Viggo Mortensen, From Warrior King to Captain Fantastic

trilogy as the warrior king Arragorn. Mortenson brought an earthy realism to a fantasy world filled with elves and wizards. The overwhelmingly successful films changed the course of Mortenson's career and he shot to global stardom. His latest film is about a very different kind of fantasy. Captain Fantastic is the story of a father trying to raise his six children outside of conventionality and what happens when that fantasy collapses.

Mortenson himself was raised on three different continents, and he says his own imagination was formed at an early age, maybe because when that happens to you, when you're uprooted a lot, you your fantasy world becomes a little more intense. You know, you replace the friends that you have to say goodbye to all the time with maybe imaginary friends.

Yeah I did. I mean the kids in the movie here, they're isolated from other people, that's for sure there, you know, as you see at the beginning, they're in the middle of the four the youngest of them have never met other people, and they're used to just being very self sufficient. But yeah, when I was when I was a kid, we did move around a lot, and I grew up in a sort of multi cultural environment. And maybe that what did your dad do? He was he's raised down

a farm. He's Danish and farm boys sort of self made. He he left home during high school. He didn't even finish high school. But then he he met my mom, who's from the US, was working in Norway, and fell in love and got married and he moved here and he decided, well, I'm gonna be a businessman. And so he taught himself English and somehow got himself into a business school here and did four years worth of studying two years, you know, very driven when my mom was

working and supporting himself. And uh, and then when I was born in in New York, we moved to South America because that's where he got a job and and do you have a lot of vivid memories of growing up down they're living down there? Yeah, yeah, when I was little, we lived in urban settings, and what I said,

it is and also in the in the country. My dad, just like his dad had told him when I was very young, my brothers and I all went camping with him a lot, went into wild places, hunting, fishing, all that. So those things were entirely How many brothers do you have too? Are they in the business as well? No, they're they studied geology quite different, although they're they're good. They're musicians. And I would have felt the youngest one, he was sort of very good mimic and um, you know,

very gifted in that way. And you know, if you would have guessed when we were little boys, who if one of them is going to be an actor, probably would have been him, not me? Right, Yeah, what what would they have guessed? You would have been a horse trainer. I don't maybe someone who has spent a lot of time himself. Probably I was. I mean I had friends, not a lot of them. I had a couple of

good friends. And then maybe because of this itinerant thing, but I didn't really I wasn't very social, I guess, and I was kind of shy about I mean, I would have never imagined trying out for a play or music. How did that happen? How did someone who because you seem so private and so um. Well, actually I did have one experience. I was junior high or so. Once

we moved to the United States. A friend of mine was really into to the idea of becoming an actor, and he loved musical and he was just really he knew everything about the theater in New York. And he said, you gotta try it for this play. It's great. It's it's called it was Hello Dolly Triumphant. And I said, what, no, I can't you imagine me trying out for Hello. Valley's

debut is Hello Dolly? Right? And so I go, What I gotta do is did you go there and you go on the stage and you know, on theitorium and then you you just don't give you something to read or you bring something to read? I remember who was In any case, I went out, very unwillingly, out on this stage and there's this, you know, the theater teacher

and whoever else is there? And uh, I read the first paragraph from David Copperfield, or tried to, but every three words they say louder louder, and I just would shrink and shrink, and I finally just closed the book and ran off. And that was my only foray other than I think when I in Argentina when I was like six, they put me in a play Georgia the Dragon, and that was the ass End of the Dragon. It was just a gray suit felters, Hello Dolly, or the ass End of the Dragons. It sounds like my career.

And so how does it begin for you? Meaning the person who was shy in private and likes to spend time with himself, how does he cross that divide? Well, at I guess the relatively late as something like that. Where were you then? I was in I was in Denmark. Well, I have a lot of family that our cousins and stuff. And I had a girl that I liked there and I had different jobs, you know, pretty you know, like manual labor kind of jobs, factory dog worker. Best one

was selling flowers on the street. That was nice. And uh, I always like to see movies, my mom when I was little. You should take me to pretty grown up movies. You know, I remember Dr Schivago or to see you know, these long movies with intermissions been her Lawrence of Arabia, and I love that. I love the experience of seeing the movies with her and through her and talking with her in the intermission. And of course he'd also maybe get a piece of chocolate and the intermission that was

not bad. And but the whole she really was into that and has she been. You know, she was typical mom from our parents generation, meaning that she's the one you saw all the time. And your dad would leave early and come home late, and you might see him at dinner, but more likely maybe not, maybe not even to be tucked in and then but you see him on the weekend. Uh, my dad is my mom passed away last year? And where were she at the end? And back where she was from Watertown Young It's no,

it's funny you say that. You said Watertown because my family, my mother's family from Syracuse and we spent a lot of time up in uh last guy, Watertown, Lake, Ontario, Selkirk Shores, Sandy Pond. My whole childhood was in that early it's beautiful area anyway, Yeah, and so you wouldn't see your dad, and I wouldn't that so much. But did you rather take the other boys to the movies? Too? Were just you? I mean later we all went with her sometimes, but there was I don't know, I had

