometimes you do; you insist, you come out and say how you feel. Later you wish you hadn’t, but you can’t take it back, and that’s the way it is. I’ve certainly done that.

When that happened to you, did it make you more suspicious of women? Did it make you more humane? Did you go, I’m not going to let this person define whether I’m a valuable person or not?

I’m the kind of person who doesn’t learn something that’s really important to learn unless I make the same mistake several times. I’m usually a quick learner, but as far as human experience, interaction and the way to behave in a situation… I can probably make the same mistake two or three times before I go, “You know what. I’m never going to do that again,” And then maybe one more time.

THE ARTIST

Why did you decide to start Perceval Press?

The main idea was to make books for somebody who would either not get published or not get published the way they wanted. I want to respect what they want to do.

Were you responding to the injustice of the system and wanted to correct for that?

To some degree, but it also provided me a place to make my own books. It’s just a practical ting, but because of movies I’ve been in recently, a lot more people would buy a book that I made. Those books will sell and offset the cost of books by people who are more unknown or have difficult subjects. It’s worked out well and kept the press going. Then every once and a while there’ll be something that’ll be a surprise and do very well.

We have three new books including Strangely Familiar, the work of George Gudni, an Icelandic painter, which I think is our most handsome book. I was in Iceland and just by luck I saw a show of his paintings. I was with my son. The closer we walked to this one painting, it felt like we were just diving in, there were so many layers of paint and it was so beautiful. I went to his studio and said, “Where are your sketches?” He said, “Over there in those books.” It was everything he had ever drawn, since he was a kid. I looked at every drawing in every book. It took me days. The book is really a reflection of how his mind works. You’ll see when it comes out.

What are some of the characteristics that you most admire in other artists?

Originality. I like people that surprise me, sometimes with something that seems simple. That’s why I like George Gudni, because it seems so simple. Then you pay a little closer attention and realize there is a hell of a lot going on there. I admire that, the ability to do things very simply in a way that’s completely original.

Maybe it’s the same reason that I liked A History of Violence. For me the challenge was to trust that there’s a lot of complexity in a person or gesture or moment without having to force it. It’s deceptively simple and maybe I’m focusing more on that now rather than going scattershot on all kinds of things.

It’s interesting to know what people are drawn to, because the things that you admire are the things that you are trying to propagate in your own consciousness.

Well, it’s people who, without making a lot of noise about it, are saying, “Let's cut the fucking crap and get down to it.” Stop hiding behind a bunch of stupid slogans and smoke and mirrors. What is it? I like, “All right, here I am, this is it.” They’re just doing it.

People love to say things like, there’s nothing to photograph anymore, or painting is dead. It’s just as stupid as saying, “God is dead.” I mean, what is God? You ask that question and all of a sudden, it’s not dead.

I guess essentially, I’m an optimist, in the way that I look for art in everyday life, and I look for things to get better in terms of the world or American politics. I don’t think it’s ever over until it’s over and then who knows?