Viggo Mortensen on Rove Live (Australian TV)
Date: 28 Mar '06
Transcribed by: Me
RM=Rove Mcmanus
VM=Viggo Mortensen
RM: Thank you very much for coming in. Welcome to the show. Now, obviously....
VM: I gotta say, I’m very happy to be here. It’s taken me a long time to get to this part of the country, and I’m sorry I didn’t come before... people seem very nice. When I was working in Wellington and other points on the North and South island, Peter Jackson told me there was no need to even go to the West island, because they didn’t have anything there that they didn’t have more and better of down there!
RM: Now, let me ask you a question....
VM: (The people have been very nice)
RM: ...as someone who spent a lot of time in New Zealand. I know not the full four years that you shot in New Zealand, but it was certainly a lengthy amount of time...we - and the New Zealanders know this so I’m not shocking them in any way, shape or form – we have jokes about New Zealanders and the relationship that they have with sheep. Is there any kind of reciprocal joke that New Zealanders make about Australians? We’re all friends here.
VM: There’s a lot, there’s a lot of them. But I think that people in the South Island actually do think that Australia is part of New Zealand, and I think they like you more than they do people in the North Island, so it’s more of a South Island/North Island thing.
RM: It is a beautiful place, I’ve been there a couple of times, and I loved it, absolutely loved it...
VM: Were you treated well?
RM: Yes I did, surprisingly, I was waiting to be lynched, but no, it was good. Now, of course, you did spend such a great amount of time there with Lord of the Rings, of course, such an international success. But I believe it took a bit of convincing for you to initially say yes to the role?
VM: Yeah, that’s true. I was a last-minute replacement and hadn’t read the books and didn’t really know anything about it, so to leave the next day and start working immediately didn’t seem like a ... I thought I’d let everyone down, you know what I mean... but my son kind of egged me on and convinced me to do it, which I’m grateful for.
RM: And also, with Oscar time coming up, it was a huge runaway hit for the Oscars, but you didn’t attend that year. Why was that?
VM: I didn’t know that it was...I wasn’t aware of all of that until after the fact.
RM: So what did you do? Did you just watch it at home?
VM: I was... I was... yeah... I saw it with my Mom and my brothers, and she insisted on watching it, she came to visit us and the first thing she asked, she said “Are we gonna watch the Oscars in the kitchen or upstairs or where?” and I said “I don’t have a TV, Mom. I haven’t seen the Oscars since 1985, so I’m sorry.” But she seemed very crestfallen, so we called a friend and asked to crash their Oscar party. And I went in the guest room and took a nap while they sat and watched it, but it was so raucous...
RM: You took a nap...
VM: I tried to...
RM: ...while the Oscars were on?
VM: I was tired.
RM: Have you met our movie reviewer, Ron Stewart? You’d get along famously. He loves a nap. So, did you actually sleep through it?
VM: No, I kept hearing through the wall, you know, “Lord of the Rings” and “Lord of the Rings” and “Lord of the Rings” and so I finally thought “OK, be a man. Go out, have a look.” And I’m glad I did. It was very nice.
RM: And since that time, I think it’s only three movie roles that you have said yes to, even though I’m sure you’ve had countless offers. Why so few?
VM: Ummm... I dunno. I’m always sort of terrified - even though I’ve obviously been in many movies – it’s always kind of terrifying to decide to commit to doing one. As soon as I say yes, or somebody says “I want you for this role,” I say “Great, thanks” and I go home and think “They’re crazy. They have no idea. I’m not going to be able to do this.” You know, there’s always this fear. And also it takes a long time to make a movie and promote it. History of Violence, for example, the movie I’ve done with David Cronenberg, it took us a couple of months maybe to shoot it, and I’ve been promoting it for about a year. So it’s hard to do too many movies if you do the job properly.
RM: This is a great movie. It’s a part drama, part thriller, in a lot of ways. What I liked about it...in a good way, it tells a fantastic story at a great pace, like it takes its time to let the story unravel. And it does it all in 90 minutes. Which I think is a real testament to David, of course, the director and to you guys as well, as performers.
VM: Yeah, he’s an amazing director, and one of the real masters of cinema. You know, talk about the Oscars, it’s not something that... as happy as I am for those who have won that I know, and those who have been nominated, as long as they’re happy... it’s not something I think about a lot, because really it doesn’t help me to do a better of worse job. It’s just another party, in a way. And very lucrative for those who win. But he’s never been nominated for an Oscar, so it goes to show you, he’s made several movies for which he not only could have probably been nominated, and maybe should have, and some which he could have won for. He’s not been nominated this time, which is unfortunate, I feel bad for him, but I think it’s a great movie. I think it’s a movie that will be long remembered as a real masterpiece. It’s really beautiful.
RM: It is a great story of a small-town guy who has a violent experience in his diner and the way his life unravels after that moment and we’ve got a scene here with you and Ed Harris in the diner where your character is being confronted about the incident.
[History of Violence clip]
VM: Ed Harris is quite an intimidating person, not just an intimidating actor, and he...when we were doing this scene, as you can see, you see us from here up, and he felt that I wasn’t... the first couple of takes... I wasn’t giving him the respect or the attention he deserved. You know, ’cos he had this missing eye. He was doing everything he could to be really frightening, and there was something really amusing about it to me... and he didn’t like that. So the next, and every take after that, he came in... he wore no trousers – which you can’t see – and he played the whole scene that way. And he said “You wanna laugh? I’ll show you funny.” So that startled look and my haste to get out of the shot – that’s why.
RM: Just one quick thing I want to throw at you before we have to go, is with the Winter Olympics having just bee, I know that you used to be translator for the Swedish hockey team in the winter Olympics.
VM: Aah... well... I was meant to be a translator for the Danish Olympic team, but nobody showed up. Literally. And they said “Well, can you understand the Swedes?” I said “I probably can. I’m not sure if they can understand me.” But it became... really what I got to do was go to a lot of hockey games with drunken Finns and Swedes and I don’t know how helpful I was...
RM: I was just wondering, because I’ve got this piece of footage that’s in Swedish, and I can’t understand it, so I was wondering if you could translate it for me. Just have a look.
[Clip of the Swedish Chef from The Muppets]
VM: I think it’s...
RM: What does “Bork, bork, bork” mean?
VM: I think it means... [in an Aussie accent] “Where the bloody hell are you?”