a special connection with the movies through my mom. I'm not saying more than my brothers. You'd have to ask somebody. That's my recollection. I mean, I think what I was saying about her generation is had she not been a at home mom, I think she would have probably tried acting because she was. She was outgoing and very beautiful, and and she knew and cared a lot about movies. And Uh my first started out in called so what have you been doing? Uh? What do you what do

you try out for this week? And I'd say, well, I'm just saying, Who's who wrote the script? I don't know. I just they just gave me four pages. It's just I got like three lines. So what are you gonna how are you gonna play it? I go, I don't even have the part yet. I gotta go in and I got you know, who's the director? You know who's in it? Were a tie or no tie? Didn't do a tie? Yeah? You know you mustache fake mustache when you know whatever, all this stuff should he has a

patch on his eye. And if I'd say, well, I think the director's name is and I would say, oh, yeah, yeah, he's not very good, but you never know, it's a part good, you know, and like, and I just and I stopped sort of telling her so much unless I had the part and then we could talk. But because because it's very irritating now, of course I realized she really cared. One of the most enjoyable experiences I've had

in recent years. And then boom business was. There was one year it's like this, as you know, it's a crapshoot, the thing with awards and nominations, and then when you're not meant it, well, this year they got it right. This year's no I knew it was kind of yeah. There was one year I got nominated for all the sort of the SAG and the Golden Globes and the Oscars and all those in one and uh so I said to my mom, do you want to go too?

I think there's a there's a strike, so Golden Globes are canceled, there's no ceremony, but the SAG Awards were coming up. I said that could be nice. I think it's tables and it's like more relaxed. Do you want to go? Mom? Sure? Of course. I was waiting. I thought you'd never asked. I said, well, I've never been nominated before. She goes, okay, well, yes I'll go, Um, I will, I will. I'm gonna get a new dress or a pant suit or something. I said, well, whatever

you want. Do you want some help? No, no, no, no, that's something that's my area. And I said fine, So she got her things. She flew down. At that point, she was living in in northern Idaho, where I was lived. She had moved there and lived near my brother and a long story, but so she came down the Los Angeles. I picked up the airport. We came the day before, and we hung out and talked. She had lots of questions, but who's gonna be there? I don't know, mom, And

and then who else is nominated? And and then I told her who was nominated? She goes, oh, he did that? And he did that. She was like encyclopedia. And then we go to the thing, and you know, there's this red carpet thing. I said, well, I gotta talk to these journalists on the way in and then if you don't mind, no, I'll just stand out here and watch and see how you do. I'm like, okay, it was

kind of I knew she was behind. So she watches and uh, we walk in and then she's muttering, oh, you did okay, except for that one lady, you seem like you didn't like her. I said, well, the questions were condemn it doesn't matter. You gotta polite to all of them. I'm like, yeah, okay. So we sit down and then it is tables and uh, and she immediately goes, oh, that's and all the older actors and people that I didn't know who they were. She knew exactly who they were.

He was in this, and he was in that, in everything, and MAT's John Travolta. I go, yes, it is. He goes, excuse me, and she gets up and she goes and just just talking to him, and she did that all night. It was. It was great. It was it was a fantasy. I loved it, and she loved it, and she she had a really good time. And uh, they asked I had been asked. I've never done this to present one of the awards at night, which is a nerve racking thing. I was like, I'd rather just learn it. I don't know,

you should read the things. I don't know what it was best supporting actress, I think, And um, yeah, there was a sort of gentle critique of my delivery when I came back to the table. You know, it's just like that kind of night. But I left a lot. It was wonderful and I wish I wish I had been nominated before that, just so that I could have taken my mom wonderful. I took my mom to quite a few premiers. You liked that, and uh or either

took her or she attended, you know. Sometimes once I wasn't you know, like if I couldn't be at the one in New York City, she would come down Syracuse. But there was one that was really fun. It was I did a movie called Hidalgo, which I love that movie, I said, And it was mar Sharif, isn't it. And of course when she took me when I was little to see Ductor and Lawrence Arabia and so she, I mean, she had a I think she had a crush on him like back then and maybe her whole life. I

don't know, and she came with my stepdad. You know, you look a little like O more at this time of day, I kind of looked like a little bit. It's weird. So in the morning, Uh, yeah, thank you.

She Uh, she came with my stepdad and uh. It was kind of a crazy premiere in l A. I actually came down the red carpet on the horse was reining, and they were like, don't don't gallop because if you slide under a bus and you and the horse get hurt, and and if you get hurt, they added, really the ps um that would be terrible for us, and you know the insurance. I don't know. I don't know, so

don't worry. I'll just trot in. So I did, and the photographers were kind of shocked, and I wrote up right up to him and and they started asking questions as I don't know, I asked him, and it was kind of just silly like that. And my mom's there, you know, my stepdad beaming, and uh. I get off the horse and I walk over to her and then I spot Omar and I go, I look, mom, as you guys that's him, And I said, well you can you want to meet him. No, no, no, I go, yeah,

