In 1985, opposite Harrison Ford, in a feature film by Peter Weir, a now very famous Hollywood actor took his first steps. Did “Lord of the Rings” fans recognize him?
In the early 2000s, it was with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, adapted from the work of JRR Tolkien by Peter Jackson, that Viggo Mortensen acquired the status of global superstar.
By playing the mythical character of Aragorn, intrepid adventurer, indispensable member of the Fellowship of the Ring, and above all heir to the throne of Gondor (a role which was initially to go to Stuart Townsend), the actor Danish-American suddenly found himself propelled among the most popular Hollywood personalities of the moment.
But Viggo Mortensen – who then turned more towards projects by less commercial authors such as A History of Violence by David Cronenberg, Captain Fantastic by Matt Ross or even Green Book by Peter Farrelly – did not begin his career with this memorable journey to Middle-earth, far from it.
In addition to short appearances (in Swing Shift by Jonathan Demme and The Purple Rose of Cairo by Woody Allen) which were not kept in the edit, his very first role in the cinema dates back to the mid-80s. Then aged 26 years old, the young Viggo who had only ever played in the theater was offered a small role in the prestigious thriller Witness.
Paramount Pictures
Directed by Peter Weir (also known for having directed The Truman Show and The Circle of Missing Poets), directed by Harrison Ford, the feature film (presented at the opening of the Cannes Film Festival and winner of two Oscars) followed the investigation of Inspector John Book (Ford), on an assassination whose one and only witness was a little Amish boy.
Only present in a few short sequences of the film (we hear him declaim 3 or 4 lines of dialogue throughout the feature film), Viggo Mortensen It plays a man named Moses Hochleitner, a young Amish from the community that John Book gets to know little by little. During the film, we can see him shaking Harrison Ford’s hand, passing him some tools during the construction of a barn, or even having lunch at the same table as him during a community meal (see below). below).
Paramount Pictures
“He was really involved in the barn building scene”declared the young actor about Harrison Ford at Movieline Magazine in 1998. “I was supposed to hand him some tools and he was like, ‘Give me something,’ and I didn’t know what he was talking about.”
Credited in 12th position in the credits, Viggo Mortensen began his acting career with Witness. While waiting to explode with The Lord of the Rings, he then participated in other varied projects, such as the drama The Indian Runner by Sean Penn, L’Impasse by Brian de Palma (opposite Al Pacino) or even À weapons equal to Ridley Scott (against Demi Moore).
(Re)discover the trailer for this film…