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When I Was 11, I Moved To The United States With My Two Brothers And My Mom. We Moved To Northern New York, Up Near The Canadian Border, From Argentina, And There Was Nobody There That Spoke Spanish, And Because There Was No Internet At The Time, Not Even Cable Tv Yet, I Lost The Connection With My Childhood Friends And The Culture I Had Been Brought Up With For My First Decade Completely.

-Viggo Mortensen

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When I Was 11,

Viggo Mortensen

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When I Was 11, I Moved To The United States With My Two Brothers And My Mom. We Moved To Northern New York, Up Near The Canadian Border, From Argentina, And There Was Nobody There That Spoke Spanish, And Because There Was No Internet At The Time, Not Even Cable Tv Yet, I Lost The Connection With My Childhood Friends And The Culture I Had Been Brought Up With For My First Decade Completely.

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When I Was 11, I Moved To The United States With My Two Brothers And My Mom. We Moved To Northern New York, Up Near The Canadian Border, From Argentina, And There Was Nobody There That Spoke Spanish, And Because There Was No Internet At The Time, Not Even Cable Tv Yet, I Lost The Connection With My Childhood Friends And The Culture I Had Been Brought Up With For My First Decade Completely.

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You Know, Real Life Doesn't Just Suddenly Resolve Itself. You Have To Keep Working At It.

I Don't Like The 'must', The 'always', And The 'never' Words. I Don't Like 'no' Either.

Awards For Arts, Where You Make Comparisons, Don't Make Much Sense.

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The First Decade Of Your Life Is Really Important; It's Formative.

You Know, 'viggo' Is A Pretty Dorky Name In Denmark. It's Like 'oswald' Or Something. It's A Very Old Scandinavian Name, At Least 1,000 Years Old.

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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.

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In The End, The Actor's Main Power Is The Power To Say, 'no.'

I've Never Had A Problem With People Paying Attention To What You're Doing And Say They Find That They Liked It.

I've Never Been Conscious Of Having Any Real Career Plan, And I Do Not Have A Wish-list Of Actors, Directors, Screenwriters, Or Cameramen I'm Hoping To Work With. Life, I Feel, Has A Way Of Leading Us To The Right Situations And People, Or At Least To Interesting Ones.

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I Like A Twisted Sense Of Humour. On 'a History Of Violence,' David Cronenberg And I Would Be Doing The Grimmest Scenes And Laugh A Lot.

With Few Exceptions, One Ought Always Do What One Is Afraid Of.

There's No Excuse To Be Bored. Sad, Yes. Angry, Yes. Depressed, Yes. Crazy, Yes. But There's No Excuse For Boredom, Ever.

I Think Every Family Is Dysfunctional, And Some Manage To Control It Better Than Others.

I Have No Idea What 'method Actor' Means.

I Know People Who Prepare Their Roles In Such A Way That They Technically Look Ahead And Memorize Their Gestures, And Then They Stick To It. Those That Are Technically Proficient Enough Can Make It Seem Natural, But They Do That And Don't Really Take In What Other People Are Doing.

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When People Say That Entertainers Should "know Your Place," They Might As Well Say The Same Thing About Plumbers And Teachers And Cab Drivers. We All Should Be Able To Express Our Views.

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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.

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I Think You Have To Be Flexible Above All As An Actor; Different Characters Have Different Demands, Actors That You Work With Are Different In Their Approach, Or How You Get Along Or Don't Get Along With Them.

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Speaking More Than One Language And Living In A Multicultural Family And Environment Did Not Seem Like Anything But What It Was: The World I Lived In.

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You Know, Freud Accepted His Lot Very Stoically And Very Well And With A Sense Of Humor. He Aged And Died Gracefully, And There's A Lot To Be Said For That.

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I Would Literally Climb Out Of The Cradle While My Parents Slept, Go And Crawl Off. I Did This A Couple Of Times Apparently. I'd Cross The Road And Into Someone's House, Wake Them Up Banging Pots And Pans In The Kitchen.