come on. And I had told Omar that my mom really was into him, you know, when the shooting and he just like put on the swab gentleman. He was suddenly looked like from ninety three. And he comes over and he takes her hands so gently, just never removing his eyes from hers, and kissed her hands so slowly. She was like beat red. And my stepdad I thought he was going to knife him. I mean, he was so upset. I mean, he's insane, he but he was just like I thought, he's gonna have a coortinary And

it was like a highlight. She was just beaming those rest of the night. It was like she'd been given some kind of you know, drug or something. I have the same thing with my sister. I was doing this movie at the Edge with Tony Hopkins, and we were in the Canadian wilderness, the bay with the bear in the woods there where. It was the best experience I've ever had making a film because I worshiped Tony. I was just the dream of working with Tony and I thought,

oh God, would if I ever had that chance. I just loved him, and here I was making this film and my sister, my older sister who at the time I was married, has six children. You know, she's a pretty solid citizen. She comes up to Canada and see me. Uh, Tony's laying on an air mattress because he'd hurt his back and right soon after this he was going to boo and shut down for two weeks from the back surgery where like go in your neck and fix his

bones and everything. And he's lying there reading the paper, and my sister walks up and I go, Tony, um, like, meet my sister, Beth. And Tony stands up, fluffs his clothes, and then right like a movie, he like just looks up for it, makes out of contact or with and says Elizabeth with a great pleasure to meet you, and takes her hand and does the same exactly, the slow kiss on the hand. And my sister turned red. She started like trembling a little bit as she worshiped Tony.

And I thought, these guys just they got it. May she walks away and he's done for the day, right, He's totally kill himself doing that now for you, Um, you were going to give me the where you crossed that line and the and the very quiet, private kid goes into the business. Two years old, I started, I

guess I started looking. I mean i'd seen some on TV, but I hadn't really seen many, I mean in Argentine and seen Argentine movies because that's what you had down there, mostly American movies, like it happens every in the world. But but i'd see stuff in Argentine. I mean I saw cartoons on TV were from there because they were dubbed. And then i got here when I was eleven, and I'm like looking at You'll be Bear and you know,

speed Racer, and said, oh, these are not Argentine either. Actually, yeah, in the Batman TV show, you know, with Adam West and a lot, I felt you were in the same major. It's the same cartoon. Yeah, it's like this, it's all on English. What's wrong, you know? And but I hadn't been exposed to, let's say, movies from other countries, and then from the forties fifties, certainly not silent movies. And all of a sudden I started watching lots of Denmark.

That was the time where I was spending time in England and Denmark and different jobs, and and I started going to revival movie houses where you'd see a couple of different movies a day if he wanted to. And I started seeing, you know, movies by Ozu and Brassan and Passolini and Dryer and before that. And it was an eye opener. And at some point I made the transition from being entertained or not, you know, going for for just to enjoy myself, to wondering what it was, what,

what the trick was? I mean, how do they do that? How do you How is it that I relate to them? And then suddenly I'm crying. I'm sitting in a movie theater crying, or that I walk out of the movie theater and I'm shocked that I'm in Copenhagen, or that I'm in a city and it's daytime. I'm not, you know, on this Mongolian plane or something. You're not on the raft in the middle of the ocean. Yeah, And I was curious about how is that done? And and not

long after that, I moved to Manhattan from Denmark. Yeah, there was a girl I was going out with at the time. She went back here and I followed her and that didn't work out. But I got here. I was with her for a while, and I was curious about the acting thing. I wanted to try it, just to see, you know, how do you do? How does it work? So I I got I got a phone book. I looked at the yellow pages. You got to go to the theater and try out for the play. But

what theater? Right? So I'm leafing through and I find this thing that says Actor's Repertory Theater, which was a really a workshop with Warren Robertson as a teacher, right, And so I love Actor's Repertory here that sounds I know. Repertory means they could be doing several plays, and maybe if I get in the first one, then I do. Okay, I could be in other place, and that's probably the place. So I call him I and they go Actor's Repertory Theater. You know, I, how do you? How do you try

out for the play? And I go what play? And I go, well, you know there are auditions. Sure you can come down a fifteen Monday. You can come down. You might want to get here a few minutes early just to sign in. Okay, what I do? Bring two pieces and like two pieces of what? And they said two texts? You know? Oh, text and like, you know, I go to to to act and they go yes.

So I had no idea what that meant. So at the time, I was reading a collection of short career relies on the patients of this woman on that phone point. She was very kind to you. E's actina, said Karen Blix and the Danish writer. I was reading some short stories. There's one in which Jack the Ripper figures and there's some dialogue. So I sort of cobbled together the dialogue from the short story and made a little monologue out of that, and then I found an Irish song, or

there's an Iri song. I liked old ever song. So I came in and I did this weird Jack the Ripper monologue and and sang this song and they just sat there for a while, looked at each other, and they said we'll get back to you. And I that's it. You go yep next you know like that. So I I went went back home and I thought, well, I don't know if that went well or not. And the next day they called and they said you can come in next Wednesday. Go what's the play and they go,

there is no play, just come in next Wednesday. Turned out it was a theater workshop where you seeing study and and acting exercises of Warren Robertson had his His approach was kind of a combination of Sandy Meiser and actor's studio, you know, since memory and seen study and did you like it right away? I did like it? Well. The main thing was that he encouraged me. Had he not yes, had he not said no, there's something. I mean,

