Moments when you do not speak during a watchthrough of Lord of the Rings
1. Boromir’s death 2. The lighting of the beacons 3. Theoden’s speech at Pelennor Fields
Moments when you do speak during a watchthrough of Lord of the Rings
1. “Okay, but did you know that when he kicks that helmet, he actually breaks multiple toes? That agonized scream is actual, physical pain, and it was by far the best take.”
“In fact, I just got Viggo back for a trick that he played on me and my agent a few years ago. I was scheduled to hop on a plane and go, I think it was to Vancouver, to start a job and he calls up my agent after hours. He didn’t get her but he got her husband, and he said: ‘G’day, it’s Karl here. Look, I can’t get on the plane, I can’t find my lucky red socks, I dunno what I’m gunna do? I can’t, you gotta call them up and tell them I can’t do the job, I can’t find my red socks!’ And he said, ‘Okay man, I’ll tell Jenny. I’ll tell her.’ And he goes, ‘I can’t find them. I dunno what to do, mate. I’m not getting on that fucking plane!’
Boom! And he hangs up. So, literally at one o’clock in the morning I get woken up by this fucking phone call from my agent saying, ‘Karl! You gotta get on the plane! I will buy you, I promise, I will buy you five pairs of red socks, I just need you to get on the plane!’ And I’m like, ‘What the fuck are you talking about?’ And then I go, ‘Ooh, fucking Viggo!’ Flash forward 10 years! So, six weeks ago I’m in Spain and I’m doing press for Dredd and I see that Viggo’s got a film coming out as well called, Une Plan and my press day is happening the day before his, so with every single journalist that I talk to, I do my interview and as they’re walking out, I’m like, ‘Oh I got a day off tomorrow’ and they’re like, ‘Oh really?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, yeah, I’m going to go to Viggo’s farm; he’s just bought a goat farm in Segovia, he’s got a thousand goats! He’s making goat cheese!’
Every single one. (audience laughs) Well, it was reported on the national news! It was published in newspapers!And the next day, every single interview that Viggo went into, they asked about the fucking goat farm. A thousand goats!
So I get this email from Viggo. It starts: ‘You bastard.’ It turns out he got so fucking sick of having to defend this goat story that he just started going with it and saying, ‘Yes, I like the spotted goats because they fart less and their cheese tastes sweeter.’”
“One time, a cop stopped me in Wellington, because I was walking out of my apartment building with the sword, and I got in the car with it. I guess it would be an alarming sight to anyone at 5:00 am seeing me walking around with a sword. But, once I told the cop what it was for, he let me go. But, I did keep the sword with me all the time. I just felt that it was part of the job description.”
Star Wars star Oscar Isaac gets silly in our exclusive Two Faces Of January blooper reel, which also features Kirsten Dunst dancing / Viggo Mortensen grabbing groins and gurning. It’s lots of fun, basically.
The McDonald’s french fry is unbelievable. When you bite into it, you think: It’s so tasty, it can’t be real. As soon as it gets cold, it turns to lard and flubble. I mean, have you ever tried to eat a McDonald’s french fry that’s gone cold? That’s one of the circles of hell. The gulf between the warm, fresh, lightly salted McDonald’s french fry and the cold McDonald’s french fry is as great a gulf as any I know. - Viggo Mortensen, Esquire magazine (x)
“…. I was going back to my hotel in Toronto and a bunch of photographers mistook me for him and started shouting, “Viggo, Viggo!” There was too much noise for me to try and explain that I wasn’t Viggo and so I just let them carry on” (quote, Mads Mikkelsen, ZOO Magazine, 2016)
- [For Lord of The Rings] I had to do huge battle scenes, and in Hollywood films when it gets to big crowds it’s really only at most two thousand people. But Tolkien writes about Helm’s Deep and ten thousand Uruk-hai, and the only way to do that was in a computer. So we created the “Massive” software, where each of the computer people makes its own choices. At the first test screen we had 30 CGI people running at each other and half of them turned and ran away, so we had to dumb them down and tell them to stay fighting.
- You don’t know how the battle is gonna turn out?
- No. If you have orcs fighting elves, you teach CGI orcs how to fight like orcs and CGI elves to fight like elves. You’re literally not in control. You have this huge battle scenes with horses for and that renders for about three days and we don’t know what it’s gonna be like, so we wait and see.
- [Per il Signore degli Anelli] dovevo fare scene di battaglia enormi, e nei film di Hollywood quando si tratta di grandi folle in realtà al massimo ci sono duemila persone. Ma Tolkien parla del Fosso di Helm e diecimila Uruk-hai, e l’unico modo di farlo era a computer. Quindi abbiamo creato il software “Massive”, dove ogni “persona da computer” fa le proprie scelte. Ai primi screen test c’erano 30 persone CGI che si correvano addosso, e la metà si è girata ed è scappata via, quindi abbiamo dovuto renderle meno intelligenti e dirgli di rimanere a combattere.
- Quindi non sapevate come sarebbe andata la battaglia?
- No. Se hai degli orchi che combattono gli elfi, insegni agli orchi CGI a combattere come orchi e agli elfi CGI a combattere come elfi. Non li puoi controllare. Hai queste scene di battaglia enormi con i cavalli e le fai andare per circa tre giorni e non sai come verrà, quindi attendi.
