Lord of the fins
Monday, January 26, 2004
Tolkien's magic diminished Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, directed by Peter Jackson
Tolkien's magic diminished Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, directed by Peter Jackson
It seems Peter Jackson has the significant points of Tolkein's LOTR a bit skewed.
It seems Peter Jackson has the significant points of Tolkein's LOTR a bit skewed.
Sunday, January 25, 2004
Kingdom update
January 19, 2004
Posted by Enrique on the Tepasmas.com Forum
Translated by Claudia
About the ending of the shooting in Loarre yesterday, January 20th, the local papers from Alto Aragón were reporting that Ridley Scott had reached the middle of the filming in Huesca, which means that he still has a couple of days to go. It is believed that the cast will remain in Loarre until the end of the week.
Yesterday, they shot one of the most dangerous scenes filmed so far in Loarre: it shows the moment when Balian falls into the forge and burns alive while his workshop burns up around him. It seems that Orlando Bloom wanted to play the scene himself (with all the necessary security measures and firemen, emergency crew, fireproof clothing and so on) but Ridley Scott insisted the scene to be
performed by a stuntman, to which Orlando agreed in the end (he must have remembered Legolas’ little accidents while shooting Lord of the Rings). The scene came out perfect, according to the informing sources. Due to the difficulty level of this part of the film, the crew in Loarre started shooting about noon and finished close to midnight.
And a bit more: Orlando Bloom was enchanted by the landscape, drink and food from Aragón.
January 19, 2004
Posted by Enrique on the Tepasmas.com Forum
Translated by Claudia
About the ending of the shooting in Loarre yesterday, January 20th, the local papers from Alto Aragón were reporting that Ridley Scott had reached the middle of the filming in Huesca, which means that he still has a couple of days to go. It is believed that the cast will remain in Loarre until the end of the week.
Yesterday, they shot one of the most dangerous scenes filmed so far in Loarre: it shows the moment when Balian falls into the forge and burns alive while his workshop burns up around him. It seems that Orlando Bloom wanted to play the scene himself (with all the necessary security measures and firemen, emergency crew, fireproof clothing and so on) but Ridley Scott insisted the scene to be
performed by a stuntman, to which Orlando agreed in the end (he must have remembered Legolas’ little accidents while shooting Lord of the Rings). The scene came out perfect, according to the informing sources. Due to the difficulty level of this part of the film, the crew in Loarre started shooting about noon and finished close to midnight.
And a bit more: Orlando Bloom was enchanted by the landscape, drink and food from Aragón.
Chances growing for big screen version of The Hobbit
J.R.R. Tolkien's great-grandson has backed Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson to make a film version of The Hobbit.
Jackson has already said he'd be interested if a deal on the film rights can be agreed.
Royd Tolkien, 34, said: "I would love to see Peter Jackson make a film of The Hobbit. That would be the perfect ending."
New Line Cinema, the company that made the Lord Of The Rings trilogy with Jackson at the helm, owns the movie rights to The Hobbit.
But the distribution rights governing the release of the film belong to United Artists, although New Line has first refusal on producing the movie.
Sir Ian McKellen says he'd be up for playing Gandalf again, once the rights issues are cleared up.
He told Channel 4: "There is currently a situation where two companies own the rights, but when that's sorted out Peter (Jackson) and I will sit and talk it over. We've mentioned it recently and Peter is looking forward to getting it into production."
McKellen also said that he was looking forward to playing Gandalf the Grey again as he saw Gandalf the White as a "stick in the mud".
The Hobbit is set before the Lord of the Rings trilogy and tells the story of how Bilbo Baggins came by the ring.
Story filed: 11:50 Thursday 8th January 2004
Lord of the Rings fans spot mistakes
Sharp-eyed movie fans have spotted more than 40 mistakes in the final installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
They have so far submitted 45 continuity blunders to website moviemistakes.com which says more are coming in all of the time.
They are mostly differences in the appearance of characters from scene to scene such as a scar which moves from Frodo's right cheek to his left cheek.
Website owner Jon Sandys said: "Some people assume it's malicious, which it was never meant to be - I only started the site to point out a few things people might never have seen before, even in films they'd seen many times.
"I never realised there were quite so many people out there who shared my geeky hobby!"
Story filed: 12:41 Monday 22nd December 2003
J.R.R. Tolkien's great-grandson has backed Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson to make a film version of The Hobbit.
Jackson has already said he'd be interested if a deal on the film rights can be agreed.
Royd Tolkien, 34, said: "I would love to see Peter Jackson make a film of The Hobbit. That would be the perfect ending."
New Line Cinema, the company that made the Lord Of The Rings trilogy with Jackson at the helm, owns the movie rights to The Hobbit.
But the distribution rights governing the release of the film belong to United Artists, although New Line has first refusal on producing the movie.
Sir Ian McKellen says he'd be up for playing Gandalf again, once the rights issues are cleared up.
He told Channel 4: "There is currently a situation where two companies own the rights, but when that's sorted out Peter (Jackson) and I will sit and talk it over. We've mentioned it recently and Peter is looking forward to getting it into production."
McKellen also said that he was looking forward to playing Gandalf the Grey again as he saw Gandalf the White as a "stick in the mud".
The Hobbit is set before the Lord of the Rings trilogy and tells the story of how Bilbo Baggins came by the ring.
Story filed: 11:50 Thursday 8th January 2004
Lord of the Rings fans spot mistakes
Sharp-eyed movie fans have spotted more than 40 mistakes in the final installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
They have so far submitted 45 continuity blunders to website moviemistakes.com which says more are coming in all of the time.
They are mostly differences in the appearance of characters from scene to scene such as a scar which moves from Frodo's right cheek to his left cheek.
Website owner Jon Sandys said: "Some people assume it's malicious, which it was never meant to be - I only started the site to point out a few things people might never have seen before, even in films they'd seen many times.
"I never realised there were quite so many people out there who shared my geeky hobby!"
Story filed: 12:41 Monday 22nd December 2003
Wednesday, January 21, 2004
FYI: It seems that Orlando's love interest in his upcoming movie Kingdom of Heaven is played by the same actress who played Annamaria in Pirates of the Caribbean.
Orlando: "I need time off"
January 14, 2004
Sneak #87 (UK)
Hello Magazine January 21, 2004
Article about Orlando replacing Asthon Kutcher as lead in Elizabethtown
"http://www.hellomagazine.com/film/2004/01/13/orlandobloom/"
More Magazine article with 4 reasons to want to date Orli, as if we need them! plus yummy body shot!
http://nettrash.com/users/jasparina/Moremag_dec03_jan04.jpg
Hello magazine voted Orlando the most attractive man of 2003- duh!
http://www.hellomagazine.com/celebrities/specials/men03/pagina_1_1.html
Viggo scored the #8 spot, which isn't bad, either
http://www.hellomagazine.com/profiles/viggomortensen/
who's your male wench?
this quiz by belle
Orlando: "I need time off"
January 14, 2004
Sneak #87 (UK)
Hello Magazine January 21, 2004
Article about Orlando replacing Asthon Kutcher as lead in Elizabethtown
"http://www.hellomagazine.com/film/2004/01/13/orlandobloom/"
More Magazine article with 4 reasons to want to date Orli, as if we need them! plus yummy body shot!
http://nettrash.com/users/jasparina/Moremag_dec03_jan04.jpg
Hello magazine voted Orlando the most attractive man of 2003- duh!
http://www.hellomagazine.com/celebrities/specials/men03/pagina_1_1.html
Viggo scored the #8 spot, which isn't bad, either
http://www.hellomagazine.com/profiles/viggomortensen/
who's your male wench?
this quiz by belle
Here's a fun snippet for you multi-taskers:
LOTR Mahjongg!!
Now, you can play a great game and drool at the same time!!! Hurray for technology!
LOTR Mahjongg!!
Now, you can play a great game and drool at the same time!!! Hurray for technology!
 | Eowyn If I were a character in The Lord of the Rings, I would be Eowyn, Woman of Rohan, niece of King Theoden and sister of Eomer. In the movie, I am played by Miranda Otto. Who would you be? |
How many men could still look dead sexy wearing a puppy dog scarf?!
More of the 'Rings' magic
By Susan Wloszczyna, USA TODAY
It's over.
To those who have found hobbits to be dangerously habit-forming and now are
in denial, we regret to remind you that there aren't any more Lord of the
Rings movies based on J.R.R. Tolkien's epic trilogy.
For the first time in three years, December will be a Frodo-free zone.
All that is left is anticipated Oscar glory next month and filmmaker Peter
Jackson's sure-to-be-hefty extended DVD of the conclusion, The Return of
the King.
Like the original Star Wars trilogy or Titanic, a box-office monster such
as Rings exists on a rarified plane.
Think about it. Three features shot at the same time and released
back-to-back with a script brought to life by a New Zealand whiz who
happens to have a reasonable facsimile of Middle-earth practically in his
backyard.
"The Lord of the Rings is sui generis," Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers
declares. "There is really nothing like it."
But moviegoers who crave more fantastical feats can take heart. The triumph
of Rings as well as the continuing Harry Potter series (the third
installment, The Prisoner of Azkaban, is due June 4) have left an indelible
impression on Hollywood, where any massive success usually breeds more
attempts of the same. Witness the coming onslaught of post-Gladiator
historical epics.
Sure enough, nearly every major studio has its mitts on a potential fantasy
franchise based on a series of popular books that carry their own
often-rabid fan base.
"The people who run studios sometimes make decisions based on what happened
the year before," says Toby Emmerich, production chief for New Line Cinema,
the company behind Rings. "It's like investing in stock funds by looking at
the previous year, which you aren't supposed to do."
In this case, the risk can be worth it. These literary lands of
make-believe might not all be Oscar-bound, but there's more at hand than
mere awards. Namely, a possible ongoing stake in the lucrative family-movie
market (and most of these titles are more kid-accessible than the
relatively humorless prose of Tolkien) and tie-in opportunities galore.
New Line also is back in the fantasy game, having snapped up another
trilogy in 2002 before Rings grossed its first billion worldwide. It's a
collection that has won such prizes as the Whitbread Book of the Year the
first children's book to be so honored.
British author Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials tells of a young girl,
Lyra Silvertongue, who goes off on an extraordinary adventure inspired by
no less than Paradise Lost and involves armored polar bears and soul-mate
companions known as daemons.
The individual titles The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber
Spyglass will likely be combined into two movies, to be shot back to back,
with the first in theaters by late 2005 or early 2006, Emmerich says. A
sign of a quality production afoot: Oscar winner Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare
in Love) is writing the screenplay.
More of the 'Rings' magic
By Susan Wloszczyna, USA TODAY
It's over.
To those who have found hobbits to be dangerously habit-forming and now are
in denial, we regret to remind you that there aren't any more Lord of the
Rings movies based on J.R.R. Tolkien's epic trilogy.
For the first time in three years, December will be a Frodo-free zone.
All that is left is anticipated Oscar glory next month and filmmaker Peter
Jackson's sure-to-be-hefty extended DVD of the conclusion, The Return of
the King.
Like the original Star Wars trilogy or Titanic, a box-office monster such
as Rings exists on a rarified plane.
Think about it. Three features shot at the same time and released
back-to-back with a script brought to life by a New Zealand whiz who
happens to have a reasonable facsimile of Middle-earth practically in his
backyard.
"The Lord of the Rings is sui generis," Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers
declares. "There is really nothing like it."
But moviegoers who crave more fantastical feats can take heart. The triumph
of Rings as well as the continuing Harry Potter series (the third
installment, The Prisoner of Azkaban, is due June 4) have left an indelible
impression on Hollywood, where any massive success usually breeds more
attempts of the same. Witness the coming onslaught of post-Gladiator
historical epics.
Sure enough, nearly every major studio has its mitts on a potential fantasy
franchise based on a series of popular books that carry their own
often-rabid fan base.
"The people who run studios sometimes make decisions based on what happened
the year before," says Toby Emmerich, production chief for New Line Cinema,
the company behind Rings. "It's like investing in stock funds by looking at
the previous year, which you aren't supposed to do."
In this case, the risk can be worth it. These literary lands of
make-believe might not all be Oscar-bound, but there's more at hand than
mere awards. Namely, a possible ongoing stake in the lucrative family-movie
market (and most of these titles are more kid-accessible than the
relatively humorless prose of Tolkien) and tie-in opportunities galore.
New Line also is back in the fantasy game, having snapped up another
trilogy in 2002 before Rings grossed its first billion worldwide. It's a
collection that has won such prizes as the Whitbread Book of the Year the
first children's book to be so honored.
British author Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials tells of a young girl,
Lyra Silvertongue, who goes off on an extraordinary adventure inspired by
no less than Paradise Lost and involves armored polar bears and soul-mate
companions known as daemons.
The individual titles The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber
Spyglass will likely be combined into two movies, to be shot back to back,
with the first in theaters by late 2005 or early 2006, Emmerich says. A
sign of a quality production afoot: Oscar winner Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare
in Love) is writing the screenplay.
dish, dirt & juicy bits December 19, 2002
Monster Mash
Prepare to drop mouths, drawers--whatever.
You've heard the stories, right? All that ferocious frolicking those Lord of the Rings riders have been getting up to? So, let's stop in at the Hollywood premiere of Lord's second installment, The Two Towers, and ask Elijah Wood himself, shall we?
"Pardon me, Mr. W.," I insisted. "Please complete the following: Hobbits who play together..."
"...Make sweet love together," Elijah responded faster than an Orc attacks.
Okay, then. But more on that nooky-note a bit la-tuh. Let's first check in with the rest of those canoodling cretins at last Sunday night's ArcLight Cinema do. Right smack on Sunset Boulevard. And let me tell you, the Hobbits and Elves were feeling most festive and frisky--as E.W. has already proven.
Picking a path down the red carpet was Billy Boyd, aka Pippin, who was looking every inch the Scotsman in his black-tie kilt.
"What's underneath the skirt?" I inquired.
"My monster!" responded the game guy with a devilish grin. And no, B2 didn't unleash this sneaky skirt beast at any point in the night. At least not that I saw.
Equally merry on this devilish eve was Dominic Monaghan , who trotted over to yours truly with a sucker stuck in his puss. Looking scruffy, with mussy blond locks, D.M. peeked over my shoulder to wave at the hordes of hollering LOTR fans lining the traffic-jammed street.
"If I wasn't in the movie," mused D.M. in his lilting British accent, "I'd probably be across the street with all of them."
Little early in your career to start channeling Joan Crawford , I thought, but instead said: "Hobbits are such a merry folk," to which he bobbed his head in agreement. "When are you at your merriest?" I asked the benevolent boy.
"When I'm with all the other Hobbits, drinking beer or...eating, ya know," Mr. M. answered between deliberate licks on his lolly. "A Hobbit's perfect night would be to be around a lot of other people, have a big meal and a party."
"And what about on those nights when you're not dazzling fans?"
"We don't tend to go out on the scene all that much," he stated, somewhat sheepishly. "We hang out at each other's houses, you know...doing the typical things that guys do."
"Such as?"
"Playing videogames, watching DVDs--and then we call girls up," Monaghan continued with a boyish wink. "And they say they can't come 'round, so we call more girls up and play more videogames."
"Okay, Mr. Dial-a-Dame," I said, "complete the following: Hobbits who play together...
"That's naughty," D.M. said, as if coralling babes by cell is good clean fun. But with a big fat smile, the D-man relented and answered, "Live together!"
"Oh, have you been playing house with the other Hobbits?"
"We've all been living together at Billy's house in Mexico. Me, Elijah and Sean all went down there," he explained with a chuckle. " All the Hobbits under one roof for about three weeks. It was like life imitating art."
I'm guessing this is where head Hobbit Elijah Wood's comment comes into play, eh?
"We are merry!" E.W. heartily agreed as he held up his digital camera and snapped a few pics of his buds on the red carpet. "It [Mexico] was amazing; we had the best time!"
With a secretive grin (dreaming of lazy lovemaking, perhaps), D.M. rejoined his gang of boys, which included the delectable Orlando Bloom.
Tearing himself away from the cozy clan, the noble Elf was looking luscious in all black, with a wispy-thin mustache and a tuft of chin scruff.
"Tongue in my ear!" Orlando purred as the "new guy," Karl Urban , surprised him with a friendly nuzzle as a greeting. In the mood and chatting about his merriest moments with the Hobbits, O.B. happily brought up their time in New Zealand:
"Oh, surfing was the best," Mr. B. exclaimed. "We'd have a few days off from shooting, and we'd all go out and surf all day long."
The ocean, that is. The phone lines weren't ridden till later in the evening.
Poopin' P.S.: While the Hobbit boys were gabbing about kicking up their feet, the Elf princess, Liv Tyler , was mainly moaning about how she was ready to go home already and have some dinner (a pastime she was fond of on the New Zealand set, remember). Not exactly the partying type since she has settled down with her Spacehog fianc?, Royston Langdon.
Whoopin' P.S.: And where was Viggo Mortensen in all of this boyish busyness? V.M. ditched the usual pencil-pushing press and dashed 'cross the street, where the frenzied fans stood in awe of the starry scene. Followed by a harried handful of flackers ("Where is he going?" was the most common schoolmarmish screech heard), the man who plays Aragorn raced over to shake hands and sign autographs. And trust me, that's not something you see every day. Ain't it great?
Monster Mash
Prepare to drop mouths, drawers--whatever.
You've heard the stories, right? All that ferocious frolicking those Lord of the Rings riders have been getting up to? So, let's stop in at the Hollywood premiere of Lord's second installment, The Two Towers, and ask Elijah Wood himself, shall we?
"Pardon me, Mr. W.," I insisted. "Please complete the following: Hobbits who play together..."
"...Make sweet love together," Elijah responded faster than an Orc attacks.
Okay, then. But more on that nooky-note a bit la-tuh. Let's first check in with the rest of those canoodling cretins at last Sunday night's ArcLight Cinema do. Right smack on Sunset Boulevard. And let me tell you, the Hobbits and Elves were feeling most festive and frisky--as E.W. has already proven.
Picking a path down the red carpet was Billy Boyd, aka Pippin, who was looking every inch the Scotsman in his black-tie kilt.
"What's underneath the skirt?" I inquired.
"My monster!" responded the game guy with a devilish grin. And no, B2 didn't unleash this sneaky skirt beast at any point in the night. At least not that I saw.
Equally merry on this devilish eve was Dominic Monaghan , who trotted over to yours truly with a sucker stuck in his puss. Looking scruffy, with mussy blond locks, D.M. peeked over my shoulder to wave at the hordes of hollering LOTR fans lining the traffic-jammed street.
"If I wasn't in the movie," mused D.M. in his lilting British accent, "I'd probably be across the street with all of them."
Little early in your career to start channeling Joan Crawford , I thought, but instead said: "Hobbits are such a merry folk," to which he bobbed his head in agreement. "When are you at your merriest?" I asked the benevolent boy.
"When I'm with all the other Hobbits, drinking beer or...eating, ya know," Mr. M. answered between deliberate licks on his lolly. "A Hobbit's perfect night would be to be around a lot of other people, have a big meal and a party."
"And what about on those nights when you're not dazzling fans?"
"We don't tend to go out on the scene all that much," he stated, somewhat sheepishly. "We hang out at each other's houses, you know...doing the typical things that guys do."
"Such as?"
"Playing videogames, watching DVDs--and then we call girls up," Monaghan continued with a boyish wink. "And they say they can't come 'round, so we call more girls up and play more videogames."
"Okay, Mr. Dial-a-Dame," I said, "complete the following: Hobbits who play together...
"That's naughty," D.M. said, as if coralling babes by cell is good clean fun. But with a big fat smile, the D-man relented and answered, "Live together!"
"Oh, have you been playing house with the other Hobbits?"
"We've all been living together at Billy's house in Mexico. Me, Elijah and Sean all went down there," he explained with a chuckle. " All the Hobbits under one roof for about three weeks. It was like life imitating art."
I'm guessing this is where head Hobbit Elijah Wood's comment comes into play, eh?
"We are merry!" E.W. heartily agreed as he held up his digital camera and snapped a few pics of his buds on the red carpet. "It [Mexico] was amazing; we had the best time!"
With a secretive grin (dreaming of lazy lovemaking, perhaps), D.M. rejoined his gang of boys, which included the delectable Orlando Bloom.
Tearing himself away from the cozy clan, the noble Elf was looking luscious in all black, with a wispy-thin mustache and a tuft of chin scruff.
"Tongue in my ear!" Orlando purred as the "new guy," Karl Urban , surprised him with a friendly nuzzle as a greeting. In the mood and chatting about his merriest moments with the Hobbits, O.B. happily brought up their time in New Zealand:
"Oh, surfing was the best," Mr. B. exclaimed. "We'd have a few days off from shooting, and we'd all go out and surf all day long."
The ocean, that is. The phone lines weren't ridden till later in the evening.
Poopin' P.S.: While the Hobbit boys were gabbing about kicking up their feet, the Elf princess, Liv Tyler , was mainly moaning about how she was ready to go home already and have some dinner (a pastime she was fond of on the New Zealand set, remember). Not exactly the partying type since she has settled down with her Spacehog fianc?, Royston Langdon.
Whoopin' P.S.: And where was Viggo Mortensen in all of this boyish busyness? V.M. ditched the usual pencil-pushing press and dashed 'cross the street, where the frenzied fans stood in awe of the starry scene. Followed by a harried handful of flackers ("Where is he going?" was the most common schoolmarmish screech heard), the man who plays Aragorn raced over to shake hands and sign autographs. And trust me, that's not something you see every day. Ain't it great?
BITCH & FAMOUS
Love is in the air
by Trixy Honoré
Posted Thu, 11 Dec 2003
Though Keira Knightley may not be my favourite actress, she certainly seems to be inspiring many, as the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' and 'Love Actually' star has managed to impress Entertainment Weekly enough for them to name her their 'Top Breakout Star of 2003'.
Plus, she's won over the most powerful producer in Hollywood — Jerry Bruckheimer — which is like winning the acting lottery. He not only picked her for 'Pirates', but also for his new blockbuster 'King Arthur', in which she'll play Guinevere. "She can act," says the great Tinseltown mogul. "With Keira, you don't see the wheels turning."
Fellow 'Pirates' star Orlando Bloom is quite exhausted with his million-mile-an-hour rush to fame. Now that 'Pirates' and the three 'Lord of the Rings' films are behind him, he's taking it easy, so he doesn’t burn out before 30.
"I've bought a place in London and I'm having my first break in a long time. I'm going to furnish it, get back to watching some movies and get myself sorted out. At one point, I was tempted to squeeze in another film. But it would have been crazy to keep up that pace, so I'm going to try to relax and find the resources to come back. I'm not complaining, but there hasn't been a moment to pause and take stock. I feel as if I've been in a time warp from the age of 22 to 26."
Love is in the air
by Trixy Honoré
Posted Thu, 11 Dec 2003
Though Keira Knightley may not be my favourite actress, she certainly seems to be inspiring many, as the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' and 'Love Actually' star has managed to impress Entertainment Weekly enough for them to name her their 'Top Breakout Star of 2003'.
Plus, she's won over the most powerful producer in Hollywood — Jerry Bruckheimer — which is like winning the acting lottery. He not only picked her for 'Pirates', but also for his new blockbuster 'King Arthur', in which she'll play Guinevere. "She can act," says the great Tinseltown mogul. "With Keira, you don't see the wheels turning."
Fellow 'Pirates' star Orlando Bloom is quite exhausted with his million-mile-an-hour rush to fame. Now that 'Pirates' and the three 'Lord of the Rings' films are behind him, he's taking it easy, so he doesn’t burn out before 30.
"I've bought a place in London and I'm having my first break in a long time. I'm going to furnish it, get back to watching some movies and get myself sorted out. At one point, I was tempted to squeeze in another film. But it would have been crazy to keep up that pace, so I'm going to try to relax and find the resources to come back. I'm not complaining, but there hasn't been a moment to pause and take stock. I feel as if I've been in a time warp from the age of 22 to 26."
Mon, 19 Jan 2004
BITCH & FAMOUS
A-listers you love (and loathe)!
by Trixy Honoré
Posted Thu, 15 Jan 2004
[excerpts]
Welcome, dear readers, to the very first Bitch and Famous of 2004! And,
fret not, the stars didn't take a break from being as bizarre as ever over
the festive season —
Just before I get down to the celebrity winners and losers themselves,
though, I have to say what great taste in celeb preferences you all have! I
hope that my regular readers by now know me well enough to realise that I
have little trouble 'telling it like it is' (I'm a veritable Dr. Phil of
the gossip world), and that this is no empty compliment.
So, who did you all vote for?
Well, perhaps I should get this first category out of the way quickly and
kick off with the one on which I didn't quite see eye-to-eye with the
majority. You voted Kelly Osbourne as Young, Newly-Famous and Most Likely
to Sink without a Trace. So far, so good — I have no especial problem with
the chameleon-haired famous-offspring-about-town, but she hardly screams
'star quality'.
However, I was a little disheartened to see Kiera Knightley in last place.
Not only that, but you put her at the top of the Young, Newly-Famous and
Most Likely to reach Megastardom poll. Say it isn't so! Can't quite put my
finger on it, but something about that winsome, googly-eyed Brit just puts
my teeth on edge. Clearly, though, this is one prejudice I'll have to nurse
all on my own!
Can't fault you on your choice of Best Celeb Couple, though — Brad Pitt and
Jennifer Aniston won by a landslide, with over 40 percent of the vote,
followed by Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe with 25 percent, and
Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin fetching up in third spot with 10 percent.
Of course, Worst Celeb Couple of 2003 was a walkover for Bennifer, who
clocked up 43 percent of the votes cast. Second place was a close thing —
but Kate Bosworth and Orlando Bloom just pipped Demi Moore and Ashton
Kutcher to the post; the couples garnering 17 percent and 16 percent
respectively.
But what could explain the runners up in this category, considering that
you voted Orlando second in the Best Actor stakes and 34 percent rated him
as the Celeb You Can't Get Enough Of (fellow Lord-of-the-Ringer Viggo
Mortensen got 22 percent, to come second, and Halle Berry came third with
15 percent)?
Must be Kate! In fact, the evident anti-Bosworth sentiment prompted an
American reader to write in querying South Africans' dislike of the poor
'Blue Crush' headliner.
True, that surf movie wasn't exactly going to win the woman any Oscars —
but my guess is that anyone who's managed to grab Mr. Bloom out from under
the noses of his millions of lovesick fans, is not going to be wildly
popular! (Especially when Bloom keeps on about how in love he is! "I'm in
love with love. It's heavenly when you're falling for someone and you can't
stop thinking about her.")
So, if Orlando was your second-best actor of 2003, who came out on top?
Well, here I have to say that you all showed the most impeccable taste, as
a staggering 75 percent of you voted for the gorgeous and infinitely
talented Johnny Depp.
Orlando had to be content with 16 percent, and third-placed George Clooney
got just 4 percent. Plus, the very cockles of my heart were warmed to see
the self-satisfied Collin Farrell languishing down in the second-from-last
spot, with less than 1 percent!
When it came to Worst Actress of 2003 you also showed great discernment in
recognising a most deserving winner — namely Pamela Anderson (42 percent),
with Paris Hilton the runner up (25 percent) and Cameron Diaz coming in
third (10 percent). Having sat through almost a full episode of 'V.I.P.'
once (please don't ask me why), I really can't quibble with your decision…
Nor can I argue with the Worst Actor of 2003 award recipient, Ben Affleck —
who got 40 percent of the vote. Leonardo DiCaprio was trailing with 20
percent, but Jim Carrey stayed hot on his heels with 19 percent.
Best Actress of 2003 was hotly contested, but Catherine Zeta-Jones just
managed to beat out Liv Tyler, 26 percent to 24 percent, and Nicole Kidman
finished up third with 17 percent.
When it came to the Celeb Whose Name You Never Want to See Again, my heart
was gladdened to see the lovely Gwyneth quite rightly languishing in last
place. No such luck for Bennifer, though. This single celeb entity swept
the category with 41 percent of the vote, followed by Michael Jackson in
second (21 percent) and Britney Spears in third (14 percent).
Unfortunately for the 14 percent who did cast their ballot in favour of
having Brit struck from the roster, the energetic young pop tart went and
got hitched over the vac, generating untold gossip-column inches!
Your Worst Film of 2003? 'Gigli' left almost half of you utterly unmoved
(48 percent, to be exact), and 'The Matrix' franchise clearly failed to
live up to expectations, as 'Reloaded' took second place with 14 percent.
'Terminator III' also let down fans of its popular predecessor, coming
third (12 percent).
And, finally — great choice when it came to Best Film of 2003. The
fantastic 'Love Actually' took home the top honours (33 percent), followed
closely by 'Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King' (31 percent) — and I
was pleased to see the car-chase and explosion fiesta 'Bad Boys II' making
third position (11 percent).
Those are the winners and losers for 2003
BITCH & FAMOUS
A-listers you love (and loathe)!
by Trixy Honoré
Posted Thu, 15 Jan 2004
[excerpts]
Welcome, dear readers, to the very first Bitch and Famous of 2004! And,
fret not, the stars didn't take a break from being as bizarre as ever over
the festive season —
Just before I get down to the celebrity winners and losers themselves,
though, I have to say what great taste in celeb preferences you all have! I
hope that my regular readers by now know me well enough to realise that I
have little trouble 'telling it like it is' (I'm a veritable Dr. Phil of
the gossip world), and that this is no empty compliment.
So, who did you all vote for?
Well, perhaps I should get this first category out of the way quickly and
kick off with the one on which I didn't quite see eye-to-eye with the
majority. You voted Kelly Osbourne as Young, Newly-Famous and Most Likely
to Sink without a Trace. So far, so good — I have no especial problem with
the chameleon-haired famous-offspring-about-town, but she hardly screams
'star quality'.
However, I was a little disheartened to see Kiera Knightley in last place.
Not only that, but you put her at the top of the Young, Newly-Famous and
Most Likely to reach Megastardom poll. Say it isn't so! Can't quite put my
finger on it, but something about that winsome, googly-eyed Brit just puts
my teeth on edge. Clearly, though, this is one prejudice I'll have to nurse
all on my own!
Can't fault you on your choice of Best Celeb Couple, though — Brad Pitt and
Jennifer Aniston won by a landslide, with over 40 percent of the vote,
followed by Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe with 25 percent, and
Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin fetching up in third spot with 10 percent.
Of course, Worst Celeb Couple of 2003 was a walkover for Bennifer, who
clocked up 43 percent of the votes cast. Second place was a close thing —
but Kate Bosworth and Orlando Bloom just pipped Demi Moore and Ashton
Kutcher to the post; the couples garnering 17 percent and 16 percent
respectively.
But what could explain the runners up in this category, considering that
you voted Orlando second in the Best Actor stakes and 34 percent rated him
as the Celeb You Can't Get Enough Of (fellow Lord-of-the-Ringer Viggo
Mortensen got 22 percent, to come second, and Halle Berry came third with
15 percent)?
Must be Kate! In fact, the evident anti-Bosworth sentiment prompted an
American reader to write in querying South Africans' dislike of the poor
'Blue Crush' headliner.
True, that surf movie wasn't exactly going to win the woman any Oscars —
but my guess is that anyone who's managed to grab Mr. Bloom out from under
the noses of his millions of lovesick fans, is not going to be wildly
popular! (Especially when Bloom keeps on about how in love he is! "I'm in
love with love. It's heavenly when you're falling for someone and you can't
stop thinking about her.")
So, if Orlando was your second-best actor of 2003, who came out on top?
Well, here I have to say that you all showed the most impeccable taste, as
a staggering 75 percent of you voted for the gorgeous and infinitely
talented Johnny Depp.
Orlando had to be content with 16 percent, and third-placed George Clooney
got just 4 percent. Plus, the very cockles of my heart were warmed to see
the self-satisfied Collin Farrell languishing down in the second-from-last
spot, with less than 1 percent!
When it came to Worst Actress of 2003 you also showed great discernment in
recognising a most deserving winner — namely Pamela Anderson (42 percent),
with Paris Hilton the runner up (25 percent) and Cameron Diaz coming in
third (10 percent). Having sat through almost a full episode of 'V.I.P.'
once (please don't ask me why), I really can't quibble with your decision…
Nor can I argue with the Worst Actor of 2003 award recipient, Ben Affleck —
who got 40 percent of the vote. Leonardo DiCaprio was trailing with 20
percent, but Jim Carrey stayed hot on his heels with 19 percent.
Best Actress of 2003 was hotly contested, but Catherine Zeta-Jones just
managed to beat out Liv Tyler, 26 percent to 24 percent, and Nicole Kidman
finished up third with 17 percent.
When it came to the Celeb Whose Name You Never Want to See Again, my heart
was gladdened to see the lovely Gwyneth quite rightly languishing in last
place. No such luck for Bennifer, though. This single celeb entity swept
the category with 41 percent of the vote, followed by Michael Jackson in
second (21 percent) and Britney Spears in third (14 percent).
Unfortunately for the 14 percent who did cast their ballot in favour of
having Brit struck from the roster, the energetic young pop tart went and
got hitched over the vac, generating untold gossip-column inches!
Your Worst Film of 2003? 'Gigli' left almost half of you utterly unmoved
(48 percent, to be exact), and 'The Matrix' franchise clearly failed to
live up to expectations, as 'Reloaded' took second place with 14 percent.
'Terminator III' also let down fans of its popular predecessor, coming
third (12 percent).
And, finally — great choice when it came to Best Film of 2003. The
fantastic 'Love Actually' took home the top honours (33 percent), followed
closely by 'Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King' (31 percent) — and I
was pleased to see the car-chase and explosion fiesta 'Bad Boys II' making
third position (11 percent).
Those are the winners and losers for 2003
pfyre has downloaded some great pics from the Film Review January 2004 issue and the article on Troy
The Lord of the Rings,
Campus Circle (LA, US),
December 17, 2003- January 13, 2004
[typed by Jen]
The Fellowship Lives On with The Return of the Kings
By Josh Herman
If society can coin the phrase "chick flick" for female-themed movies,
then can The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King be described as
a "d--- flick?" After all, the film does promote brotherhood and the
strength of the male bond through adversity.
"There are a fair bit of fans who see the relationship as a homosexual
relationship," Elijah Wood says about the close proximity of his
character, Frodo and fellow hobbit Sam, played by Sean Astin. "It
wasn't really how I or Sean saw it. I think it is a very loving, caring
close relationship, which happens to be between two men. I think it's
still up for interpretation."
What can't be debated is that this film, the last of Peter Jackson's
LOTR uber-epic, is the rare finale of a trilogy that not only trumps
the previous films, but makes them more delicious in its completion.
The anxious thrust of The Return of the King is that Frodo and Sam
(Wood and Astin) are near, as Gandalf says, "The great battle of our
time," while Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) must deal with inner-demons for
a change and do what Simba was required to do in another far away
kingdom "remember who you are" and take his regal place in the circle
of death.
The onscreen fellowship echoes the one behind the Kookaburra tree.
Mortensen and Orlando Bloom spent much of their off-time on a green bus
they named the "C-Bago." According to Mortensen, "It was a crazy small
bus" that he decorated wall-to-wall with his behind-the-scenes photos
of the set. For Christmas, they had a tree made out of tampons. The
C-bago became a frat house, where much drinking and partying ensued
the bus even had its own wine cellar. The motto? "Everyone is welcome,
but when it's time to go, GET OUT."
"The actors had a spiritual connection to it," director Jackson says of
the bus. "I liked the way they had photographs [Mortensen and Bloom]
taken behind-the-scenes, plastered all over the walls.
"Ahhh yes, the bus. It was mine, all mine. It was my precious," Bloom
says sifting LOTR character Gollum through an [English] drawl.
Bloom, a "sex symbol" according to Mortensen, christened the bus the
"C-word" when the makeup artist was fuming about someone and asked
Bloom's advice.
"You should kick him in the c—t and tell him to f—k off!" Bloom said.
"Viggo just lost it for half an hour. He kept saying, 'What did you
say?' [The bus] became all about "the word." We took that word and took
all of its power away. We made it the most loving word in the world. If
you were a true c—t, you were the most amazing person in the world."
As LOTR can be read as a possible metaphor of acceptance, the Bago
accepted everyone no matter what sex or sexual persuasion.
"Did they call it the party bus? More like the farty bus!" Sir Ian
McKellen, who plays Gandalf in the film, quips.
