In the years since Viggo Mortensen played Aragorn in “The Lord of the Rings” movies, he’s used his bankability to foster smaller, quieter films — like the surreal Argentinian western “Jauja” or David Cronenberg’s “A History of Violence” and “Eastern Promises.”
His most recent project, “Captain Fantastic,” may sound like a superhero movie, but it’s not. Mortensen plays a father who’s raising his six kids off the grid in the Pacific Northwest as a kind of leftist Swiss Family Robinson. He trains the kids to hunt, climb mountains, and spout Marxist theory. But after a family tragedy, the family embarks on a road trip into the heart of the mainstream America he rejects.
In many ways, Mortensen’s life is like a road movie. He’s lived in Argentina, upstate New York, Denmark, Idaho, and now Spain. He’s a musician, photographer, and poet. He also runs a small publishing house, Perceval Press.
Kurt Andersen: Even though there's a kind of extremism to your character, his straightforwardness with his children reminded me of my parents, who astounded many of my friends with how frank they were. Were you raised like that? Did you raise your son that way?
Viggo Mortensen: In some ways I raised my son that way. I certainly wasn't. I was a product of a fairly conventional 1950s model. The father, you don't see him that often. He's at work. He gets in late. He may or may not tuck you in. On weekends you might see him a little bit. I do have good memories of doing things with him, of being taken with my brothers to go camping, fishing, learning to hunt at an early age — probably too early. I mean, I shot my first duck when I was four years old.
That's what's great about this character. He's an old-school guy, and yet he's not a right-wing survivalist. He's a commie.
But what's great is at some point you realize that this model isn't entirely condoned. It's not entirely condemned, either. One thing's unquestionable: he loves them and he's present. He’s not the kind of dad who just says "No, because I said so." He's the kind of dad who says "Perhaps not, and let me explain why. And if you have a counter-argument, I'd love to hear it." It takes being truly present. And it involves making mistakes, because you might not always be right.
I presume you made enough money from “Lord of the Rings” that you could then pick and choose between projects.
I made money on "Lord of the Rings," but I wasn't a known factor before that so it wasn't like they had to offer me a ton of money to do it. But the movie has done so well, we've gotten residuals. With the money I made with "Lord of the Rings" I could start Perceval Press in 2002. I could help people, give money away. And I could also do many movies where I didn't get paid anything, or very little. In fact, "Jauja" — because I was a producer on it — I lost money on that movie.
Which is not the standard thing.
It comes down to, how much money do you need? You become famous and you start selling watches and perfumes and cars and those things. When I see an actor doing that — and they may have great reasons for doing it — as an audience member, no matter how good a job they do in a movie, I can't completely erase the image of them selling a watch or a perfume or a dress or a car from my mind. It's more of a leap of faith. You know, life is short. Make things that you're gonna be proud of ten, twenty years down the line.