I was probably really doing weird stuff. Uh, you know, he would say, you're just too fidgety year all over the place. I want you to sit on your hands and do all that now without moving around so much, and he was just I don't I think it was probably very crude, but he saw something and he sort of eventually recommended me to go meet an agent and stuff. And if he hadn't encouraged me, it might have been

just one more thing I tried. I'm not sure, but uh, and I certainly, I mean I got lucky right away once I went out for auditions in terms of getting to down to the last two guys for parts. But I did that about thirty times and I never would get it, and I was always shocked. I was like, well, I did my best why don't you know? But something about it, maybe whatever my mom had inculcated or put into me, or maybe just some voice inside you that told you, do you need to find out? Stay with it.

I still was like, I liked that was telling stories in the movies. I want to do it. So I just stuck with it and eventually got little parts. It's probably from me because I'm a slow learner. Um in a way. I mean, once I learned something, I'm I'm not going to forget it. But the process of auditioning many times and seeing how people shoot stuff and how you know, tests, screen tests, all kinds of stuff, and then getting small parts I'm doing a little theater, little

TV and small parts of movies. I really learned how process works. I got, you know, a couple of good parts, very small, like one scene parts, one with Woody Allen Purple Rosa Cairo, one with Jonathan Demi Swing Shift. Both of those were cut out of the movies. To my surprise and my family's when I told him next Friday, I'm in the movie, Like, what are you doing in I'm in the movie, but I'm not in the movie. Yeah, my name is nowhere. Yeah, I promise I made the

scene with Woody. Yeah. So I was in Search for Tomorrow, which was the oldest. Which one did you do? Did the doctors before they got but Search Edge well Go always called them by one word. When I was on Search Edge days, Search was a very old one, and I went in. They put me in this white paramedic kind of outfit and they said, you guys are gonna

want it's time. We'll practice just before because it's an arrow door and you put the actress on the stretcher, then you you can't make like a full turn with a stretcher and all I just have that in mind. I'm like, okay, okay, And then it was like hurry up and wait. So I was down there in the little cubicle that they put me in in my white outfit, and my hair sort of slipped back a little bit, and uh, I fell asleep, and all of a sudden

the bells ringing. It come on, where's Mortonton? And then as we had to shoot, I didn't get to rehearse. I didn't know what was going on. So the guy goes, well, you take the back end, always the ass end of the stretcher and just follow where I go, Okay, I go fine, fine on half asleep and um backing up, I hit the set in the wall. It was it was just terrible. I didn't get that call back to that one. But Search for Tomorrow I had a good run. I was on it for a few months and I

played a smuggler's kind of mysterious guys. I never find out what I keep smuggling. I would ask, and it's like too many questions. More what am I smuggling? It's not it's contrabands, And I go, well, what what is the drugs? Not important? You're just smuggling. The main thing is you don't tell anybody. I said I won't and they finally, I think got tired of my questions a

few months because I said, well, why is this? And if I'm gonna you know, I had I was in the hospital at one point and then I did the thing when you tie the sheets together and climb out the window, and uh, I don't know. I asked questions about where'd all these sheets come from. I mean, it's all lives on sheets to pull this off. This knot is not strong around the ninth floor, yeah, I mean, my only one sees that exactly. I said, these knots

are not strong enough. This is would never hold, you know. And they're like, I just throw it out the window and jump out yourself out the window. So after so many questions, one day I was informed it's the end for you. On Wednesday, I said, the end, the end? What the end of your employment here? But it's gonna be a great scene. And I was a silly scene. It was a bar and I was a girl that hit me with a breakable glass a picture of beer in the forehead and I fall out of shot and

that was it. And that was it for Vigo Mortenson's soap opera career. Coming up, his film career explodes. Take a listen to the Here's the Thing Archives. I talked with actresses like Debbie Reynolds who remembers living in Hollywood during the Golden era. Right across the street was Jimmy Stewart and Lucille Ball and everybody was on that one street. It was like, let's have a party every night. Listen to the full conversation at Here's the Thing Dot Org.

This is Alec Baldwin and you were listening to Here's the Thing. Vigo Mortenson isn't just an award winning actor. He is also an avid writer, artist and publisher. He speaks fluent English, Danish, Spanish, and French. But his first movie offer was a one day role as an Amish farmer speaking German in Peter Weir's film Witness. He wasn't sure if he should take it. On the very day

he was offered the role in Witness. That same day, I was offered a part in a Shakespeare in the Park production, and I said to my representative, well, obviously do the play. I mean, I can work all summer and learn stuff. He goes, not so fast. He said, you know, for an actor living in New York, and you know in the early eighties it wasn't even now, but especially then, you don't get that. It's not like

you had that many shots at being in movies. Um. And you're certainly not going to be offered work by Peter Weir very often. So take advantage. You can always do a play or in New York. Um. So I recommend you do that, even if it's only the one day. So I go down. I take the train down to to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and I do my first day's work and as Luckward, it was very it was fun. It was a beautiful place. And at lunch, Peter where It comes over and says, you know, you have this big resemblance.

