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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.

-Viggo Mortensen

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When We Shot 'the

Viggo Mortensen

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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.

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I Pursue The Things I Do Because I'm Interested In Them.

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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.

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

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.

I'm Certainly Curious About People. As A Kid, I Moved Around A Lot. I Was Raised In A Lot Of Different Places, And Thanks To Working In The Movies, I've Gotten To Keep Traveling. I've Always Been Interested In Other Cultures And Languages.

I Played Lucifer Once, Which Is Sort Of A Difficult Character To Research. I Thought To Myself, "we All Have The Potential To Be Selfish, To Be Cruel - At Least To Think Evil Thoughts, Even If We Don't Ever Act Out On Them. Even If We Don't Ever Think We Behave Badly, We Probably Do More Than We Realize."

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

I Grew Up With Horses When I Was A Kid In Argentina. I Like Them. I Respect Them. I'm Careful Around Them. You Never Know What They're Going To Do. They're Endlessly Interesting. I've Had Some Good Acting Partners That Were Horses Over The Years.

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.

Ignorance Breeds Antipathy. Until I Got To Know How Computers Worked, I Didn't Want Anything To Do With Them. I Said, 'well, Why Do I Need Them? I Write Letters.' Which I Still Do.

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

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

As You Get Older, You Get Stuck In Your Ways; Just As You Become Stiffer Physically, You Also Become Stiffer Mentally And More Narrow-minded Unless You Make A Conscious Effort To Keep Yourself Flexible.

Every Once In A While, Someone Would Call Me A Foreigner Or A Yankee, Or Whatever. In The United States, Someone Might Say Something, Like How Kids Do, To Point Out That You're Different. That Would Come As A Surprise To Me. As You Get Old, You Either Get Defensive About It Or You Accept It And You Reach Out, Because You Realize The World's Full Of People Like That.

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

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.

I Like Movies That Leave You With Something To Think About, To Discuss, To Debate, You Know?

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.

America Is An Empire In Decay. But We Don't Have To Lash Out And Do Damage On The Way Down. We Can Reverse Some Of The Damage We've Done. It's Possible.

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.

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.

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

People Will Like To Say That 'eastern Promises' Is Brutal, But The Only Reason They Say That Is Because The Scenes Stick With Them. They Are Realistic. They Are In-your-face And You See The Consequences. It's Not A Bunch Of Quick Editing Cuts.

Like Most People - Unless They're Very Practised At It Or Have No Warm Blood At All In Their Veins - I Feel A Little Apprehensive About The Red Carpet. It's Always A Bit Bewildering When People Are Taking Pictures And Asking Questions Before The Ceremony.

Asking Questions

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

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.

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

Bernie Sanders Has Inspired Millions Of People In This Country.

I Have A Roof Over My Head. I Had A Breakfast, And A Lot Of People In The World Can't Say That. I'm Not Going To Complain About Being Interviewed.

I Have No Idea What 'method Actor' Means.

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

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

I Want To See What The Green Party Looks Like. I Think If People Don't Start Voting What They Feel, If That's Something Other Than The Democratic Party Or The Republican Party, Then Nothing's Going To Change. You Need More Political Parties That Actually Have A Chance.

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.

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.

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.

To Strive For Something Better - At Least There's A Chance.

Something Better

When I Have A Day Off, I Won't Spend It At A Hollywood Party. I'd Rather Be At Home With Paints And A Blank Canvas.

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.

The Best Thing An Actor Can Be Is Flexible, Because All Directors Are Different And All Actors Are Different.

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

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.

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.

It's Almost A Standard Tactic, Really, To Try To Minimize Any Effort That People In The Entertainment Business Or In Any Public Occupation Make To Express Themselves.

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

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.

I Suppose A Good Director Is Like A Teacher. I Think That Someone Like David Cronenberg Was Very Much Like A Teacher, Because There's An Openness, But A Certain Set Of Rules Of Behavior, And A Certain Conduct Expected. But There's An Atmosphere That's Relaxed And Conducive To Exploration, And That Is Created By Someone Like Cronenberg.

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.

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

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.

I Think That Every Person Has Many, Many People Inside Of Them. We Change Our Personality Depending On Who We Are Talking To Or What Situation We Are In.

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.

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.

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.

I Think It's My Job To Like Any Character I Play - To Understand And Appreciate A Character, To Look At The World As Much As Possible From Their Point Of View. I Don't Look At It Just Technically: Learn The Lines, Figure Out What Gestures I Want To Bring And Play, And That's It. I Like To Learn As Much As I Can About The Person, And See What Happens.

You Can't Really Divorce Yourself And Your Life From The World You Live In.

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.

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.

The Black Lives Matter Movement, The Various Occupy Movements In Spain And The Rest Of Europe, In This Country, And Elsewhere Serve As An Example Of What Can Be Done, And How Strong The Voices For Positive Change And Truly Democratic Progress Can Be.

Nobody Really Knows Anybody Completely, Even If They've Been Married To 'em For 53 Years, You Know?

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Louisa May Alcott

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