Viggo Mortensen’s Tips for a Creative Life
Actor, publisher, poet, photographer: the star of Lord of the Rings and Green Book on following your passions — and going offline
I met Viggo Mortensen in London in 2013, when he was promoting Everybody Has A Plan, an independent, Spanish-language film made in Argentina. It’s a typical Mortensen project: he’s always followed an unconventional path, motivated more by his own interests than fame or fortune. Nonetheless, he has been nominated for three Oscars, most recently for the 2018 film Green Book.
In between he’s made largely indie films, launched his own esoteric publishing house, Perceval Press, exhibited his photographs and published his poetry — as well as writing a regular column for his football team in Argentina, San Lorenzo.
He points out that his life has never been particularly conventional. With a Danish father and American mother, he grew up in Argentina, then in upstate New York. He worked as a florist and a truck driver in Scandinavia before deciding to try acting, and came to fame fairly late as Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings films.
So here are his tips for living a creative life, distilled from our much longer conversation.
