Viggo captain fantastic12/21/2023 ![]() Mortensen's Ben is an unconventional father, happy to frankly discuss everything: from his wife's bipolar disorder to explaining what a penis is to his youngest on-screen daughter. One of the many charms of Fantastic is the family dynamic, which could be described as a sort of beatnik version of The Waltons, but with knives and jokes about Maoism. Ben teaches the kids survival skill lessons, from rock climbing to a healthy distrust of contemporary neoliberal American culture, encouraging them instead to read Noam Chomsky (they don't celebrate Christmas, they do celebrate Chomsky's birthday), as well as playing music around campfires. ![]() He plays hippie-survivalist Ben, a man raising his kids deep in the woods of the American Midwest. His role in Captain Fantastic seems like the perfect part for him to play, but it's not going to help audiences who continue to confuse the man and his onscreen personas. There are a lot of boring paparazzi pictures of me walking a dog, and I don't think they sell that much." Unless it's a movie premiere, or showing up with someone who is better known, I don't think people bother me that much. He drops the point, returning to discussing the media. Best friends – people who have been friends for decades – who, when asked to describe them as how they have encountered them, leave out that they might behave differently with others." I think all people do that, not just with actors, but with people they know. "Where people make up a story about who they think you are. "Misquotes and misconceptions," he says, straight off the bat. But I still want to ask: does media attention piss him off? Is that why he seems to actively avoid being in the spotlight unless he absolutely has to be? He isn't likely to grace the pages of The Sun or the New York Post you won't spot him picking up matcha lattes in Calabasas or being "surprised" by paparazzi as he strips off on the beach. It also helps that, for the most part, Mortensen lives outside of the media circus. And, in fairness, it's a pretty accurate summation: the man paints he produces music he owns The Percival Press, which publishes his own poetry and the work of others and he's carved out a successful career as an actor. ![]() It's the sort of line that should make you laugh, but Mortensen delivers it without a hint of irony or pretence. "When I am asked, if I'm at immigration or I have to do a landing card after a flight and they ask for your occupation," he says. With all of this in mind – the fact that the public perception of Mortensen is so clearly influenced by the characters he plays – the first thing I ask is how he sees himself. ![]()
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