“I have always said what I wanted,” he says. Viggo Mortensen regarding censorship or cancellation of actors when they dare to talk about topics that have nothing to do with cinema. Someone insists: “I mean that in Catalonia…” – in the past, the actor and director declared his Omnium and on many occasions he has vindicated the use of Catalan. Mortensen cuts him off: “This film has nothing to do with Catalonia“If you have another question ask it quickly, if not, this interview ends here,” he says bluntly. Absolute silence. He gets up with a smile, greets us and leaves. The press shrugs: “He’s very tired, We have been interviewing for weeks…”, they excuse themselves.
Mortensen is promoting his new film, which he wrote, directs and stars in: Until the end of the worlda western starring alongside the always languid and ethereal Vicky Krieps. What can the vision of Viggo Mortensen to the genre western? That may be one of the doubts that arise in the viewer when the first minutes of the film begin, which takes us to the 19th century and the deepest Old West, specifically to a small town called Elk Flatswhere the story centers.
Before mentioning Catalonia, the interview went conveniently well. Mortensen, sitting casually in the chair, speaks and rambles in a thoughtful and calm manner, something he shares with his Luxembourg co-star, as if everything they said was extremely important. “Being historically correct didn’t matter as much to me as other details of filming,” she says. “I wanted to show society (the miscegenation, the variety of cultures), something that is not always seen in westerns. Furthermore, in this type of films the protagonists are always Anglo-Saxons and here they are not. And most importantly, I wanted to have a woman as the protagonist without that meaning that was an outlaw or a ranch owner, simply an everyday woman but with great inner strength and freedom of thought. Because, what happens to women when their sons or husbands go to fight in wars?”
Nothing good happens. Vivienne Le Coudy (Krieps) is an independent woman—based, in the director’s words, on her own mother—who, after meeting Holger Olsen (Mortensen), must be left alone in that little town of Elk Flatsafter he leaves to fight in the Civil war. The peculiarity of the story is that instead of focusing on him, it focuses on her and how she is then completely exposed to a violent world, controlled by the powerful rancher. Alfred Jeffries (W. Earl Brown) and his violent, wayward son Weston Jeffries (Garret Dillahunt).
“I wanted to have a woman as the protagonist without it implying that she was an outlaw, simply an everyday woman but with great inner strength”
Although Mortensen has tried to convey the female gaze in a hostile world, he insists several times during the interview that when it comes to making films he does not have a political or activist position: “That doesn’t help me make films, it’s too conceptual.” It’s too intellectual to tell an actor to ‘act an idea’, that doesn’t help them. Despite this, it’s inevitable: every time you tell an idea. story in which human beings interactregardless of the time, it helps you think about the current moment and I love that.”
He doesn’t want to get wet but he inevitably gets wet, like the adopted Argentinian that he is. “Argentina is experiencing a very complicated situation but it is not the first time. Argentines have a lot of endurance as a people to come back and reinvent themselves, also to look for solutions. It is a very complicated momentsome privileged people will be able to take more money in the pocket with this situation, but for the citizens and the Argentine people it is all very difficult. In any case, out of obstacles comes invention, ingenuity… it’s like a way of resisting. “I am sure that now in Argentina good films will be made because making films serves to solve problems in some way and also by doing so you have to constantly face many obstacles.”
“In many places I see a promotion of shame, lies and impudence by the political class, which is a disappointment”
“Despite everything I have seen in my life and what I see today in societies like Spain, United States, France… in many places I see a promotion of shame, lies and impudence by the political class that is a disappointment. But despite that I am optimistic and I believe that things can be improved,” he says.
Politics aside, another of the strong points of Until the end of the world They are their landscapes. It is a hostile world, but undoubtedly beautiful. As is usual in the genre, nature plays a fundamental role and surrounds the characters, and we can see the arid landscapes of the state of Durango (Mexico): “They were a gift,” says Mortensen. “I didn’t want the photograph to draw unnecessary attention (although in some westerns Like the ones of Sergio Leone yes it does), and the landscapes of Durango were favorable because nothing had ever been filmed there. It is generally seen California, Arizona, Almeria, New Mexico…in this type of movies.”
Mortensen is full of praise for her co-star: “Vicky is an actress who transmits great inner strength with her silences, she has something very special, a particular beauty and a way of being that seems from another time.” Krieps herself agrees with that of silences, who plays a role of a woman with character and depth, – as we are accustomed to -.
“I was interested in the script because it is women who build the world and societies after wars. In my eyes, Vivienne is a modern woman, like a girl doing a trick… it was very easy to prepare because in the end I have done so many characters from the past that I can always recover them and go back to the previous ones. It was also easy for me because Vivienne does things that she shouldn’t do and I’m like that too, I tend to look for what I don’t know, each role is something I haven’t done before and I try to do it with a different perspective. I try to work with directors who have maybe only made one film before, which is a risk but I like it. The only thing I had to prepare a lot for was the Canadian accent because Viggo is a very perfectionist,” says the actress.
There is always a certain risk when looking at the past with the eyes of the present and both are aware of this when representing the character of Vivienne in a genre like the western, traditionally masculine. “I I try to connect with those women who were pioneers but they did not have the knowledge or freedom that we have now. Here I have tried to capture its dignity, the silent resistance. The fact that you don’t say anything doesn’t mean it can’t be seen, it’s another way of communicating,” says Krieps.
“Hollywood is empty”
Krieps is the resistance. She remains a strong defender of European cinema against Hollywood: “I can’t say that it is collapsing or falling apart because it is capitalism and it is only based on growing, but there is a time when if you grow too much you lose connection with your base. That’s what’s happening to Hollywood.: it has grown but is empty of meaning, it makes a circle and runs through it, there is nothing new. You can’t make movies in such a short time. “American society is heading toward a place where the idea is no longer important, only the person who has it.”
“In Europe I think that thought is still present and there is a connection with culture, it has not died yet”
“In the end we are all public figures and we are losing our interiority, and in America this is extreme. How are you going to save a book without a story? They should have good scriptwriters, artists, people who think freely… in Europe I think that the thought is still present and there is a connection with culture, it has not died yet,” he indicates. Until the end of the world premieres this Friday, May 10.
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