WEBVTT - Viggo Mortensen, From Warrior King to Captain Fantastic 0:00:02.920 --> 0:00:06.080 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing, 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:10.520 My chance to talk with artists, policy makers and performers, 0:00:10.920 --> 0:00:14.880 to hear their stories. What inspires their creations, what decisions 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:20.200 change their careers, what relationships influenced their work. My guest 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:24.800 today is actor Viggo Mortenson. He was relatively unknown when 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:27.400 he appeared in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings 0:00:27.400 --> 0:00:31.920 trilogy as the warrior king Arragorn. Mortenson brought an earthy 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:35.839 realism to a fantasy world filled with elves and wizards. 0:00:36.440 --> 0:00:41.240 The overwhelmingly successful films changed the course of Mortenson's career 0:00:41.680 --> 0:00:45.519 and he shot to global stardom. His latest film is 0:00:45.560 --> 0:00:49.960 about a very different kind of fantasy. Captain Fantastic is 0:00:50.000 --> 0:00:52.480 the story of a father trying to raise his six 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:57.800 children outside of conventionality and what happens when that fantasy collapses. 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:02.520 Mortenson himself was raised on three different continents, and he 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:06.000 says his own imagination was formed at an early age, 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:10.399 maybe because when that happens to you, when you're uprooted 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:14.720 a lot, you your fantasy world becomes a little more intense. 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:16.920 You know, you replace the friends that you have to 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:20.120 say goodbye to all the time with maybe imaginary friends. 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:23.600 Yeah I did. I mean the kids in the movie here, 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:27.440 they're isolated from other people, that's for sure there, you know, 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:29.280 as you see at the beginning, they're in the middle 0:01:29.319 --> 0:01:31.560 of the four the youngest of them have never met 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:34.959 other people, and they're used to just being very self sufficient. 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:37.759 But yeah, when I was when I was a kid, 0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:39.440 we did move around a lot, and I grew up 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:44.399 in a sort of multi cultural environment. And maybe that 0:01:44.760 --> 0:01:48.240 what did your dad do? He was he's raised down 0:01:48.240 --> 0:01:52.360 a farm. He's Danish and farm boys sort of self made. 0:01:52.360 --> 0:01:55.000 He he left home during high school. He didn't even 0:01:55.000 --> 0:01:58.400 finish high school. But then he he met my mom, 0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:02.400 who's from the US, was working in Norway, and fell 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:04.360 in love and got married and he moved here and 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:06.600 he decided, well, I'm gonna be a businessman. And so 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:10.359 he taught himself English and somehow got himself into a 0:02:10.400 --> 0:02:13.880 business school here and did four years worth of studying 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:15.959 two years, you know, very driven when my mom was 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:20.200 working and supporting himself. And uh, and then when I 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:24.760 was born in in New York, we moved to South 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:28.160 America because that's where he got a job and and 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:30.200 do you have a lot of vivid memories of growing 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:33.120 up down they're living down there? Yeah, yeah, when I 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:35.799 was little, we lived in urban settings, and what I said, 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:39.160 it is and also in the in the country. My dad, 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:42.240 just like his dad had told him when I was 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:47.359 very young, my brothers and I all went camping with 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:50.560 him a lot, went into wild places, hunting, fishing, all that. 0:02:50.639 --> 0:02:54.200 So those things were entirely How many brothers do you 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:57.520 have too? Are they in the business as well? No, 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:04.040 they're they studied geology quite different, although they're they're good. 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:07.520 They're musicians. And I would have felt the youngest one, 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:12.200 he was sort of very good mimic and um, you know, 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:14.720 very gifted in that way. And you know, if you 0:03:15.120 --> 0:03:18.000 would have guessed when we were little boys, who if 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:19.480 one of them is going to be an actor, probably 0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:22.359 would have been him, not me? Right, Yeah, what what 0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:26.640 would they have guessed? You would have been a horse trainer. 0:03:26.960 --> 0:03:30.720 I don't maybe someone who has spent a lot of 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:33.799 time himself. Probably I was. I mean I had friends, 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:35.320 not a lot of them. I had a couple of 0:03:35.320 --> 0:03:37.800 good friends. And then maybe because of this itinerant thing, 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:42.240 but I didn't really I wasn't very social, I guess, 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:43.880 and I was kind of shy about I mean, I 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:47.720 would have never imagined trying out for a play or music. 