Viggo Mortensen was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in the 2018 hit Green Book, but the film’s Oscars campaign wasn’t as joyous and enjoyable an occasion as you’d think. Green Book was nominated for five total awards at the 2019 Academy Awards, and won three; Best Motion Picture, Best Supporting Actor for Mahershala Ali, and Best Original Screenplay. However, shortly after the film’s release, Green Book became a constant target for criticism from historians, film critics, and general audiences, for historical inaccuracies and ‘spoon-feeding racism to white people.’
Speaking to Vanity Fair, Mortensen touched upon the controversy surrounding Green Book’s Oscar campaign. While the film was being dragged through the mud by the press, Mortensen and the team behind Green Book felt abandoned by the studio. Mortensen wished they had stepped in earlier to refute the claims by journalists about the film’s depictions of racism and real historical figures. The actor said:
“It was frustrating to me, as part of the filmmaking team, to see that the studio was somewhat cowed by the disingenuous criticism of the movie, of it being not historically accurate, so forth, or unfair in some way – being cowed by that kind of rumor-mongering that spread like wildfire because of the way social media is these days, and which rival studios greatly enjoyed and propagated as much as they could.
That’s what happened. I thought they should have been bolder about refuting it. They eventually did what we – Peter Farrelly, me, and others – wished they had done early on: put out the recordings that show that this is actually a true story and that this happened.”
Viggo Mortensen Says Green Book is as Popular as The Lord of the Rings
To this day, Mortensen is best known for playing Aragorn in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. In the 20-plus years since the films released, Mortensen has appeared at countless Comic-Cons and fan expos reflecting on his role in the trilogy. The Lord of the Rings is an inescapable juggernaut of entertainment in Mortensen’s filmography. However, the actor revealed that, when he’s approached by fans at events, Green Book is just as popular as The Lord of the Rings, despite the frequent criticism leveled at the film.
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Mortensen wished the studio behind Green Book would have noticed the attention and fan base the film was garnering, and stepped in earlier to defend the project from “disingenuous criticism.” Not only would it have kept the film’s Oscars campaign positive, but Mortensen believes the studio would have massively profited from taking a defensive stance. The actor explained:
“Anywhere I go, when people show up with pictures or DVDs and things, I see as much Green Book material to this day as I do Lord of the Rings material. People loved that movie. The studio, if they’d been bolder and reacted properly early on, they would’ve made even more money in the box office.”
Mortensen recently returned to screens in the movie The Dead Don’t Hurt, and you can see our exclusive interview with the actor, alongside Vicky Krieps, below.
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