Captain Fantastic got a limited release months ago, and while the reviews of the film were great, I think many people were surprised to see Viggo Mortensen’s lead-actor nominations at the SAGs and Golden Globes. It seems like Viggo has a better shot at an Oscar nomination than Joel Edgerton for Loving, which is sort of crazy to me. Viggo is also going to be honored at the Palm Springs Film Festival, and I imagine he’ll probably pick up a few more honors before all is said and done with this awards season. That means he’s going to do more press, which has already started. Not only is Viggo being asked about the film, he’s also being asked about politics. Viggo was one of those people like Susan Sarandon – he publicly endorsed Jill Stein, and he criticized Hillary Clinton for months ahead of the election. Unlike Sarandon though, Viggo didn’t get much criticism for doing his part to elect an orange madman. Anyway, let’s see what Viggo has been saying over the past few weeks about politics, Donald Trump and more.
On Donald Trump: “What can I say? It’s not surprising. Nothing he’s done has been really surprising. [His Cabinet so far] is controversial, and it’s not gonna please everybody. No politician is gonna please everyone, but especially him. In his brief history as a politician, he has been about dividing people, pitting people against each other, irritating people, and that’s not gonna stop with the presidency.”
Whether liberals should go off the grid during the Trump presidency: “Just turning off the phone, even if it’s only for half a day, is gonna do you a world of good. You’ll suddenly start noticing what the color of the sky is and what people’s faces look like as you walk down the street. It’ll come to you.”
What Captain Fantastic says about parenting & democracy: “I think it’s a matter of degree and being flexible,” he says, urging people to “turn the dial” figuratively and literally, to force themselves to take in other views. “Democracy, parenting, they’re not fixed things. Relationships. They’re not fixed; it’s a process. We say, ‘This is a democratic country.’ It is, as long as we work to keep it so, and progress and evolve.”
[From The LA Times & Vanity Fair]
As I said, no one is really asking him, “Do you regret endorsing Jill Stein?” or “Do you feel like you did your part to contribute to Donald Trump’s electoral victory?” Which I find… sexist. People went HAM on Susan Sarandon, and those people were completely justified. Just as they would be justified in asking Viggo some difficult questions about his political stances. Why should he get a pass? Because he’s a “hot guy” and he’s participating in an Oscar campaign? As for yelling at Viggo in general – I said everything I wanted to say in this Susan Sarandon post. I stand by it, and direct it at Viggo.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Mild criticism of Trump.
“no politician is gonna please everyone.”
Yea, hiring oil guys to run the EPA, which they want to destroy.
Hiring people that have worked to demonize teachers and defund public education, who want to shutter the Dept of Ed.
Wow Viggo.
Hard hitting.
By all means, turn off your phone and look up at the sky.
Life will be even better for wealthy middle aged white guys like you who do that. I’m a woman of color who needs to watch where I’m going and stay alert, they’re trying to frack in my effing neighborhood too. Environtnental racism y’all… Heeeeyaay.
Fu viggo
He also lives almost full time in Spain now and his son is grown. He has a very remote connection to all this.
Did anyone see Captain Fantastic?
I saw it. Hated it.
Saw it, it was good. Makes you think, made me cry. The director is very vocal that its an idealistic premise, based on him thinking about what he wished he could do with his child if he had 100% of his time to devote to parenting, and then pushed to the extreme. The director also lived on a commune for part of his childhood, so took inspiration from that. Fun fact: the director is Matt Ross, the guy who plays Galvin Belson on Silicon Valley.
I really wanted to see it, but am too mad at him to go. It’s easy for him to tell other people to put their heads in the stand – he can go off and live in Spain. It’s sad – I used to like him so much!
This. Although maybe we *should* all look up to the sky to notice the color change when our environment is irreversibly ruined and/or nuclear bombs blanket the ozone.
Gonna be hard to see any sky through all that smoke and smog the likes we haven’t seen since the beginning of the 20th century(see Pittsburgh 1900’s). But I’m sure the air will be sweet and the pockets lined in Privileged White Man Land.
So true. I was in Beijing recently and my lungs felt like they were on fire. Ugh. Anyway, I’m sure it’s not so bad from the penthouse floor of Trump tower. And hey, if the Mexican border wall blocks our peasant view of the sky, maybe we can just paint it blue?
@downandout
Ha! +1000
Turn off your phone and put on some blinders and pretend it’s not happening. Denial doesn’t change a thing Viggo, the sky is still blue but mostly cloudy from now on.
I know, but he is just so pretty….
In all seriousness, they both really screwed up. I wonder if privately they realize it? Too late now….
Did they though? She won the popular vote and anyone that was waiting on Susan Suradan or Viggo to tell them how to vote probably already lives in a blue state. Neither of them caused Hillary’s loss.