"I can't believe he [Mortensen] talked about that. That was our private
world," muses co-star Liv Tyler, who continued, "There was a lot of
liquor on that bus. But the funniest thing about this bus is that this
thing was a beast. It was so tiny; nothing worked. If they ever washed
our hair it would go from scalding hot to freezing cold. There was no
heat."
While talking about the C-Bago, the "end-of-an-era" nostalgia that
creeps into the last day of high school grips the cast. The Return of
the King is senior year for these performers, who will now graduate and
go in their separate directions. Some will become sex objects (Bloom),
some will become poets and have exhibitions (Mortensen), and some will
reunite with their families (Astin). But when they have their 20-year
reunion (the 20th Anniversary Release) you know stories of "The Bus"
will be fondly swapped.
"It was a very free-spirited bus," Bloom reflects. "It came about
because me and Viggo kept being moved around, and we ended up on this
bus one day. And the actors were fed up and we said, "This is it. This
is our home and we are not moving. If they come, tell them to go away."
The fellowship is complete.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is currently in theaters.
Campus Circle (LA, US),
December 17, 2003- January 13, 2004
[typed by Jen]
The Fellowship Lives On with The Return of the Kings
By Josh Herman
If society can coin the phrase "chick flick" for female-themed movies,
then can The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King be described as
a "d--- flick?" After all, the film does promote brotherhood and the
strength of the male bond through adversity.
"There are a fair bit of fans who see the relationship as a homosexual
relationship," Elijah Wood says about the close proximity of his
character, Frodo and fellow hobbit Sam, played by Sean Astin. "It
wasn't really how I or Sean saw it. I think it is a very loving, caring
close relationship, which happens to be between two men. I think it's
still up for interpretation."
What can't be debated is that this film, the last of Peter Jackson's
LOTR uber-epic, is the rare finale of a trilogy that not only trumps
the previous films, but makes them more delicious in its completion.
The anxious thrust of The Return of the King is that Frodo and Sam
(Wood and Astin) are near, as Gandalf says, "The great battle of our
time," while Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) must deal with inner-demons for
a change and do what Simba was required to do in another far away
kingdom "remember who you are" and take his regal place in the circle
of death.
The onscreen fellowship echoes the one behind the Kookaburra tree.
Mortensen and Orlando Bloom spent much of their off-time on a green bus
they named the "C-Bago." According to Mortensen, "It was a crazy small
bus" that he decorated wall-to-wall with his behind-the-scenes photos
of the set. For Christmas, they had a tree made out of tampons. The
C-bago became a frat house, where much drinking and partying ensued
the bus even had its own wine cellar. The motto? "Everyone is welcome,
but when it's time to go, GET OUT."
"The actors had a spiritual connection to it," director Jackson says of
the bus. "I liked the way they had photographs [Mortensen and Bloom]
taken behind-the-scenes, plastered all over the walls.
"Ahhh yes, the bus. It was mine, all mine. It was my precious," Bloom
says sifting LOTR character Gollum through an [English] drawl.
Bloom, a "sex symbol" according to Mortensen, christened the bus the
"C-word" when the makeup artist was fuming about someone and asked
Bloom's advice.
"You should kick him in the c—t and tell him to f—k off!" Bloom said.
"Viggo just lost it for half an hour. He kept saying, 'What did you
say?' [The bus] became all about "the word." We took that word and took
all of its power away. We made it the most loving word in the world. If
you were a true c—t, you were the most amazing person in the world."
As LOTR can be read as a possible metaphor of acceptance, the Bago
accepted everyone no matter what sex or sexual persuasion.
"Did they call it the party bus? More like the farty bus!" Sir Ian
McKellen, who plays Gandalf in the film, quips.
"I can't believe he [Mortensen] talked about that. That was our private
world," muses co-star Liv Tyler, who continued, "There was a lot of
liquor on that bus. But the funniest thing about this bus is that this
thing was a beast. It was so tiny; nothing worked. If they ever washed
our hair it would go from scalding hot to freezing cold. There was no
heat."
While talking about the C-Bago, the "end-of-an-era" nostalgia that
creeps into the last day of high school grips the cast. The Return of
the King is senior year for these performers, who will now graduate and
go in their separate directions. Some will become sex objects (Bloom),
some will become poets and have exhibitions (Mortensen), and some will
reunite with their families (Astin). But when they have their 20-year
reunion (the 20th Anniversary Release) you know stories of "The Bus"
will be fondly swapped.
"It was a very free-spirited bus," Bloom reflects. "It came about
because me and Viggo kept being moved around, and we ended up on this
bus one day. And the actors were fed up and we said, "This is it. This
is our home and we are not moving. If they come, tell them to go away."
The fellowship is complete.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is currently in theaters.
Monday, January 19, 2004
#935, Friday, January 16, 2004
ARTS + FEATURES
'Rings' trilogy ends in triumph
By Kenneth Turan
LOS ANGELES TIMES
SPT
It took one ring to rule them all, and now there's one film to end it all,
to bring to a close the cinematic epic of our time, the one by which all
others will be judged. "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" has
finally arrived.
Powerfully imagined two times over, first by the matchless fantasy mind of
J.R.R. Tolkien and then by the bravura filmmaking of director Peter Jackson
and a cast and crew that reached 2,400 souls, "The Return of the King" is a
fitting climax to a story about the quest to rescue the world from evil
that has had us profoundly in its grip from the start.
Like anything restlessly and eagerly anticipated, "Return" will inevitably
be quibbled with. At three hours and 20 minutes, it is both formidably long
and unsure where it ought to end. The film's critical human moments include
some of the strongest of the trilogy, but because "Return" by definition
has to showcase battles that will literally end all battles, the brevity of
those character beats at times threatens the critical human thread with
unraveling.
That doesn't happen, which is a tribute not only to this film but to the
deep emotional connection with its numerous characters we've stored up and
carry with us. In its belief that this story has meaning as well as
excitement, "Return," written by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Jackson,
has made its made-up world as completely real on the psychological level as
its up-to-the-moment visual effects have on the physical.
Not only have we spent hour after involving hour with these characters, but
the actors who play them (and to whom they will likely be forever linked)
have put in so much time with them - literally years - that they've to an
unusual degree actually lived these parts.
To look at the faces of Elijah Wood as Frodo and Sean Astin as Sam, Ian
McKellen as Gandalf and Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn, is to see the signs of
triumphs and disappointments that only the genuine passage of time can
create. As Jackson himself has said, "the moment you film a close-up of Ian
McKellen, you don't want to cut to a wide shot anymore because Ian is so
compelling."
While it can be easier to come up with a persuasive physical reality than a
psychological one, that shouldn't detract from how much success the "Rings"
team, led by production designer Grant Major and cinematographer Andrew
Lesnie, has had in doing so here. This film's crowning achievement is
white-stoned Minas Tirith, the kingdom of Gondor's seven-level city of
kings that, in a smooth combination of miniatures and built sets, looks
like a flabbergasting cross between an Italian hill town and a wedding cake.
Yet for all of this, it is as characteristic of "Return" as its
predecessors that some of its most memorable moments are its simplest. The
presenting of a newly forged sword to a key hero, the lighting of a series
of signal fires to warn the neighboring kingdom of Rohan that Gondor is
under attack, are successful precisely because they bring a kind of magical
directness to the proceedings.
Similarly, "Return" begins with a scene of two young men fishing that is
almost deceptive in its artlessness. For one of the men is Smeagol, and
this flashback to how he comes to possess the ring and how that object's
corrosive power gradually devolves him into the sniveling Gollum is a
timely reminder of the ring's ability to bend the minds of every creature.
More than the previous films, "Return of the King" has a sinister end of
days feeling about it, a doomsday sensibility as the very skies seem to
darken and it becomes clear that the climactic battle between the forces of
good and the Dark Lord Sauron, he of the fiery, all-seeing eye, is only a
matter of time.
As Gandalf, that master of the epigram, puts it, "things are now in motion
that cannot be undone."
The best hope of a positive outcome - the quest of the hobbits Frodo and
Sam to destroy the malevolent ring in the fires of Mount Doom - is, the
wizard is forced to admit, "just a fool's hope."
Even Gandalf doesn't really know what we soon find out: Things are going
badly for this duo and their treacherous guide Gollum, a creature
schizophrenically divided between his desire to do good and his
pathological desire to possess the ring once again. Frodo, his mind
weakened by the weight of carrying the ring, is increasingly not himself
and prey to Gollum' s insidious, Iago-like posturings. Thanks to the input
of Andy Serkis, the creature lives up to the director's claim that he's
"probably the most actor-driven digital creature that has ever been used in
a film."
One of the most satisfying aspects of "Return" is that some of the actors
we've seen the most of do especially well here. McKellen makes the most of
Gandalf's moments, Viggo Mortensen increasingly becomes the epitome of
heroic grace, and Astin brings the kind of dignity and quiet strength to
Sam increasingly called for by the role.
With so many involving things on offer, it's understandable that although
"Return" opts to do without the book's closing section detailing battles
around the Shire, it still extends longer than it should. For filmmakers
and viewers alike, a world this vivid is next to impossible to leave. As a
model for how to bring substance, authenticity and insight to the biggest
of adventure yarns, this trilogy will not soon, if ever, find its equal.
ARTS + FEATURES
'Rings' trilogy ends in triumph
By Kenneth Turan
LOS ANGELES TIMES
SPT
It took one ring to rule them all, and now there's one film to end it all,
to bring to a close the cinematic epic of our time, the one by which all
others will be judged. "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" has
finally arrived.
Powerfully imagined two times over, first by the matchless fantasy mind of
J.R.R. Tolkien and then by the bravura filmmaking of director Peter Jackson
and a cast and crew that reached 2,400 souls, "The Return of the King" is a
fitting climax to a story about the quest to rescue the world from evil
that has had us profoundly in its grip from the start.
Like anything restlessly and eagerly anticipated, "Return" will inevitably
be quibbled with. At three hours and 20 minutes, it is both formidably long
and unsure where it ought to end. The film's critical human moments include
some of the strongest of the trilogy, but because "Return" by definition
has to showcase battles that will literally end all battles, the brevity of
those character beats at times threatens the critical human thread with
unraveling.
That doesn't happen, which is a tribute not only to this film but to the
deep emotional connection with its numerous characters we've stored up and
carry with us. In its belief that this story has meaning as well as
excitement, "Return," written by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Jackson,
has made its made-up world as completely real on the psychological level as
its up-to-the-moment visual effects have on the physical.
Not only have we spent hour after involving hour with these characters, but
the actors who play them (and to whom they will likely be forever linked)
have put in so much time with them - literally years - that they've to an
unusual degree actually lived these parts.
To look at the faces of Elijah Wood as Frodo and Sean Astin as Sam, Ian
McKellen as Gandalf and Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn, is to see the signs of
triumphs and disappointments that only the genuine passage of time can
create. As Jackson himself has said, "the moment you film a close-up of Ian
McKellen, you don't want to cut to a wide shot anymore because Ian is so
compelling."
While it can be easier to come up with a persuasive physical reality than a
psychological one, that shouldn't detract from how much success the "Rings"
team, led by production designer Grant Major and cinematographer Andrew
Lesnie, has had in doing so here. This film's crowning achievement is
white-stoned Minas Tirith, the kingdom of Gondor's seven-level city of
kings that, in a smooth combination of miniatures and built sets, looks
like a flabbergasting cross between an Italian hill town and a wedding cake.
Yet for all of this, it is as characteristic of "Return" as its
predecessors that some of its most memorable moments are its simplest. The
presenting of a newly forged sword to a key hero, the lighting of a series
of signal fires to warn the neighboring kingdom of Rohan that Gondor is
under attack, are successful precisely because they bring a kind of magical
directness to the proceedings.
Similarly, "Return" begins with a scene of two young men fishing that is
almost deceptive in its artlessness. For one of the men is Smeagol, and
this flashback to how he comes to possess the ring and how that object's
corrosive power gradually devolves him into the sniveling Gollum is a
timely reminder of the ring's ability to bend the minds of every creature.
More than the previous films, "Return of the King" has a sinister end of
days feeling about it, a doomsday sensibility as the very skies seem to
darken and it becomes clear that the climactic battle between the forces of
good and the Dark Lord Sauron, he of the fiery, all-seeing eye, is only a
matter of time.
As Gandalf, that master of the epigram, puts it, "things are now in motion
that cannot be undone."
The best hope of a positive outcome - the quest of the hobbits Frodo and
Sam to destroy the malevolent ring in the fires of Mount Doom - is, the
wizard is forced to admit, "just a fool's hope."
Even Gandalf doesn't really know what we soon find out: Things are going
badly for this duo and their treacherous guide Gollum, a creature
schizophrenically divided between his desire to do good and his
pathological desire to possess the ring once again. Frodo, his mind
weakened by the weight of carrying the ring, is increasingly not himself
and prey to Gollum' s insidious, Iago-like posturings. Thanks to the input
of Andy Serkis, the creature lives up to the director's claim that he's
"probably the most actor-driven digital creature that has ever been used in
a film."
One of the most satisfying aspects of "Return" is that some of the actors
we've seen the most of do especially well here. McKellen makes the most of
Gandalf's moments, Viggo Mortensen increasingly becomes the epitome of
heroic grace, and Astin brings the kind of dignity and quiet strength to
Sam increasingly called for by the role.
With so many involving things on offer, it's understandable that although
"Return" opts to do without the book's closing section detailing battles
around the Shire, it still extends longer than it should. For filmmakers
and viewers alike, a world this vivid is next to impossible to leave. As a
model for how to bring substance, authenticity and insight to the biggest
of adventure yarns, this trilogy will not soon, if ever, find its equal.
Hotter with hair- a comparison of Viggo & Orlando with and without.
Biography Magazine/ December 2003: a yummy pic of Viggo on the bed and a Spotlight article about him.
I LOVE these fotos with Dom & Orlando- especially the kiss!
Here is a rugged, sex foto with Andy (who played Gollum- & who looks rather sexy as the real life him), Dom, Sean Astin, Orlando, & Elijah( what was he thinking with that mohawk!!!), Bernard Hill- who played Theodon, Miranda Otto (Eowyn), and Billy.
This page includes various pictures of Orli, some set up for wallpaper background.
All are thanks to pfyre and found on orlandobloomislegolas@yahoogroups.com
Biography Magazine/ December 2003: a yummy pic of Viggo on the bed and a Spotlight article about him.
I LOVE these fotos with Dom & Orlando- especially the kiss!
Here is a rugged, sex foto with Andy (who played Gollum- & who looks rather sexy as the real life him), Dom, Sean Astin, Orlando, & Elijah( what was he thinking with that mohawk!!!), Bernard Hill- who played Theodon, Miranda Otto (Eowyn), and Billy.
This page includes various pictures of Orli, some set up for wallpaper background.
All are thanks to pfyre and found on orlandobloomislegolas@yahoogroups.com
Article in "Studio" - A Year in the life of V.M.
A Year in the Life of Viggo Mortensen
19th December 2002
In a somewhat far-reaching political context, the worldwide release of the
second episode of The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, Time magazine
publishes a critique of the film comparing the fellowship of the ring to
the western democracies besieged by islamic fundamentalists. Viggo is
furious -- "they even dared compare Christopher Lee to Osama Bin Laden -
and sends a response which the magazine judges unsuitable for publication.
An extract from the letter:
"Your comparisons put forward a view of the world that is simplistic,
xenophobic and arrogant. It is the actions of the government of the United
States that provokes fear and distrust in other countries around the world
(...)"
1st to 15th January 2003
The deployment of 50,000 American soldiers in the Gulf. Viggo is one of a
group of American actors who mobilise against the conflict with Iraq. He
poses in teeshirts on which he has printed slogans such as 'No more war for
oil' or 'War is not the answer'. "Public personalities who express
themselves against the war are given the finger. It is revealing about the
'values' on which America herself is founded. Expressing an opinion may be
considered unpatriotic. Me, I believe it is worse to lie to and manipulate
your people - and the rest of the world. Unless one believes that a
government can remain by the grace of lies. Ours is a champion in that
area. Sometimes it is so enormous that one asks oneself how people can go
on believing in them. Ossama Bin Laden is allied with Sadam Hussein, no
proof! Weapons of mass destruction: no proof! It doesn't matter if the
truth is re-established after the fact, one always thinks that there is no
smoke without fire."
28th February
The University of St Lawrence (New York State), from which he graduated in
1980 with a degree in political science and another degree in Spanish
literature, pays him hommage. "He manages many careers, and yet he has no
pretensions" declares the Dean, Daniel F Sullivan, "Viggo Mortensen has won
a good reputation through his energy, his curiosity".
"It is the university where I began to take photos, before I even had the
idea of becoming an actor. I have also always liked writing and drawing.
For me, they are branches of the same tree. It is my way of communicating.
Besides, I always have a camera with me. To capture the moment. I am not
someone to put people into impossible poses. I made photos during the
filming of Lord, and I am just happy to have caught Elijah Wood, Billy Boyd
and the others at that moment in their lives."
20th March, 2.35 am GMT
After a 48-hour ultimatum, President George Bush announces the start of
military operations against Iraq.
"The United States, aided by the trusty Tony Blair, and all those they have
managed to convince - the Danish, Spanish and Icelandic governments.... -
have finally executed their pathetic joke, their dishonest actions. I have
not failed to notice that, while the occupying troops prevented the looters
from entering the Ministerie for Oil, nothing was done to protect the
libraries, the museums, the hospitals."
15th April
The filming of Hidalgo, directed by Joe Johnston, is finished after nine
months of shooting which has sent Viggo to Marocco and New Mexico. The
movie is inspired by the life of legendary horserider Fank T Hopkins, a
contemporary of Buffalo Bill, who was offered the chance to participate in
an endurance race of 4,800km through the Arabian desert. The film is
scheduled to be released in March 2004.
