Lord of the Rings star Viggo Mortensen has said he's become something of a minduflness advocate after his latest movie role sees his character go completely off the grid and embrace a more simple way of life.
In Captain Fantastic the 57-year-old plays Ben, a father raising his six children in the forest, home-schooling them and teaching them to hunt and fend for themselves. So far so hippy.
However, the idyllic lives of his children are ruptured after they are forced to confront the 'real world' when bad news arrives about their absent mother, which sets in motion a confrontation with their extended family.
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment in Dublin, Mortensen revealed that the unconventional character has rubbed off on him in a big way and he's now learned much more about himself and how to conduct his life.
"I suppose it made me feel that I could always do better, which is not a bad thing for a story to tell you," he said. "I could always read more books, I could be more curious about life, I could use my time better, I could listen to people more, especially people I don't agree with or I'm inclined to not want to talk to. I think the movie speaks to the value of communication".
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The Oscar nominee embraced his role and even went 'full-method' by choosing to sleep in the forest himself, in the family's tepee, before filming began. He also took to working the land and making sure everything seemed realistic.
"In the preparation process, the movie starts out where we live in the forest and just like the director, I wanted it to be very believable," he said. "I didn't want it to be a movie version of living off the grid in the forest, I wanted it to seem very real and that you know, their food source and sanitation and the way they live, that it was all credible."
"It was the idea that when you see these people, the first time you see them living in the middle of nowhere, in the wilderness, that you buy it, that you believe it", he said, adding that "until we started shooting I stayed out in the tepee and worked on the home site."
Captain Fantastic opens in cinemas here on September 9.