They both voted for Nader in 2000 and remain unapologetic. They both remain unmoved by the criticism levelled at them this time around. So no lessons learned.
Why would they need to be apologetic? What lessons should they learn? Our votes are our own. We don’t owe anyone else our votes.
Maybe they think the same thing about those that keep voting for dems and repubs and expecting something to change. They probably think the people who voted Hillary should have voted stein and maybe trump wouldn’t have won.
Should we all just vote for Hillary next election since it was her turn?
Neither of them “screwed up”. He wanted another candidate to win. He didn’t vote for Trump or not vote at all, the only things that can possibly count as “participating in helping get Trump elected”. Hilarious how you Americans want to talk about freedom but if someone doesn’t vote for your candidate OR the candidate you hate, he’s still in the wrong.
Give me a break.
I guess you have to be one of us Hilarious Americans to understand the election we just went through. Hard to explain to someone outside of the States.
Google Ralph Nader 2000 and then come back.
He is amazing in Captain Fantastic, totally deserving of all the kudos.
my favorite scene was when the cop got on the bus and so they new instantly to act like creepy, OTT Evangelicals. I also liked how they handled mental illness and suicide, it was a though line to walk.
Sort of OT I love that he called all the actors that played his kids to say thanks and congratulations on their ensemble nominations and that he is having a LOTR reunion when he is in LA for the award show. They are such a close cast and seemed to have so much fun shooting the trilogy.
Sorry Viggo but turning off my phone, doesn’t stop me from having to deal with racism, bigotry, or misogyny on a daily basis.
He’s so cute, I refused to read any of the article because Im not taking a chance! (I’m not usually so shallow!)
Drat, read key words…no longer attracted to Viggo….
I still don’t understand the mindset that this guy who did not support or vote for trump is responsible for a trump presidency. Same goes for Susan. I don’t know how anyone can get on board with that idea.
Pretty sure there were plenty eligible voters that made the effort to get out and vote for Obama but didn’t care to make that same effort for Hillary (for whatever reason)… They are worse than Viggo or Susan backing the candidate of their choice. It was their choice.
Trump presidency is due to trump voters. The end.
Pragmatic much? 🤓
I don’t think they are single-handedly responsible for Trump, but a lot of the apathy that many people felt towards Hillary was fueled by false equivalencies made by people like Susan Sarandon and Viggo between Trump and Clinton. Viggo’s “No politician is gonna please everyone” comment continues to feed into that–it’s hopeless, we’re screwed either way, everyone is corrupt, etc. I know so many people who stayed home or voted 3rd party who expressed these kinds of sentiments, and I am so not here for their complaints and shock at Trump’s appointments or tweets. Nope. Whatever your issues with Hillary, she is not a fascist-leaning puppet of Russia.
Hillary had more celebrity endorsers than any other candidate. If we are to believe these couple of people endorsing Stein helped trump win the election, it would seem to me that all the Hollywood and music business endorsements that Hillary had would have put her over the top easily.
But it didn’t because most people couldn’t care less who any of these out of touch folks support.
Stein votes were one of the factors that resulted in those narrow Trump wins in key states. Stein also took liberals’ money to pursue a pointless recount. So out of touch.
Oh now….there you go with reason.
Third party voters are as deaf and blind to facts as the people who voted for Trump.
3rd party votes did not cost HRC the election per a report/analysis I read.
An analysis of the impact of 3rd party voters done by WSJ looked at 8 states and the impact of 3rd party voters (states including Michigan and Wisconsin) ….. it specifically concluded “would not have changed the outcome.” I would link the article here but links making it passed moderation is iffy.
Easily googled if you want to look at the data and the report.
Not really. In two states (Michigan and Wisconsin) you took all the Stein voters and forced them to vote Hillary she would have won those two states they are worth 16 and 10 electoral votes respectively. So with another 26 added to her 232, she would be at 258 (12 shy).
If you went to Pennsylvania, Florida, and Arizona and forced both Stein and Johnson voters to votes Clinton she would have claimed 20, 29, and 11 electoral votes. Every other state he won by over 50%. It is impossible to say how people would have voted if they could not c
I saw Captain Fantastic last week and Viggo was great in it, totally deserving of an Oscar nom (I really enjoyed the movie overall and am planning to start celebrating Noam Chomsky Day every December 7 🙂 ).
That being said – I disagree with what he’s saying here. Liberals and, really, anyone who cares about the future of this country cannot afford to stick our fingers in our ears and ignore what’s going on around us. We need to remain vigilant, we need to keep paying attention, and we can never stop trying to remove Trump and the Republicans from power (even though, as I mentioned on another thread, that may be impossible).