"It is the first film I've done since The Lord of the Rings. I was to have
made Borgia, directed by Neil Jordan, but the financiers have knocked that
one on the head. I was starting to run out of money! It was nearly two
years since I had received a salary. I couldn't wait any longer. When they
offered me Hidalgo - and I think that they would never have considered me
for the role if I hadn't been Aragorn - I found the script rather
unconventional for a big studio movie [it is being produced by Disney]. It
seemed interesting, in the current context, to play a cowboy - a real one,
not a fake like Bush - who travels to the same place (Iraq and Syria) just
to take part in a horse race. I liked the idea that the hero doesn't go to
the 'third world', and especially the middle-East, to teach the natives how
to behave, or to conquer and destroy, as is too often the case. Hidalgo is
above all the story of personal defiance. I have also discovered that,
compared to Lord, any other shoot is going to seem short and easy. Still,
we have some real scenes on Hidalgo. The crew was a little surpised by the
climatic conditions. I remember one time when we were trying to shoot in
the Sahara, where you get these atrocious winds; it was hot, there was sand
in the cameras. I heard everywhere: 'this is hell!' and, deep down in my
heart, I thought 'this is a giggle compared to Lord...'.
18th - 25th April
On holiday in Iceland.
"I took advantage of the spring school break to take my son Henry (15) on
holiday with me. I had wanted to explore Iceland for a long time. I know
the Saga [the glorious accounts of the Icelandic people and the Norse
kings] and that was an enormous influence on me for Lord of the Rings. We
crossed the length and breadth of the country by car and on horseback. It's
awesome."
1st to 7th May
Visit to Havana, where the Phototeque Nationale de Cuba has organised an
exhibition of Viggo's photos, entitled 'Hole in the Sun'. A rare approach
for an American actor.
"They invited me. I went. Like many Americans, I had always wanted to visit
Cuba, but it is regarded badly, because the United States embargo is still
in force. So, down there, they haven't seen Lord... It was an inspiring
trip. In Havana, things happen everyday that the world ignores. We, the
photographers, see that."
8th June
Return to New Zealand, where he reprises the role of Aragorn to film
additional scenes for Return of the King.
"I go back to New Zealand with pleasure, which I consider my adopted
country these days. Especially since this time my son came with me and even
managed to snag a part as an extra. Aragorn has never really left me. It
has, above all, been an honour to play him. I love his imperfections, which
make him strong. To get under the skin of the person, I tell myself that
the fiction is like real life: one can never rest on one's laurels and say:
'This is good, I am proud of myself'. You must always go back and question.
Despite his vast knowledge of the world, Aragorn always considers himself
fallible. It is his internal conflicts that make him evolve. But I don't
believe a film is ever finished. In my head, it goes on."
18th June
Last day of filming The Lord of the Rings for Viggo.
"It was sad and happy at the same time. Terrible and confusing. The end of
such an adventure. Each of the end-of-shoot parties - all of the actors had
one - was an occasion for looking back one more time. I was equally careful
to talk to all the stuntmen who doubled for me. When I was leaving, Peter
Jackson gave me my sword and a tape with my best scenes and also.... the
worst!."
28th June
Finalising the exhibition Ephemeris in Denmark - where Viggo's father comes
from - which retraces his career. The actor also holds a poetry-reading there.
"Returning to Denmark is obvious. It is the country where my roots are.
After university, I lived here for several years and did all sorts of
little jobs: sold flowers in the streets of Copenhagen, dockworker,
waiter... On these occasions, I know that a lot of people come to see me
because of the films. But once they are standing before my photos, whatever
motivated them to come, it is the interest that counts. Through this
perhaps they will even want to go on and discover other photographers."
1st July
Publication of his new collection of photos and poems, 45301 'a provocative
book', which he publishes himself. Abstract images, phrases taken from his
poetry, notebooks, journals are collected with negatives taken during his
trips to Morocco, Cuba and the plains of the United States.
"I started my own publishing house, which I have called Perceval Press,
after the legend of the knight who is freed from his spiritual blindness
when he is initiated into the mysteries of the Grail. We publish authors
who have found it difficult to get published. Poets, mostly. It is
important to protect living poetry, which is also why I participate as
often as I can in public readings."
13th September
The actor opens Myelo in Los Angeles, an exhibition of his latest images.
The photos, taken during the filming of Hidalgo in South Dakota, recreate
the dance the Sioux performed before they were massacred by the American
army at Wounded Knee.
"It's rather unusual for a Hollywood movie to address the Indian question,
and in particular the Sioux culture, with this much respect. That made me
realise this would be a rather unique film. And I have tried to 'capture'
this 'ghost dance' as a nebulous memory, an ephemeral dream. It came to me
like that, I took my camera and I only shot one roll of film."
7th October
Arnold Schwartzenegger is elected governor of California.
"It is not the fact that he is an actor or ex-bodybuilder that disturbs me.
Everyone has a right to speak. What is terrible is that he has been
installed in a presidential manner. He had the attitude of having won even
before running his campaign. He didn't need to say anything, nor to develop
even one political argument. Next to him, the other candidates seemed like
ghosts. What shocks me even more is that a small group of very rich people
has succeeded in reversing an election - exactly the way in which Bush
stole the presidency."
20th October
Viggo is 45 years old.
"I am not afraid of getting old. I have seen a lot of actors who started
out with lots of bottle and who gained either some success or some
disappointment, or a little of both, who became paralysed and decided to
stop trying. I can understand that. Me, I am always passionate about the
process of cinematic creation, about researching people. I like talking
about a film which works with the press, and try not to feel bitter about
the failures. I never really make plans in advance. The proof: I don't even
know what my next film will be!"
25th October
Thousands on people take part in the first great pacifist demonstration in
Washington since George Bush announced, on May 1st, the end of military
operations in Iraq. Viggo speaks, following veterans and activists. After
distributing his anti-war teeshirts and protesting against the occupation
of Iraq, he addresses Congress with a fierce: "God isn't angry, you are."
Then he reads one of his poems, written for publication on the
poetsagainstwar.org website, Return to Babylon, from which an extract follows:
"Accept and forget difference and desire that separates and leaves us
longing or repelled. Why briefly return to playin broken places, to mock
the ground, to collect infant shards, coins, fossils, or the familiar empty
cannisters and casings that glint from poisoned roots in the blackened dust?"
18th November
Release on DVD of the extended version of The Two Towers.
"Personally, I prefer the extended version of the films of Lord. I hope
that history will retain them."
19th November
Release of his new, fourth CD, Pandemoniuminamerica. Amongst the musicians
one notes the regulars like guitarist Buckethead, who has collaborated
amongst others with Guns N'Roses, and his son Henry, who plays bass, but
also guest stars amongst the chorus: Elijah Wood, Billy Boyd and Dominic
Monaghan!
"It is a tribute to the memory of the victims of the 11th September
tragedy. I wrote the words, but I also used texts that I love very much,
from Noam Chomsky, to whom the album is dedicated, and from Jonathan Swift.
It's totally experimental. The Hobbits agreed to join me and it was a lot
of fun, we improvised on the spot, we spent our time exchanging
instruments. Elijah played the battery and the piano."
End of the year
The end of the year is busy for Viggo. Following a tour of South America
(notably Brazil and Argentina, where he grew up) promoting Peter Jackson's
film, he returned to New Zealand in mid-November to organise two
photography exhibitions dedicated to him: one, very extensive one, at the
University of Wellington, the other, at a city gallery, of only images of
New Zealand. He meets up with his friends from Return of the King for the
world premiere, which will take place on 1st December at the Embassy
Theatre in Wellington.... On 8th December the team is in Berlin for the
European premiere of the film. The 13th they will call at Paris. And the
14th at Copenhagen, where Peter Jackson has especially asked Viggo to
introduce him to the queen of Denmark.
A Year in the Life of Viggo Mortensen
19th December 2002
In a somewhat far-reaching political context, the worldwide release of the
second episode of The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, Time magazine
publishes a critique of the film comparing the fellowship of the ring to
the western democracies besieged by islamic fundamentalists. Viggo is
furious -- "they even dared compare Christopher Lee to Osama Bin Laden -
and sends a response which the magazine judges unsuitable for publication.
An extract from the letter:
"Your comparisons put forward a view of the world that is simplistic,
xenophobic and arrogant. It is the actions of the government of the United
States that provokes fear and distrust in other countries around the world
(...)"
1st to 15th January 2003
The deployment of 50,000 American soldiers in the Gulf. Viggo is one of a
group of American actors who mobilise against the conflict with Iraq. He
poses in teeshirts on which he has printed slogans such as 'No more war for
oil' or 'War is not the answer'. "Public personalities who express
themselves against the war are given the finger. It is revealing about the
'values' on which America herself is founded. Expressing an opinion may be
considered unpatriotic. Me, I believe it is worse to lie to and manipulate
your people - and the rest of the world. Unless one believes that a
government can remain by the grace of lies. Ours is a champion in that
area. Sometimes it is so enormous that one asks oneself how people can go
on believing in them. Ossama Bin Laden is allied with Sadam Hussein, no
proof! Weapons of mass destruction: no proof! It doesn't matter if the
truth is re-established after the fact, one always thinks that there is no
smoke without fire."
28th February
The University of St Lawrence (New York State), from which he graduated in
1980 with a degree in political science and another degree in Spanish
literature, pays him hommage. "He manages many careers, and yet he has no
pretensions" declares the Dean, Daniel F Sullivan, "Viggo Mortensen has won
a good reputation through his energy, his curiosity".
"It is the university where I began to take photos, before I even had the
idea of becoming an actor. I have also always liked writing and drawing.
For me, they are branches of the same tree. It is my way of communicating.
Besides, I always have a camera with me. To capture the moment. I am not
someone to put people into impossible poses. I made photos during the
filming of Lord, and I am just happy to have caught Elijah Wood, Billy Boyd
and the others at that moment in their lives."
20th March, 2.35 am GMT
After a 48-hour ultimatum, President George Bush announces the start of
military operations against Iraq.
"The United States, aided by the trusty Tony Blair, and all those they have
managed to convince - the Danish, Spanish and Icelandic governments.... -
have finally executed their pathetic joke, their dishonest actions. I have
not failed to notice that, while the occupying troops prevented the looters
from entering the Ministerie for Oil, nothing was done to protect the
libraries, the museums, the hospitals."
15th April
The filming of Hidalgo, directed by Joe Johnston, is finished after nine
months of shooting which has sent Viggo to Marocco and New Mexico. The
movie is inspired by the life of legendary horserider Fank T Hopkins, a
contemporary of Buffalo Bill, who was offered the chance to participate in
an endurance race of 4,800km through the Arabian desert. The film is
scheduled to be released in March 2004.
"It is the first film I've done since The Lord of the Rings. I was to have
made Borgia, directed by Neil Jordan, but the financiers have knocked that
one on the head. I was starting to run out of money! It was nearly two
years since I had received a salary. I couldn't wait any longer. When they
offered me Hidalgo - and I think that they would never have considered me
for the role if I hadn't been Aragorn - I found the script rather
unconventional for a big studio movie [it is being produced by Disney]. It
seemed interesting, in the current context, to play a cowboy - a real one,
not a fake like Bush - who travels to the same place (Iraq and Syria) just
to take part in a horse race. I liked the idea that the hero doesn't go to
the 'third world', and especially the middle-East, to teach the natives how
to behave, or to conquer and destroy, as is too often the case. Hidalgo is
above all the story of personal defiance. I have also discovered that,
compared to Lord, any other shoot is going to seem short and easy. Still,
we have some real scenes on Hidalgo. The crew was a little surpised by the
climatic conditions. I remember one time when we were trying to shoot in
the Sahara, where you get these atrocious winds; it was hot, there was sand
in the cameras. I heard everywhere: 'this is hell!' and, deep down in my
heart, I thought 'this is a giggle compared to Lord...'.
18th - 25th April
On holiday in Iceland.
"I took advantage of the spring school break to take my son Henry (15) on
holiday with me. I had wanted to explore Iceland for a long time. I know
the Saga [the glorious accounts of the Icelandic people and the Norse
kings] and that was an enormous influence on me for Lord of the Rings. We
crossed the length and breadth of the country by car and on horseback. It's
awesome."
1st to 7th May
Visit to Havana, where the Phototeque Nationale de Cuba has organised an
exhibition of Viggo's photos, entitled 'Hole in the Sun'. A rare approach
for an American actor.
"They invited me. I went. Like many Americans, I had always wanted to visit
Cuba, but it is regarded badly, because the United States embargo is still
in force. So, down there, they haven't seen Lord... It was an inspiring
trip. In Havana, things happen everyday that the world ignores. We, the
photographers, see that."
8th June
Return to New Zealand, where he reprises the role of Aragorn to film
additional scenes for Return of the King.
"I go back to New Zealand with pleasure, which I consider my adopted
country these days. Especially since this time my son came with me and even
managed to snag a part as an extra. Aragorn has never really left me. It
has, above all, been an honour to play him. I love his imperfections, which
make him strong. To get under the skin of the person, I tell myself that
the fiction is like real life: one can never rest on one's laurels and say:
'This is good, I am proud of myself'. You must always go back and question.
Despite his vast knowledge of the world, Aragorn always considers himself
fallible. It is his internal conflicts that make him evolve. But I don't
believe a film is ever finished. In my head, it goes on."
18th June
Last day of filming The Lord of the Rings for Viggo.
"It was sad and happy at the same time. Terrible and confusing. The end of
such an adventure. Each of the end-of-shoot parties - all of the actors had
one - was an occasion for looking back one more time. I was equally careful
to talk to all the stuntmen who doubled for me. When I was leaving, Peter
Jackson gave me my sword and a tape with my best scenes and also.... the
worst!."
28th June
Finalising the exhibition Ephemeris in Denmark - where Viggo's father comes
from - which retraces his career. The actor also holds a poetry-reading there.
"Returning to Denmark is obvious. It is the country where my roots are.
After university, I lived here for several years and did all sorts of
little jobs: sold flowers in the streets of Copenhagen, dockworker,
waiter... On these occasions, I know that a lot of people come to see me
because of the films. But once they are standing before my photos, whatever
motivated them to come, it is the interest that counts. Through this
perhaps they will even want to go on and discover other photographers."
1st July
Publication of his new collection of photos and poems, 45301 'a provocative
book', which he publishes himself. Abstract images, phrases taken from his
poetry, notebooks, journals are collected with negatives taken during his
trips to Morocco, Cuba and the plains of the United States.
"I started my own publishing house, which I have called Perceval Press,
after the legend of the knight who is freed from his spiritual blindness
when he is initiated into the mysteries of the Grail. We publish authors
who have found it difficult to get published. Poets, mostly. It is
important to protect living poetry, which is also why I participate as
often as I can in public readings."
13th September
The actor opens Myelo in Los Angeles, an exhibition of his latest images.
The photos, taken during the filming of Hidalgo in South Dakota, recreate
the dance the Sioux performed before they were massacred by the American
army at Wounded Knee.
"It's rather unusual for a Hollywood movie to address the Indian question,
and in particular the Sioux culture, with this much respect. That made me
realise this would be a rather unique film. And I have tried to 'capture'
this 'ghost dance' as a nebulous memory, an ephemeral dream. It came to me
like that, I took my camera and I only shot one roll of film."
7th October
Arnold Schwartzenegger is elected governor of California.
"It is not the fact that he is an actor or ex-bodybuilder that disturbs me.
Everyone has a right to speak. What is terrible is that he has been
installed in a presidential manner. He had the attitude of having won even
before running his campaign. He didn't need to say anything, nor to develop
even one political argument. Next to him, the other candidates seemed like
ghosts. What shocks me even more is that a small group of very rich people
has succeeded in reversing an election - exactly the way in which Bush
stole the presidency."
20th October
Viggo is 45 years old.
"I am not afraid of getting old. I have seen a lot of actors who started
out with lots of bottle and who gained either some success or some
disappointment, or a little of both, who became paralysed and decided to
stop trying. I can understand that. Me, I am always passionate about the
process of cinematic creation, about researching people. I like talking
about a film which works with the press, and try not to feel bitter about
the failures. I never really make plans in advance. The proof: I don't even
know what my next film will be!"
25th October
Thousands on people take part in the first great pacifist demonstration in
Washington since George Bush announced, on May 1st, the end of military
operations in Iraq. Viggo speaks, following veterans and activists. After
distributing his anti-war teeshirts and protesting against the occupation
of Iraq, he addresses Congress with a fierce: "God isn't angry, you are."
Then he reads one of his poems, written for publication on the
poetsagainstwar.org website, Return to Babylon, from which an extract follows:
"Accept and forget difference and desire that separates and leaves us
longing or repelled. Why briefly return to playin broken places, to mock
the ground, to collect infant shards, coins, fossils, or the familiar empty
cannisters and casings that glint from poisoned roots in the blackened dust?"
18th November
Release on DVD of the extended version of The Two Towers.
"Personally, I prefer the extended version of the films of Lord. I hope
that history will retain them."
19th November
Release of his new, fourth CD, Pandemoniuminamerica. Amongst the musicians
one notes the regulars like guitarist Buckethead, who has collaborated
amongst others with Guns N'Roses, and his son Henry, who plays bass, but
also guest stars amongst the chorus: Elijah Wood, Billy Boyd and Dominic
Monaghan!
"It is a tribute to the memory of the victims of the 11th September
tragedy. I wrote the words, but I also used texts that I love very much,
from Noam Chomsky, to whom the album is dedicated, and from Jonathan Swift.
It's totally experimental. The Hobbits agreed to join me and it was a lot
of fun, we improvised on the spot, we spent our time exchanging
instruments. Elijah played the battery and the piano."
End of the year
The end of the year is busy for Viggo. Following a tour of South America
(notably Brazil and Argentina, where he grew up) promoting Peter Jackson's
film, he returned to New Zealand in mid-November to organise two
photography exhibitions dedicated to him: one, very extensive one, at the
University of Wellington, the other, at a city gallery, of only images of
New Zealand. He meets up with his friends from Return of the King for the
world premiere, which will take place on 1st December at the Embassy
Theatre in Wellington.... On 8th December the team is in Berlin for the
European premiere of the film. The 13th they will call at Paris. And the
14th at Copenhagen, where Peter Jackson has especially asked Viggo to
introduce him to the queen of Denmark.
Features
West January 05, 2004
Good Fellow
By Jamie Painter Young
Photo By: Jamie Painter Young
Viggo Mortensen walks into the Grove movie theatres at Third and Fairfax in
Los Angeles, approaches the concession stand, and orders a Coke. He's about
to speak to a packed house of fans, many of them actors, who are being
treated to an advance screening of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the
King, the final installment in Peter Jackson's wildly successful gamble at
adapting J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved novels to the big screen. Amazingly not a
single patron in the lobby seems to recognize him. Maybe it's because his
hair is cropped short, his face is clean-shaven, there's not a sign of
Middle Earth grunge or weaponry to be found on him, and he's wearing a dark
gray suit instead of leather and metal. Or maybe it's because he doesn't
act like a movie star, even when he clearly is one.
