ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You’ve played one of the most iconic heroes in literature, J.R.R.
Tolkien’s Aragorn, but what I like about your Rick Stanton is that he’s not iconic.
Was that part of the appeal of the role for you?
Viggo Mortensen as Rick Stanton in ‘Thirteen Lives’.Vince Valitutti/MGM
VIGGO MORTENSEN:It’s interesting that you compare him to Aragorn.
They’re both working within a team.
Or, in the case ofLord of the Rings, Middle-earth.
Thira ‘Aum’ Chutikul, left, and Viggo Mortensen in ‘Thirteen Lives’.Vince Valitutti/MGM
Meanwhile, our whole planet has heard about the Thai cave rescue.
Does being in a movie likeThirteen Livesgo beyond character?
It’s about the best of us.
Colin Farrell, left, and Viggo Mortensen in ‘Thirteen Lives’.Prime Video
Not to make money, not to gain territory, not to beat someone at something competitively.
We do live in polarized times.
Examples of selfishness and greed and super-competitive behavior, dishonesty.
And people are getting rewarded for that.
You have people, especially young people going, “Maybe that’s the way to be.
Thirteen Livesalso dramatizes a victory for science and problem-solving.
You’re right about science.
It was just a massive effort.
Every aspect of the story is too good to be true.
And yet, that is how it happened.
I sometimes had to remind myself while watching it: This really happened.
This is massive, active, effective volunteerism.
And we could be doing this a lot more.
Talk to me about what it was like meeting Rick.
Is he like that?
He is like that, certainly when you first meet him.
We arranged to meet by Zoom and he wasn’t saying a lot and we just started tentatively.
But then he warmed up.
Over a period of months, we were Zooming several days a week for hours.
But yeah, he’s not the easiest person to get to know.
He calls it like it is, even if it hurts people’s feelings.
He says what he thinks.
Or in David Cronenberg’sCrimes of the Future, you’re hanging out with Lea Seydoux andKristen Stewart.
Talk to me about the sheer stamina of doing this.
It was a strenuous job for all of us who were diving in this story.
What you see on screen is just a small fraction of what we shot.
I became certified to scuba dive about 25, 26 years ago.
It was when I was preparing to doG.I.
Jane[1997].
There was a sequence that was going to happen underwater and we ended up not shooting that.
So I had to re-certify and get familiar with it again.
But now it wasn’t in open water.
If you came up to the surface, there’s no sky above you.
It was time consuming, energy consuming, but all the actors wanted to do it.
We spent countless hours underwater.
I was like, “These are my friends.”
Were those tunnels built for the film?
And then they would flood it, put 20 feet of water in there.
We would practice for a day for several hours to figure out how to get through.
We’d finish that and then the following week, we’d try that.
Each one by degree got more difficult.
It would’ve been too hard.
I don’t know if I’m comfortable doing that, but everybody has situations, moments.
It’s all a question of choice, freewill.
You have the choice to stop and apologize and make amends, or just move on.
It’s just little things.
Those are the things that people are called on every day.
You don’t have to go save 13 people in a cave in Thailand to do the right thing.
How do you behave?
What’s your tone of voice?
Do you listen to others who differ in their opinions from you?
It’s just that stuff.
This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.
