Viggo Mortensen and Woody Harrelson: In their own words

Todd Hill By Todd Hill Staten Island Advance
on November 24, 2009 at 4:18 PM, updated November 24, 2009 at 5:02 PM
APTOPIX Premiere The Road N_001.JPGActor Viggo Mortensen attends the U.S. premiere of his new film "The Road" last week in Manhattan.

Over the past 10 years of speaking with Hollywood celebrities, I've learned a few tricks. They aren't particularly clever tricks, but seeing as how I went in essentially knowing nothing about the gig, they've served me well. One such trick --- always ask the talent about their passions (this really applies to talking with anyone, and if they're interesting people they won't just talk about themselves). What the celebs say may not make it in the article I write, but the questions will more often than not open them up and get them engaged, which is vital when they've answering questions from journalists for hours or days or weeks on end.

I recently sat down for lengthy 1:1 interviews with the actors Viggo Mortensen and Woody Harrelson, who were in town promoting their films "The Road" and "The Messenger," respectively. Both actors are known for their political/social activism, both are outspoken liberals (pretty much the rule in showbiz). But both actors also happen to be articulate about what they believe in and, well, I'll let you be the judge of what they had to say.

I asked Mortensen about his decision to support the long-shot presidential campaign of Dennis Kucinich in last year's presidential election, and that got him started:

"It's not that I always have to root for the underdog, but it's often those voices that are harder to hear. It's always a mistake to say that so and so got elected so I can check out for four years. They (the Obama administration) are not keeping all their promises by a long shot. I think it's a huge mistake to think of the Afghan war as the good war. It's not going to end well. Let's get out, please. Spare them, and us. It has nothing to do with selling the flag down the river or that we're losing our exceptionalism. It's BS. We need to get over that. Every country needs to get over that. If one country's a great country then every country's a great country. It's a participatory democracy, or it isn't. It's up to you. When they say, 'You're an actor, you're a taxi driver, you're a journalist, you should just be quiet and let those who govern govern and mind your own business,' well, the problem with just letting politicians run things and not interfering is that there's not a very good track record for that. It hasn't gone well, and it never will. You have to be engaged."

Zombieland Premiere_001.JPGActor Woody Harrelson appears at a screening of his film "Zombieland" in Austin, Texas, this past September.

I didn't ask Woody Harrelson about his well-publicized advocacy for the legalization of marijuana, largely because it was suggested to me that if I did the interview would be over. But the actor is a vocal opponent of living green, or trying to:

"I'm not perfect by any stretch. I have a big footprint, I fly a lot. But it's not so hard. You get some solar panels, you live in a place where there's sun. You try to not go in and get a new paper or plastic bag every time you go to the store. I think really it's just about individuals making positive choices, buying green cleansers, bringing your cloth bag, buying recycled toilet paper. To be conscious of your footprint, I think, is the number one thing, and then it's not really a revolution, it's evolution, and you can evolve depending on the degree to which you care. There's a lot of big issues and it's not going to be an instantaneous change. I just think that the number one thing is to alter the way we fuel ourselves personally, and our society will be the biggest key to changing where we're at right now."