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:49.680 How did that happen? How did someone who because you 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:52.680 seem so private and so um. Well, actually I did 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:55.280 have one experience. I was junior high or so. Once 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:58.360 we moved to the United States. A friend of mine 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:02.120 was really into to the idea of becoming an actor, 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:05.560 and he loved musical and he was just really he 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:09.040 knew everything about the theater in New York. And he said, 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:11.080 you gotta try it for this play. It's great. It's 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:16.760 it's called it was Hello Dolly Triumphant. And I said, what, no, 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:20.320 I can't you imagine me trying out for Hello. Valley's 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:23.640 debut is Hello Dolly? Right? And so I go, What 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:25.120 I gotta do is did you go there and you 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:27.600 go on the stage and you know, on theitorium and 0:04:27.640 --> 0:04:30.000 then you you just don't give you something to read 0:04:31.000 --> 0:04:32.919 or you bring something to read? I remember who was 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:36.080 In any case, I went out, very unwillingly, out on 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:39.000 this stage and there's this, you know, the theater teacher 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:43.039 and whoever else is there? And uh, I read the 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:46.839 first paragraph from David Copperfield, or tried to, but every 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:50.120 three words they say louder louder, and I just would 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:52.400 shrink and shrink, and I finally just closed the book 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:55.640 and ran off. And that was my only foray other 0:04:55.680 --> 0:04:57.440 than I think when I in Argentina when I was 0:04:57.480 --> 0:05:00.600 like six, they put me in a play Georgia the Dragon, 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:03.520 and that was the ass End of the Dragon. It 0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:06.800 was just a gray suit felters, Hello Dolly, or the 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:09.160 ass End of the Dragons. It sounds like my career. 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:13.600 And so how does it begin for you? Meaning the 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:17.040 person who was shy in private and likes to spend 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:21.400 time with himself, how does he cross that divide? Well, 0:05:22.080 --> 0:05:27.000 at I guess the relatively late as something like that. 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:33.200 Where were you then? I was in I was in Denmark. Well, 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:35.080 I have a lot of family that our cousins and stuff. 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:38.159 And I had a girl that I liked there and 0:05:38.200 --> 0:05:40.520 I had different jobs, you know, pretty you know, like 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:45.480 manual labor kind of jobs, factory dog worker. Best one 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:50.920 was selling flowers on the street. That was nice. And uh, 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:52.960 I always like to see movies, my mom when I 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:55.880 was little. You should take me to pretty grown up movies. 0:05:55.920 --> 0:06:00.240 You know, I remember Dr Schivago or to see you know, 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:06.000 these long movies with intermissions been her Lawrence of Arabia, 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:10.040 and I love that. I love the experience of seeing 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:14.080 the movies with her and through her and talking with 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:16.920 her in the intermission. And of course he'd also maybe 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:18.640 get a piece of chocolate and the intermission that was 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:22.440 not bad. And but the whole she really was into 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:25.960 that and has she been. You know, she was typical 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:32.320 mom from our parents generation, meaning that she's the one 0:06:32.360 --> 0:06:34.640 you saw all the time. And your dad would leave 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:36.600 early and come home late, and you might see him 0:06:36.600 --> 0:06:40.000 at dinner, but more likely maybe not, maybe not even 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:42.440 to be tucked in and then but you see him 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:46.240 on the weekend. Uh, my dad is my mom passed 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:52.080 away last year? And where were she at the end? 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:57.320 And back where she was from Watertown Young It's no, 0:06:57.400 --> 0:07:00.679 it's funny you say that. You said Watertown because my family, 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:03.600 my mother's family from Syracuse and we spent a lot 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:08.400 of time up in uh last guy, Watertown, Lake, Ontario, 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:12.560 Selkirk Shores, Sandy Pond. My whole childhood was in that 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:17.000 early it's beautiful area anyway, Yeah, and so you wouldn't 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:19.520 see your dad, and I wouldn't that so much. But 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:22.040 did you rather take the other boys to the movies? Too? 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:24.520 Were just you? I mean later we all went with 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:26.880 her sometimes, but there was I don't know, I had 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:30.120 a special connection with the movies through my mom. I'm 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:32.640 not saying more than my brothers. You'd have to ask somebody. 