I'm thinking, well, what are you doing tomorrow? I go, I'm going taking the train back to New York. He goes, are you doing anything this summer? The rest of the summer? Going out now? And he says, uh, well, if you wouldn't mind staying, you know, for a few weeks maybe more. Um, I think I'm gonna give Alexander good enough, the Amish suitor of Kelly McGillis Harrison Ford's rival for for her

affections in the story. We're gonna give him a younger brother, and uh, you just tag along and the scenes he's in, You're just watching this rivalry. You're the audience's eyes. I guess, and we'll figure it out, okay, And I go sure. So that was a good break and it was very professional. They always finished on time. Uh, the weather was nice, but the cinematographer was brilliant, John cele, the actors were prepared,

and the director that nobody yelled. It was fun. Anybody could go to watch the Russia's The dailies, So it was misleading in it. It was misleading because everybody was coming on and behaved well and kind to each other, and they did good work and they finished on time and it was not stressful. So I don't know about your experience and my experience. That's very unus. A very

famous actor. I don't want to speak about anybody, you know, without their permission, but told me that he did a film that was very tough that way, and the director was very very you know, just luxuriating in thirty five and forty takes without any real director, you know, without any real purpose, and kind of abusive to some of the other cast at the very least psychologically, and the way he would say things and do things, and it was and it was all hum you know, not at

all what he was used to or preferred. And so he just went up to the guy and and rather than get angry, he just really said it, like as a plea, he said, he said, I just can't work like this, and if you want me to do what I do, this situation has got to change. I like to do sixth or eight takes, you like to do thirty takes? Thirty five takes he said, I don't work that way. So he said, let's I'm gonna go home right and cut out this kind of dressing everybody down

in front of the crew and crew members. He said, we want to speak to somebody, you give them their notes privately, don't do it and embarrass them. So the point is that the actor said to the director, you you guys think about it, and he goes and I'm gonna go home, and then tomorrow if I come back, if you want me to come back, I'm gonna come back knowing that it's different. And if I don't come back,

you're gonna get another actor to play this part. Who's gonna put up with when I'm putting up with now that I don't want to put up with anymore. He just said it really calmly, and what happened, and when they the guy changed and just you know was everybody was a little bit more. There were times you could see the guy was struggling and he didn't change the nature, had the power, had the position or the size role that he could do that. If you're playing a bit parts,

you're done, you're out. You know. I think the main thing, the most important thing to be apart from just listening. Uh. In general, it's good in life too. But for an actor, be flexible, you know, once you realize that there's all kinds of ways of making movies good and bad, pleasant and unpleasant. Um, that doesn't mean you can't do your job. Sometimes it's more difficult than others. But the best thing is to be there's different ways of something like to her.

Some people don't. Some actors come in and some of them are very good, award winning actors. It's a lobby name, but they will. They can prepare technically, let's say, in front of a mirror. Whatever they do. They know how they're gonna the tone line, they know at what moment of the scene they're gonna cry or seem to or laugh. It's all. There's nothing wrong with it. Um. But that

means that you're adapting to them, you know. I mean, I've tried, but it doesn't you know, just for the hell of and there's like they're just impassive because they know one of the cameras on them. It doesn't matter what the hell you're doing. If you're working that way, it's this is what I'm delivering. You guys, adjust to me that can work, and that person can do a great job. It's just not as much fun because there isn't the unknown. There isn't you're not playing together. It's

not a two way street. And um that works. Uh So when you work with something like that, while you just deal with it, if you get resentful, then you're out of your game. It's like someone trying to psych you out on the basketball court or you know, or something you can't. If you let that happen, you're you're not going to play. Well, what's the movie you did?

It's the opposite where everybody really really did playoff. It was very crackling and very alive with I've been lucky, I've been in several I would say Captain fantastic this movie that's just come out. Um, that was a great experience that the director was calmed. That was very much like Peter Ware or like Cronenberg, where everything's done, everybody's well prepared, everybody's polite to each other. The director has

a good sense of humor. Um, they're intelligent enough to know that it's good to do everything possible to give the actors the idea it's a lie, basically, but to give the actor of the idea that there's especially when you're working with children. In this movie, you have six kids that there's you have all the time in the world. It's just fun. It's just there's no pressure and inside the directors like freaking out as the son's going down

and you're an independent movie, have limited budget. It was thirty something days thirty it's not bad. But when you look at Captain Fantastic, we had a lot of changes of locations and all these and some of the kids are I mean the kids have limited work hours five six hours for the youngest, and it's a longer in indie terms. Everybody was you could kind of wrap wrap it up in an hour and thirty now you know what I mean exactly. And um, so that was a

good experience. And I mean he he's the captain, He or she runs the show and they their example is what what guides everyone else? Katherine Hans, Steve's on, very good actors, Um, Frank Lan Jela and Doubt, I mean everybody. And it was a great group of people, and I think Matt selected people who would work that way. I was so hoping that there would be an earthquake and a beam would come down to crushed lan Jelous character.