The low-key but talented actor has mixed feelings about his sudden success
after 21 years of working mainly under the radar. He's grateful, of course,
for the opportunity to play the enigmatic warrior Aragorn in The Lord of
the Rings, and, as he'll tell you, the experience of shooting the epic
trilogy in New Zealand over four years was awesome and inspiring, even when
he and his fellow cast and crew were beyond the point of exhaustion. But
Mortensen finds it uncomfortable to have to safeguard his privacy now, and
he's ambivalent about his star status. As he explains, he never chased
fame. He chased doing good work.
Stick With It
"I don't know why [I became an actor]," says Mortensen, who began to pursue
his career in New York, where he was born and spent his early childhood. "I
went from watching plays and movies as just looking at them as
entertainment and something you could talk about afterwards to starting to
wonder how it was done. When I would see a really seamless, fully realized
performance or an ensemble performance, I would wonder, How did they do
that? How did they make it so effortless? In order to find out, I started
to study acting and, to be honest, I don't know why I stuck with it,
because it took me a long time before I made a living. I suppose if I had
known what it would be like and how much frustration would be involved,
maybe I wouldn't have, but it's like life: You can quit, or you can keep
going. You can become bitter, or you can stay open. It's kind of up to you.
I guess I stayed interested enough in the work, and I got some encouragement."
His initial encouragement came from an acting teacher in New York, Warren
Robertson, with whom Mortensen remains in touch. "Warren saw something in
what was probably rough work and saw enough to encourage me to keep trying
and to keep auditioning and so forth, and eventually somebody saw me do
something and started sending me out on auditions," tells the actor. "I had
initially very good luck. I immediately tested for several leads right
away, but I had no idea what I was doing."
As Mortensen advises young actors, you can't coast on your looks and some
raw instincts to truly sustain a career. You have to hone your craft. You
also have to stick around for the long haul and believe in yourself when
few others do. Mortensen, now 45 and all too familiar with the frustration
that actors go through, has spent two decades trying to solve the puzzle
that is acting. He's come to appreciate that it's a puzzle that can never
be completely solved. That is what he enjoys most about acting.
"If there's anything in my favor, it's the fact that I remain curious about
the craft of acting and I'm interested in improvement from job to job, from
day to day, from scene to scene," he says. "I mean, on every job I do, and
that I'm lucky to get, there's always some point, or many points, at which
I'm at a loss for how to get through a scene. What you learn to do after a
while is to relax and to just kind of let something happen."
Do It Justice
Perhaps he's not giving himself enough credit. Mortensen pours himself into
his work, researching his roles in detail when appropriate, and immersing
himself in as many facets of his character as he can discover. He prides
himself on being prepared when the cameras roll. Indeed he initially turned
down the offer to play Aragorn for that reason.
"I didn't think I would do justice to it. There was not enough time to
prepare, and I like to do all I can to prepare as much as possible.
Especially if you're in three movies in a row, you should know what you're
talking about. I didn't want to be the one guy that when you saw the movie
you'd say, 'Well, it was pretty well done, but that one guy didn't seem to
know the story he was in,'" explains the actor, who fortunately
reconsidered and accepted the offer. "In the end, I realized that it would
be too interesting a challenge to pass up. I would have regretted not
accepting this, not because I knew it was going to be done so well-because
nobody knew that it would work."
Mortensen was also coming into the production as the second actor to be
cast as Aragorn. Irish actor Stuart Townsend, then 26 years old, had
originally been cast to play the reluctant hero in the Tolkien series, but
was let go after four days of shooting because Jackson realized Townsend
was too youthful to convey the sense of wisdom and world-weariness needed
for Aragorn. As Jackson was quoted as saying in a recent Associated Press
story, "We had to make a very hard decision very quickly [about letting
Townsend go], without having anyone else cast."
Shares Mortensen, "I've never been in this position, and I hope that I'm
not in that position again where I'm replacing another actor... I did write
[Townsend] a letter when I got to New Zealand, expressing my belief--that I
still think is true--that maybe in about 10 years, or when he's as old as I
am now, or as old as I was when I started [the project], that he would be
perfect for the part. It was a mutual agreement between him and the
filmmakers that a mistake had been made, and it would have been unfair to
him to be an actor who was the same age as were the actors playing the
Hobbits and Legolas [Orlando Bloom]. Aragorn was a wizened 87-1/2-years
old. They needed to find some old guy, and so they did."
OK, so they found someone half that age. But ask Mortensen why he thinks he
got the part, and he's stumped--or maybe just too modest to say. "I don't
know why Peter Jackson called me," he said. "He probably ran out of
options. But then that's what you do with opportunity I suppose. You make
the most of it."
For two decades, Mortensen has been making the most of whatever part he's
been cast in, no matter the size or quality of the production. After
working in New York theatre for a few years, he made his film debut as an
Amish farmer in the 1985 Harrison Ford movie Witness. He eventually moved
to Los Angeles, married musician Exene Cervenka--the lead singer of the
rockabilly--punk band X, whom he divorced in 1997 and with whom has a
15-year-old son --and spent the next decade working in relative obscurity
as an actor, building a mixed resume of credits that include Leatherface:
Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, Young Guns II, Carlito's Way, American Yakuza,
The Passion of Darkly Noon, The Prophecy, Albino Alligator, and, most
notably, the little-seen, but well-regarded Sean Penn--directed The Indian
Runner. Then in the mid-to-late 1990s, casting directors and directors
began to tap him for bigger projects, including Crimson Tide, Jane
Campion's Portrait of a Lady, G.I. Jane, A Perfect Murder opposite Gwyneth
Paltrow, as Diane Lane's love interest in A Walk in the Clouds, and 28 Days
with Sandra Bullock.
Victoria Burrows, the casting director on The Lord of the Rings trilogy,
can be thanked for rescuing Mortensen from the limited category of "leading
lady's hunk." Burrows told BSW, "I've been involved with Viggo's career a
few times, but he was just special from Day One. We did [the 1997 Fox TV
movie] Vanishing Point together. I brought Viggo Mortensen [to Lord of the
Rings]. That was a story in itself, since he was a replacement and because
he and Peter couldn't meet the first time. When Peter realized that he
needed to make a change, I pushed forward on Viggo, and his manager, who's
a very dear friend, helped maneuver it into position because of the time."
With a $270 million production already underway, Jackson had little time to
stall. He took a chance with Mortensen and soon knew "fate had dealt us a
very good card." Jackson has said, "He's an actor with huge integrity and
professional responsibility, and, once he's committed to a movie, he's
there for you morning, noon, and night. It doesn't matter what time of the
day it is. It doesn't matter how long you've been working."
Mortensen adds that the battle scenes in The Lord of the Rings, of which
there were many, were by far the most demanding.
He colorfully explains, "Any battle scene involves being patient because it
takes longer than a dialogue, and you shoot in lots of pieces. It's just
time-consuming, and because my character was in so many battles, I
essentially had no days off to speak of. Neither did Legolas or Gimli, the
actors [Bloom and John Rhys-Davies, respectively] playing those parts. All
the actors and all the stunt people got hurt several times in one way or
another, luckily not too seriously for the most part-pulled muscles, broken
this and that, but nothing that put us completely out of commission. One
stunt man broke his leg really badly, but then being that the project
lasted so long, six months later he was back for more-lighting himself on
fire and skewering himself.
"One of the reasons that we did get injured was that we threw ourselves, in
the interest of telling the story as well as we could and keeping it
grounded in some kind of reality, into those scenes in the same way that we
threw ourselves into the more emotional, straight acting scenes. It was
just a part of what we were doing and once we got to those battle scenes,
we were already so involved that that there wasn't anything we hesitated to
do. There was virtually no distinction between stunt players and extras and
principal actors. We were all in that same soup, and we were all exhausted
and sick."
Open to Anything
There are many more stories of Mortensen's commitment to this project. The
film's costume designer, Ngila Dickson, has said that Mortensen lived in
his costume on and off the set, even mending it by himself as Aragorn would
have. Co-star Liv Tyler has said that he carried his sword with him
everywhere he went. Some people who worked on the production claim he lived
in the woods for part of the time during the making of the film. Ask
Mortensen about whether these stories are true, and he shrugs and explains
that he always tries to remain as open as possible during the portrayal of
any character.
He says, "I think acting, to quote a song by the band X, 'It's a game that
moves as you play.' You have to be flexible. It's not just that every story
is going to ask different things of you. The different performers that
you'll encounter, the different directors, the different writing ask you to
do or to try to accomplish different things. But even with the same
people--say with these people that I've been making The Lord of the Rings
with on and off for four years--from take to take things change. People's
level of energy changes, people's focus changes, people's interest in the
scene comes from a different place, and you have to be open to that. You
don't have to, but you have the choice to be open to it, and in little and
big ways how you approach any given moment can be quite different from take
to take, from moment to moment, from line to line."
His acting process was particularly beneficial to playing Aragorn.
"Aragorn is a character who speaks more between words or without words,"
says Mortensen, who found parallels between this character and those in
Nordic mythology, samurai stories, and old-fashioned Hollywood Westerns.
"So reacting and being open to what was going around me was essential to
getting across the internal journey that the character was on. And that
adage that if you are thinking something, if you are working in that way,
the audience will feel and see and know it--I think that's true. You just
have to have faith in doing things the right way. Some people don't trust
that and they overdo it, either physically or verbally. That is dangerous.
And sometimes people do it just to draw attention to themselves and away
from others.
He continues, "There are performers--and I run into them on almost every
movie--who deliberately sabotage the work of others. You can feel that they
are trying to diminish what you are doing or make you feel uncomfortable on
the set in sometimes very subtle ways, believing that the worse you look,
the better they'll look."
Fortunately, Mortensen encountered not a single scene-stealer on the set of
The Lord of the Rings. "It's reinforced my belief in the group ethic," he
says. "The greatest reward for me [on this film] was getting to know these
actors and going through this together--how we got through good times, and
especially bad times, together as a group. In that sense I think that Peter
cast the movie very well. He picked a group of people who worked well
together and didn't complain too much about the hardships, to the point
where the last six months was [a schedule of] six days a week, 16 hours a
day--just, 'Go, go, go,' no end in sight. And people really did pull
together and work as a group. It's the way that actors should always work,
whether it's in a play or in a movie, and I don't see that often. That
ideal was one that we adhered to. As a result of that effort, I have a
group of friends that I'm as close to as anyone I know and who will always
be my friends."
Indeed the morning we sat down for our interview, he apologized for being
so tired, saying he had stayed out too late the night before, "drinking
with the Hobbits," as he still affectionately refers to his co-stars Elijah
Wood, Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan, and Billy Boyd.
Mortensen has also come to believe that he, along with his co-stars in The
Lord of the Rings, share much in common with their characters' journeys in
the story. "I think that our experiences as actors reflected what the
characters have gone through," he says. "And in many ways I realized no
matter how much I researched and drew from that, in the end my best
resource and closest thing to what we were going through as characters was
what we were going through as people."
There's a quote from one of The Lord of the Rings films that particularly
resonates with Mortensen: "Do well by your kinsmen and take little revenge
for their wrongdoings. Endure with patience and you will win long-lasting
praise," as actor Bernard Hill's character, King Theoden, says. "I think
that's kind of Aragorn's point of view," Mortensen says. These are also
words that sum up the actor's approach to his work and his rise to success.
Not About Winning
The commendable humility in Mortensen, reflected also in his portrayal of
Aragorn, stems from the idea that no man succeeds alone. For Mortensen the
glory of battle--or of acting--is not in winning but in how well you fought
beside your fellow man, or woman.
Says the actor, "Anytime you're thinking of results--how you want to come
off in a scene or accepting a role or playing a scene in a way that you can
steal focus--you're taking a shortcut, which necessarily implies jumping
over, skipping the reacting part. You're already thinking of where you want
to be and what you want to get done. You can't both be open to whatever
might happen--preparing well, yes, but then being open and therefore
reacting. You can't be thinking about winning a scene, and I've
unfortunately heard actors--a lot of young actors who are too dumb to
realize that saying that doesn't sound good, but also a lot of older actors
do it in very subtle ways where it sometimes take you a long time to
realize that's what they're doing, and you just have to find a way to deal
with it.
"I've also seen advertised, teachers saying, 'I'll show you how to not only
win in auditions, I'll show you how to win every scene.' You can't win
every scene. That's not even a goal. The goal isn't to win anything. The
goal is to be there. That's how you tell a story. And so when you're
thinking in terms of results, then you're skipping the reaction part, the
foundation of good acting." BSW
© 2004 VNU eMedia, Inc.
West January 05, 2004
Good Fellow
By Jamie Painter Young
Photo By: Jamie Painter Young
Viggo Mortensen walks into the Grove movie theatres at Third and Fairfax in
Los Angeles, approaches the concession stand, and orders a Coke. He's about
to speak to a packed house of fans, many of them actors, who are being
treated to an advance screening of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the
King, the final installment in Peter Jackson's wildly successful gamble at
adapting J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved novels to the big screen. Amazingly not a
single patron in the lobby seems to recognize him. Maybe it's because his
hair is cropped short, his face is clean-shaven, there's not a sign of
Middle Earth grunge or weaponry to be found on him, and he's wearing a dark
gray suit instead of leather and metal. Or maybe it's because he doesn't
act like a movie star, even when he clearly is one.
The low-key but talented actor has mixed feelings about his sudden success
after 21 years of working mainly under the radar. He's grateful, of course,
for the opportunity to play the enigmatic warrior Aragorn in The Lord of
the Rings, and, as he'll tell you, the experience of shooting the epic
trilogy in New Zealand over four years was awesome and inspiring, even when
he and his fellow cast and crew were beyond the point of exhaustion. But
Mortensen finds it uncomfortable to have to safeguard his privacy now, and
he's ambivalent about his star status. As he explains, he never chased
fame. He chased doing good work.
Stick With It
"I don't know why [I became an actor]," says Mortensen, who began to pursue
his career in New York, where he was born and spent his early childhood. "I
went from watching plays and movies as just looking at them as
entertainment and something you could talk about afterwards to starting to
wonder how it was done. When I would see a really seamless, fully realized
performance or an ensemble performance, I would wonder, How did they do
that? How did they make it so effortless? In order to find out, I started
to study acting and, to be honest, I don't know why I stuck with it,
because it took me a long time before I made a living. I suppose if I had
known what it would be like and how much frustration would be involved,
maybe I wouldn't have, but it's like life: You can quit, or you can keep
going. You can become bitter, or you can stay open. It's kind of up to you.
I guess I stayed interested enough in the work, and I got some encouragement."
His initial encouragement came from an acting teacher in New York, Warren
Robertson, with whom Mortensen remains in touch. "Warren saw something in
what was probably rough work and saw enough to encourage me to keep trying
and to keep auditioning and so forth, and eventually somebody saw me do
something and started sending me out on auditions," tells the actor. "I had
initially very good luck. I immediately tested for several leads right
away, but I had no idea what I was doing."
As Mortensen advises young actors, you can't coast on your looks and some
raw instincts to truly sustain a career. You have to hone your craft. You
also have to stick around for the long haul and believe in yourself when
few others do. Mortensen, now 45 and all too familiar with the frustration
that actors go through, has spent two decades trying to solve the puzzle
that is acting. He's come to appreciate that it's a puzzle that can never
be completely solved. That is what he enjoys most about acting.
"If there's anything in my favor, it's the fact that I remain curious about
the craft of acting and I'm interested in improvement from job to job, from
day to day, from scene to scene," he says. "I mean, on every job I do, and
that I'm lucky to get, there's always some point, or many points, at which
I'm at a loss for how to get through a scene. What you learn to do after a
while is to relax and to just kind of let something happen."
Do It Justice
Perhaps he's not giving himself enough credit. Mortensen pours himself into
his work, researching his roles in detail when appropriate, and immersing
himself in as many facets of his character as he can discover. He prides
himself on being prepared when the cameras roll. Indeed he initially turned
down the offer to play Aragorn for that reason.
"I didn't think I would do justice to it. There was not enough time to
prepare, and I like to do all I can to prepare as much as possible.
Especially if you're in three movies in a row, you should know what you're
talking about. I didn't want to be the one guy that when you saw the movie
you'd say, 'Well, it was pretty well done, but that one guy didn't seem to
know the story he was in,'" explains the actor, who fortunately
reconsidered and accepted the offer. "In the end, I realized that it would
be too interesting a challenge to pass up. I would have regretted not
accepting this, not because I knew it was going to be done so well-because
nobody knew that it would work."
Mortensen was also coming into the production as the second actor to be
cast as Aragorn. Irish actor Stuart Townsend, then 26 years old, had
originally been cast to play the reluctant hero in the Tolkien series, but
was let go after four days of shooting because Jackson realized Townsend
was too youthful to convey the sense of wisdom and world-weariness needed
for Aragorn. As Jackson was quoted as saying in a recent Associated Press
story, "We had to make a very hard decision very quickly [about letting
Townsend go], without having anyone else cast."
Shares Mortensen, "I've never been in this position, and I hope that I'm
not in that position again where I'm replacing another actor... I did write
[Townsend] a letter when I got to New Zealand, expressing my belief--that I
still think is true--that maybe in about 10 years, or when he's as old as I
am now, or as old as I was when I started [the project], that he would be
perfect for the part. It was a mutual agreement between him and the
filmmakers that a mistake had been made, and it would have been unfair to
him to be an actor who was the same age as were the actors playing the
Hobbits and Legolas [Orlando Bloom]. Aragorn was a wizened 87-1/2-years
old. They needed to find some old guy, and so they did."
OK, so they found someone half that age. But ask Mortensen why he thinks he
got the part, and he's stumped--or maybe just too modest to say. "I don't
know why Peter Jackson called me," he said. "He probably ran out of
options. But then that's what you do with opportunity I suppose. You make
the most of it."