In A Lot Of Ways, I Envy Someone Like Omar Sharif Who Lived In A Hotel For Decades.

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People Like To Pigeonhole You. It's Easier.

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I Don't Think You Get To Be Pope Without Making Some Enemies, Like You Do When You're President.

If 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.

Being An Actor, Imitating To The Point Of Inhabiting The Lives Of Others, May Simply Be A Way Of Continuing To Do What I Learned To Do As A Boy - To Travel, Mentally And Physically.

One Of The Main Ways That Leadership Stays In Power Is By, In Various Ways, Convincing People That They Should Just Let Those Who Are In Government Govern: 'trust Us. Trust Me. Just Let Us Take Care Of Things. Stay Out Of It.' Your Opinions Don't Really Matter. You Are Isolated. You Are Insignificant.

I Like Naturally Occurring Film Grain, And What Happens To Film When It's Under- And Over-exposed.

There Are People That Grandstand And Seem To Be Publicly Politically Engaged Because They Like The Attention, More Than Because They're Genuinely Concerned About The World. But I Don't Think That's The Majority.

I'm An Optimist; I Always Hope That Each New Script Is Going To Be A Great Story.

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.

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In A Movie, You're Raw Material, Just A Hue Of Some Color And The Director Makes The Painting.

Further Devastation Of The Air, Land And Sea Is Obviously A Very Real Possibility, Unless The Attitudes Of Politicians And All Who Irresponsibly Exploit Our Natural Resources Change Significantly In The Very Near Future And All Collaborate And Sacrifice For The Good Of The Planet.

I Don't Speak Up About Something Unless I Feel Strongly About It And Until I've Researched A Subject Extensively And Have An Informed Decision About It.

I'm Just Looking As Always For Something That's Stimulating And I Hope To Find A Good Story That's A Challenge, Whether It's Big Or Small. Or That It Finds Me. I Don't Have Like A Career Plan. Maybe I Should, But I Don't.

Here's Where We Are, This Is What's Happening. So Do Something, Or Get Out Of The Kitchen.

Bernie Sanders Has Inspired Millions Of People In This Country.

Kids Accept Where They Are Because They Don't Know The Past. They Know What They Have; They Know Where They Are.

I Try To Research Or Make Up For Myself What Happened In Any Character's Life. From When He Was Born Until The First Page Of The Script. I Fill In The Blanks.

The Efforts Of Black Lives Matter To Bring Attention To The All-too-frequent Instances Of Unjustified Violence Being Used By Policemen May Not Be Paying Off As Quickly As Some Might Hope.

Travel Is One Of The Best Anti-war Weapons That There Are. I've Been To Iran, And If You're There You See Little Kids, Cops, Old People, Cemeteries. Once You See That, You Can't Say, 'oh, Iran, Let's Bomb Them.'

It's True That I Have A Wide Range Of Interests. I Like To Write And Paint And Make Music And Go Walking On My Own And Garden. In Fact, Gardening Is Probably What I Enjoy Doing More Than Anything Else.

I'm Very Comfortable In Argentina. I Was Raised There As A Baby And Stayed There Until I Was 11 Years Old, So The First Decade Of My Life Or My Formative Years Were Spent In Argentina. I Stayed In Tune With The Food, Music And Language.

The Holocaust Movie Is Almost A Genre In Itself These Days.

You Don't Have To Make Something That People Call Art. Living Is An Artistic Activity, There Is An Art To Getting Through The Day.

The Money I Earn From Films Means I Can Help The People I Want To Help - You Can Do A Lot Of Good If You Want To.

Even The Implication That The Lord Of The Rings Is A Mythic Story About Western, White Supremacy - Regardless Of The Political Leanings Of Anyone Who Tries To Make That Case - Is A Load Of Self-justifying, Destructive Horseshit.

When We Shot 'the Lord Of The Rings,' We Had Special Permission To Film In Wild Areas Of New Zealand That Could Be Accessed Only By Helicopter. They Would Drop Us Off And We Would Work All Day, And They'd Pick Us Up And Take Us Out Again.

