Quote: Indian Runner

One day, during the filming of I can’t remember which film, I went back to my hotel and found a message: "Sean Penn called you," with a telephone number. I asked myself which of my friends was playing a trick. And there was a spelling mistake in Sean. I call: "Sean Penn?" "Yeah," replies Sean Penn, grumpily. "It’s Viggo Mortensen. What do you want?" I didn’t even realise I could have been friendlier. (Laughs.) And then, he told me about ‘Indian Runner’. He saw me in ‘Fresh Horses’, a TV film which I had made for HBO. I had a little scene at the end. He sent me the script and I was instantly hooked. At the start, I preferred the character which was finally played by David Morse. Mine was just described as ‘the baddy’. But I said to myself that, behind the slightly too obvious behaviour of Frank Roberts, there had to be a really complex reason. The filming was extremely interesting … The more so because Sean was very involved. It was there I became friends with Dennis Hopper. After that, the offers arrived.”

Viggo Mortensen: The Soul of a Warrior, Juliette Michaud
Studio Magazine, December 2002