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:35.840 That's my recollection. I mean, I think what I was 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:40.360 saying about her generation is had she not been a 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:43.120 at home mom, I think she would have probably tried 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:47.280 acting because she was. She was outgoing and very beautiful, 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:51.720 and and she knew and cared a lot about movies. 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:54.880 And Uh my first started out in called so what 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:58.360 have you been doing? Uh? What do you what do 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:01.000 you try out for this week? And I'd say, well, 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:04.400 I'm just saying, Who's who wrote the script? I don't know. 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:06.520 I just they just gave me four pages. It's just 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:09.680 I got like three lines. So what are you gonna 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:11.240 how are you gonna play it? I go, I don't 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:12.720 even have the part yet. I gotta go in and 0:08:12.760 --> 0:08:15.160 I got you know, who's the director? You know who's 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:17.320 in it? Were a tie or no tie? Didn't do 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:22.200 a tie? Yeah? You know you mustache fake mustache when 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:24.120 you know whatever, all this stuff should he has a 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:26.000 patch on his eye. And if I'd say, well, I 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:29.680 think the director's name is and I would say, oh, yeah, yeah, 0:08:29.840 --> 0:08:32.040 he's not very good, but you never know, it's a 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:34.440 part good, you know, and like, and I just and 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:37.400 I stopped sort of telling her so much unless I 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:39.240 had the part and then we could talk. But because 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:41.600 because it's very irritating now, of course I realized she 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:46.480 really cared. One of the most enjoyable experiences I've had 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:51.080 in recent years. And then boom business was. There was 0:08:51.200 --> 0:08:53.960 one year it's like this, as you know, it's a crapshoot, 0:08:54.000 --> 0:08:57.600 the thing with awards and nominations, and then when you're 0:08:57.600 --> 0:08:59.079 not meant it, well, this year they got it right. 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:03.000 This year's no I knew it was kind of yeah. 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:05.040 There was one year I got nominated for all the 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:07.840 sort of the SAG and the Golden Globes and the 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:10.560 Oscars and all those in one and uh so I 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:12.760 said to my mom, do you want to go too? 0:09:12.920 --> 0:09:15.079 I think there's a there's a strike, so Golden Globes 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:18.120 are canceled, there's no ceremony, but the SAG Awards were 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:19.880 coming up. I said that could be nice. I think 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:22.160 it's tables and it's like more relaxed. Do you want 0:09:22.160 --> 0:09:25.440 to go? Mom? Sure? Of course. I was waiting. I 0:09:25.440 --> 0:09:27.199 thought you'd never asked. I said, well, I've never been 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:30.760 nominated before. She goes, okay, well, yes I'll go, Um, 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:33.440 I will, I will. I'm gonna get a new dress 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:35.360 or a pant suit or something. I said, well, whatever 0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:37.000 you want. Do you want some help? No, no, no, no, 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:40.360 that's something that's my area. And I said fine, So 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:42.439 she got her things. She flew down. At that point, 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:45.040 she was living in in northern Idaho, where I was lived. 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:47.080 She had moved there and lived near my brother and 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:50.079 a long story, but so she came down the Los Angeles. 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:53.320 I picked up the airport. We came the day before, 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:56.520 and we hung out and talked. She had lots of questions, 0:09:56.520 --> 0:09:58.200 but who's gonna be there? I don't know, mom, And 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:00.319 and then who else is nominated? And and then I 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:02.120 told her who was nominated? She goes, oh, he did that? 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:05.160 And he did that. She was like encyclopedia. And then 0:10:05.160 --> 0:10:07.559 we go to the thing, and you know, there's this 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:09.400 red carpet thing. I said, well, I gotta talk to 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:11.320 these journalists on the way in and then if you 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:12.840 don't mind, no, I'll just stand out here and watch 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:15.719 and see how you do. I'm like, okay, it was 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:18.760 kind of I knew she was behind. So she watches 0:10:19.600 --> 0:10:23.040 and uh, we walk in and then she's muttering, oh, 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:24.920 you did okay, except for that one lady, you seem 0:10:24.960 --> 0:10:27.320 like you didn't like her. I said, well, the questions 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:29.640 were condemn it doesn't matter. You gotta polite to all 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:32.439 of them. I'm like, yeah, okay. So we sit down 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:37.320 and then it is tables and uh, and she immediately goes, oh, 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:41.000 that's and all the older actors and people that I 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:42.920 didn't know who they were. She knew exactly who they were. 