Toronto Film Festival Is One Of Those Festivals Where There Are 400 Movies, And Unless You Have A Distributor Who Is Super Confident And Puts A Lot Of Money Into It, Sometimes Movies Can Go Unwatched Or Unnoticed.

I Have A Publishing Company Of Books By Me And Books Of Others. It Drew People To Poetry Readings And Photo Exhibitions And Painting Exhibitions That I've Been Doing For Years Before That.

I Campaigned For [dennis] Kucinich In 2008. I Continue To Be In Touch With Him And I Really Admire Him. I Think He's Very Brave And Honest - Unusually So For A U.s. Politician.

We Often Live In The Past A Lot More Than We Probably Realize.

It's Amazing To Me That Glenn Beck Can Be On The Cover Of 'time,' And There Can Be A Whole Article About Him Basically Saying, 'well, You Know, He's Controversial.' It's Like, 'no, He's A Dangerous Idiot Who Needs The Help Of A Good Psychiatrist!'

When I Land In A Country And They Ask For 'occupation,' I Always Just Put 'artist.' I Think That Covers All Of It.

Jung Viewed Freud As A Mentor, But He Never Wanted To Be Anybody's Disciple.

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Having A Mixed Background And Feeling A Little Bit Like A Fish Out Of Water In Most Places Can Be A Benefit.

Usually The Characters I Play Are Men Of Few Words, Who Communicate In Non-verbal Ways.

I've Never Played A Dane In A Movie. I've Had Offers To Be In Danish Movies, Including For Some Good Directors, But I Either Had A Job At The Time Or, When I Was Available, The Movie Just Didn't Happen. Hopefully Someday I'll Do One.

I Don't Have A Blackberry Or Whatever You Call It. And There Is Something To Be Said For Being Isolated And Out Of Phone Range, Because You Can Fall Into A Habit To Such A Degree That You Don't Even Realise That You've Lost Something: Silence.

I Think Maybe Because I Do Other Things And They Mean As Much To Me As Movie Acting, It Takes The Onus Off Me. It's Not The End Of The World If I Can't Get A Film Job, Or If A Movie Doesn't Turn Out Well - Even Though I Don't Like It When That Happens.

The Only Thing That I Always Do - Is Once I've Taken On A Job, Even Just To Do One Scene In A Movie, I Ask Myself, "what's Happened The Moment The Kid Was Born, Until Page One Of The Script?" To Answer That Simple Question, I Have An Infinite Amount Of Work To Do. And I Enjoy That Part As Much As I Enjoy Any Part Of Making Movies.

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.

I Don't Think Special Attention Should Be Given To An Actor Or A Singer Or A Baseball Player Or A Soccer Player More Than Anyone Else, But They Do Have An Opinion Like Anyone Else.

[captain Fantastic] It's A Great Story. It's One Of The Better Scripts I've Read, Ever, As Far As Being Great From Beginning To End. It Handles A Variety Of Characters. You Have Six Children Who All Stand On Their Own, They're All Individuals. And It Touches On A Very Real Issue, Which Is The Lack Of Cohesion And Communication In America Right Now.

You Can't Really Go Back To Where You Came From. I Don't Think Any Of Us Can.

I'm Not Afraid Of Death, But I Resent It. I Think It's Unfair And Irritating. Every Time I See Something Beautiful, I Not Only Want To Return To It, But It Makes Me Want To See Other Beautiful Things. I Know I'm Not Going To Get To All The Places I Want To Go.

When I Was A Little Boy, I Rode, But I Didn't Own Horses.

We All Have Secrets, Some Secrets Bigger Than Others, Is A Normal Human Thing.

I Really Enjoyed Working With New Zealanders As Crew Members, As Teammates. They're Great, And It's A Beautiful Country. It's One Of The Most Beautiful Places I've Ever Been, And I've Traveled Quite A Bit.

It's Just Like With People. You're Going To Get Along Better Working With Them - Human Or Equine - If You Ask Politely Rather Than Demand That They Do Things.

I Know I Said I Wanted To Live Forever And I Would Never Be Bored, But The Reality Is, It's Probably Kind Of Sad To Live Forever If You're The Only One Sticking Around.

I Don't Like People Who Get Into Fights About Football - Or Anything Else.

Each Time I Make A Movie, It's Like A Paid Scholarship To A Different University Course.

To Find A Good Story, You’re Generally Going To Find It In Independent Or Lower Budget Movies... I Wouldn’t Mind Doing A Big Budget Movie If It Had A Great Story.

One Of The Most Effective Tools That The Cheney-bush Junta Has Used To Marginalize Dissenting Or Even Mildly Inquisitive American Citizens Has Been The Accusation Of Being Unpatriotic.

I Mean, Any Movie Or Story That Makes You Accept And Be Grateful For Something About Your Life Is Doing Something Right.

When I Make A Movie, I Don't Break It Down And Analyze It. I Could But It Would Get In The Way Of Doing A Job - On Instinct Based On All The Research We Did Going In. You Want To Trust Yourself And Your Director And Your Acting Partners In The Circumstances You're Shooting. I Don't Like To Have Any Kind Of Overview.

I Met Cindy [sheehan] Near Crawford, Texas. I Went Out To Personally Thank Her For Waiting Patiently By The Road In Front Of George And Laura Bush's Ranch For An Answer From Her President As To Why And For What Her Son And Others Had Been Sacrificed In The Unlawful Invasion And Occupation Of Iraq.

I'd Like To, When It's All Said And Done, Say That I Have At Least A Few Stories That I Feel Proud Of.

Any Nominations A Movie Gets Helps To Raise The Level Of Curiosity In The Public, So In That Sense Awards And Nominations Are Important.

If There's One Thing I've Learned From Traveling, It's That It Is Definitely More Important How You Are Than Where You Are. You Can Say, 'oh, I Hate X City, I Hate That Country, Or I Prefer This City,' But It's A Little Bit Up To You To Find Some Kind Of Happiness.

It's Easy To Get Depressed And Think, "well, What's The Point?" But It's The Same As, "well, We're All Going To Die, So What's The Point In Brushing My Teeth Or Even Saying Hello To Anyone Or Obeying Traffic Lights." You Can Do That, But That's Certainly Not Going To Take You Anywhere.

In Other Words, I’m Against Cheating, Greed, Cruelty, Racism, Imperialism, Religious Fundamentalism, Treason, And The Seemingly Limitless Capacity For Hypocrisy Shown By Bush And His Administration.

People Are Becoming More Intimately Acquainted With People Who Are Different Than Them - It's Not So Unusual Anymore.

If You Daren't Enter The Forest, Or Cannot Find It, Then Perhaps You Might Find One Tree, Or A Place Where A Tree Could Be, And Just Stop For A Quiet Moment To See What Happens.

You Should Always Do The Things In Life That Are Both Interesting And Make You Afraid.

I Think The Older You Get The Harder It Is To [lose] Probably. Your Metabolism Slows Down, Whatever, But I'm A Pretty Active Person.

I Have Never Been In A Natural Place And Felt That It Was A Waste Of Time. I Never Have. And It's A Relief. If I'm Walking Around A Desert Or Whatever, Every Second Is Worthwhile.

On A Practical Level, Poetry Isn't Something Anybody Has Really Made A Great Living At. I Might Sell Some Books And, Once In A While, Someone Might Pay To Hear Me Read.

I've Been Lucky To Learn By Playing All Kinds Of Roles And Watching All Kinds Of Really Good Cinematographers, Actors, And Directors For Many Years Before People Were Even Aware Of Me In Terms Of Audience.

My Goal Is Just To Make Movies, Whether They're Big Or Small, That I'd Like To See 10 Years From Now.

I Trust Hillary Clinton About As Far As I Could Throw Donald Trump.

I'm Not That Involved In Personal Grooming. But I Try Not To Be Offensive To People.

