Do you have a favorite project of Viggo and Orlando outside of LOTR? Or is your Viggorli's interest mostly born out of their roles as Aragorn and Legolas ?
I thought Viggo in Eastern Promises was at his absolute best. Have you seen him there? He is always great, actually. Even in History of Violence and Green Book. I don't understand why he never got an Oscar. Everyone knows he is good yet he remains underrated on a more formal level.
I find Orlando's career less interesting and more "safe" , but he was very sweet as Will Turner. Who doesn't like a simp :) and Troy is a guilty pleasure. He is good at playing lovesick fools (perhaps because he is in real life too? Always worshipping Viggo).
I would have loved to see Viggo in Troy too ahaha but Viggo is easy to imagine in any film, he is a chameleon! Hope he will be recognised by the Academy one day. To me he is basically on par with Daniel Day Lewis.
Well, let's start by saying that I'm not much of a completionist when it comes to actors. That is to say, I generally don't watch movies simply because of an actor I like. The project/movie/plot needs to sound interesting. And if it has an actor/actors that I like that's a bonus (but not a pre-requisite).
That said: Broadly speaking, the projects Viggo takes on tend to interest me more than the stuff Orlando does precisely for the reason you're stating. It seems Orlando played it safe throughout his career, opting for the blockbuster movies. Those generally interest me less and less the older I get. Whereas Viggo does things that are a little more out there, that are more interesting from an artistic point of you, a little more of a risk. And of course he has also super-crazy stuff in his backlist. I guess, he too had to pay his bills at some point!
So, let's start with Viggo:
He appeared on my radar with The Lord of the Rings, that much is true. And of course Aragorn is and always will be very dear to my heart. However, The Lord of the Rings is an ensemble effort and while Viggo as Aragorn is doing a lot of the heavy lifting those movies don't really show his range. Because when we're talking not about my favourite movie but my favourite Viggo movie then the answer has to be:
I love Eastern Promises and I re-watch this movie regularly (and kind of religiously). I've written a longer post about Eastern Promises here and it doesn't make sense to repeat myself. The long and the short of it is that I think he's absolutely amazing in that film. (Everyone is, the whole cast is an absolute banger. I especially enjoy Stepan who could come across as simple comic relief but who Jerzy Skolimowski plays with so much sincerity that you just have to root for him.)
Anyways. This movies hits the way it does because Viggo is so effortlessly able to show Nikolai's duality. The fact that you never get a definite answer as to Nikolai's motives is not only due to the script. It's in large part due to Viggo's ability to give this character layer upon layer which opens Nikolai up to endless interpretion. And I love that, in part because Viggo never parades around the fact that he's a great actor. Instead, he simply gets stuff done.
I haven't even seen half of his movies I must admit. But some that I really liked are:
The Green Book was probably one of his more mainstream attempts, but I liked it. Despite the topic of the film this mostly lived off the fact that Viggo and co-star Mahershala Ali had good chemistry and were quite simply fun to watch. Also, I play the piano, so movies like that always get an extra cookie point from me.
I liked The Two Faces of January more than I had anticipated, especially since I'm not even a Patricia Highsmith fan. But somehow this movie was all hot summer vibes and the way Viggo's character starts out all prim and proper and you see him deteriorating throughout the movie was fun to watch. Also, this movie is full of eyecandy. His suave and sophisticated style here is one of my favourite looks on him.
The Prophecy is an all-time favourite of mine. It hits all the spots for me and I watched it everytime it was on late-night tv back in the 90s. This has all the trademarks of a Gregory Widen movie (and yes, of course I'm also a massive Highlander fan): it's dark and urban, it has an interesting twist on a fantasy theme and it brings together an impressive cast. It's angels and demons doing weird stuff and yes, that has always been exactly my thing. I've been trying to purchase a DVD or Bluray of this for years now, but there seems to be no definite cut (at least not for region code 2 - which is Europe) and the Amazon reviews seem undecided which edition one should buy. But eventually, this will be added to my collection. The Prophecy is cool all around.
I'm adding this here just for kicks and because I didn't even know Viggo was in Young Guns II. Young Guns and Young Guns II were such formative movies during my teenage years. Everyone in my friend group had a crush on one of these actors. (Mine was Charlie Sheen btw.) Maybe I need to rewatch this simply for laughs.
Stuff I want to get to eventually:
Yes, I admit. Even though I'm a massive horse girl I haven't seen Hidalgo. Sorry. I will do something about it eventually.
I'm on a western kick at the moment. It makes sense to dive into Appaloosa at some point.
It's really a shame that I haven't gotten around to watching Captain Fantastic. I think I will absolutely love this!
Like you, I haven't really been following his career all that closely. I've checked out of the blockbuster rotation ages ago. However, of course I have a favourite anyway. Because there is the rare occasion where popcorn cinema isn't just stupidly good but good-good. And that movie, of course, is:
I rewatched this last winter or thereabouts and Pirates of the Caribbean is still so wonderfully entertaining. And I do think Orlando looks really good in period clothing. I must admit though, that I checked out of this franchise after the third movie or so. At this point, it had become so silly and nonsensical that I couldn't even follow the plot. And however funny I think Johnny Depp is as Jack Sparrow and how much I like looking at Orlando Bloom for two hours flat ... it's still not worth shelling out 10€ for something that will mostly annoy me.
And yes, I admit that nowadays it's really easy to "lose" me. The last time I actually went to the cinema (as in the actual building) to watch a movie was in 2015.
The one I want to get to eventually:
Yepp, this one. Because I think plot- and theme-wise Carnival Row is right up my alley, even though I always blank on the title. I'm in no hurry to get to it. But I won't be opposed to watch this eventually. I think I just might like it!
So, everyone! Which one is your favourite?