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:46.680 He was in this, and he was in that, in everything, 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:49.880 and MAT's John Travolta. I go, yes, it is. He goes, 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:51.480 excuse me, and she gets up and she goes and 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:53.600 just just talking to him, and she did that all night. 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:56.760 It was. It was great. It was it was a fantasy. 0:10:57.000 --> 0:10:59.320 I loved it, and she loved it, and she she 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:02.679 had a really good time. And uh, they asked I 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:05.160 had been asked. I've never done this to present one 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:07.640 of the awards at night, which is a nerve racking thing. 0:11:07.679 --> 0:11:09.240 I was like, I'd rather just learn it. I don't know, 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:12.600 you should read the things. I don't know what it 0:11:12.679 --> 0:11:16.640 was best supporting actress, I think, And um, yeah, there 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:19.480 was a sort of gentle critique of my delivery when 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:21.120 I came back to the table. You know, it's just 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:23.360 like that kind of night. But I left a lot. 0:11:23.640 --> 0:11:26.280 It was wonderful and I wish I wish I had 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:29.320 been nominated before that, just so that I could have 0:11:29.360 --> 0:11:34.200 taken my mom wonderful. I took my mom to quite 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:37.400 a few premiers. You liked that, and uh or either 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:41.520 took her or she attended, you know. Sometimes once I 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:43.280 wasn't you know, like if I couldn't be at the 0:11:43.280 --> 0:11:45.240 one in New York City, she would come down Syracuse. 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:48.840 But there was one that was really fun. It was 0:11:49.000 --> 0:11:51.360 I did a movie called Hidalgo, which I love that movie, 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:55.559 I said, And it was mar Sharif, isn't it. And 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:57.880 of course when she took me when I was little 0:11:57.920 --> 0:12:02.160 to see Ductor and Lawrence Arabia and so she, I mean, 0:12:02.200 --> 0:12:03.960 she had a I think she had a crush on 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:07.360 him like back then and maybe her whole life. I 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:10.199 don't know, and she came with my stepdad. You know, 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:13.520 you look a little like O more at this time 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:15.160 of day, I kind of looked like a little bit. 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:19.640 It's weird. So in the morning, Uh, yeah, thank you. 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:26.000 She Uh, she came with my stepdad and uh. It 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:28.160 was kind of a crazy premiere in l A. I 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:32.160 actually came down the red carpet on the horse was reining, 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:34.520 and they were like, don't don't gallop because if you 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:37.920 slide under a bus and you and the horse get hurt, 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:41.080 and and if you get hurt, they added, really the 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:43.680 ps um that would be terrible for us, and you 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:45.360 know the insurance. I don't know. I don't know, so 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:47.200 don't worry. I'll just trot in. So I did, and 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:49.560 the photographers were kind of shocked, and I wrote up 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:52.280 right up to him and and they started asking questions 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:53.680 as I don't know, I asked him, and it was 0:12:53.720 --> 0:12:56.360 kind of just silly like that. And my mom's there, 0:12:56.600 --> 0:13:00.160 you know, my stepdad beaming, and uh. I get off 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:02.960 the horse and I walk over to her and then 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:07.520 I spot Omar and I go, I look, mom, as 0:13:07.520 --> 0:13:12.600 you guys that's him, And I said, well you can 0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:14.560 you want to meet him. No, no, no, I go, yeah, 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:17.400 come on. And I had told Omar that my mom 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:19.880 really was into him, you know, when the shooting and 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:23.360 he just like put on the swab gentleman. He was 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:27.920 suddenly looked like from ninety three. And he comes over 0:13:27.960 --> 0:13:31.360 and he takes her hands so gently, just never removing 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:34.880 his eyes from hers, and kissed her hands so slowly. 