Viggo Mortensen Expands On Why He Saddled Up For His Western ‘The Dead Don’t Hurt’ – Munich International Film Festival

Viggo Mortensen did not plan to be in The Dead Don’t Hurt but had to dust off his cowboy boots and appear in the movie when another, unnamed, actor dropped out. That meant Mortensen added starring in, to writing, producing, directing and creating the music for the Western.

“I had not planned to act in the movie,” Mortensen said at the Munich International Film Festival. “The actor who had the part decided at one point late in preparation stages, after being with us for many months, to do something outside. So we tried to replace him with an actor who was younger than me, an actor the age as it was written originally, and was well-known enough for the financiers to say ok.”

Having failed to find the right person with the right availability, Mortensen had to add starring in The Dead Don’t Hurt to his to-do list. “In the end I said: ‘I could play it.’ My coproducer said: ‘That would work.’”

The multihyphenate explained that he then asked Vicky Krieps, whose character is central in the film, if she was ok with him switching into the role, which meant he would play opposite her. Fortunately she was. The script then had to be amended to reflect Mortensen’s character, Holger Olsen, a Danish immigrant, being older than the character originally written.

Mortensen is festival-hopping mode with The Dead Don’t Hurt. Having opened Karlovy Vary with the movie, he has decamped to the Munich International Film Festival. He was joined by one of the stars of the film, Solly McLeod, who plays antagonist Weston Jeffries, for a discussion about the movie that was co-hosted by Christoph Gröner, Festival Director, and Julia Weigl, Artistic Co-Director.

Solly McLeod’s Weston Jeffries Is Bad To The Bone

McLeod had a packed audience rolling in