I hated him so much in the movie. Yeah, but at the end you kind of realized he's got a point. You know, he's not all wrong. I mean yeah, one of the I mean, one of the things I like about the movie is that it it surprises you, it subverts your expectations. Just like when I was reading the script, I thought, wow, this is good. I have my pencil because I know the director want to meet me, so I wanted to make my notes, so, you know, and

I didn't make any notes. I just started reading, and the first ten fifteen pages I thought, Okay, I know where this is. What this is. It's a kind of a sub genre. It's a I guess, liberal utopian fantasy story where these are our heroes, are these left wing off the good people and their obstacles will be conservative people, conservative ideas, and we'll go with them through thick and thin, and see how that works. Will probably be funny, and convention will be there, right and and then I realized

it's not that. And you go from thinking was the best dad in the world, I feel like a lazy bumb you know, watching this family. They're so driven to you know, per to achieve physical and intellectual excellence every second of the day. It's incredibly devoted father to thinking he's a maniac, he's a menace to his children, dangerous, and he's you know, the very rigidity that he's so against, he's engaging in it inadvertently maybe by being isolating them

and being so rigorous. And then the characters that you think are gonna be you know, like Frank Langelo's character and his wife and out, you think they're gonna be just bad and so of one note and and in reality there they have a point. They and his children and circumstances lead the character that I played to to realize I'm on the wrong path. And it's it's devastating

when you, as a parent do what he does. If if you give a hundred percent of your time and energy, you do everything to to help, you know, curate the lives of your your children, to give them best possible start. You you're sacrificing everything, and your first impulse is to feel like it's all wrong. I'm an idiot, and I quit and and then he makes an adjustment. And as an audience, I like those stories. Just reading I thought this is really good. I was really surprised that closed

the script and that's amazing. I've made a single note. I want to meet Matt Ross, the writer director, for a cup of coffee which lasted like four and a half hour, talking about being dad everything. You know, politics and you are a dad. You have a twenty eight year old son, son where he's in Los Angeles? What does he do? A musician? He's a writer and he also works part time personal press or company publishing house.

I have that you have? Yeah? Oh cool? You know, when I saw the film, it just reminded me that I have a daughter who's going to be twenty one in October, and and I was not involved in raising her as much as I'd like to because I was divorced and everything and it was a little complicated. But um, and when I watched the film, I realized that, well, here's the guy that really wants to raise his kids himself.

And what I realized watching You is that, yeah, we don't raise our children, and we try, we really try. We try so hard to superimpose our sensibilities. And here's a guy who he really wants to be their father in the sense that he's going to determine what gets put into the mix and what doesn't. And in the world we live in now, especially now, I mean right now, that's impossible. How much do we actually raise our children's

almost ridiculously small technology the world? Yeah, well, I mean the meaning I got from the story too, when I got from the script, is that it's aspirational. That really it's basically to be the perfect parent is impossible, And the story isn't showing you something to make you think what you should be There hunter percent of time it's just whether you're engaged or not. And to know that by taking the risk of trying hard, you're gonna make mistakes.

And then the most important thing is is hopefully realizing that and doing something about it and making adjustments. You know, being a good dad isn't a static thing. Having a good marriage is an a static thing. Neither is a democracy, neither is a friendship. You know, tomorrow morning you gotta sort of start over, not over, but continue the process and make adjustments. And if you don't, it's a game that moves as you play, and if you don't move,

you can't play very well. So scripts for you, how does scripts get to you? Was there a mechanism, But I think people would be fascinated to know someone who has made as many successful films, highly successful films as you've had. You're very admired by everybody in the business, and you must get inundated with scripts. And is there a filter like how do you get a script and say, the one you open and the one you read, how

does it arrive at your home? Well, in that regard, I don't like filters at all, and my representative I was always known that. So I said, I'll read. I will read everything and anything and don't sense or don't just send it and read whatever you want to. Um, I don't care, but I'm gonna decide if I want to do it or not. And sometimes you read and most I mean, I think it's been since movies began

as an art form. Percent or more of things the scripts that are written are not original or if they start well or maybe there's an okay, con said, it's just the structure. It just doesn't work. And most of them are really poorly written, not very good ideas. So but it does take longer to just to look at everything.

And so that's a conventional way they come through you know, an agent sometimes, but a lot of times people will hand me stuff on the street or through a family member, and you know, you've probably you know, if somebody said, what would you look at this? Or you're going to try to avoid it if I can. I know, you're going to open the opening of a movie and you're doing anything and suddenly goes here and he handed a package, and you're like, well, I will look at him and

I will answer. But it's also like, what the publishing house I have? You know, I've announced it. We're not taking unsolicited submissions for the for the foreseeable future. We have enough projects in the hopper to work on. Why did you set up a publishing house? I like books, and I like artists. I like writers, and there were certain people that I saw ought to be published after Lord of the Rings, for me and for what else. All of a sudden there was this new I had

more options as an actor suddenly. I mean people have the mistaken impression that as an actor you can choose, Well, why didn't you do that? So they enough for Tony you can say no, but you can't say yes. They're offering it. But people thinking James Bond I'm like, I've never heard from the James Bond people and so so um. I just thought, well, I'll use the money and more than that, the notoriety that I suddenly have as a result of the success of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

I'll established this publishing house and to help it the first year, I'll put out a book maybe two of my own photographs, things, poems, and then that will lead them to the other things on the website. And I enjoy it. I think it must be like directing. I suppose in the sense that you're enabling other people. You're

you're facilitating their their way of looking things. I'm curious as to, uh, you do um Carlito with Brian who I love, and you do g I Jane, you do the Psycho remake, You do a bunch of things when you arrive where it's Peter Jackson directed the first film as well, right, And when Jackson contect you, where are you out in your career? At that point, we're on the threshold of doing the biggest movies you've ever made.

