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It is said that in The Fellowship, Aragorn says, "I love you" in Swedish/Danish to Arwen when they first meet each other.
Viggo did his own fighting and stunts and actually lost part of a tooth when it was slashed in half during a fight sequence. He asked if it could be glued together so he could continue. Instead, he was sent to the dentist - still in full battle armor. On his character, Aragorn: "He is someone who is self-reliant and a little reclusive." Aragorn was originally written to be a secretive hobbit named "Trotter" but was eventually changed to a human named "Strider."
"Myth - just like religion - is dead unless you keep reinvigorating it, reapplying it. I think that what Tolkien did with some of the elements from the sagas and Celtic legends which I know and love was to forge something new, reinvent a lot of these archetypal stories and characters for his generation. Now Peter Jackson is doing that for ours."
At the end of The Fellowship, Aragorn keeps Boromir's gloves, putting them on as they send Boromir's body over the falls of Aroth. "They serve both as a reminder to Aragorn that he has made a pledge to Boromir and as a way of carrying Boromir's spirit with him as the remnant of the Fellowship continues its journey. In a movie, you can use such symbolism without comment: whether people consciously notice such a detail at the time or not is irrelevant. It still means something. And to the actor, it can be a powerful talisman."
"On one level, Aragorn is the heroic archetype that you find in the sagas, but with the striking difference that he is a man who seems almost to have lost his tongue! In the sagas, the hero will brag about what he's going to do, do it and then brag about what he's done. Aragorn, in contrast, is a modern character with qualities more like those of the Samurai hero who must often learn difficult lessons and endure much hardship on his journey, and who's eventual triumph is usually as much in the service of society as it is for himself."
"I recognize something of the roles
played by Toshiro Mifune in Kurosawa's pictures, among others, as well as
something of those taciturn characters played by Clint Eastwood, or Gary
Cooper's sheriff in High Noon. Although the tone of The Lord
of the Rings strongly identifies with Northern Europe, its author certainly
tapped into the rich literary legacy that connected the Near and Far East
with Europe in the early medieval period. The elements of heroism and
romantic love in the stories as disparate as say, The Thousand and One
Nights and the Aurthurian legends are obvious in Tolkien's work. There
are certain qualities - such as Aragorn's healing powers - which are usually
associated with the image of the Christ-like king and with other
leader-characters who's true nature is 'hidden' from the
individuals themselves and, for a while, from the world at
large. These characters, such as Moses and King Arthur, are raised
by people to whom they are not related (possibly, as with Aragorn, who was
raised by the Elves in Rivendell, by people of another race) and have to
fulfil a destiny that requites them to understand the things of the past
and commit to the future."
"Seeing a film is not something
to be looked down on in comparison with reading a book. There can be
millions of identical copies of any book, and yet the copy you hold and read
is your personal doorway. It is the same when you go to the movie-theatre:
you and the movie have a secret. It might be a god-awful movie and
you could still walk out with this little secret - or a big secret - inside
you: a discovery that might stay with you for a day, for a month or two,
even years. In those secrets we touch myth and confront universal issues,
perhaps even draw new strength for our own lives."
"There are some things that it is better to begin
than to refuse, even though the end may be dark."
~Aragorn.
When asked 'What makes you sexy?' the actor responded: "I don't really know how to deal with that question. I'm sure that there's just as many people who think I'm a grizzled hack."
Viggo's dedication to his character and
the project became 'legendary' among the cast and crew as he was known to
camp out at various locations and carried his sword everywhere he went.
"He is the most committed, most devoted....He transforms his entire
life into the character. I've never seen an actor go there the way
this guy does." ~Sean Astin.
"The people who were teaching him said that he was insanely talented," says Miranda Otto, "There's one scene (at the end of) the first film where a knife is thrown at Aragorn, who clocks it with his sword. One of the stunt guys who was meant to be his double said, 'I've been practicing that and I've never been able to (hit the knife) once, and Viggo hits it on the first take. I hate him.'"
"In a story like Lord of the Rings, whether the Ring or Sauron are evil is incidental to me. Even if we were not to get the Ring anywhere near Mount Doom. Even if we all died. It doesn't really matter. It's the fact that everybody got together and decided to go on this trip. That's the thing. That's the miracle."
It is said that Viggo developed such a bond with
the horse that he worked with that he bought it from its owner. It
was also reported that Viggo's son, Henry, appeared in some scenes during
the shoot. Where Viggo asked if he could take care of his own sword
throughout the months of filming and virtually took it everywhere he went,
he also requested that he take care of his own costume, washing and repairing
it to slip more into his character. It is said that Viggo broke a toe
while kicking the steel helmet by the orc pyre.
"Everybody is willing to continue to make that group effort. There isn't really one hero. It's a group of people with their private doubts, which they need to overcome. Sam and Frodo may not make it to Mount Doom. Gandalf may not succeed in doing what he needs to. Merry and Pippin may not survive their predicament. They all have to find a way to sacrifice themselves to the group."
"Aragorn is given more responsibility, like the others in the
Fellowship. He knows that he needs to step up and do not only what
Boromir expected of him, but what Elrond, who has been like a father to him,
and Arwen expect of him; and, most importantly, what he knows to be
his calling." It is said that Viggo got so into his character of Aragorn
that Peter Jackson once addressed him as Aragorn for over half an hour, and
Viggo didn't even realise it.
Since his screen debut in Witness, Viggo has appeared in over 30 films including The Portrait of a Lady, Carlito's Way, G.I. Jane, Crimson Tide, A Perfect Murder, and A Walk on the Moon. Born in Manhattan, he also spent several years living in Venezuela, Argentina and Denmark. Viggo graduated from St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York in 1980 with a degree in Government and Spanish. He is also an accomplished poet, photographer, painter and jazz musician. His poetry has been printed in a book titled Ten Last Night and he debuted his photography with an exhibition at the Robert Mann Gallery in NYC in the summer of 2000.
Viggo links: The Corner of Viggo Mortensen : It's Viggo : Viggo Mortensen
The Many Faces of Viggo Mortensen : Viggo Mortensen.Org : Viggo Mortensen, Actor
Musings of Viggo : Viggo Mortensen.net : Elfstone : Much-Ado.net
Aragorn links:
"You know, there are freakish and unexpected events that make up our lives. You have to be open to suffering a little. There's the Philosopher Schopenhauer, right? He talked about how out of the randomness, there is the apparent intention in the fate of an individual that can be glimpsed later on. When you're an old guy, you can look back, and maybe this rambling life has some through-line. Others can see it better sometimes. But when you glimpse it yourself, you see it more clearly than anyone." ~Viggo Mortensen.
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Special thanks to Rena for a lot of the quotes on these Viggo pages from Premiere Magazine.
Some photos c/o The Quintessential LOTR Site
