I like the detail work of telling a story in small pieces, as is done in movie-making, and also the long leap of faith needed to see a theatre performance through each night. Both require focus and self-discipline. – Viggo Mortensen
Freud was the son of a Jewish merchant who had to move his whole family to Vienna because he couldn’t get work. He, as a boy, had to watch his father be mocked and abused on the street for being Jewish… You develop a thick skin and you develop a certain kind of wit to defend yourself. – Viggo Mortensen
There’s no excuse to be bored. Sad, yes. Angry, yes. Depressed, yes. Crazy, yes. But there’s no excuse for boredom, ever. – Viggo Mortensen
Sometimes a scene works and acting is the easiest thing in the world and you don’t have to do much of anything – just enjoy yourself and listen to the other actor. When it doesn’t work, then every actor has different ways of dealing with the impasse. Sometimes you use memories from the past. Whatever. It depends from job to job. – Viggo Mortensen
Looking at acting, in the movies or the theater, and the way I like to look at it, it’s just an extension of childhood play… Kids play and imagine in a very intense fashion and they don’t need any director telling them, ‘You really have to believe in it.’ They believe in it completely. – Viggo Mortensen
I prefer the smaller acting than big histrionics. It’s about reacting and looks, which is often underestimated. – Viggo Mortensen
Saying you are a patriot does not make you one; wearing a flag pin does not in itself mean anything at all. – Viggo Mortensen
Photography, painting or poetry – those are just extensions of me, how I perceive things; they are my way of communicating. – Viggo Mortensen
You know, real life doesn’t just suddenly resolve itself. You have to keep working at it. Democracy, marriage, friendship. You can’t just say, ‘She’s my best friend.’ That’s not a given, it’s a process. – Viggo Mortensen
With any character I have played, there’s infinite possibilities for how they might behave, depending on who they are talking to or how they react to things. – Viggo Mortensen
It doesn’t take that many years for a kid to realise that they’re going to die. It’s always there in the back of their mind the rest of their lives. – Viggo Mortensen
One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from a horse master. He told me to go slow to go fast. I think that applies to everything in life. We live as though there aren’t enough hours in the day but if we do each thing calmly and carefully we will get it done quicker and with much less stress. – Viggo Mortensen
I like movies that leave you with something to think about, to discuss, to debate, you know? – Viggo Mortensen
In a lot of places in the United States and certainly even more places around the world, the image of the cowboy has become, for some people, a negative one. The word ‘cowboy’ implies a strong, stubborn individual whose individualism depends on pulling down other people’s individualism. – Viggo Mortensen
Anyone can identify with those moments in life where circumstances or people inform us that we’ve strayed from the path of our better nature and intentions. We know what that’s like, and we resist it – so as not to feel like we’re bad people. – Viggo Mortensen
At the end of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century in Austria, there was a lot of anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism in Austria was much more pervasive than in Germany. And Austrians took to Nazi ideas and anti-Semitism much more readily than Germans did, really. – Viggo Mortensen
Yes, I would agree that America, just like Spain was in the 17th Century, is the main empire of the world and they are the ones who, on the surface, are the most pushy: pushing their language, pushing their culture – or what there is of it – pushing by force their system on others. – Viggo Mortensen
Be kind. It’s worthwhile to make an effort to learn about other people and figure out what you might have in common with them. If you allow yourself to be somewhat curious – and if you get into the habit of doing that – it’s the first step to being open minded and realizing that your points of view aren’t totally opposite. – Viggo Mortensen
Sometimes you look at a movie and you can see that the actor or actress said, ‘I’m taking this onboard because I’m making a ton of money, and not because it’s going to be something special.’ – Viggo Mortensen
A lot of times, movies that are in the top 10 lists or maybe even win Baftas or Oscars, you then watch them a year later and you go, ‘Maybe it wasn’t so great.’ – Viggo Mortensen
Adult characters are all the things they’ve encountered over time. But kids haven’t accumulated all the life experience, all the regrets. They tend to be more in the moment, more willing to play, to be joyful. – Viggo Mortensen
I was raised speaking English and Spanish. And I also speak Danish. And I can get by in French and Italian. I’ve acted in Spanish and English, but when something has to do with emotions, sometimes I feel I can get to the heart of the matter better in Spanish. – Viggo Mortensen
People talk about method actors, meaning someone that’s prepared very, very well, or whatever they mean when they talk about it. But the right method is whatever works for you. And what works for me on any given day is going to be different. – Viggo Mortensen