For two decades, Mortensen has been making the most of whatever part he's
been cast in, no matter the size or quality of the production. After
working in New York theatre for a few years, he made his film debut as an
Amish farmer in the 1985 Harrison Ford movie Witness. He eventually moved
to Los Angeles, married musician Exene Cervenka--the lead singer of the
rockabilly--punk band X, whom he divorced in 1997 and with whom has a
15-year-old son --and spent the next decade working in relative obscurity
as an actor, building a mixed resume of credits that include Leatherface:
Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, Young Guns II, Carlito's Way, American Yakuza,
The Passion of Darkly Noon, The Prophecy, Albino Alligator, and, most
notably, the little-seen, but well-regarded Sean Penn--directed The Indian
Runner. Then in the mid-to-late 1990s, casting directors and directors
began to tap him for bigger projects, including Crimson Tide, Jane
Campion's Portrait of a Lady, G.I. Jane, A Perfect Murder opposite Gwyneth
Paltrow, as Diane Lane's love interest in A Walk in the Clouds, and 28 Days
with Sandra Bullock.
Victoria Burrows, the casting director on The Lord of the Rings trilogy,
can be thanked for rescuing Mortensen from the limited category of "leading
lady's hunk." Burrows told BSW, "I've been involved with Viggo's career a
few times, but he was just special from Day One. We did [the 1997 Fox TV
movie] Vanishing Point together. I brought Viggo Mortensen [to Lord of the
Rings]. That was a story in itself, since he was a replacement and because
he and Peter couldn't meet the first time. When Peter realized that he
needed to make a change, I pushed forward on Viggo, and his manager, who's
a very dear friend, helped maneuver it into position because of the time."
With a $270 million production already underway, Jackson had little time to
stall. He took a chance with Mortensen and soon knew "fate had dealt us a
very good card." Jackson has said, "He's an actor with huge integrity and
professional responsibility, and, once he's committed to a movie, he's
there for you morning, noon, and night. It doesn't matter what time of the
day it is. It doesn't matter how long you've been working."
Mortensen adds that the battle scenes in The Lord of the Rings, of which
there were many, were by far the most demanding.
He colorfully explains, "Any battle scene involves being patient because it
takes longer than a dialogue, and you shoot in lots of pieces. It's just
time-consuming, and because my character was in so many battles, I
essentially had no days off to speak of. Neither did Legolas or Gimli, the
actors [Bloom and John Rhys-Davies, respectively] playing those parts. All
the actors and all the stunt people got hurt several times in one way or
another, luckily not too seriously for the most part-pulled muscles, broken
this and that, but nothing that put us completely out of commission. One
stunt man broke his leg really badly, but then being that the project
lasted so long, six months later he was back for more-lighting himself on
fire and skewering himself.
"One of the reasons that we did get injured was that we threw ourselves, in
the interest of telling the story as well as we could and keeping it
grounded in some kind of reality, into those scenes in the same way that we
threw ourselves into the more emotional, straight acting scenes. It was
just a part of what we were doing and once we got to those battle scenes,
we were already so involved that that there wasn't anything we hesitated to
do. There was virtually no distinction between stunt players and extras and
principal actors. We were all in that same soup, and we were all exhausted
and sick."
Open to Anything
There are many more stories of Mortensen's commitment to this project. The
film's costume designer, Ngila Dickson, has said that Mortensen lived in
his costume on and off the set, even mending it by himself as Aragorn would
have. Co-star Liv Tyler has said that he carried his sword with him
everywhere he went. Some people who worked on the production claim he lived
in the woods for part of the time during the making of the film. Ask
Mortensen about whether these stories are true, and he shrugs and explains
that he always tries to remain as open as possible during the portrayal of
any character.
He says, "I think acting, to quote a song by the band X, 'It's a game that
moves as you play.' You have to be flexible. It's not just that every story
is going to ask different things of you. The different performers that
you'll encounter, the different directors, the different writing ask you to
do or to try to accomplish different things. But even with the same
people--say with these people that I've been making The Lord of the Rings
with on and off for four years--from take to take things change. People's
level of energy changes, people's focus changes, people's interest in the
scene comes from a different place, and you have to be open to that. You
don't have to, but you have the choice to be open to it, and in little and
big ways how you approach any given moment can be quite different from take
to take, from moment to moment, from line to line."
His acting process was particularly beneficial to playing Aragorn.
"Aragorn is a character who speaks more between words or without words,"
says Mortensen, who found parallels between this character and those in
Nordic mythology, samurai stories, and old-fashioned Hollywood Westerns.
"So reacting and being open to what was going around me was essential to
getting across the internal journey that the character was on. And that
adage that if you are thinking something, if you are working in that way,
the audience will feel and see and know it--I think that's true. You just
have to have faith in doing things the right way. Some people don't trust
that and they overdo it, either physically or verbally. That is dangerous.
And sometimes people do it just to draw attention to themselves and away
from others.
He continues, "There are performers--and I run into them on almost every
movie--who deliberately sabotage the work of others. You can feel that they
are trying to diminish what you are doing or make you feel uncomfortable on
the set in sometimes very subtle ways, believing that the worse you look,
the better they'll look."
Fortunately, Mortensen encountered not a single scene-stealer on the set of
The Lord of the Rings. "It's reinforced my belief in the group ethic," he
says. "The greatest reward for me [on this film] was getting to know these
actors and going through this together--how we got through good times, and
especially bad times, together as a group. In that sense I think that Peter
cast the movie very well. He picked a group of people who worked well
together and didn't complain too much about the hardships, to the point
where the last six months was [a schedule of] six days a week, 16 hours a
day--just, 'Go, go, go,' no end in sight. And people really did pull
together and work as a group. It's the way that actors should always work,
whether it's in a play or in a movie, and I don't see that often. That
ideal was one that we adhered to. As a result of that effort, I have a
group of friends that I'm as close to as anyone I know and who will always
be my friends."
Indeed the morning we sat down for our interview, he apologized for being
so tired, saying he had stayed out too late the night before, "drinking
with the Hobbits," as he still affectionately refers to his co-stars Elijah
Wood, Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan, and Billy Boyd.
Mortensen has also come to believe that he, along with his co-stars in The
Lord of the Rings, share much in common with their characters' journeys in
the story. "I think that our experiences as actors reflected what the
characters have gone through," he says. "And in many ways I realized no
matter how much I researched and drew from that, in the end my best
resource and closest thing to what we were going through as characters was
what we were going through as people."
There's a quote from one of The Lord of the Rings films that particularly
resonates with Mortensen: "Do well by your kinsmen and take little revenge
for their wrongdoings. Endure with patience and you will win long-lasting
praise," as actor Bernard Hill's character, King Theoden, says. "I think
that's kind of Aragorn's point of view," Mortensen says. These are also
words that sum up the actor's approach to his work and his rise to success.
Not About Winning
The commendable humility in Mortensen, reflected also in his portrayal of
Aragorn, stems from the idea that no man succeeds alone. For Mortensen the
glory of battle--or of acting--is not in winning but in how well you fought
beside your fellow man, or woman.
Says the actor, "Anytime you're thinking of results--how you want to come
off in a scene or accepting a role or playing a scene in a way that you can
steal focus--you're taking a shortcut, which necessarily implies jumping
over, skipping the reacting part. You're already thinking of where you want
to be and what you want to get done. You can't both be open to whatever
might happen--preparing well, yes, but then being open and therefore
reacting. You can't be thinking about winning a scene, and I've
unfortunately heard actors--a lot of young actors who are too dumb to
realize that saying that doesn't sound good, but also a lot of older actors
do it in very subtle ways where it sometimes take you a long time to
realize that's what they're doing, and you just have to find a way to deal
with it.
"I've also seen advertised, teachers saying, 'I'll show you how to not only
win in auditions, I'll show you how to win every scene.' You can't win
every scene. That's not even a goal. The goal isn't to win anything. The
goal is to be there. That's how you tell a story. And so when you're
thinking in terms of results, then you're skipping the reaction part, the
foundation of good acting." BSW
© 2004 VNU eMedia, Inc.
Various Orlando Bloom interviews and clips are available for download from elflady's site.
ANOTHER movie for Orlando!!!
Pirates of the Caribbean" star Orlando Bloom is close to
landing the lead role opposite Kirsten Dunst in Cameron Crowe's much
buzzed-about drama "Elizabethtown," playing a suicidal man who
returns to his hometown after his father dies, say the trades. The
eye candy actor would replace Ashton Kutcher, who officially bailed
over scheduling conflicts though rumors persist that writer-director
Crowe had doubts about his acting chops.
(info provided by MSN Entertainment)
ANOTHER movie for Orlando!!!
Pirates of the Caribbean" star Orlando Bloom is close to
landing the lead role opposite Kirsten Dunst in Cameron Crowe's much
buzzed-about drama "Elizabethtown," playing a suicidal man who
returns to his hometown after his father dies, say the trades. The
eye candy actor would replace Ashton Kutcher, who officially bailed
over scheduling conflicts though rumors persist that writer-director
Crowe had doubts about his acting chops.
(info provided by MSN Entertainment)
More POTC trivia
Hilda reports: Another interesting trivia bit from the writers on the audio
commentary of POTC. They are commenting at the entrance of Will's character
when he is presenting the sword to the governor. This is a quote from the
writers: "I want to just say one thing. Orlando Bloom signed to the movie
the day before he showed up to shoot the scene and came right in and just
got the character. He just...he just was there, and I think he had
about...what...10 minutes to work on the stuff with the sword, the flip and
everything like that. So there are a couple of outtakes of that sword kind
of becoming dangerously unguided, but just how well he plays this scene is
just amazing."
Just goes to show his talent, don't you think?
Hilda reports: Another interesting trivia bit from the writers on the audio
commentary of POTC. They are commenting at the entrance of Will's character
when he is presenting the sword to the governor. This is a quote from the
writers: "I want to just say one thing. Orlando Bloom signed to the movie
the day before he showed up to shoot the scene and came right in and just
got the character. He just...he just was there, and I think he had
about...what...10 minutes to work on the stuff with the sword, the flip and
everything like that. So there are a couple of outtakes of that sword kind
of becoming dangerously unguided, but just how well he plays this scene is
just amazing."
Just goes to show his talent, don't you think?
Ridley Scott film row talks start
Talks are under way to try to resolve a row over filming in a historic
Spanish cathedral for UK director Sir Ridley Scott's new movie about the
Crusades.
Spain's Catholic Church has refused to allow Sir Ridley and his crew to
film inside the Mezquita in Cordoba, saying it would be too disruptive.
The Gladiator director had wanted to shoot scenes for his £54m epic Kingdom
of Heaven at the former Grand Mosque.
A spokesman for the producers said they were hopeful of negotiating a solution.
"It's hopefully being rectified and we hope to get permission tomorrow
(Thursday)," said Quinn Donoghue, the film's publicist.
Speaking to BBC News Online from Huesca, northern Spain, Mr Donoghue
confirmed that the Spanish Church had blocked filming inside the Mezquita.
"The archbishop refused because we would close the cathedral down for
preparations - we would have to do some 'dressing', and tourism would be
stopped."
He said the Church was also unhappy that the Mezquita - for centuries a
site of sensitivity among Muslims and Christians - would become a
"fictional" place of worship in the movie, rather than "playing itself".
"All of that's being negotiated," said Mr Donoghue.
The film, due for release in 2005, will star Orlando Bloom and Liam Neeson
in the tale of a young blacksmith leading the people of Jerusalem in
defence against the 12th Century Crusaders.
Filming is taking place in France, Spain and Morocco.
Shooting inside the Mezquita would require up to 200 crew and involve the
use of false doors, walls and furniture. "There's not a lot that we can do
(to compromise)," said Mr Donoghue.
He added: "A huge company like ours brings so much to any place in terms of
hotels, restaurants and hiring people. It's a major financial benefit to
the community."
He said Sir Ridley was a "realistic and pragmatic" director who would allow
his team to negotiate possible use of the cathedral. If agreement could not
be reached, "there's always a second choice".
Talks are under way to try to resolve a row over filming in a historic
Spanish cathedral for UK director Sir Ridley Scott's new movie about the
Crusades.
Spain's Catholic Church has refused to allow Sir Ridley and his crew to
film inside the Mezquita in Cordoba, saying it would be too disruptive.
The Gladiator director had wanted to shoot scenes for his £54m epic Kingdom
of Heaven at the former Grand Mosque.
A spokesman for the producers said they were hopeful of negotiating a solution.
"It's hopefully being rectified and we hope to get permission tomorrow
(Thursday)," said Quinn Donoghue, the film's publicist.
Speaking to BBC News Online from Huesca, northern Spain, Mr Donoghue
confirmed that the Spanish Church had blocked filming inside the Mezquita.
"The archbishop refused because we would close the cathedral down for
preparations - we would have to do some 'dressing', and tourism would be
stopped."
He said the Church was also unhappy that the Mezquita - for centuries a
site of sensitivity among Muslims and Christians - would become a
"fictional" place of worship in the movie, rather than "playing itself".
"All of that's being negotiated," said Mr Donoghue.
The film, due for release in 2005, will star Orlando Bloom and Liam Neeson
in the tale of a young blacksmith leading the people of Jerusalem in
defence against the 12th Century Crusaders.
Filming is taking place in France, Spain and Morocco.
Shooting inside the Mezquita would require up to 200 crew and involve the
use of false doors, walls and furniture. "There's not a lot that we can do
(to compromise)," said Mr Donoghue.
He added: "A huge company like ours brings so much to any place in terms of
hotels, restaurants and hiring people. It's a major financial benefit to
the community."
He said Sir Ridley was a "realistic and pragmatic" director who would allow
his team to negotiate possible use of the cathedral. If agreement could not
be reached, "there's always a second choice".
Thursday January 15, 02:52 PM
"Rings" and "Seabiscuit" among SAG nominees
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The actors and actresses of epic movie "The Lord of
the Rings: The Return of the King" and horse racing tale "Seabiscuit" were
among the nominees named today for best ensemble cast in a film at the 10th
Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Joining them on the nominee list on Thursday for ensemble acting, which is
the guild's top film honour given out each year, were the casts of crime
thriller "Mystic River," and two independent films, "In America" and "The
Station Agent." Winners of the Screen Actors Guild Awards will be announced
at a ceremony in Los Angeles on February 22.
"Rings" and "Seabiscuit" among SAG nominees
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The actors and actresses of epic movie "The Lord of
the Rings: The Return of the King" and horse racing tale "Seabiscuit" were
among the nominees named today for best ensemble cast in a film at the 10th
Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Joining them on the nominee list on Thursday for ensemble acting, which is
the guild's top film honour given out each year, were the casts of crime
thriller "Mystic River," and two independent films, "In America" and "The
Station Agent." Winners of the Screen Actors Guild Awards will be announced
at a ceremony in Los Angeles on February 22.
FIGHTING EVIL NEVER LOOKED SO GOODViggo Mortensen, Elijah Wood and other cast members discuss the attraction
of the Lord of the Rings trilogy
MOVIE HYPE IS A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD. IT CAN RAISE EXPECTATIONS FOR AN
upcoming film to a fever pitch, or it can tear an offending franchise to
shreds if moviegoers are dis-appointed. For all those fans of J.R.R
Tolkien's fantasy-thriller Lord of the Rings, director Peter Jackson's epic
cinematic trilogy of Tolkien's creation delivered. Not only has the movie
defied expectations; it has been widely embraced by legions of dedicated
fans. Jackson's final installment, Return of the King, also did not
disappoint.
What makes Rings the ideal fan film is the dedication to detail, explains
Gregg Schwenk, the executive director of the Newport Beach Film Festival
and fan.
"Obviously they took this material very seriously," Schwenk says. "Whether
or not the cast and crew were fans to begin with, they probably became fans
during the process of making the film." Like Tolkien's heroes, Jackson
shouldered a huge responsibility.The movie took seven years to complete.
The unprecedented simultaneous production of three feature films not only
cost New Line Cinema more than $300 million but also placed the careers of
cast and crew in the hands of a somewhat unknown directorial talent.
But actor Viggo Mortensen, who plays leading man Aragorn, was up for the
challenge. After getting his feet wet in movies such as G.I. Jane (the
misogynistic drill sergeant) and in a Perfect Murder (alongside Michael
Douglas), Mortensen threw on the body armor, moved to "Middle Earth" and
became Aragorn. As the sword wielding defender of hobbits everywhere, he
appeals to everyman's desire to uphold honor, as well as every woman's
fantasy to hold him.
Although often described as reserved and shy by other reporters; he is
quite sincere and obviously not predisposed to international adoration. For
Mortensen, the story was a modern morality play, teaching humans love can
conquer evil.
"Tolkien's story starts with struggle," Mortensen says."There are layers of
it to peel off; many secrets, magic, deceptions. But I think that the most
important aspect is how it shows that even smallest and most powerless
person can make a difference. There is a heroic element, but love plays an
even greater part. I think that fans of both the book and the film get that
from this story."
It's the characters that touch the audience as they meet their struggles
head-on, and why the book and the movie have sustained popularity,
Mortensen maintains.
"[Jackson's] version focuses our attention on the personalities that make
up the fellowship while they are on this incredibly difficult journey. In
the end, the fellowship is what gets the characters through the
difficulties," Mortensen says. "In the end, the friendships endure and the
peace grows. This is a story about that kind of love."
Elijah Wood, who plays the indefatigable hobbit Frodo, agrees. "It's a
wonderful story about fellowship and meeting hardship,"Wood says."I mean,
who can't help but love a story like that. We just had to do a good job of
letting our emotions run, let them flow into our characters and show a
little soul."
Yet, while fans (and cast and crew) may be unanimous in their love for the
films, the literary debates surrounding the novels have not been undivided.
Ever since the first printing of the novels, literary critics have either
demonstrated love or loathing. For "Middle Earth," it seems, there is no
middle ground.
In 1956, the American poet and literary critic W.H. Auden congratulated
Tolkien for "elevating modern literature" and suggested that, in some
respects, the story surpassed even Milton's Paradise Lost. But later that
same year, critic and social commentator Edmund Wilson shot back that
Tolkien had "indulged himself in developing fantasy for its own sake" and
of creating "essentially a children's book which has somehow gotten out of
hand… dull, ill-written and whimsical."
More than 100 million copies of Tolkein's Lord of the Rings have been sold,
proving it has become the ultimate expression of the heroic journey. The
story is about justice, a quest for humanity and love. The work has
influenced a wide swath of American and European cultures and spawned the
fantasy fiction genre. Despite the work's immense popularity, for many of
the literary elite it's a black mark on modern literature – a bad dream.
