After several years of experience in live theater, he made his first movie appearance playing an Amish farmer in Peter Weir’s Witness. (Mortensen had actually been cast in two prior films - Swing Shift and The Purple Rose of Cairo - but his scenes in both of these films were deleted from the final cuts.) He has also appeared in Jane Campion’s The Portrait of a Lady, Sean Penn’s Indian Runner, Brian DePalma’s Carlito’s Way, Tony Scott’s Crimson Tide, Ridley Scott’s G.I. Jane, Tony Goldwyn’s A Walk on the Moon, Philip Ridley’s Reflecting Skin, Andrew Davis’s A Perfect Murder, Betty Thomas’s 28 Days, The Prophecy with Christopher Walken, and David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence.
Mortensen’s performance in Bent at the Coast Playhouse, Los Angeles, won him a Dramalogue Critics’ Award. Coincidentally, the play, about homosexual concentration camp prisoners, was originally brought to prominence by Sir Ian McKellen, with whom Mortensen co-starred in The Lord of the Rings. In Lord of the Rings, Mortensen was a last-minute replacement for Stuart Townsend, and wouldn’t have taken the part if it hadn’t been for his son’s enthusiasm for J. R. R. Tolkien’s trilogy.
Mortensen is an ice hockey fan, particularly of the Montreal Canadiens. He also likes soccer and is a big fan of the Danish national team and the Argentinian team San Lorenzo de Almagro. In 1992 Mortensen went to Ireland during a break in shooting, without the consent of the production company, to watch Denmark play in an important match. He is a fan of the New York Mets.
In the Two Towers DVD extras, the film’s swordmaster Bob Anderson described Mortensen as "the best swordsman I’ve ever trained".
In the DVD extras for A History of Violence, David Cronenberg relates that Mortensen is the only actor he’d come across who would come back from weekends with his family having bought items to use as props on the set.
Mortensen is very fond of horses, and shows such in his book The Horse Is Good. In fact, he bought the horse which played Brego in The Lord of the Rings movies (Roheryn in the books), which is Aragorn’s steed; as well as TJ, one of the horses who played Hidalgo. He also purchased the stallion that played Arwen’s horse, and gave it to the stunt woman who rode the horse in place of Liv Tyler.
He has spoken out against militarism and U.S. foreign policy.
More Viggo Mortensen Photo.
