Line #9 Creator/ViggoMortensen


1	[[quoteright:312:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/viggo-mortensen-good11_1051.jpg]]
2	->''"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."''
3
4	Viggo Peter Mortensen Jr. (born October 20, 1958 in New York City) is a Danish-American actor, [[RenaissanceMan poet, painter, musician, and photographer]].
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6	He has been acting in movies since 1985, but is probably best known for his role as Aragorn in Creator/PeterJackson's ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' film trilogy, a role in which he was cast at the last minute and accepted without having read the books, at the insistence of his son. He frequently collaborates with Creator/DavidCronenberg since ''Film/AHistoryOfViolence''.
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8	Mortensen grew up in Argentina as well as in New York and lived in his father's native Denmark for several years; he speaks Spanish and Danish fluently. (He majored in Spanish at St. Lawrence University in New York because he wanted to be an actor, and figured as a Spanish major he could get good grades without having to study much, which would allow him to be in lots of plays.)
9	----
10	!!Notable films:
11	* ''Film/{{Witness}}'' (1985) as Moses Hochleitner
12	* ''Film/{{Prison}}'' (1988) as Burke / Forsythe Electrocution
13	* ''Film/LeatherfaceTheTexasChainsawMassacreIII'' (1990) as Edward "Tex" Sawyer
14	* ''Film/TheReflectingSkin'' (1990) as Cameron Dove
15	* ''Film/TheIndianRunner'' (1991) as Frank Roberts
16	* ''Film/CarlitosWay'' (1993) as Lalin Miasso
17	* ''Film/AmericanYakuza'' (1993) as Nick Davis / David Brandt
18	* ''Film/CrimsonTide'' (1995) as Lieutenant Peter "Weps" Ince
19	* ''Film/TheProphecy'' (1995) as [[{{Satan}} Lucifer]]
20	* ''Film/ThePortraitOfALady'' (1996) as Caspar Goodwood
21	* ''Film/GIJane'' (1997) as Master Chief John James "Jack" Urgayle
22	* ''Film/APerfectMurder'' (1998) as David Shaw
23	* ''Film/{{Psycho\|1998}}'' (1998) as Samuel "Sam" Loomis
24	* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' as Aragorn
25	** ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing The Fellowship of the Ring]]'' (2001)
26	** ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheTwoTowers The Two Towers]]'' (2002)
27	** ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing The Return of the King]]'' (2003)
28	* ''Film/{{Hidalgo}}'' (2004) as Frank Hopkins
29	* ''Film/AHistoryOfViolence'' (2005) as Tom Stall / Joey Cusack
30	* ''Literature/{{Alatriste}}'' (2006) as Diego Alatriste y Tenorio
31	* ''Film/EasternPromises'' (2007) as Nikolai Luzhin
32	* ''Film/{{Appaloosa}}'' (2008) as Everett Hitch
33	* ''Film/{{Good}}'' (2008) as John Halder
34	* ''Film/TheRoad'' (2009) as The Man
35	* ''Film/ADangerousMethod'' (2011) as UsefulNotes/SigmundFreud
36	* ''Literature/OnTheRoad'' (2012) as Old Bull Lee
37	* ''Film/CaptainFantastic'' (2016) as Ben Cash
38	* ''Film/GreenBook'' (2018) as Tony Lip
39	* ''Film/{{Falling}}'' (2020) as John Petersen (also director, producer, writer and composer)
40	* ''Film/{{Crimes of the Future\|2022}}'' (2022) as Saul Tenser
41	* ''Film/ThirteenLives'' (2022) as Richard Stanton
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43	!!Tropes:
44	* BadassLongcoat: Wore one for most of his role as Aragorn.
45	* BigNo: While filming a scene in ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'', he broke his toe when kicking a helmet. The kick was meant to be followed by a wail out of sorrow/despair, but the one used in the movie is actually Mortensen howling in pain. It was kept because it was the best of the takes.
46	* CelebrityIsOverrated: He's never been particularly interested in celebrity culture or A-list stardom, having spent his career after the ''Lord of the Rings'' films being selective about the types of movies he chooses to star in and staying out of the spotlight when not promoting his films.
47	* CreatorBacklash: He has retroactively described the process of making the ''Lord of the Rings'' films "a mess" and criticized their reliance on computer generated imagery. Mortensen has said that he's deliberately chosen smaller, character-driven films in the years since the trilogy in addition to focusing on his other artistic pursuits. That said he has also insisted that he doesn't regret starring in the trilogy and appreciates the opportunities it opened up for him, and that he's still friends with most of his former castmates, sometimes appearing for reunions and talking about the experience fondly.
48	* DashingHispanic: His role as Captain Alatriste.
49	* DullSurprise: Counted on this to make the paparazzis lose interest. And it worked; they would catch him doing stuff like taking his dog to the vet, eating a donut, and falling asleep on a bus stop, and eventually moved on to flashier targets.
50	* FakeNationality: Fake German (with a British accent) in ''Good'', Russian in ''Film/EasternPromises'' (with a Russian accent) fake Spaniard (speaking Spanish) in ''Alatriste'', and FakeBrit in ''Film/ThirteenLives''.[[note]]In the last, he plays real-life cave diver Rick Stanton with, yes, a southern English accent, as is customary for Fake Brits. This has been queried, given that Stanton is correctly shown as living in Coventry, in the Midlands; however, he grew up in Essex, in the southeast, and retains the accent.[[/note]]
51	* FatalMethodActing: Narrowly averted ''twice'' while filming ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings''. The first time in ''The Fellowship of the Ring'', the stuntman playing Lurtz threw a real knife instead of a prop one at his face (which he thankfully deflected), and he was at one point pulled under while filming the river scene in ''The Two Towers''.
52	* ManlyFacialHair: Quite a few of his characters have impressive beards, most famously Aragorn.
53	* NoStuntDouble: Does many of his own stunts. One of his most {{badass}} on-screen moments was deflecting a thrown knife with his sword during the climax of ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing Fellowship]]'', after the designated stuntman failed several times. Small wonder the choreographer Bob Anderson (who had trained actors and fencers for nearly fifty years) called Mortensen "the best swordsman I've ever trained."
54	* {{Omniglot}}: Mortensen speaks English, Danish, Spanish, French, German, and Norwegian fluently and is conversational in Lakȟótiyapi (which he learned during the filming of ''Film/{{Hidalgo}}''), Arabic, Italian, and Catalan. He also has some knowledge of Russian and Swedish.
55	* TheOtherMarty: Mortensen was cast as Aragorn when ''Lord of the Rings'' had already started filming; Stuart Townsend was originally cast in the role but was deemed too young, while Jackson wanted to keep from having to work with Creator/DanielDayLewis at all, if possible.
56	* ProductionPosse: He has a longtime collaboration with Creator/DavidCronenberg beginning with ''Film/AHistoryOfViolence'' and continuing with ''Film/EasternPromises'', ''Film/ADangerousMethod'', ''Film/{{Falling}}'' and most recently ''Film/{{Crimes of the Future\|2022}}''.
57	* SoMyKidsCanWatch: One of the reasons why he agreed to play Aragorn is because his son is a Tolkien fan.
58	* StarMakingRole: Aragorn is who he is best remembered for.
59	* TallDarkAndHandsome: As Aragorn. In real life, he used to have a more medium blond sort of hair color, although it's mostly gray these days.

Context Creator / ViggoMortensen