A 1996 poll of readers conducted by a major London bookseller ranked Rings
as "the book of the century."The masses have embraced Rings even though it
demands the full attention of readers.
"The fan base for this film, and of course the books, is very smart,"
claims John Rhys-Davies (Gimli)."These are people who have at least got the
IQ that enables them to read the book and comprehend its monstrously
complex story. That's a pretty remarkable test; it's a bloody big book.The
demand on the fan is considerable and the fact that they keep coming back
and that they love this story so deeply counts for something."
Maybe some academics don't think so, but Rings does appear to fulfill the
emotional qualities of what qualifies as good literary art. The story
opens, in the first installment, in the pastoral environs of 'the Shire'
where Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm) is celebrating his 111th birthday. After the
party, Bilbo bequeaths what appears to be a simple gold band to his young
cousin Frodo (Wood). But their wizard friend, Gandalf the Grey (Ian
McKellen), is alarmed by spiritual currents conjured by the seemingly
simple ring. He quickly realizes that it is the legendary "One Ring"
created to enslave all of Middle Earth.
To ensure enduring peace, the Ring must be destroyed and this can only be
accomplished by taking it deep into the evil land of Mordor where it can be
pitched into the bubbling lava pits of Mount Doom whence it came.
Symbolizing the ordinary man caught up in extraordinary times, Frodo
volunteers to undertake the awesome task and is accompanied by some friends
– the fellowship of the ring.Together they take on a perilous journey beset
by a myriad of tribulations, least of which is that the Ring itself is very
much alive with evil.
Jackson gives us several epic battles that are greater in intensity than
the movie Braveheart and almost as gruesome as the film Saving Private
Ryan. Aside from an exquisite display of costuming, sets, and props, the
story (as is the book) is full of details. For instance, you may notice the
use of Tolkienesque terms like 'elven' and 'dwarve' – which is of vital
importance (so say fans). There's the whole language of 'Elven' and the
veritable gazetteer of locations that dot the realm of Middle Earth: the
Shire, Rivendell,Tirith Mordor, Isengard, Fangorn forest, Emyn Muil,
Gondor, Mordor, and the Misty Mountains.
The book's nuances are clearly the stuff of fan-magazine forensics, but
Jackson knew if he was to succeed in the minds of fans he had to accurately
portray Tolkien's fantasy world.
Orlando Bloom, who portrays the sharp-shooting elven archer Legolas,
marveled at the film's looking glass quality.
"Everything that is in that movie is real; as genuine to the books as it
could be. Tolkien created a world that you can really believe in. It's so
detailed, it's layered with so much history, and Pete wanted the fans to
imagine that they are buying a first-class ticket to Middle Earth," Bloom says.
Ray Wyman, Jr
© Copyright 2003 Brentwood Magazine
of the Lord of the Rings trilogy
MOVIE HYPE IS A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD. IT CAN RAISE EXPECTATIONS FOR AN
upcoming film to a fever pitch, or it can tear an offending franchise to
shreds if moviegoers are dis-appointed. For all those fans of J.R.R
Tolkien's fantasy-thriller Lord of the Rings, director Peter Jackson's epic
cinematic trilogy of Tolkien's creation delivered. Not only has the movie
defied expectations; it has been widely embraced by legions of dedicated
fans. Jackson's final installment, Return of the King, also did not
disappoint.
What makes Rings the ideal fan film is the dedication to detail, explains
Gregg Schwenk, the executive director of the Newport Beach Film Festival
and fan.
"Obviously they took this material very seriously," Schwenk says. "Whether
or not the cast and crew were fans to begin with, they probably became fans
during the process of making the film." Like Tolkien's heroes, Jackson
shouldered a huge responsibility.The movie took seven years to complete.
The unprecedented simultaneous production of three feature films not only
cost New Line Cinema more than $300 million but also placed the careers of
cast and crew in the hands of a somewhat unknown directorial talent.
But actor Viggo Mortensen, who plays leading man Aragorn, was up for the
challenge. After getting his feet wet in movies such as G.I. Jane (the
misogynistic drill sergeant) and in a Perfect Murder (alongside Michael
Douglas), Mortensen threw on the body armor, moved to "Middle Earth" and
became Aragorn. As the sword wielding defender of hobbits everywhere, he
appeals to everyman's desire to uphold honor, as well as every woman's
fantasy to hold him.
Although often described as reserved and shy by other reporters; he is
quite sincere and obviously not predisposed to international adoration. For
Mortensen, the story was a modern morality play, teaching humans love can
conquer evil.
"Tolkien's story starts with struggle," Mortensen says."There are layers of
it to peel off; many secrets, magic, deceptions. But I think that the most
important aspect is how it shows that even smallest and most powerless
person can make a difference. There is a heroic element, but love plays an
even greater part. I think that fans of both the book and the film get that
from this story."
It's the characters that touch the audience as they meet their struggles
head-on, and why the book and the movie have sustained popularity,
Mortensen maintains.
"[Jackson's] version focuses our attention on the personalities that make
up the fellowship while they are on this incredibly difficult journey. In
the end, the fellowship is what gets the characters through the
difficulties," Mortensen says. "In the end, the friendships endure and the
peace grows. This is a story about that kind of love."
Elijah Wood, who plays the indefatigable hobbit Frodo, agrees. "It's a
wonderful story about fellowship and meeting hardship,"Wood says."I mean,
who can't help but love a story like that. We just had to do a good job of
letting our emotions run, let them flow into our characters and show a
little soul."
Yet, while fans (and cast and crew) may be unanimous in their love for the
films, the literary debates surrounding the novels have not been undivided.
Ever since the first printing of the novels, literary critics have either
demonstrated love or loathing. For "Middle Earth," it seems, there is no
middle ground.
In 1956, the American poet and literary critic W.H. Auden congratulated
Tolkien for "elevating modern literature" and suggested that, in some
respects, the story surpassed even Milton's Paradise Lost. But later that
same year, critic and social commentator Edmund Wilson shot back that
Tolkien had "indulged himself in developing fantasy for its own sake" and
of creating "essentially a children's book which has somehow gotten out of
hand… dull, ill-written and whimsical."
More than 100 million copies of Tolkein's Lord of the Rings have been sold,
proving it has become the ultimate expression of the heroic journey. The
story is about justice, a quest for humanity and love. The work has
influenced a wide swath of American and European cultures and spawned the
fantasy fiction genre. Despite the work's immense popularity, for many of
the literary elite it's a black mark on modern literature – a bad dream.
A 1996 poll of readers conducted by a major London bookseller ranked Rings
as "the book of the century."The masses have embraced Rings even though it
demands the full attention of readers.
"The fan base for this film, and of course the books, is very smart,"
claims John Rhys-Davies (Gimli)."These are people who have at least got the
IQ that enables them to read the book and comprehend its monstrously
complex story. That's a pretty remarkable test; it's a bloody big book.The
demand on the fan is considerable and the fact that they keep coming back
and that they love this story so deeply counts for something."
Maybe some academics don't think so, but Rings does appear to fulfill the
emotional qualities of what qualifies as good literary art. The story
opens, in the first installment, in the pastoral environs of 'the Shire'
where Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm) is celebrating his 111th birthday. After the
party, Bilbo bequeaths what appears to be a simple gold band to his young
cousin Frodo (Wood). But their wizard friend, Gandalf the Grey (Ian
McKellen), is alarmed by spiritual currents conjured by the seemingly
simple ring. He quickly realizes that it is the legendary "One Ring"
created to enslave all of Middle Earth.
To ensure enduring peace, the Ring must be destroyed and this can only be
accomplished by taking it deep into the evil land of Mordor where it can be
pitched into the bubbling lava pits of Mount Doom whence it came.
Symbolizing the ordinary man caught up in extraordinary times, Frodo
volunteers to undertake the awesome task and is accompanied by some friends
– the fellowship of the ring.Together they take on a perilous journey beset
by a myriad of tribulations, least of which is that the Ring itself is very
much alive with evil.
Jackson gives us several epic battles that are greater in intensity than
the movie Braveheart and almost as gruesome as the film Saving Private
Ryan. Aside from an exquisite display of costuming, sets, and props, the
story (as is the book) is full of details. For instance, you may notice the
use of Tolkienesque terms like 'elven' and 'dwarve' – which is of vital
importance (so say fans). There's the whole language of 'Elven' and the
veritable gazetteer of locations that dot the realm of Middle Earth: the
Shire, Rivendell,Tirith Mordor, Isengard, Fangorn forest, Emyn Muil,
Gondor, Mordor, and the Misty Mountains.
The book's nuances are clearly the stuff of fan-magazine forensics, but
Jackson knew if he was to succeed in the minds of fans he had to accurately
portray Tolkien's fantasy world.
Orlando Bloom, who portrays the sharp-shooting elven archer Legolas,
marveled at the film's looking glass quality.
"Everything that is in that movie is real; as genuine to the books as it
could be. Tolkien created a world that you can really believe in. It's so
detailed, it's layered with so much history, and Pete wanted the fans to
imagine that they are buying a first-class ticket to Middle Earth," Bloom says.
Ray Wyman, Jr
© Copyright 2003 Brentwood Magazine
'The goal that I have is to be happy'
By Didi Penn
As the fearless warrior Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Viggo
Mortensen has emerged as a fully-fledged star although he has been on the
cusp of success for a long time. Respected for his personal integrity, he's
an intelligent actor/poet/photographer with chiselled matinee-idol looks.
Born October 20, 1958, in Manhattan to a Danish businessman, Viggo Sr. and
his American wife, Viggo lived in Argentina, Venezuela and Denmark before
his parents divorced when he was 11. He then moved with his mother and two
younger brothers to upstate New York. After completing high school, he
studied at St. Lawrence University, graduating with a degree in Government
and Spanish.
He made his TV debut as the Lieutenant at LeBoeuf in the George Washington
mini-series (1984). His first big-screen part was in Swing Shift (1984) but
his scenes were deleted, so he actually made his debut as Moses
Hoechleitner, a young Amish farmer, in Witness (1985).
His varied filmography includes parts as varied as Demi Moore's sadistic
drill sergeant in G.I. Jane (1997) and Diane Lane's lover in A Walk on the
Moon (1999), in addition to the re-make of Psycho (1998) with Anne Heche
and A Perfect Murder (1998) opposite Gwyneth Paltrow. He was in Salvation!,
Witness, The Crimson Tide, The Reflecting Skin, The Indian Runner,
Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, Portrait of a Lady, Carlito's
Way, Daylight, 28 Days, and The Prophecy, among others. He did the voice of
Hoyteck in Live Freaky Die Freaky (2003) and will be seen next as Frank T
Hopkins in the epic Western, Hidalgo (2004), playing a US Cavalry rider
who, in 1890, takes his American mustang horse to compete in a 3,000-mile
race across the Arabian Desert.
LOVES:
1) Exene Cervenka (singer for the legendary L.A. punk band X): "We were
married. We're divorced now but we have a great relationship. We met while
shooting Salvation! in 1987. She's an amazing singer. If she was 22 and
looked like Britney Spears, she'd be on the cover of every magazine. She
writes the most beautiful lyrics and has the best voice."
2) Henry Mortensen: "He's my teenage son. He's really curious and smart a
great person my closest friend. When Peter (Jackson) asked me to play
Aragorn, the question was: 'Do you want to leave for New Zealand tomorrow?'
There were plenty of reasons not to go, but my son was familiar with the
books and he talked about them with his school friends. He knew about
Aragorn and said, 'Oh, that's pretty cool. You should do that.' Then he
joined me on the set for awhile. He's been in some other films with me. And
they outfitted him with a full set of armour so he could be an Orc in a
battle scene. I evaded him and Gimli killed him."
3) Home: "It's in Southern California in Topanga Canyon. I live there with
my son. I'm pretty much of a loner except for the time I spend with Henry.
I stay home, clean up a lot and write."
4) Being happy: "You can't achieve perfection, obviously, but the goal that
I have in work and in life is to be happy."
5) Painting/Photography: "Painting is something where I can look at the end
product and whether I like it or you like it I can say that's something
I did. I learned by watching other people do it, and by trial and error,
just like acting. I've written four books of painting, photographs and
poems, including Coincidence of Memory and Signlanguage. For A Perfect
Murder, I painted the large murals in my artist-character's studio. I've
exhibited my work internationally, most recently in Cuba and in Los Angeles."
6) Lost: "It's an exhibition of random photographs that I took when I spent
a terrifying night lost in a New Zealand rainforest while making Lord of
the Rings. It was a moonless night and my friend and I tried, in vain, to
find our way home through the forest. We made it back after the sun came up."
7) Poetry: "I started writing before I got into acting. I always wrote. I
write anywhere, everywhere. I've written poems on airplanes, in subways, in
taxis, even in the bathtub."
8) Beyond Baroque: "It's a poetry centre in Venice (California). I started
coming more than ten years ago and took a poetry workshop. The readings are
always great, but people aren't generally aware of this place because it's
not flashy."
9) Philosophy: "I agree with the Native American author Black Elk who said
that 'any man who is attached to things of this world is one who lives in
ignorance and is being consumed by the snakes of his own passions.'"
10) Tolkien philosophy: "There is a tendency in America to say: this is
good and that is evil and I shall do something about it. It isn't that
simple. Tolkien has Gandalf say something to the effect that nothing was
evil in the beginning not even Sauron. Then Aragorn says to Legolas,
'Good and evil have not changed since yesteryear, and nor are the one thing
among dwarves or elves.' I found it interesting that even though Tolkien
was a devout Christian, the books don't assert that there is a heavenly
reward for doing the right thing. Doing the right thing is its own reward."
11) Publishing: "I founded Perceval Press in order to publish high-quality
art books by artists and writers whom, I feel, are underappreciated so they
can keep attendant obligations from polluting otherwise pure artistic
enterprises. We print about a dozen books each year."
12) Kant philosophy: "He said, 'Seek not the favour of the multitude. It is
seldom got by honest and lawful means. But see the testimony of the few,
and number not the voices but weigh them."
13) Music: "I'm partial to jazz. I've released several CDs. People who are
creators create."
14) Artist Lola Schnabel (daughter of painter Julian Schnabel): "We have
had a wonderful relationship."
15) Camping: "It's a great way to spend quality time, outdoors, with my son
Henry. I have always sought refuge outdoors. As a child, I was sleeping
under a tree and found it very peaceful until a dog started barking, and
that's how my parents found me."
16) Designing his own living space: "When we were in New Zealand, Orlando
(Bloom) and I shared a converted bus. I stocked our own wine cellar and
wallpapered the inside with photos. It was a lot of fun."
17) Gardening: "It's another hobby, and I don't use pesticides."
18) Lord of the Rings message: "It's about how a person even a small
Hobbit can make a difference and how it's essential to work together and
look past differences."
19) His Lord of the Rings co-stars: "You wanted everybody to feel safe and
happy. You feel like brothers and sisters. You want to take care of them."
20) Lord of the Rings tattoos: "I was the one who persuaded Ian McKellen to
get his first tattoo the number nine in Tolkien fantasy language. He was
really into it."
21) His Lord of the Rings ring: "It became so much part of my life that I
still wear the ring that I wore in the movie."
22) Swordplay: "I worked with Bob Anderson, who taught Errol Flynn. He
cracked the whip for a couple of days, which really got me into the
physical stuff. I did pretty much all my own stunts in the battle scenes.
The stunt team trained thousands of people to use weapons. It was fantastic."
23) Hidalgo: "I like the idea of being in an American movie, and the
American character goes to a Third World country, in this case the Middle
East, not to destroy, not to punish, but to challenge them in this contest,
and in the end they learn something and he learns something. And then he
goes home. I think that's kind of healthy."
24) Writer Joseph Campbell's advice: "He said the privilege of a lifetime
is being yourself. That's his feeling. And I guess it's mine too."
25) Spirituality: "In Leaves of Grass Walt Whitman said something to the
effect of 'I hear and behold that God is in every object and yet I
understand God not at all.'"
26) Working with Liv Tyler: "She's very relaxed and surprisingly mature.
She was so convincing (that) I honestly began imagining she really was an
elf princess."
27) Working with Demi Moore: "She's tough, very disciplined and very
driven. But she never asked for any special treatment. She was having to do
some amazing things as a girl soldier. She never complained, although I
know she was in pain and afraid of certain things. She never said anything,
whereas the guys were whining and complaining on some days."
28) Working with Nicole Kidman: "She never stopped working and getting
inside her character's head. Nicole has all the talent but never lets it
get in the way of hard work. She's also down-to-earth and could tell jokes
very easily. The crew fell in love with her."
29) Working with Gwyneth Paltrow: "She's a truly beautiful woman. Always in
control. I had to make sure she was comfortable, so I sang to her in
Spanish. I sang her a bunch of Argentine tango songs.
30) The scar on his upper lip: "It's a reminder of my reckless youth. It
was a combination of a fist and a barbwire fence on a particularly bad
Halloween night. I was 17. When I got out of surgery, my friends ordered
pizza to the hospital and I helped them eat (the pizzas)."
31) Horseback riding: "I enjoy it thoroughly and actually requested that
Aragorn be astride in several scenes. In New Zealand, I kept my horses
nearby and worked to strengthen the rider/horse bond. The horses I rode
became my horses."
32) Baseball: "I'm a New York Mets fan."
33) Denmark: "My father's Danish and I always felt an affinity to that
country. I lived there, selling flowers, driving a truck and writing
poetry, after college."
34) Argentina: "I lived there as a child and I am a fan of the Argentine
soccer team San Lorenzo and when I went back there a year or so ago, they
made me an honorary member of the team."
35) Languages: "I speak three (English, Spanish, Danish) and can get by in
several others. I learned a bit of Maori when I was in New Zealand."
36) Esoterica: "I go through phases of intense interest in various things,
like Civil War history, sword fighting and recently ghost dancers."
37) Being dorky: "They call me the Dork of New York."
38) Contributing to his films: "I suggested that Master Chief, the Navy
SEAL instructor, recite a D.H. Lawrence poem at the end of G.I. Jane. You
get to see that, after all the punches, the guy is a real gentleman as a
lot of the real Navy SEALS are."
39) The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928): "It's a silent movie that's now
available on DVD. The original negative was destroyed in a fire but a
complete version was found in a closet in a Norwegian mental institution in
the early 1980s and was restored. You should see it."
LOATHES:
1) Collecting souvenirs: "How many things can you have in your house? I did
keep the sword I used throughout the (Lord of the Rings) trilogy, and
that's great to have. But the best souvenir I have is the memory of the
experience for as long as I can remember."
2) American foreign policy: "I do feel it was ill-advised to ignore so many
countries and so many millions of people around the world and in our own
country who had very strong feelings about diplomacy. I don't think our
government really tried at all. The agenda seemed to be set, and I think
that's dangerous."
3) American domestic policy: "The administration uses nomenclature
reminiscent of the '30s; it's like they're studying the German technique of
subverting attention in a time of national crisis.
4) American media: "I do find that in this country you have to make a big
effort to be well-informed. There is no real news anymore. The war in Iraq
was not unlike a studio movie. There was a certain schedule. There was a
budget. There were the appropriate visuals. There was a lot of comparing
the good guys with the bad guys."
6) This political era: "I think we're in a very dark period. How much
damage has been done to the credibility of the United States? This is a
disturbing time, and you don't have to be of any political persuasion to be
disturbed or troubled by it. I think we're in a time of deliberate cruelty
and deliberate lying and, frankly, I think it's the very bottom of humanity."
7) Expatriates: "I won't say it's cowardly to leave the country, but
there's something about staying here and saying what I have to say. I'm a
citizen. I don't want to be outside taking potshots."
8) Poetry's bad rep: "People think poetry is a guy in a basement smoking
French cigarettes, and that it doesn't have a place in our modern,
high-paced world of computers and TV. I don't agree. I don't have a beret."
9) Using poetry to attract women: "I've tried, but I don't think it
actually works."
10) Discussing acting: "It's impersonation."
11) Mystification of acting: "It comes down to the fact that you supply the
blue, and they supply the other colours and mix them with your blue and,
maybe, there's some blue left in the painting and maybe there isn't. Maybe
there wasn't supposed to be any there in the first place. So have some fun
and make a good blue and walk away."
12) Inconsistency: "I'm a control freak about wanting my characters to be
faithful to where I think they're coming from."
13) Strategic career planning: "I don't plan. I wait and hope the right
thing will find me. 90 per cent of the time, I run out of money before I
find the right thing."
14) Being type-cast: "When I started out, I couldn't try out for anyone
even remotely shady because I looked sort of boyish. But once I did (a
villain) reasonably well.
15) Knocking his past films: "It's not like you get to do any part you
want. Sometimes you gotta just pay the rent. If I really think about it,
there isn't any one movie I would wipe off my slate. Even during the worst
experiences, there was somebody I got to know, or something about the place
we were in, something memorable. A lesson."
16) Psychotherapy: "I'm not a fan of analysing. Twenty years ago, I'd say:
'I wonder why I'm here.' But now I'm too busy taking care of my life and
the people around me."
17) Incompletion: "I believe you have a moral obligation to finish the job
you said you would do."
18) Hollywood's social scene: "I'm just not a hobnobbing public persona. If
getting acting roles were dependent on gregariousness, I wouldn't have
gotten them."
19) Boredom: "There is no excuse to be bored. Sad, yes. Angry, yes.
Depressed, yes. Crazy, yes. But there is no excuse for boredom, ever."
20) Refusing to sign autographs: "I see no excuse for it, no matter how
long it takes."
21) Personal vanity: "I'm not that involved in personal grooming. But I try
not to be offensive to people."
22) Frustration: "I understand why, in dire time, you'd be tempted to set
your house on fire and never answer the phone again. But it would be better
to ask yourself: How can I be most useful to this world?"
23) Not being able to answer every fan letter: "I consider it a compliment
when people write and I used to answer each one personally until it got
overwhelming."
24) Replacing another actor: "Peter Jackson drafted me to do Aragorn after
Stuart Townsend had started. It came as a shock. I hadn't read any of the
books and found myself on a plane, reading the script, trying to imagine
myself playing this character. I've never before been in a position to do a
job that another actor had already started. Although I was grateful for the
role, I felt a little awkward about that. I never even met Stuart. It would
have been much worse had he been my best friend or something. He's 26, much
younger than me, and the character of Aragorn needs to be older. It was
just a casting miscalculation one of those things that happens sometimes."
25) Exhaustion: "With Aragorn, I came to the project very late and I became
worn out and concerned about my ability to be up to the task. I was so
tired that sometimes I was practically hallucinating."
26) Stories that he lived in the woods during Lord of the Rings filming: "I
went fishing a few times, but I didn't live in the woods. I couldn't have
done that. I would have missed my call to the set in the morning."
Syndicated Features
By Didi Penn
As the fearless warrior Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Viggo
Mortensen has emerged as a fully-fledged star although he has been on the
cusp of success for a long time. Respected for his personal integrity, he's
an intelligent actor/poet/photographer with chiselled matinee-idol looks.
Born October 20, 1958, in Manhattan to a Danish businessman, Viggo Sr. and
his American wife, Viggo lived in Argentina, Venezuela and Denmark before
his parents divorced when he was 11. He then moved with his mother and two
younger brothers to upstate New York. After completing high school, he
studied at St. Lawrence University, graduating with a degree in Government
and Spanish.
He made his TV debut as the Lieutenant at LeBoeuf in the George Washington
mini-series (1984). His first big-screen part was in Swing Shift (1984) but
his scenes were deleted, so he actually made his debut as Moses
Hoechleitner, a young Amish farmer, in Witness (1985).
His varied filmography includes parts as varied as Demi Moore's sadistic
drill sergeant in G.I. Jane (1997) and Diane Lane's lover in A Walk on the
Moon (1999), in addition to the re-make of Psycho (1998) with Anne Heche
and A Perfect Murder (1998) opposite Gwyneth Paltrow. He was in Salvation!,
Witness, The Crimson Tide, The Reflecting Skin, The Indian Runner,
Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, Portrait of a Lady, Carlito's
Way, Daylight, 28 Days, and The Prophecy, among others. He did the voice of
Hoyteck in Live Freaky Die Freaky (2003) and will be seen next as Frank T
Hopkins in the epic Western, Hidalgo (2004), playing a US Cavalry rider
who, in 1890, takes his American mustang horse to compete in a 3,000-mile
race across the Arabian Desert.
LOVES:
1) Exene Cervenka (singer for the legendary L.A. punk band X): "We were
married. We're divorced now but we have a great relationship. We met while
shooting Salvation! in 1987. She's an amazing singer. If she was 22 and
looked like Britney Spears, she'd be on the cover of every magazine. She
writes the most beautiful lyrics and has the best voice."
2) Henry Mortensen: "He's my teenage son. He's really curious and smart a
great person my closest friend. When Peter (Jackson) asked me to play
Aragorn, the question was: 'Do you want to leave for New Zealand tomorrow?'
There were plenty of reasons not to go, but my son was familiar with the
books and he talked about them with his school friends. He knew about
Aragorn and said, 'Oh, that's pretty cool. You should do that.' Then he
joined me on the set for awhile. He's been in some other films with me. And
they outfitted him with a full set of armour so he could be an Orc in a
battle scene. I evaded him and Gimli killed him."
3) Home: "It's in Southern California in Topanga Canyon. I live there with
my son. I'm pretty much of a loner except for the time I spend with Henry.
I stay home, clean up a lot and write."
4) Being happy: "You can't achieve perfection, obviously, but the goal that
I have in work and in life is to be happy."
5) Painting/Photography: "Painting is something where I can look at the end
product and whether I like it or you like it I can say that's something
I did. I learned by watching other people do it, and by trial and error,
just like acting. I've written four books of painting, photographs and
poems, including Coincidence of Memory and Signlanguage. For A Perfect
Murder, I painted the large murals in my artist-character's studio. I've
exhibited my work internationally, most recently in Cuba and in Los Angeles."
6) Lost: "It's an exhibition of random photographs that I took when I spent
a terrifying night lost in a New Zealand rainforest while making Lord of
the Rings. It was a moonless night and my friend and I tried, in vain, to
find our way home through the forest. We made it back after the sun came up."
7) Poetry: "I started writing before I got into acting. I always wrote. I
write anywhere, everywhere. I've written poems on airplanes, in subways, in
taxis, even in the bathtub."
8) Beyond Baroque: "It's a poetry centre in Venice (California). I started
coming more than ten years ago and took a poetry workshop. The readings are
always great, but people aren't generally aware of this place because it's
not flashy."
9) Philosophy: "I agree with the Native American author Black Elk who said
that 'any man who is attached to things of this world is one who lives in
ignorance and is being consumed by the snakes of his own passions.'"
10) Tolkien philosophy: "There is a tendency in America to say: this is
good and that is evil and I shall do something about it. It isn't that
simple. Tolkien has Gandalf say something to the effect that nothing was
evil in the beginning not even Sauron. Then Aragorn says to Legolas,
'Good and evil have not changed since yesteryear, and nor are the one thing
among dwarves or elves.' I found it interesting that even though Tolkien
was a devout Christian, the books don't assert that there is a heavenly
reward for doing the right thing. Doing the right thing is its own reward."
11) Publishing: "I founded Perceval Press in order to publish high-quality
art books by artists and writers whom, I feel, are underappreciated so they
can keep attendant obligations from polluting otherwise pure artistic
enterprises. We print about a dozen books each year."
12) Kant philosophy: "He said, 'Seek not the favour of the multitude. It is
seldom got by honest and lawful means. But see the testimony of the few,
and number not the voices but weigh them."
13) Music: "I'm partial to jazz. I've released several CDs. People who are
creators create."
14) Artist Lola Schnabel (daughter of painter Julian Schnabel): "We have
had a wonderful relationship."
15) Camping: "It's a great way to spend quality time, outdoors, with my son
Henry. I have always sought refuge outdoors. As a child, I was sleeping
under a tree and found it very peaceful until a dog started barking, and
that's how my parents found me."
16) Designing his own living space: "When we were in New Zealand, Orlando
(Bloom) and I shared a converted bus. I stocked our own wine cellar and
wallpapered the inside with photos. It was a lot of fun."
17) Gardening: "It's another hobby, and I don't use pesticides."
18) Lord of the Rings message: "It's about how a person even a small
Hobbit can make a difference and how it's essential to work together and
look past differences."
19) His Lord of the Rings co-stars: "You wanted everybody to feel safe and
happy. You feel like brothers and sisters. You want to take care of them."
20) Lord of the Rings tattoos: "I was the one who persuaded Ian McKellen to
get his first tattoo the number nine in Tolkien fantasy language. He was
really into it."
21) His Lord of the Rings ring: "It became so much part of my life that I
still wear the ring that I wore in the movie."
22) Swordplay: "I worked with Bob Anderson, who taught Errol Flynn. He
cracked the whip for a couple of days, which really got me into the
physical stuff. I did pretty much all my own stunts in the battle scenes.
The stunt team trained thousands of people to use weapons. It was fantastic."
23) Hidalgo: "I like the idea of being in an American movie, and the
American character goes to a Third World country, in this case the Middle
East, not to destroy, not to punish, but to challenge them in this contest,
and in the end they learn something and he learns something. And then he
goes home. I think that's kind of healthy."
24) Writer Joseph Campbell's advice: "He said the privilege of a lifetime
is being yourself. That's his feeling. And I guess it's mine too."
25) Spirituality: "In Leaves of Grass Walt Whitman said something to the
effect of 'I hear and behold that God is in every object and yet I
understand God not at all.'"
26) Working with Liv Tyler: "She's very relaxed and surprisingly mature.
She was so convincing (that) I honestly began imagining she really was an
elf princess."
27) Working with Demi Moore: "She's tough, very disciplined and very
driven. But she never asked for any special treatment. She was having to do
some amazing things as a girl soldier. She never complained, although I
know she was in pain and afraid of certain things. She never said anything,
whereas the guys were whining and complaining on some days."
28) Working with Nicole Kidman: "She never stopped working and getting
inside her character's head. Nicole has all the talent but never lets it
get in the way of hard work. She's also down-to-earth and could tell jokes
very easily. The crew fell in love with her."
29) Working with Gwyneth Paltrow: "She's a truly beautiful woman. Always in
control. I had to make sure she was comfortable, so I sang to her in
Spanish. I sang her a bunch of Argentine tango songs.
30) The scar on his upper lip: "It's a reminder of my reckless youth. It
was a combination of a fist and a barbwire fence on a particularly bad
Halloween night. I was 17. When I got out of surgery, my friends ordered
pizza to the hospital and I helped them eat (the pizzas)."
31) Horseback riding: "I enjoy it thoroughly and actually requested that
Aragorn be astride in several scenes. In New Zealand, I kept my horses
nearby and worked to strengthen the rider/horse bond. The horses I rode
became my horses."
32) Baseball: "I'm a New York Mets fan."
33) Denmark: "My father's Danish and I always felt an affinity to that
country. I lived there, selling flowers, driving a truck and writing
poetry, after college."
34) Argentina: "I lived there as a child and I am a fan of the Argentine
soccer team San Lorenzo and when I went back there a year or so ago, they
made me an honorary member of the team."
35) Languages: "I speak three (English, Spanish, Danish) and can get by in
several others. I learned a bit of Maori when I was in New Zealand."
36) Esoterica: "I go through phases of intense interest in various things,
like Civil War history, sword fighting and recently ghost dancers."
37) Being dorky: "They call me the Dork of New York."
38) Contributing to his films: "I suggested that Master Chief, the Navy
SEAL instructor, recite a D.H. Lawrence poem at the end of G.I. Jane. You
get to see that, after all the punches, the guy is a real gentleman as a
lot of the real Navy SEALS are."
39) The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928): "It's a silent movie that's now
available on DVD. The original negative was destroyed in a fire but a
complete version was found in a closet in a Norwegian mental institution in
the early 1980s and was restored. You should see it."
LOATHES:
1) Collecting souvenirs: "How many things can you have in your house? I did
keep the sword I used throughout the (Lord of the Rings) trilogy, and
that's great to have. But the best souvenir I have is the memory of the
experience for as long as I can remember."
2) American foreign policy: "I do feel it was ill-advised to ignore so many
countries and so many millions of people around the world and in our own
country who had very strong feelings about diplomacy. I don't think our
government really tried at all. The agenda seemed to be set, and I think
that's dangerous."
3) American domestic policy: "The administration uses nomenclature
reminiscent of the '30s; it's like they're studying the German technique of
subverting attention in a time of national crisis.
4) American media: "I do find that in this country you have to make a big
effort to be well-informed. There is no real news anymore. The war in Iraq
was not unlike a studio movie. There was a certain schedule. There was a
budget. There were the appropriate visuals. There was a lot of comparing
the good guys with the bad guys."
6) This political era: "I think we're in a very dark period. How much
damage has been done to the credibility of the United States? This is a
disturbing time, and you don't have to be of any political persuasion to be
disturbed or troubled by it. I think we're in a time of deliberate cruelty
and deliberate lying and, frankly, I think it's the very bottom of humanity."
7) Expatriates: "I won't say it's cowardly to leave the country, but
there's something about staying here and saying what I have to say. I'm a
citizen. I don't want to be outside taking potshots."
8) Poetry's bad rep: "People think poetry is a guy in a basement smoking
French cigarettes, and that it doesn't have a place in our modern,
high-paced world of computers and TV. I don't agree. I don't have a beret."
9) Using poetry to attract women: "I've tried, but I don't think it
actually works."
10) Discussing acting: "It's impersonation."
11) Mystification of acting: "It comes down to the fact that you supply the
blue, and they supply the other colours and mix them with your blue and,
maybe, there's some blue left in the painting and maybe there isn't. Maybe
there wasn't supposed to be any there in the first place. So have some fun
and make a good blue and walk away."
12) Inconsistency: "I'm a control freak about wanting my characters to be
faithful to where I think they're coming from."
13) Strategic career planning: "I don't plan. I wait and hope the right
thing will find me. 90 per cent of the time, I run out of money before I
find the right thing."
14) Being type-cast: "When I started out, I couldn't try out for anyone
even remotely shady because I looked sort of boyish. But once I did (a
villain) reasonably well.
15) Knocking his past films: "It's not like you get to do any part you
want. Sometimes you gotta just pay the rent. If I really think about it,
there isn't any one movie I would wipe off my slate. Even during the worst
experiences, there was somebody I got to know, or something about the place
we were in, something memorable. A lesson."
16) Psychotherapy: "I'm not a fan of analysing. Twenty years ago, I'd say:
'I wonder why I'm here.' But now I'm too busy taking care of my life and
the people around me."
17) Incompletion: "I believe you have a moral obligation to finish the job
you said you would do."
18) Hollywood's social scene: "I'm just not a hobnobbing public persona. If
getting acting roles were dependent on gregariousness, I wouldn't have
gotten them."
19) Boredom: "There is no excuse to be bored. Sad, yes. Angry, yes.
Depressed, yes. Crazy, yes. But there is no excuse for boredom, ever."
20) Refusing to sign autographs: "I see no excuse for it, no matter how
long it takes."
21) Personal vanity: "I'm not that involved in personal grooming. But I try
not to be offensive to people."
22) Frustration: "I understand why, in dire time, you'd be tempted to set
your house on fire and never answer the phone again. But it would be better
to ask yourself: How can I be most useful to this world?"
23) Not being able to answer every fan letter: "I consider it a compliment
when people write and I used to answer each one personally until it got
overwhelming."
24) Replacing another actor: "Peter Jackson drafted me to do Aragorn after
Stuart Townsend had started. It came as a shock. I hadn't read any of the
books and found myself on a plane, reading the script, trying to imagine
myself playing this character. I've never before been in a position to do a
job that another actor had already started. Although I was grateful for the
role, I felt a little awkward about that. I never even met Stuart. It would
have been much worse had he been my best friend or something. He's 26, much
younger than me, and the character of Aragorn needs to be older. It was
just a casting miscalculation one of those things that happens sometimes."
25) Exhaustion: "With Aragorn, I came to the project very late and I became
worn out and concerned about my ability to be up to the task. I was so
tired that sometimes I was practically hallucinating."
26) Stories that he lived in the woods during Lord of the Rings filming: "I
went fishing a few times, but I didn't live in the woods. I couldn't have
done that. I would have missed my call to the set in the morning."
Syndicated Features
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