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Viggo Mortensen is revealing why he hasn’t starred in another major Hollywood franchise following the Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The actor, who played Aragorn in Peter Jackson’s films from 2001 to 2003, shared in a recent interview with Vanity Fair what he looks for in the movie roles he accepts, noting they need to have an interesting story and be well-written. However, he admitted that films in franchises are “not usually that good.”
“I don’t really look for or avoid any kind of genre or any size budget. I just look for interesting stories,” Mortensen explained. “It doesn’t matter to me what the genre is or what the budget is or who’s making them. I would never do a movie just because so-and-so is directing it. It has to be about the story. And if I think I’m right for the character, that always comes first.”
He continued, “That goes for franchises. If somebody came to me with X movie, the third part or the ninth part, and I thought it was a great character and I wanted to play that character and I thought I had something to contribute, I’d do it. I’m not against it. But they’re not usually that good. I mean, to me, they’re not usually that well-written. They’re kind of predictable. I mean, of course there’s always the issue of if I run out of money.”
Though Mortensen is most known for his role in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, he told The Hollywood Reporter last month that he wasn’t sure if he would be reprising his role for Jackson’s new movie, targeting a 2026 release.
“I haven’t read a script. So I don’t know,” the Captain Fantastic actor said of the upcoming Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum. “The script is the most important thing to me unless I’m broke, I have no money and I’m lucky to get any job. So it depends.”