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:38.080 She was like beat red. And my stepdad I thought 0:13:38.080 --> 0:13:39.679 he was going to knife him. I mean, he was 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:42.360 so upset. I mean, he's insane, he but he was 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:45.560 just like I thought, he's gonna have a coortinary And 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:48.439 it was like a highlight. She was just beaming those 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:50.200 rest of the night. It was like she'd been given 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:52.679 some kind of you know, drug or something. I have 0:13:52.800 --> 0:13:54.400 the same thing with my sister. I was doing this 0:13:54.440 --> 0:13:56.520 movie at the Edge with Tony Hopkins, and we were 0:13:56.520 --> 0:14:00.640 in the Canadian wilderness, the bay with the bear in 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:02.480 the woods there where. It was the best experience I've 0:14:02.480 --> 0:14:05.439 ever had making a film because I worshiped Tony. I 0:14:05.559 --> 0:14:07.960 was just the dream of working with Tony and I thought, 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:10.480 oh God, would if I ever had that chance. I 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:12.360 just loved him, and here I was making this film 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:16.280 and my sister, my older sister who at the time 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:19.440 I was married, has six children. You know, she's a 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:22.840 pretty solid citizen. She comes up to Canada and see me. Uh, 0:14:23.040 --> 0:14:25.200 Tony's laying on an air mattress because he'd hurt his 0:14:25.240 --> 0:14:27.760 back and right soon after this he was going to 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:29.560 boo and shut down for two weeks from the back 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:32.360 surgery where like go in your neck and fix his 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:36.800 bones and everything. And he's lying there reading the paper, 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:39.720 and my sister walks up and I go, Tony, um, like, 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:43.560 meet my sister, Beth. And Tony stands up, fluffs his clothes, 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:46.440 and then right like a movie, he like just looks 0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:47.840 up for it, makes out of contact or with and 0:14:47.840 --> 0:14:52.720 says Elizabeth with a great pleasure to meet you, and 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:55.160 takes her hand and does the same exactly, the slow 0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:58.320 kiss on the hand. And my sister turned red. She 0:14:58.360 --> 0:15:00.880 started like trembling a little bit as she worshiped Tony. 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:02.920 And I thought, these guys just they got it. May 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:05.320 she walks away and he's done for the day, right, 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:09.960 He's totally kill himself doing that now for you, Um, 0:15:10.080 --> 0:15:12.320 you were going to give me the where you crossed 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:14.680 that line and the and the very quiet, private kid 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:17.680 goes into the business. Two years old, I started, I 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:20.400 guess I started looking. I mean i'd seen some on TV, 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:24.240 but I hadn't really seen many, I mean in Argentine 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:27.160 and seen Argentine movies because that's what you had down there, 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:30.760 mostly American movies, like it happens every in the world. 0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:33.760 But but i'd see stuff in Argentine. I mean I 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:36.840 saw cartoons on TV were from there because they were dubbed. 0:15:36.880 --> 0:15:38.520 And then i got here when I was eleven, and 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:41.560 I'm like looking at You'll be Bear and you know, 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:46.000 speed Racer, and said, oh, these are not Argentine either. Actually, yeah, 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:48.640 in the Batman TV show, you know, with Adam West 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:50.160 and a lot, I felt you were in the same major. 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:52.280 It's the same cartoon. Yeah, it's like this, it's all 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:55.160 on English. What's wrong, you know? And but I hadn't 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:58.920 been exposed to, let's say, movies from other countries, and 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:02.080 then from the forties fifties, certainly not silent movies. And 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:04.720 all of a sudden I started watching lots of Denmark. 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:07.880 That was the time where I was spending time in 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:11.520 England and Denmark and different jobs, and and I started 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:15.040 going to revival movie houses where you'd see a couple 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:17.400 of different movies a day if he wanted to. And 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:20.200 I started seeing, you know, movies by Ozu and Brassan 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:25.800 and Passolini and Dryer and before that. And it was 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:28.240 an eye opener. And at some point I made the 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:32.479 transition from being entertained or not, you know, going for 0:16:32.480 --> 0:16:37.280 for just to enjoy myself, to wondering what it was, what, 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:39.120 what the trick was? I mean, how do they do that? 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:42.000 How do you How is it that I relate to them? 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:44.200 And then suddenly I'm crying. I'm sitting in a movie 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:46.120 theater crying, or that I walk out of the movie 0:16:46.120 --> 0:16:50.400 theater and I'm shocked that I'm in Copenhagen, or that 0:16:50.480 --> 0:16:53.320 I'm in a city and it's daytime. I'm not, you know, 0:16:53.560 --> 0:16:57.160 on this Mongolian plane or something. You're not on the 0:16:57.240 --> 0:17:00.200 raft in the middle of the ocean. Yeah, And I 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:05.479 was curious about how is that done? And and not 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:12.440 long after that, I moved to Manhattan from Denmark. Yeah, 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:15.040 there was a girl I was going out with at 0:17:15.040 --> 0:17:18.320 the time. She went back here and I followed her 0:17:19.040 --> 0:17:21.679 and that didn't work out. But I got here. I 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:24.760 was with her for a while, and I was curious 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:27.159 about the acting thing. I wanted to try it, just 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:29.520 to see, you know, how do you do? How does 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:31.720 it work? So I I got I got a phone book. 