Oh dear. Now everything about this guy’s face
makes us think of a penis.Photo: Getty Images
Viggo Mortensen goes full frontal in a knife fight scene in new David Cronenberg Russian Mob flick Eastern Promises. At the premiere, Cronenberg told New York that Mortensen suggested the nudity himself when they choreographed the scene, which takes place in a bathhouse. “He said, ‘You know, it’s obvious I’m going to have to do this naked.’ And I said, ‘Great.’ That was pretty much the discussion,” Cronenberg said at a screening after-party at the Soho Grand. “If he had had this towel wrapped around him that never moved, you would’ve noticed that. But this was so real.” [Ed. note: Then where did he hide his knife??]
Mortensen is only the second actor after Jeremy Irons to work with Cronenberg twice. The director says this has nothing to do with his relationships with other actors like Ralph Fiennes and Christopher Walken. “But to get it all put together is incredibly hard. That timing, and do they like the role? And are they doing another movie? And so on and so on. It just seems very difficult to repeat.” He said Mortensen was the only actor he considered for the role, adding, “We’re like an old married couple.” —Amy Odell
