Lord Of The Rings Wasn't The Last Time Viggo Mortensen Would Rough It For A Role

Viggo Mortensen is no stranger to fully committing to a role. While shooting "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," Aragorn (Mortensen), Legolas (Orlando Bloom), and Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) think some of their companions are dead, and Aragorn kicks an orc helmet in anger. Mortensen broke his toe with that kick, and his scream of pain in the scene is real. When they needed to film the sunrise for the Rohan scene, he convinced the cast and crew to camp out there overnight with him. Another scene saw him almost drowning. Then there was the time that he got hit in the face with an orc sword, and his front tooth broke at the root. He called for super glue so they could put it back in and finish the scene. That's some serious commitment to your work. 

It wasn't just for the love of J.R.R. Tolkien's writing, however, that kept him dedicated to finishing the film. Mortensen also spent a lot of time roughing it while filming the 2009 film "The Road," based on the bestselling post-apocalyptic novel by Cormac McCarthy. In the film, a mysterious catastrophe has killed all the animals and plants in the world, and society has completely broken down. As the world starves, Mortensen's unnamed character escorts his young son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) to where they think they might survive a little longer. 

Mortensen not only lost a ton of weight for the film, but he and some other cast members reportedly didn't shower for days at a time, something confirmed by his co-star Charlize Theron in a 2010 interview.

"The Road" is rough to watch, even though it ends on a note of hope. Mortensen told Today in 2009 that "the way you see yourself and those around you" can change at times, especially in the extreme circumstances depicted in the film. Mortensen added, "Maybe it makes you appreciate life a little bit more." 

The weight he lost was visible, particularly in a scene where his character is bathing nude. It's almost painful to look at. I interviewed Mortensen about the film for Huffington Post when it was released in 2009, while he was sitting and drinking a mug of mate tea, and when I asked him about the weight loss, he said: 

"I drank a lot of [mate] on set. It was just to have energy, too ... I was really tired. It took me a long time to get weight back. I was surprised at that. I thought, oh, I'll just start eating again, but it took me a while, actually. I found that I slept a lot. [laughs] That was understandable. I really slept a lot."

So many actors have lost weight for roles, from Tom Hanks in "Philadelphia" to Anne Hathaway for "Les Misérables," though most have said it was difficult and they wouldn't do it again. Christian Bale has had some of the most extreme fluctuations in weight for roles, but he's done with that now too.

Not showering for "The Road" is much less damaging to the body than the dramatic weight loss, of course, though probably not so great for those who had to be on set with him all day. I did ask about a shower at the end of a shoot and how gratifying that was. He said:

"It was great! It was warm. I would take a bath. I would take a shower, and then I would get in the bath for a little while and soak. I loved it. It's also because we'd been cold and wet all day, generally. That was great. But after a while we'd get so dirty that I'd get really clean, except for my nails ... After a while it was like, that's just the way I looked. [laughs] I'd go to the store, and they'd go 'Eww'. And I'd go, 'No! I just took a bath, really!'"

How anyone was looking at Viggo Mortensen's nails when he showed up in a random store is beyond my comprehension, but here we are. It sounds like a miserable shoot, but the end result was spectacular, dirty nails or not. 

"The Lord of the Rings" trilogy is currently streaming on HBO Max. "The Road" is free with ads on Prime Video.