With an extensive career as an actor, the Danish-American is back behind the camera with a second feature film. He speaks to Euronews about the experience.
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00:00After a 40-year career in front of the camera as an actor, Viggo Mortensen is back behind
00:08the camera with a second feature film, The Dead Don't Hurt, in which he's the producer,
00:13director, scriptwriter and soundtrack composer while also playing the lead role.
00:19The Dead Don't Hurt is a love story between two foreigners in the Wild West, in which
00:23he stars with the Luxembourger Vicky Creeps.
00:26Directing and directing at the same time is a challenge.
00:56Many are more efficient, but you get more tired.
01:04Like everyone of his generation, Viggo Mortensen grew up watching westerns.
01:09If the genre experienced a golden age in Hollywood 60 years ago or more, in recent years we've
01:14seen a revival.
01:17Whether through the big studios or independent films like this one, westerns have been returning
01:22to the big screen with some regularity.
01:24Kids my age, or people from my generation, not just boys but girls also, there were lots
01:36of western series on TV, they always showed old western movies on TV at night, on the
01:42weekends.
01:44And you could still, it was sort of the end of the golden era, you could still in the
01:48early 60s anyway, until the mid 60s you would see once in a while go see a new western in
01:54the movie theatre.
01:55Not like now where it's very unusual, but it's a business you know.
01:59If westerns do well and people like them, whether it's on TV series or a movie like
02:06The Dead Don't Hurt like this one, then they'll make more.
02:13The Dead Don't Hurt is now showing in film theatres in countries like Portugal, Poland
02:18and Ukraine, and can be seen in the US through the streaming platform Paramount+.