‘The Lord Of The Rings’ Star Viggo Mortensen On Why He Never Appeared In Another Film Franchise: “I’m Not Against It, But They’re Not Usually That Good”
Viggo Mortesnen says the reason he never appeared in another film franchise after The Lord of the Rings is due not to a lack of personal interest in doing so, but because he hasn’t found any such projects to be particularly “good”.
The legendary Aragorn actor provided this insight into his career filmography during a recent interview given to Vanity Fair’s David Canfield.
Following a lengthy discussing ranging from his new indie Western film The Dead Don’t Hurt, the backlash to Green Book‘s Oscar win for Best Picture, and the current state of Hollywood, Mortensen was eventually pressed by Canfield, “Looking back at your filmography a little bit, you haven’t been a part of any franchise since then—and LOTR was itself a very singular, artistically driven trilogy. Is that a deliberate choice on your part, to avoid that part of Hollywood?”
In turn, the actor explained, “I don’t really look for or avoid any kind of genre or any size budget. I just look for interesting stories.”
“It doesn’t matter to me what the genre is or what the budget is or who’s making them,” said Mortensen. “I would never do a movie just because so-and-so is directing it. It has to be about the story. And if I think I’m right for the character, that always comes first.”
“That goes for franchises,” he continued. “If somebody came to me with X movie, the third part or the ninth part, and I thought it was a great character and I wanted to play that character and I thought I had something to contribute, I’d do it. I’m not against it. But they’re not usually that good. I mean, to me, they’re not usually that well-written. They’re kind of predictable. I mean, of course, there’s always the issue of if I run out of money.”
His last comment piquing Canfield’s interest, Mortesen was then asked, “You’re leading into my next question, which is how do you balance those greater financial opportunities with making the movies you love?”, to which he affirmed, “As long as I can pay the rent and make my personal life work, then I hold out until I find something that I think is a great challenge and something I’m going to learn from.”
“I’ve come close a few times to, ‘Well, oops, I’ve got to do something. Hopefully I can find something that’s halfway decent,'” he jovially noted as the interview came to a close. “But I don’t have a giant corporation that I’m running. I don’t have to think, ‘Well, I can’t do this small movie because I have to make a movie where they pay me millions of dollars.’ I’ve never looked at looking for work that way at all.”
A Civil War-era love story set in the American Frontier, Mortensen’s latest project, the aforementioned The Dead Don’t Hurt, is now available for purchase on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, and YouTube.
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