It's I had just finished my hand movie that ended up being called Twenty eight Days, and I had driven I bought a pickup truck, and I had driven across the country with my son, who was eleven at the time. We had this great road trip where he made a map. He drew a map in the United States, and he said, I said, well, let's decide the route rather than going straight across the country to California, where we were living at the time, I said, what places should we go?

I said, well, how about grace Land, Okay, we made that dot on the map, and then how about where Mom's families from Michael. That would be near Chicago. And then well how about you know uncle Michael, because that's Tucson, Okay, And how about this, and how about Yeah, So there was all these places all over so we did. I said, well,

this is what the line looks like. It's like this stock exactly crashing, falling, going up and down north south, north south, but always sort of more or less working westward. And we got back from that school starts and I was up in Idaho actually when I got this phone call and uh, somebody said, we would like you to come and do this movie. And I so I just got back when my son and school started, and I

haven't I don't haven't read that book. I don't know anything about it, and you're guys are already shooting it was to replace an actor, which was also an awkward thing, and um who was deemed to be too young for the role, and I should I don't know. My son heard me talking about it and he he said, the Lord of the Rings knew what it was from his friends and he dream and I'd read The Hobbit years before in high school, but I didn't know anything. But Lord Rings, I I just knew it was this big,

huge book. And he said, what's the character? And I go, that's the guy I don't have some guys in the woods and he's got you know, some little people and he's guiding around and he know that's a strider. I don't know. Yeah right, and he goes and he becomes the king. I go, he does? He goes, yeah your yeah, And I go, you should do that. I got, well, but it's a long you know, I don't haven't read it, and they've been rehearsing for months and all the stuff

from Elvish and sword play and whatnot. I don't think it's it's just sometimes you gotta admit you're not the writer. Guy for the job. Whatever this I don't know. So I hung up, But I thought about it, and he was very for it. Maybe I would have done it on my own anyway, but I was curious, and also on the phone, They're going, it'd be easy, you know, I mean, you will be done by December. Here it's October. I go, that's good. December of next year. Actually, I'm

like it, so so I said. I eventually said yes, and that's how that worked out. It was great. That was a good experience. I really like that. I was there's something I was thinking about earlier that yesterday. I did this, uh, sort of like a public forum R time some where you're speaking in from an audio. Been asked exactly, and they asked me a question. I was

curious how you felt? Was? They said? Do you feel that the movies you do or choose to do or accept that they need to be about something in terms socially? Do they have to be for the better good or they have to promote you know, I suppose politically or ideologically something positive in your opinion, I said, I thought about I said, no, I don't think that I find movies that are message movies to not be very effective dramas or comedies or anything. They're just not interesting to me.

Movies like Captain Fantastic right, the movies that actually indirectly without intending to make you think about communication problems, which we have many in this country right now. That's great because you're thinking you can apply it. Okay, Well, people aren't talking, and if you don't talk and you're isolated in your groups because of ideology, race, whatever, it's a problem. You gotta talk, you gotta work it out. You're gonna have to be flexible. Uh, that's how I like it.

But I don't message movies. No, I said, um, but what I was thinking and the subject went onto something else. What I I would have said, if we talked about it further, was that you know, I've I've heard the thing that you've probably heard before. When you're an actor, when did you keep your masha? What do you know? I said, Well, why doesn't a football player or an actor, or a dentist or anybody and any part of the country have a right to say anything it's supposed to be?

You know, if you you can't expect your politicians to have a civil discourse, informed discourse, to be honest and to communicate better across the aisle or or with citizens. If you don't do it, example has to come from below, not from from above. Now, Um, it's interesting to me when I think about you, is you know you're this very chiseled leading man and you've got this warmth and this passion, this beauty to you in the current film and Captain Fantastic, but in other films, you know, you're

this anxiety is tough. History of Violence was a tough movie. And um, do you find when you make a film like that is some kind of a state you have to enter to play one or the other? Do you have to empty yourself out and get into the beauty zone and the love zone to do Captain Fantastic? And you need to drink nineteen espressos and be in your room watching Scarface on DVD when you step off to go shoot people in the movie. I mean, I you know the other question that's sort of like that that

people say, well, what happens? How do you get rid of the character? You know when you go home at night or when you're done shooting. And I'm the opposite, how do you get into the character? I mean, my job as I see it is, I gotta take on the point of view, understand it and like it, believe in the point of view of a character and playing And I've played some characters that I wouldn't want to meet on the street, but and that I disagree with their point of view personally. But my job is to

get into it. It's kind of the make believe that you do without even thinking as a child, but as an adult you have to work at it. And I find that endlessly interesting. It's like traveling mentally in your imagination. So and getting into it, yeah, I mean, I naturally gravitate, and I when I played Sigmund Freud and a dangerous method.