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:34.359 I looked at the yellow pages. You got to go 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:36.280 to the theater and try out for the play. But 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:38.760 what theater? Right? So I'm leafing through and I find 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:42.240 this thing that says Actor's Repertory Theater, which was a 0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:45.000 really a workshop with Warren Robertson as a teacher, right, 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:48.199 And so I love Actor's Repertory here that sounds I know. 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:51.600 Repertory means they could be doing several plays, and maybe 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:54.680 if I get in the first one, then I do. Okay, 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:57.040 I could be in other place, and that's probably the place. 0:17:57.040 --> 0:17:59.200 So I call him I and they go Actor's Repertory Theater. 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:01.600 You know, I, how do you? How do you try 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:03.199 out for the play? And I go what play? And 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:07.119 I go, well, you know there are auditions. Sure you 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:09.880 can come down a fifteen Monday. You can come down. 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:12.480 You might want to get here a few minutes early 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:15.280 just to sign in. Okay, what I do? Bring two 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:18.240 pieces and like two pieces of what? And they said 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:23.879 two texts? You know? Oh, text and like, you know, 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:27.480 I go to to to act and they go yes. 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:30.879 So I had no idea what that meant. So at 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:33.000 the time, I was reading a collection of short career 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:35.480 relies on the patients of this woman on that phone point. 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:39.080 She was very kind to you. E's actina, said Karen 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:41.439 Blix and the Danish writer. I was reading some short stories. 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:44.640 There's one in which Jack the Ripper figures and there's 0:18:44.640 --> 0:18:47.800 some dialogue. So I sort of cobbled together the dialogue 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:49.640 from the short story and made a little monologue out 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:53.600 of that, and then I found an Irish song, or 0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:56.520 there's an Iri song. I liked old ever song. So 0:18:56.600 --> 0:18:59.200 I came in and I did this weird Jack the 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:03.159 Ripper monologue and and sang this song and they just 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:07.119 sat there for a while, looked at each other, and 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:10.040 they said we'll get back to you. And I that's it. 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:12.680 You go yep next you know like that. So I 0:19:13.119 --> 0:19:16.280 I went went back home and I thought, well, I 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:18.000 don't know if that went well or not. And the 0:19:18.080 --> 0:19:19.800 next day they called and they said you can come 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:22.040 in next Wednesday. Go what's the play and they go, 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:24.160 there is no play, just come in next Wednesday. Turned 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:27.160 out it was a theater workshop where you seeing study 0:19:27.240 --> 0:19:34.480 and and acting exercises of Warren Robertson had his His 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:37.800 approach was kind of a combination of Sandy Meiser and 0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:41.159 actor's studio, you know, since memory and seen study and 0:19:41.320 --> 0:19:43.800 did you like it right away? I did like it? Well. 0:19:43.920 --> 0:19:46.840 The main thing was that he encouraged me. Had he 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:50.919 not yes, had he not said no, there's something. I mean, 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:53.960 I was probably really doing weird stuff. Uh, you know, 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:55.800 he would say, you're just too fidgety year all over 0:19:55.840 --> 0:19:57.560 the place. I want you to sit on your hands 0:19:57.600 --> 0:19:59.760 and do all that now without moving around so much, 0:19:59.800 --> 0:20:02.960 and he was just I don't I think it was 0:20:03.000 --> 0:20:06.080 probably very crude, but he saw something and he sort 0:20:06.080 --> 0:20:10.040 of eventually recommended me to go meet an agent and stuff. 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:12.000 And if he hadn't encouraged me, it might have been 0:20:12.040 --> 0:20:15.320 just one more thing I tried. I'm not sure, but uh, 0:20:15.560 --> 0:20:17.840 and I certainly, I mean I got lucky right away 0:20:17.880 --> 0:20:20.119 once I went out for auditions in terms of getting 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:22.840 to down to the last two guys for parts. But 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:24.920 I did that about thirty times and I never would 0:20:24.920 --> 0:20:26.800 get it, and I was always shocked. I was like, well, 0:20:26.840 --> 0:20:30.000 I did my best why don't you know? But something 0:20:30.040 --> 0:20:35.200 about it, maybe whatever my mom had inculcated or put 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:38.320 into me, or maybe just some voice inside you that 0:20:38.320 --> 0:20:40.840 told you, do you need to find out? Stay with it. 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:43.480 I still was like, I liked that was telling stories 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:45.119