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Not many people realize that Viggo Mortensen’s career as an actor stretches back to way before Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Ever since that pivotal moment in his career, he’s been a go-to actor for filmmakers like David Cronenberg and others, including his starring role in the Best Picture winner, Green Book, in 2018.
The Dead Don’t Hurt is Viggo Mortensen’s second film as a writer and director after 2020’s Falling, and it has him exploring the Western genre with a story set during the Civil War. Besides writing and directing it Mortensen also plays Danish immigrant Holger Olsen, who meets Vivienne Le Coudy, played by Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread, Corsage), who he convinces to return to his home in Elk Flats, Nevada. When Holger is drafted into the war, he leaves Vivienne behind to deal with a corrupt mayor (Danny Houston) and a rancher (Garret Dillahunt) whose son Weston (Solly McLeod) starts to pursue Vivienne, much to her disgust. Years later, Holger returns and has to deal with the new dynamic in the town as he accepts the job of sheriff and starts dealing with the repercussions from his absence
Cinema Daily US spoke with Mortensen and Ms. Krieps over Zoom earlier this week about making a Western that includes an important female role, and how Mortensen implemented the immigrant experience into The Dead Don’t Hurt to separate it from the Western films that came before it.
©Courtesy of Shout! Studios
Director/Screenwriter: Viggo Mortensen
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Vicky Krieps, Solly McLeod, Garret Dillahunt, Danny Huston, W. Earl Brown, Ray McKinnon
Producer: Regina Solórzano, Jeremy Thomas, p.g.a., Viggo Mortensen, p.g.a.
Production Co: Talipot Studio, Recorded Picture Company (RPC), Perceval Pictures, Polyphony Digital
Distributor: Shout! Studios
Rating: R (Violence|Some Sexuality|Language)
Genre: Western, Drama
Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): May 31, 2024
Runtime: 2 hours, 9 minutes
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You can watch the trailer for The Dead Don’t Hurt below: