Born in Manhattan, Mortensen traveled extensively with his family, living in Venezuela, argentina and Denmark (his father's Danish), so that by an early age, he and his two younger brothers had developed a knack for adapting to new and different surroundings. He feels a particular affinity, therefore, with the character ot Aragorn, who, in the book, is first encountered in the guise of a wandering Ranger known as Strider.
Mortensen's role in The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy is complex and demanding: when Frodo first meets him at the Prancing Pony Inn at Bree, he is a mysterious, seemingly sinister figure who seems to knows an alarming amount about Mr. Baggins and the mission that is taking him out of the Shire. As the story unfolds, however, Strider is revealed to be Aragorn II, the uncrowned king of the race of men in Middle-earth. The fate of the Ring-bearer, it becomes clear, is inextricably linked to Aragorn's own destiny.
The actor has indicated that he identigies easily with characters who find themselves set apart from those around them, as Aragorn does. However, in a career spanning more than thirty films, Mortensen has played a wide range or roles, from the romantic suitor if Nicole Kidman in Portrait Of A Lady and Diane Lane in A Walk On The Moon to an assortment of villains and hard men.
Early performances by Mortensen in films by Jonathan Demme and Woody Allen ended up on the cutting room floor, but his eventual debut in Peter Weir's Witness created an immediate awareness of his acting talent, and over the ensuing years, he came to be seen in such diverse films such as The Indian Runner, Boiling Point, The Prophecy, Carlito's Way, G.I. Jane, A Perfect Murder,and Psycho.
Although few cinema audiences would have been aware of the fact, all paintings and photographs seen on the set for the artist's studio in A Perfect Murder were by Mortensen himself. It is scarcely surprising that the actor is now frequently referred to as a Renaissance man, since he is not only a painter, but also a published poet, whose multimedia books and CDs include Ten Last Nights, Recent Forgeries, and The Other Parade.
Viggo Mortensen appraoched the role of Aragorn both as an actor who responds to physical challenges, welcoming the opportunity to do his own riding and fighting, and as a poet, reacting to the symbolism in Tolkien's myth: "Aragorn is deeply aware of the burden of his hereitage, and he carries the knowledge that all too soon he will have to reveal his true self in order to play his part in the fight against Sauron. That burden, that knowledge, is what shapes and colors his perceptions."
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