Looking at acting, in the movies or the theater, and the way I like to look at it, itโs just an extension of childhood playโฆ Kids play and imagine in a very intense fashion and they donโt need any director telling them โYou really have to believe in it.โ They believe in it completely.
Viggo MortensenI wrote a letter to the magazine [Time magazine] pointing out that [Richard] Corliss's comparison of Christopher Lee's Saruman to Osama Bin Laden, and the vastly outnumbered defenders of Helm's Deep united against the Orcs to the "Coalition of the Willing" fighting the good fight against Muslim hordes, displayed the simplistic, xenophobic, and arrogant worldview that makes the government of the United States feared and mistrusted around the world. The editors claimed they had no space to print my brief letter, which I felt was dishonest and cowardly.
Viggo MortensenIf in my twenties I'd gotten one of the two-dozen roles that I did screen tests for and almost got, I think I would have become bored with the awards circuit, the whole hype machine.
Viggo Mortensen