Entertainment :: Movies
A lean Viggo Mortensen takes to The Road by Fred Topel
EDGE ContributorTuesday Nov 24, 2009
We got to see full frontal Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises. The Oscar-nominated performance had a muscular, tattooed Mortensen fight off villains in a fully nude bathhouse. He exposes himself completely in his latest role too, though his body is much worse for wear.
The Road is set in the aftermath of an apocalypse. The Man (Mortensen) travels the wasteland with his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee), protecting him from other travelers. There’s nothing left in this world, no more animals or vegetation. They are starving, so Mortensen is bone thin.
"The fact that I was a lot thinner, that I had not much body fat at all meant that I got tired more quickly in the cold weather, just like Kodi who’s naturally skinny," Mortensen said. "So that was just trying to stay focused and get through the day basically, but it wasn’t as hard as the emotional thing sometimes was. Although that became easier as my relationship with him became stronger, because I trusted him more and he trusted me more. By the end we really felt like we could do anything together. It was a great feeling to have an acting partner like that."
A chocolate Oscar
Yes, working in a desolate wasteland day in, day out will take its toll in the best health. The months of withering away must have taken an additional toll on Mortensen. In this case, the diet coincided with his Oscar celebrations.
"It took a certain amount of discipline and fortunately I had enough time to get there. It was as I was traveling and doing other things, promoting Eastern Promises actually. It was that period. Even at the Oscars for example, that was like a day before shooting our first day. It was bizarre to go to this ceremony when we’d been already preparing, seeing this world and thinking that way, and suddenly I leave the winter of Pittsburgh and this weird area of town that we’re in and then I’m suddenly on the red carpet in Hollywood. It was really weird. I felt strangely calm because I said, ’Well, how bad can it be? It’s fine. It’s nothing compared to what I’m going to be doing the next couple of months. I can handle these photographers. They’re not cannibals, as far as I can tell.’ Maybe they were."
Mortensen only allowed himself one indulgence on Oscar night. It was indeed an honor just to be nominated. "There was a chocolate shaped Oscar at the Governor’s Ball with gold wrapping and I remember I ate the head off of that."
|
|
|
Email
Print
Share