As season 4 draws to a close, I’m joined by someone all of you should know: Viggo Mortensen (The Lord of the Rings, The Road)! One thing you might not know about Viggo – it was certainly news to me – is that he’s also a musician, making a number of albums with famed guitarist Buckethead and even scoring a couple films, including his latest directorial effort The Dead Don’t Hurt. As such, we discuss his musical history, his score for The Dead Don’t Hurt, his first foray into making music for film in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, balancing various behind-the-scenes roles in the same film, and plenty more. Even though this is a pretty short interview, we cover a surprising amount of ground.
Candidly, this was the most surreal, hard to believe interview I’ve ever done. When I saw Viggo pop up on video to chat with me, I was certain I was being pranked, or maybe just dreaming; I’m sure I’ll wake up at any second…
One of the most interesting things to me in this interview is Viggo’s philosophy on music in film, as well as every other element in the filmmaking process. I always expect that someone serving as both director and composer (and writer and editor) eventually has these roles conflict with one another: as composer you may love a cue you’ve written, but as director maybe you’re not sure it fits. How does one resolve those? Viggo put it plainly: “It’s like when you’re writing a poem or re-writing a poem, the exercise for me has always been how many words can I take out while still saying the same thing? Same goes for music.”
Viggo’s score is available on all major platforms, while The Dead Don’t Hurt has just finished its theatrical run and will likely be coming to home video soon.
I also want to flag that I accidentally attribute a (poorly) paraphrased quote to Ernest Hemingway that’s actually from Mark Twain.
Have a listen to our conversation below or wherever you get your podcasts (including Spotify and Apple Podcasts). Enjoying these interviews? Show the love by subscribing and leaving a rating or review!
About The Dead Don’t Hurt
The Dead Don’t Hurt is a story of star-crossed lovers on the western U.S. frontier in the 1860s. Vivienne Le Coudy (Vicky Krieps) is a fiercely independent woman who embarks on a relationship with Danish immigrant Holgen Olsen (Viggo Mortensen). After meeting Olsen in San Francisco, she agrees to travel with him to his home near the quiet town of Elk Flats, Nevada, where they start a life together. The outbreak of the civil war separates them when Olsen makes a fateful decision to fight for the Union. This leaves Vivienne to fend for herself in a place controlled by corrupt Mayor Rudolph Schiller (Danny Huston) and his unscrupulous business partner, powerful rancher Alfred Jeffries (Garrett Dillahunt). Alfred’s violent, wayward son Weston (Solly McLeod) aggressively pursues Vivienne, who is determined to resist his unwanted advances. When Olsen returns from the war, he and Vivienne must confront and make peace with the person each has become. Both a tragic love story and a nuanced depiction of the conflict between revenge and forgiveness, The Dead Don’t Hurt is a portrait of a passionate woman determined to stand up for herself in an unforgiving world dominated by ruthless men.
