VIGGO MORTENSEN IMMERSES HIMSELF IN RUSSIAN CULTURE

Viggo Mortensen visited Moscow before filming Eastern Promises to become a Russian mobster.

Viggo Mortensen is half Danish and a little Argentinean having lived there as a boy, but on screen he had to become Russian playing a mobster in Eastern Promises.

Viggo immersed himself in everything Russkie for the role by spending time in Moscow before production began; chatting with people he met on his travels, even learning to speak a little Russian. He kept a scrapbook of his memories there.

“But I usually do that. It’s kind of a rough blueprint and sort of a reminder I’m playing a guy who’s definitely from there and I want to keep that in mind so I had that. I would look at it each day and maybe add to it, I had words or new phrases in Russian I’d learned. In the hotel where I was staying, fortunately there was a satellite channel that was Russian and there’d be TV 24 hours a day of Russian movies, Russian news, sports and I just had that on the all the time. So I would just try to stay with that.”

The artist in him found several trinkets he brought home which helped him get into character whether or not you actually see them on the screen.

“I had some sort of worry beads which are made by Russian in a maximum security prison which were very beautiful multi-colored. They looked like stones but they were really melted down cigarette lighters with all the colors mixed. They were really beautiful. I felt it was good luck. I’m a little superstitious. My pockets were always stuffed. Those nice suits always had lots of little religious icon cards and things, one of which I used as an impromptu thing. There was a scene with the woman in the brothel I give her one of those cards.”

Viggo is sporting a goatee for his next film, the western Appaloosa directed by and starring Ed Harris with Jeremy Irons and Renee Zellweger.