Brian Damage
04-04-2009, 09:25 PM
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article6016813.ece
Viggo Mortensen should be happy. His past three movies have been critical smashes. He snagged a Best Actor Oscar nomination for one of them (Eastern Promises). And he played the title role in the 11-time Academy Award-winning Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, the last in the most financially successful movie trilogy of all (current global box-office takings: nearly £2 billion). In short, he has finally arrived. And yet, ironically, just when he should, in his own words, “be making hay”, the 50-year-old star is abandoning the movie business.
“In the past week I’ve been from LA to Japan to Korea to Poland to here,” he hisses, describing in near disbelief the travel itinerary for his current promotional tour. “It’s ridiculous! It’s not a healthy way to be. But, as it happens, I’m taking measures to change that.” Which are? “No more movies. I haven’t said yes to one in over a year. I’ve been in all these well-received movies and it seems like I should be doing some more, but there’s other things I want to do. It’s not the right time.”
But when will you come back to film-making? When will you know it’s the right time? Long, long, pause. A sigh. “I really don’t know.”
Mortensen has spoken about leaving movies before. “If it all dries up now, I’ve had a good run” is a favourite refrain. But here, in the quiet ground-floor antechamber of a London hotel, he seems more convinced, and convincing, than ever. He is wearing jeans and his favourite blue San Lorenzo football shirt — he lived in Argentina until he was 11 and the marine jersey, a nod to his childhood team, has become an off-screen trademark.
Viggo Mortensen should be happy. His past three movies have been critical smashes. He snagged a Best Actor Oscar nomination for one of them (Eastern Promises). And he played the title role in the 11-time Academy Award-winning Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, the last in the most financially successful movie trilogy of all (current global box-office takings: nearly £2 billion). In short, he has finally arrived. And yet, ironically, just when he should, in his own words, “be making hay”, the 50-year-old star is abandoning the movie business.
“In the past week I’ve been from LA to Japan to Korea to Poland to here,” he hisses, describing in near disbelief the travel itinerary for his current promotional tour. “It’s ridiculous! It’s not a healthy way to be. But, as it happens, I’m taking measures to change that.” Which are? “No more movies. I haven’t said yes to one in over a year. I’ve been in all these well-received movies and it seems like I should be doing some more, but there’s other things I want to do. It’s not the right time.”
But when will you come back to film-making? When will you know it’s the right time? Long, long, pause. A sigh. “I really don’t know.”
Mortensen has spoken about leaving movies before. “If it all dries up now, I’ve had a good run” is a favourite refrain. But here, in the quiet ground-floor antechamber of a London hotel, he seems more convinced, and convincing, than ever. He is wearing jeans and his favourite blue San Lorenzo football shirt — he lived in Argentina until he was 11 and the marine jersey, a nod to his childhood team, has become an off-screen trademark.