Viggo Mortensen Receives Coolidge Award
Independent/Mainstream Film Star Honored for Acting
By: Mark Favermann - Mar 06, 2012
Last night at Brookline’s Coolidge Corner Theatre, actor Viggo Mortensen was honored by an admiring crowd of nearly 500 fans for his independent, often risk-taking cinematic career. The Coolidge Award annually recognizes a film artist who “advances the spirit of original and challenging cinema.’’
And Mortensen certainly embodies this.
His outstanding, nearly three decade career has strategically gone between independent, hard to make, hard to finance films to blockbuster mainstream movies. Mortensen is a renaissance man interested in all of the arts and a total mensch, an admirable man of quality and charm.
His character choices are generally a bit off center. They resist easy definition. They are never stereotypical even if they are iconic. The actor is attracted to roles off the beaten path with an inner dignity, a soulful silence that often conceal doubts, secrets, aspirations or anger.
Since 2004, the Coolidge Award is an annual celebration of cinema honoring a film artist whose body of work is recognized as consistently original and challenging.
Each year, the category from which the recipient is chosen rotates to reflect the broad range of film arts championed by the Coolidge Corner Theatre throughout its long history (founded in 1933).
Other Coolidge Award distinguished honorees have included director Jonathan Demme in 2010 (“Rachel Getting Married,” “Stop Making Sense,” “Silence of the Lambs”), animators the Quay Brothers in 2009 (“Street of Crocodiles,” Institute Benjamenta), film producer Jeremy Thomas in 2008 (“Sexy Beast,” “The Last Emperor,” “The Great Rock and Roll Swindle”), film editor Thelma Schoonmaker in 2007 (“Raging Bull,” “Goodfellas,” “The Departed”), actress Meryl Streep in 2006 (“Sophie’s Choice,” “Silkwood,” “The Devil Wears Prada”), Italian cinematographer Vittorio Storaro in 2005 (“Apocalypse Now,” “The Conformist,” “Reds”) and Chinese director Zhang Yimou in 2004 (“Hero,” “The House of Flying Daggers,” “Raise the Red Lantern”).
At a very youthful 53, Mortensen is intrigued by all aspects of the arts and the notion of mortality. Growing up in a family that lived in different parts of the world (his father was Danish and his mother from Northern New York State), he grew up in Argentina as well as at the small rural city of Watertown, New York.
He has a passion for intellectual, emotional as well as physical adventure. These are often translated by gifted portrayals in varying roles. Mortensen enjoys the challenge, the things that he does not know much about that make him a bit nervous. Then he does intensive and extensive research and training to embrace each role. He read Freud's library for A Dangerous Method, learned Russian for Eastern Promises and sword fighting for The Lord of the Rings.
Mortensen is all about risk-taking. And his eclectic, sometimes courageous role choices are why the Coolidge Corner Theatre honored him. He also is a painter who writes poems, shoots photos, sings, plays piano, and administrates a small publishing house. According to the Coolidge's executive director, Denise Kasell, "Not only is he very accessible and a generous gentleman, he really understands and gets what we (The Coolidge Corner Theatre) are all about.’’
Prior to Monday's award, the Coolidge has been showing a retrospective of Mortensen’s films. A rare marathon of the extended editions of The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy was held over 11 hours on Sunday. The hundreds in attendance were surprised and gratified by Mortensen's appearance. He led the excited audience in song.
On Monday afternoon, a sold out screening of Eastern Promises the David Kronenberg film that earned Mortensen a 2007 best actor Oscar nomination was shown. The post-screening Q&A with the actor was extended graciously by Mortensen for a half hour more. The crowd was enthralled. The actor was a real person with down-to-earth attitudes and wonderful insights. A friend said that he was someone that you could hang out with.
The soldout award presentation Monday night followed a VIP party. NPR's and WBUR's Robin Young moderated a conversation with Viggo in between short clips of various of his films. At times, she was a bit overwhelmed with his candor and charm. The audience also felt very connected to him by his remarks, personal insights and stories.
When asked who he admires, the actor lists a major group of heroic beings including “my father, my mother, various horses and dogs’’ to "Mahatma Gandhi, Thor, Jesus of Nazareth, Odysseus, Edson Arantes do Nascimento (Pelé), Jesse Owens, the crew of Apollo 11, Greta Garbo, Louis Armstrong, and Mozart."
In addition, he lists "Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Heraclitus, Lao Tzu, Anna Akhmatova, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, Luis Bunuel, Matisse, Margaret Bourke-White, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Leonard Cohen, and Gustav Mahler."
Realizing this, a woman in the audience who works at MIT actually got Noam Chomsky to autograph his latest book to Viggo Mortensen. The actor was quite touched by this and mentioned it to the audience. Again this aspect of his humanity was expressed.
Mortensen first appeared as a young confused Amish man in Peter Weir's Witness (1985), his roles developed as a disabled drug dealer in Carlito's Way with Al Pacino (1993), to a no-nonsense drill instructor in G.I. Jane with Demi Moore (1997). as a hippie blouse salesman in A Walk on the Moon (1999), the King in The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003), with director David Kronenberg in A History of Violence (2005), again with Kronenberg Eastern Promises. In his latest film as Sigmund Freud in Dangerous Methods, he again collaborated with Kronenberg.
This Coolidge Award celebration was one of the best. This was because of Mortensen's very apparent humanity and humility. He easily connected with the overflow audience.
His generosity was directed to both the audience and the Coolidge Corner Theatre. He allowed as much time as possible for questions, and he donated back his Coolidge Award $10,000 prize to the theatre.
Commenting upon art, he stated that it is all around, you just have to pay attention.
We all paid attention to Viggo Mortensen. As the Coolidge Award made clear, he is great.