Viggo Mortensen reflects openly on the controversial Oscar-winning film 6 years later

Viggo Mortensen reflects on Green Book six years after its release. Mortensen starred alongside Mahershala Ali in the 2018 film, which tells the story of a black classical pianist in the 1960s and his relationship with the white chauffeur who drives him around on tour. Green Book was nominated for numerous awards and won the coveted Oscar for Best Picture at the 2019 ceremony.

Six years after the film’s release, Mortensen speaks with Vanity Fair in detail about the controversy surrounding Green BookAccording to the actor, many of his and others’ statements were taken out of context and wrongly condemned while the film was being criticized. He cited some reviews by Green Book “insincere criticism.” He also referred to “nasty rumors and inaccuracies” during the promotion of Green Book and other films that could unfairly affect the response. Nevertheless, he believes Green Book becomes a “small classic.” Mortensen’s full quote is below:

It was frustrating for me, as part of the film’s crew, to see that the studio was intimidated by the disingenuous criticism of the film, that it was not historically accurate or unfair in some way, that they were intimidated by these kinds of rumors that spread like wildfire because of today’s social media, and that rival studios really enjoyed and spread as widely as they could. That’s what happened. I thought they should have been bolder to refute it. Finally, they did what we – Peter Farrelly, myself and others – wish they had done earlier: they released the footage that shows that this is actually a true story and that this did happen.

To this day, wherever I go, when people show up with pictures or DVDs and stuff, I see as much Green Book material as I do Lord of the Rings. People loved that movie. If the studio had been braver and reacted properly early on, it would have made even more money at the box office. It’s a movie that did really well. Social media is a tricky area. I remember being asked about racism in general, and I said, “I think racism will always exist. It doesn’t matter how many laws you pass and how much progress you make, it’s just human nature. The target of racism and the vocabulary used changes from generation to generation, sometimes from year to year, and you always have to be on guard. Every new generation of children has to be shown somehow, taught by example, that they shouldn’t fear what is different.” And even that was taken out of context, and I found that really unfortunate. But this movie will be – already is and will be – remembered as a minor classic.

Yes, that’s true. For example, when I talked about Green Book, I had to do months of interviews where in every interview I had to bring up this topic. I said, “There’s nothing to it, guys. It’s actually based on a real relationship. It’s a true story. It’s a good story. I don’t know why I have to keep answering,” but I did.

You can ask any director I’ve worked with. I’ve always worked as hard to promote the story I want to tell as I do to actually shoot it. I think that’s important. It’s part of the job, because you’re a professional member of the film crew. That’s just all that comes with it, and that’s just what comes with it. You have to accept the nonsense and the people who are either ill-informed or ignorant about filmmaking or the story of the film, or who have bad intentions and are doing it for other reasons – to get attention for themselves or to work in an indirect way for other interests that are contrary to the interests of the project you’re promoting. You have to do what you can to dispel untruths and nasty rumors and inaccuracies. You can only do that one conversation at a time, and if it works, it works. If it doesn’t, well, you tried, and that’s all there is to it. That’s how I see my job.

The Green Book controversy explained

Viggo Mortensen neglects important details about the Green Book controversy

Even if Mortensen may be right in his assertion, The Green Book While the press tour spent a lot of time dealing with issues outside of the film, Mortensen devotes a lot of time to ignoring the real issue when it comes to Green BookControversy. Upon its release, a number of viewers and critics tended to Green Book‘s story to a “white savior” narrative. By making this claim, these critics would assume that Mortensen’s Tony is a man who comes to save Ali’s character and learns the meaning of racism in the process.

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Each of these critiques could be seen as a distilled version of Green Book‘s narrative, so it makes sense why Mortensen would defend the film. After all, Green BookThe plot of is based on a true story, and this real-life duo went through some of what Ali and Mortensen’s characters go through in the film. However, the fact that the film is based on reality does not ignore the fact that Green BookAs a film, it focuses very much on the white man’s perspective in the story. This is clear from the Oscar nominations alone; Mortensen was nominated for Best Actor, while Ali only got a supporting role.

While some of Mortensen’s reactions to Green BookThe consequences may be justified, but they do not fully address the concerns that many people had about Green BookThe truth behind the film could be, as Mortensen would put it, a “true story” and myself “a good storybut that does not mean that the execution was of the same high standard. Overall Green Book will probably remain one of the most controversial decisions for Best Picture in recent Oscar history.

Source: VF

Green Book

Green Book is an Oscar-winning road movie starring Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali as Italian-born bouncer Tony Lip and pianist prodigy Dr. Don Shirley, who form an unlikely friendship in the face of pervasive racism and homophobia in the Deep South of the 1960s. The 2018 film is inspired by true events and takes its title from a real-life guidebook for black travelers.

director

Peter Farrelly

Release date

16 November 2018

Studio(s)

Participant Media, DreamWorks Pictures, Innisfree Pictures, Alibaba Pictures

Sales Partner

Universal Images

Authors

Brian Hayes Currie, Peter Farrelly, Nick Vallelonga

Pour

Iqbal Theba, Viggo Mortensen, Sebastian Maniscalco, Mahershala Ali, Brian Stepanek, Linda Cardellini, Tom Virtue, PJ Byrne, Don Stark

Duration

130 minutes

budget

23 million US dollars

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