An Actor looks at vor v zakone

I enjoy good Thai, Mexican and Indian food. When I eat spicy food, I want to be able to taste the food, not just the heat. Bad food that's overloaded with hot spices does not magically become good or notable food. When I go to a club to see a standup comic, I want to laugh. I'm not a prude, if the joke truly calls for vulgarity in some form or another, fine. But, I vividly remember a performance at Spin's in Midvale in the '90's where the comic seemed to believe that stupid jokes became funny with the addition of an "F" bomb thrown into every other sentence. Finally, if violence, sex or nudity is obviously an integral part of a story, I understand. I say this because "G" and I watched "Eastern Promises" the other night and, well it's VIOLENT!

Before I read the Wikipedia article on the film, I speculated that the film may have been re-cut to get the "R" rating. I truly thought that it may have originally been rated "NC-17" the violence is that graphic.

So, there you are, you've been warned. "Eastern Promises" is a very good film. It was nominated for and won multiple awards in the United States and abroad.

But, my reasons for writing about "Eastern Promises" have to do with the acting and Viggo Mortensen's performance as Nikolai Luzhin. Mortensen's performance was incredible. Mortensen is the absolute poster boy for Lee Strasberg's school of Method Acting.

While preparing for his role as Aragorn in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy Mortensen hiked in costume for days to achieve the look of the road weary traveler. Bob Andersen the sword fighting instructor for the trilogy called Mortensen, "the best sword fighter I've ever trained." (After filming wrapped, Mortensen purchased the two horses he'd used citing the bond they'd formed during the shoot.)

Mortensen worked with director David Cronenberg on Croenberg's "A History of Violence" and when he'd come back to the set on Monday, he'd bring props he'd found and purchased over the weekend.

For "Eastern Promises" Mortensen travelled to Russia and spent weeks talking to men he suspected were Russian mobsters, he imitated their body movements, speech patterns and he learned about the practice of tattooing your criminal history on your body and what the various tattoos signify. When he returned to London shortly before principal photography began writer Steven Knight incorporated Mortensen's tattoo research into the screenplay. The tats were so accurate that Mortensen was mistaken for a "real" Russian gangster in a London restaurant one night and thereafter, washed the tats off before leaving the set.

If you think you can handle the graphic violence and some male nudity, I'd strongly recommend watching and studying Viggo Mortensen's British Independent Film Awards Best Actor winning performance in "Eastern Promises", if not check out some of his other work; Aragorn in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy or the as artist/con man David Shaw in "A Perfect Murder".

If you're a method actor I think you'll learn something, if not, tell me how you prepare for a role and we'll talk next time we're on location, on set, on stage or in the studio…