Why Viggo Mortensen went all out for “The Dead Don’t Hurt”

Viggo Mortensen had not planned to be there The dead don’t hurt but had to dust off his cowboy boots and star in the film when another unnamed actor dropped out. This meant that Mortensen not only played the lead role, but also wrote the screenplay, produced, directed and composed the music for the western.

“I hadn’t planned to be in the film,” Mortensen said at the Munich International Film Festival. “The actor who had the role decided, sometime late in the prep phase, after being with us for many months, to do something outside. So we tried to replace him with an actor who was younger than me, an actor the age the film was originally written at, and who was well-known enough for the financiers to say OK.”

Since he was unable to find the right person with the right availability, Mortensen had to take on the lead role in The dead don’t hurt on his to-do list. “In the end I said, ‘I could play it.’ My co-producer said, ‘That would work.'”

The multi-talented actor explained that he then asked Vicky Krieps, whose character plays a central role in the film, if she was OK with him taking on the role, which meant he would play opposite her. Fortunately, she agreed. The script then had to be changed to make Mortensen’s character, Holger Olsen, a Danish immigrant, older than the character originally written.

Mortensen is festival hopping mode with The dead don’t hurt. After opening with the film Karlsbad, he headed to the Munich International Film Festival. He was joined by one of the film’s stars, Solly McLeod, who plays the antagonist Weston Jeffries, for a discussion about the film, co-moderated by Christoph Gröner, festival director, and Julia Weigl, artistic co-director.

Solly McLeod’s Weston Jeffries is evil through and through

McLeod’s audience was packed to capacity when he told how, after intensive training in the UK, he had sent a video of himself riding to experienced horse trainer and cowboy Rex Peterson. McLeod thought he did a good job. Peterson’s verdict was less positive: “We still have a lot of work to do; in the video you look like a monkey fucking a football!” he told McLeod when they met in person. The actor, however, mastered riding and Mortensen paid him a heartfelt tribute: “He couldn’t be more professional and hardworking and (he has) a great screen presence.”

McLeod said he had to find humanity in his seemingly evil character. “It’s hard to find any positives in Weston Jeffries… he’s just the worst,” he said. “But I, as an actor who wanted to play him, didn’t want him to be just a superficial psychopath.”

Mortensen sent McLeod dozens of westerns to watch as part of his preparation. The younger actor mentioned Jeff Bridges’ lead role Bad societyJohn Wayne movie Red River and 1943 Image The Ox-Bow Incident than among those who had an influence.

Mortensen was asked about his film role models and the films he returns to again and again. He said his taste is varied. To prove this, he mentioned the 1928 silent film The Passion of the Maid of Orleansthe above mentioned picture by Howard Hawkes Red River and Will Ferrell comedy Host.

For more information on the film, check out Deadline’s previous interview with Mortensen here.