But I just read everything that I had read of his and everything I hadn't read, essays and things about him, biographies, And I went to Vienna and I spent some time walking around. I went to places he was meant to have walked to all the time, cafes I went to. I found books that I knew from research that he

had in his library. I found addition, you know, it's just a whole and maybe none of that has ever seen in the movie, but for me it makes me feel like I've turned over stone and in the process of this, this sack that I feel with all these odd things, you never know what they are, even objects that maybe get used in the movie, learning how he's trying to copy his handwriting, all these things that you don't really have to do. But it's my getting ready.

It's a fun part. And if I'm playing a dark kind of character, like you said, I take an interest, I might try to meet people like that or go to places they'd go to and just naturally not trying to. You couldn't get into a mindset. That doesn't mean that I'm gonna go home and shoot somebody, yeah, or punch some pregnant woman in the belly or something, you know,

just for fun. You know. I'm just I've actually did that in the movie Pregnant woman in the belly in the movie, and found out she was speaking well, she had a fake foam pattern. She was pretending to be pregnant, which is why I kicked her. I knew, I knew she was faking. Oh my god, it must have been a horrible moment. It was a horrible moment of the I hated doing it, but my character could see through. He could tell she wasn't really pregnant by the way

she was faking in this movie. But away, So, the last thing I want to say to you is what someone I admire Cronenberg endlessly. I love his films. He's such a great, great movie maker, and I love, uh those three films, and two in particular really be I mean, just a history of violence. It was just such a such an incredibly gripping movie, and ed and Hurt and all these real and guys that are really just these very people. You can't take their eyes. The three of

you together, it was like this Mount Rushmore. And he's really really interesting guys in movies. And um, what does he do for you? What's something you like about Cronenberg? And how does he help you as a director when you work with somebody like that. Well, he's not a director that next to rehearse, but he's very careful and very good at casting. Um, he's open to anybody's ideas.

He's a saying, mature, sensible director. Um. So we developed a shorthand right away and share kind of I think it's a similar of humor, similar interest in literature and movies. And we didn't need to talk much about you know I would do a take and he might say I'm happy if you aren't doing another one. I say, yeah, you know, I mean, I'll do a lot of takes. I like it. But if that's another thing about being flexible. Some directors, some schedules only allow for a take or two.

And what I've quickly realized with him is that, you know, let's say, in that character history of violence, it's very subtle. Some of the transitions were because he's pretending to be someone else for years, so much so that he almost believes it. And so there's almost a sorta schizophrenic situation he has. And it's not a clean he doesn't suddenly go from one guy don another. There's some little back

and forth. You know, he's on the edge of that, and some of that's very subtle, and it's mostly non verbal, when he's just a look in the eye or just a glance and he's like, oh, he's becoming that other character, is peaking through that other person his real self or one of his real selves. And you know, I realized right away, like I did the thing I said, well, you know, I wasn't. I didn't. It's not something said

I just he goes Now. I saw it. I thought, so you need a director who sees the thing, know how to read you. Yeah, and all of you know, and takes care of it in the editing room. Um So when he said I was do Eastern Promises, I thought, sure it would be great. I was doubtful about the third one. He said, Siegmund Freud. I said, that's a stretch. I don't I don't think any other director would have said play that. But it's him. So in the end, well,

he hasn't steered me wrong so far. I want to finish by saying, you've played a lot of great roles as a result of your looks, and you know, masculinity and intensity, not just you know, your fear physical features, but your whole essence. And but to be on film and just exist on film and to respond and this

film really breathes. This movie is beautiful and breathe. The moment for me, and I'm not even assuming this is was there for you, but the moment I thought, said Langella at one point in the film, two thirds into the film, where he's just like suggesting you're crazy, You're nuts.

And what I loved about you was that you really what I got from you was you were like, maybe I am You sat there and go, oh my god, maybe I am crazy, And that was one of the most beautiful moments in the movie, that little interlude was saying, oh God, maybe they're right. Yeah, maybe I am crazy, Maybe I'm mentally ill. I love I love characters that that take you on that journey, and I love movies that, as an audience mean you're sitting here and then they

really make you think I'm doing it wrong. I mean as a dad or just as a human better all wrong. I'm lazy, I don't I've treated people. I gotta call my mom right away or I guys can talk to my chill learner. I've got to make up for that thing I did. Or why did I choose this profession? Why what's wrong with me? I'm so lacking in and

integrity and effort and commitment. And you know, movies that make you doubt everything, make you wake up and think everything I've done is wrong, even for a moment, then of course you have to hopefully you can get it together and to make some adjustments. That's that's a great service that a movie story can do for you. I watched a screening of Captain Fantastic and I encourage you to see it too. It's playing in theaters now. This is Alec Baldwin and you were listening to Here's the Thing, M