12/03/2024 - The Danish-American actor-director discusses his western, starring Vicky Krieps as an independent woman in 1860s Nevada

(© Margaux Gatti/Luxembourg City Film Festival)

The love story and the western are not two distinct genres, shows Danish-American actor, producer, and director Viggo Mortensen with his sophomore feature, The Dead Don’t Hurt [+see also:
film review
interview: Viggo Mortensen
film profile]. We spoke to Mortensen before the closing ceremony of the Luxembourg City Film Festival, where he received a tribute trophy and introduced his film together with main actress and Luxembourg native, Vicky Krieps.

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Cineuropa: So, The Dead Don’t Hurt is not your regular western…
Viggo Mortensen: Quite a few people now have said that to me, that they don't usually watch westerns, but they liked this one, so that's good! And well, there's not as many westerns made anymore…

Did you have a particular interest in the genre?
When I was a little boy, four, five years old, and I started seeing movies, they still showed some westerns in movie theatres, unlike now, when it's very rare. I do like them in terms of stories, but I know they aren’t always good. With The Dead Don’t Hurt, I wanted to make a film that was like the best classic westerns: shot in a way that seems simple, but isn’t, really.

What is it about the period setting that fitted the story of Vivienne in particular?
I like the genre and the period, but I also really like the fact that, in a sense, it's a story in large part about a woman who's created her own boundaries. At that time, the rules were not clear, even less clear than today: a lot of corruption, a lot of violence, all dominated by males. It's a movie about a woman, really: she is of her time, but is independent and knows herself.

That also creates narrative tension, almost automatically so…
Yes, in every movie that's dramatically interesting, something unusual happens. And then you wonder about the characters as people, maybe you put yourself in their shoes, even: how are they going to deal with this complicated situation? Are they going to accept it? Are they going to resist? Are they going to behave badly, when later another problem arises? Or are they going to find a way to deal with it? Or if they make a mistake, will they try to make up for that mistake? And that's a part of what the story is, it’s about a relationship.

Often, Vivienne and Holger deal with it through silence…
That's very important! One of Vivienne’s strongest moments, in my opinion, is in the saloon. There's a moment, some time after a horrible thing happens with Weston, when he's behaving really badly as usual, but then he says something, he's mistaken, she corrects him, and then he looks at her and she just stares at him. And this goes on for quite a long time. With someone not as good as Vicky, I wouldn't have been able to hold on to her in the scene for so long. But with her, it's just so powerful, it’s pure.

You are very specific about where these characters come from, what their roots are, what dialects they speak. Why was it important for you to have these two characters in 1860s Nevada so clearly outlined, in terms of their origins?
One part of it is that it was a melting pot back then. It was normal to hear Irish accents, and Scottish, English and Danish, whatever, French, Chinese, all that. That was the way it was. And it's even more so now. It's only people who are in denial for political reasons, or ignorance, or ideological, nationalistic, you know, conservative reasons, who will say, well, “Germany is only for the Germans!” But what does that mean, white Christians? Or “Spain for the Spanish!” I mean, it's ridiculous to say that about Germany or Spain, or the United States, because for centuries there have been so many cultures involved; each and every day more so. So you're in complete unrealistic denial if you're emphasising that there is such a rule for belonging.