“And that is consistent with Mortensen, with whom just about any conversation becomes a deep dive. He’s well-informed and engaged. He has a track record of making artistic choices with integrity, whether in acting, music, photography, poetry or in founding the Perceval Press to bring forward artists he admires.”
He is a deep thinker, smart, politically active, really good at using his celebrity to promote causes or articles he finds thought provoking and interesting. He isn’t suggesting to ignore what is going on. He is saying stay involved but if it gets so intense you want to go live off the grid for four years maybe try something less extreme and that doesn’t involve completely giving up on the country. Unplugging can be a wonderful act of self care. If your constantly connected to your phone you get stressed out and ignore the present for the virtual. People are better able to fight back if they take time to recharge, refresh, see the things around them that motivatite them to passionately fight back. Taking time for yourself, doing whatever is necessary for self care (maybe the phone thing isn’t for you) isn’t plugging your ears, it’s putting your wellbeing first which is important. He is just suggesting people try it, because it helps him. Not because he is promoting apathy and blurring your head.
cosign all comments, 100% .. (that’s some weak shit, V.)
but I gotta say…
why is his haircut making him look like an old woman.
it bugs, concerns & confuses me.
While I can understand the idea that Viggo should get the criticism Susan is getting, Viggo also did not go so hard against Hilary like Susan did (didn’t she say while she would not support Trump, she’d rather see him win over Hilary?) which is probably why he is not getting that criticism. Honestly, I would take issue with the people in this country who did not vote versus the people who voted third party, at least they voted.
I did not think his turn off the phone comments were that bad. Turning off the phone for a couple of hours is not bad advice really no matter where you fall politically nor do I think it equals sticking your head in the sand about what’s going on in the world. I don’t think he was advocating sticking your head in the sand as well.
He’s a good actor, well liked by the industry (I don’t hear anything bad about him) and he pretty much tries to stay out of gossip. I don’t always agree with him on his political views (i.e. Jill Stein was a better candidate for president then Hilary for instance) but he has a right to pick the candidate he feels best suits him as I do.
Yes Susan was odious and made it her personal mission to put Hillary down. Vigo just made a few statements. I don’t think there’s any comparison.
That is the kind of attitude that got us into this mess! Oh don’t worry, binge watch shows instead of reading multiple outlet news because it’s depressing , and Trump will never get elected so stay home or protest vote! Wake up people! They just eliminated the ethics oversight committee yesterday! And if you don’t know what that is look it up. They can do whatever they want in secrecy now! We need to pay attention and rise up like the 1960’s. These people are supposed to work for us and we pay their salaries.
And raising their salaries and benefits will be the second thing this new conservative Congress does. In secret of course because hey, now they can. The Plutocratic States of America (or kleptocratic, take your pick).
I know Trump supporters that actually believed Mexico would build a wall, he’d end Obamacare, and get all immigrants out of the country! Not surprising to me he changed his mind. That’s what con men do
I’m not sure he changed his mind. He just lied from the very beginning and his supporters ate it up because it was exactly what they wanted to hear. Along with all the racist, misogynistic, xenophobic do whistles, of course.
“dog whistles”
Even Noam Chomsky said vote for Hillary Clinton bc the GOP, inc Trump, is the most dangerous political party in human history. I don’t know what Viggo is talking about bc Chomsky is suppose to be a hero of his.
I get the idea of looking away for a while to save your sanity, but unfortunately we need to be vigilant to what is happening.
Also, very easy for a white male to say that – he’s not going to be the target of bigotry or sexism, so he can look away. Not everyone else can.
“Unlike Sarandon though, Viggo didn’t get much criticism for doing his part to elect an orange madman.”
I’m confused- If Hillary technically won the popular vote- then surely Susan Sarandan’s vote didn’t make the electoral college make up their minds with one vote for Jill Stein…..
I love american politics. Makes zero sense along with the public’s grasp of it..
Same old BS. I had my fill during the campaign.
Sick of hearing this crap. Hillary lost because the DNC cheated in the primary and Hillary ran a campaign that consisted almost solely of “I’m not Trump” and private high-dollar fundraisers. She was so sure she couldn’t lose against an orange parade float that she really didn’t work hard. She bragged about getting Republicans and insulted every Democratic Progressive. Her loss is on HER, not on third-party voters, so just stop it. SHE lost the election, nobody else lost it for her. Not that she hasn’t blamed everybody in the world BUT herself.
Whether liberals should go off the grid during the Trump presidency: “Just turning off the phone, even if it’s only for half a day, is gonna do you a world of good. You’ll suddenly start noticing what the color of the sky is and what people’s faces look like as you walk down the street. It’ll come to you.”
I love when celebrities say stuff like that.