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c u l t u r e k i t c h e n Liza Sabater's daily servings to the Reality-Based citizenry of art, culture, entertainment, life, media, politics, sex, and technology from the very surreal New York City.
c u l t u r e k i t c h e n: "Members of the Bush Administration responsible for t he blatant lies and self-serving manipulations that have fanned the flam es of disaster from Iraq to New Orleans must be prosecuted as our laws r equire."
He talks about his favorite topic du jour , the impeachment of the whole top tier of the Bush Administration: Q: Are you anti-Bush, as the pundits say? In other words, Im against cheating, greed, cruelty, racism, imperialism, religious fun damentalism, treason, and the seemingly limitless capacity for hypocris y shown by Bush and his Administration. Mortensen: Its too easy, and it lets a lot of people off the hook. I thi nk impeachment proceedings need to be started immediately but not just against him. Th ose two need to go, and many of the others in the inner circle need to go. You have to love a guy that's not afraid to speak the truth. Even freakier is the fact that just last night I scooted over to his site and paid for a copy of the t-shirt he is wearing (in size small, so the twins will look lovely).
The whole Viggo Mortensen Interview by Nina Siegal for The Progressiv e is after the jump. Viggo Mortensen Interview By Nina Siegal November 2005 Issue Sure, hes cute. But the most intriguing thing about Viggo Mortensen, who played King Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and who recently won critical acclaim for his leading role in the latest David Cronenberg release, A History o f Violence, is how much he loves to talk politics. When I called him in July to interview him for The Progressive, he had re turned from four months shooting the forthcoming Spanish historical epic , Alatriste. He sounded exhausted, as though he could barely hold the ph one, but when we started talking about the war in Iraq, the Bush Adminis tration, and the role of actors and artists in mainstream political disc ourse, he didnt feel like sleeping. He wanted to clarify a few things hed sai d and to answer more questions. I might have flattered m yself to think one of the best-looking Hollywood leading men liked the s ound of my voice. But that clearly wasnt the case, since he did most of the talking. Born in Manhattan on October 20, 1958, to an American mother and a Danish father, Mortensen spent his childhood in Argentina, Venezuela, and Denm ark. He went to school in Watertown, New York, just south of the Canadia n border. He studied acting at the Warren Robertson Theatre Workshop in Manhattan in the 1980s and then moved to Los Angeles. There, he met Exce ne Cervenka, the lead singer of the punk band X, and became a familiar f ace in the Los Angeles punk scene. The couple had a son, Henry, together in 1988, and subsequently divorced. Mortensen made his feature-film debut in 1985 as Alexander Godunovs Amish brother in Witness. After that, he had a run as a villain in a series o f films, playing a paraplegic ex-con snitch in the 1993 film Carlitos Wa y with Al Pacino, and Lucifer in The Prophecy with Christopher Walken, t wo years later. In 1997, he played the tough-talking training instructor to Demi Moores GI Jane, and the following year he appeared as Gwyneth Paltrows home-wrecking paramour in A Perfect Murder. In recent years, Mortensen has been cast as much more heroic figures, not only as King Aragorn but also as the lead human in Hidalgo, the horse s tory in which a down-on-his-luck postal carrier rides his mustang in a r ace across the Arabian Desert. Most recently, he won acclaim for his portrayal of Tom Stall, an Indiana diner owner whose life is changed forever after he acts against two robb ers in A History of Violence. The film, an adaptation of John Wagner and Vince Lockes graphic novel of the same name, was a critical hit at Cann es. He also plays the lead in Alatriste, portraying the seventeenth cent ury soldier and missionary Captain Alatriste, based on the book of the s ame name by Arturo Perez Reverte. Mortensen is a part-time musician, a published poet, and a photographer a nd painter who has had exhibitions at art galleries such as the Robert M ann Gallery, Track 16 Gallery, Fototeca de Cuba, and Museet for Fotokuns t in Denmark. On top of all that, he founded the independent publishing house Perceval Press. He doesnt like to talk a bout his personal accomplishments. Below is a condensed account of our many phone conversati ons. Question:Why did you decide to go down to Camp Casey and join Cindy Sheeh an? Viggo Mortensen: I went in the first week, when there were only a few peo ple down there. I thought the best thing to do was just to go and listen to her and make up my own mind. If youre someone who is a public figure, if you make too much of it, the risk is that you can be seen as just trying to get atte ntion for yourself. So I intentionally went down without saying I was co ming. No one even saw me getting out of the car, and before anyone knew it I was just standing in front of her. I stayed very briefly, and she w as nice enough to give me a little of her time. Mortensen: Well, first of all, I just said, respectfully, Im sorry about your son, and I said thank you for some of the things youve said and for bringing attention to the issue, for keeping this topic alive. I left t here really impressed with her, with her integrity and sincerity. I also had a sense of just how threatening someone like this would be to people who are used to running the show, in terms of perception and medi a informationor disinformation. Its like she pulled an end around just b y being herself, a relatively ordinary woman displaying extraordinary co urage and being quite eloquent and brave, knowing shes being savaged and hearing it and standing up to it and having her say as an individual an d as a woman. Mortensen: Cindy Sheehan and how badly Katrina was bungled are two shots to the heart. Whats more shameful than the criminal negligence that made a bad situation much, much worse is the arrogant attitude after the fact. The outright lyingeven though w eve become accustomed to lying from this Administrationhas broken new gr ound in the field of dishonesty. In other words, I m against cheating, greed, cruelty, racism, imperialism, religious funda mentalism, treason, and the seemingly limitless capacity for hypocrisy s hown by Bush and his Administration. Mortensen: Its too easy, and it lets a lot of people off the hook. I thin k impeachment proceedings need to be started immediately but not just ag ainst him. Those two need to go, and many of the others in the inner circle need to go. Q: It seems much of the media has responded differently to Katrina than t hey did to earlier screw-ups by the Bush Administration. So a ll of a sudden these mousy, timid, go-along reporters are finding some s pine, and thats nice to see. I hope they dont recede in to their self-congratulating, privileged little niches. Mortensen: I think most Americans will look back on this period since 198 0 as a morally bleak, intellectually fraudulent period of history. There will be a certain amount of shame, a feeling we were part of something wrong. People standing outside of this country can see this because its very obvious. Its like looking at a spoiled brat, a kid whos totally out of control, but because the parents are really rich and because they ow n the school, you have to put up with it. But we dont have to lash out and do damage on the way down. Q: You have been criticized for wearing anti-war T-shirts while promoting your films, particularly The Lord of the Rings. The first time was in the fall o f 2002, when I happened to be on The Charlie Rose Show. I went there wea ring a shirt that I just scribbled with a pen, No More Blood for Oil. Q: But it was also connected to the politics of the movie. Mortensen: Yes, I was getting tired of journalists presuming that obvious ly the Fellowship of the Ring is America or the West, surrounded by poor Oriental Islamic extremists. Tolkien presents a complex and detailed an d interesting set of stor...
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