I Take My Work Seriously, But It's Not The Only Thing That Exists In The World.

There's No Sense In Doing Something, Especially If It's A Hard Job, If You Can't Have A Little Fun.

I Like Stories That Leave You Wanting More, Leave You Wondering, But Don't Tell You Everything.

In December Of 2002, The Late Richard Corliss, A Respected Movie Critic With A Long And Illustrious Career, Wrote An Embarrassing Letter Of Support For The Invasion And Occupation Of Iraq And Afghanistan In The Guise Of A Time Magazine Review Of Peter Jackson's The Two Towers.

I Now Realize That I Was Very Fortunate To Have Grown Up In Many Different Places, Surrounded By All Kinds Of People, All Kinds Of Points Of View.

I Think, On A Surface Level, People Are Surprised To See Me Playing Such A Passive Role In 'good.'

Perhaps The Itinerant Upbringing My Brothers And I Had Has Something To Do With My Continued Interest In Perspectives Different From My Own.

You Do Need To Get Lucky, No Matter How Talented You Are.

You See People On The Street Yelling And Think They're Crazy, But Maybe They're Just Happy And Expressing What They Feel At All Times.

'the Road' Is About That Fear That All Parents Can Have. What's Going To Happen To Your Child If You're Not Around? It Takes Those Concerns To An Extreme. In The Film, Without Me The Boy Has No Food, No Shelter, No Resources At All.

If You're Not Optimistic On Some Level, Then You've Given Up.

We All Experience Many Freakish And Unexpected Events - You Have To Be Open To Suffering A Little. The Philosopher Schopenhauer Talked About How Out Of The Randomness, There Is An Apparent Intention In The Fate Of An Individual That Can Be Glimpsed Later On. When You Are An Old Guy, You Can Look Back, And Maybe This Rambling Life Has Some Through-line. Others Can See It Better Sometimes. But When You Glimpse It Yourself, You See It More Clearly Than Anyone.

To Be Honest, I Don't Really Care About Any Pope. It's Not Something I Think About Much, To Be Quite Honest With You.

It's Always Interesting To Play A Character That Obviously Has A Secret.

In Principle, I Think The Idea Of Rewarding A Good Effort Is Interesting, But Movies Are Generally Different From Each Other As Are Performances And The Conditions On How The Performances Are Given And How They're Edited And So Forth.

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.

It Doesn't Matter How Bad Things Are, Something Good Could Happen Always. And It Doesn't Matter How Many Excuses You Have For Behaving In An Unkind Manner Towards Others. There's Never Any Excuse For Not Being Kind And It's Always Better To Be Kind Even If It Seems Pointless And That In Fact Is The Highest Wisdom - Being Kind. It Sounds Like A Very Noble, Ethereal, Simplistic Idea But It's True.

Life Is Short And The Older You Get, The More You Feel It. Indeed, The Shorter It Is.

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.

I Try To Avoid Conflict. I Don't Want People To Be Unhappy.

When You're Under Stress As A Human Being, You Behave Oddly And Your Relationships With People Become Strained.

It Is Important To Keep Protesting, To Keep Forcing A Conversation In The Public Arena. In Any Case, When You Know What The Right Thing To Do Is, Or That Something Must Be Said, It Can Be Immoral And Dangerous Not To Act.

Every Year I Hear People Complain That The Quality Of Screenplays And Movies Is Declining. In My Opinion, The Vast Majority Of Scripts Written - As Well As Most Movies That Are Released - Are Not Very Original, Well-written, Or Interesting. It Has Always Been That Way, And I Think It Always Will Be.

I Was Born In New York But As A Baby Moved To Venezuela And Argentina. I've Also Lived In Denmark, Where My Father's From. I've Traveled A Lot, And Having That Sort Of Background Probably Increased The Chance That I Was Going To Remain Curious As An Adult About People Who Are Different.

If You Don't Find Some Way To Discuss What's Going On Inside You, It Can Come Out In Other Ways That Are Self-destructive.

I 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.

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