"My mother and two brothers and I, we moved to northern New York state that summer (1969), right after the moon landing and just before Woodstock. I remember that summer because my parents split up, and I was moving to a new environment from Argentina. I was 10 years old and I remember a lot of things, especially the older kids hitching off to Woodstock. As a kid, you accept whatever as normal, so that was my beginning: people dressing differently, the smell of pot or incense in the street or coming out of cars. The music. Mad magazine."

In 1972 Viggo attended Watertown High School. He was captain of the swim team & on the tennis team. Even then he was very friendly, kind and shy. He was also known for prowling the streets with his camera constantly taking pictures. It was late in 1977 that he got his famous scar over his upper lip. Viggo describes the event like this "It was a combination of a fist and a barbwire fence on a particularly bad Halloween night. I was 17 and so drunk that I didn't even need an anesthetic when the doctor sewed me up," "When I got out of surgery, my friends had ordered pizzas to the hospital and I helped them eat them."

After graduating from St. Lawrence University in 1980 with Degrees in government and spanish Viggo went back to Denmark where he had spent many vacations on his grandfathers farm as a child. There he lived with his cousins and like his father worked many different jobs. Including a waiter, a fork lift driver & even sold flowers. Living in Denmark is very inexpensive since as a young man he didn't have to pay taxes on up to $1000 worth of his monthly income . According to Viggo: "I was selling roses on the street I loved interacting with people, which I’m usually not that good at. I would also get to the farmers market in Copenhagen at dawn and buy sweet peas for wholesale. Then I would sell those as well. It was a great way to live. Until it rained."

In 1982 Viggo moved back to New York following a then girlfriend. He wrote to his cousins & friends in Denmark that he now planed to become a big actor in the US. His friends in Denmark didn't believe a word!

In New York Viggo decided that he better go to acting school if he wanted to become an actor. He looked in a news paper for the acting school with the nicest name. He attended the Warren Robertson Acting Workshop for two years. Then he did several plays including the Indiana Repertory Theater's "Romeo & Juliet", The American Repertory Theater's "Kevin O'Cypher, The Ryan Repertory Company's "Two by Two" & the New York Ensemble Studio Theater's "The Rapidio". Along with several movies including the Purple Rose of Cairo and Swing Shift. But his performances were edited from both movies & feeling very disappointed he wrote the poem EDIT. Eventually Viggo moved to Los Angeles, where his performance as "Captain" in "Bent" at the Coast Playhouse earned him a Drama-logue Critic's Award.

Viggo's first decade as an actor from 1985 to 1995, was tough for him. In-spite of doing great films like, the critically accliamed & now modern classic The Indian Runner, American Yakuza & the cult classic Darkly Noon. As a gifted character actor Viggo thrives on deep three dimensional characters he can sympathize with & literally become during filming. Unfortunately this is rare in main stream film & most of Viggo's movies in this decade were Independent Films that back then were unrecognized by the film industry and rarely made money for the actors or investors. Because of this Viggo again found himself taking on odd jobs such as a waiter, bartender and truck driver.

In 1987 during the filming of the underground independent film Salvation Viggo met & married Exene (Christine) Cervenka, the lead singer of the group X & a punk rock icon. They were a good match, both shy poets who shared many intrests & attitudes toward life. In 1988 they had a son Henry & fearing the spot light of Exene's fame, move to Idaho to raise their son in seclusion. Of course this made Viggo's acting situation worse. There was no work for an actor in Idaho & he had to drive constantly to audition for & perform in the few roles that appealed to him. That's when he did films such as PRISON (his first real leading role), The Crew, and Boiling Point. But the time came when he had to compromise on the roles he accepted. In his own words "I had stayed away from commercial films because the characters didn't appeal to me but I needed to support my family" It was also during this time (I assume to commemorate the birth of his son) that Viggo got one of his two tattoos. This one, on his left arm, is of a stylized bleeding heart that incorporates the initials of Viggo, his wife Exene & his son Henry. I still know nothing about his second tattoo. He also started the tradition of always spending Halloween with his son. Something that he made conditional in all his movie contracts.

It was during this time that Viggo began to get reputation for playing characters that were villains and so called low life's. According to Viggo those tend to be the more interesting characters, not that he didn't try for leading roles. It was just that he almost never got them "It was always between me & the other guy & the other guy always got the role" in his own words. About his characters Viggo says "No matter how evil or strange the characters have been. I've never played someone I didn't like. Didn't find a way to connect with somehow...". For Viggo when he accepts a job he goes in intent on three things , 'to stay true to where the character is coming from', ' to learn from the experience' & 'to have fun doing it'.

Viggo remains proud of everything he's done though their is one movie he feels uncomfortable with, Leatherface 3. According to Viggo "I've been told that allot of people tend to become obsessed with those kinds of movies and I'm not real comfortable with that...", none the less he recalls the film's shooting very fondly & thinks it unfair that the movie was so over edited because of pressure from censors, that it barely makes sense.

Viggo takes as much pride and care with even the smallest role as he does with his most elaborate painting. He studies the role carefully & creates an entire life story for the character making sure to stay true to that history. This is why he is known for staying in character during the entire shooting & even wearing his costumes outside the set. During the filming of "a Perfect Murder" not just did Viggo create the art works in the movie but he also lived in the Brooklyn NY loft used for filming. For Viggo, he can only play characters that he understands, sympathizes with & can believe are real in his own mind.

From this point on Viggo started to look for more mainstream work soon realizing that by compromising on the roles he choose, in return he'd be offered more challenging role that he would never been offered before. Roles like Daylight & The Prophesy resulted in roles that gained him main stream notoriety like Crimson Tide & Portrait Of A Lady. And eventually leading to break out roles like in G.I. Jane & A Perfect Murder. From this time forward Viggo worked at a dizzying pace in film shoots all over the world including, Italy, Egypt & Spain.

In 1996-97 Viggo's marriage to Exene Cervenka came to an end. It was an amicable divorce & both got equal custody of Henry. By not living together Viggo could give up the long distance drives to LA ,which he did and rented a small track home near Venice Beach. As Viggo explains it, when Exene tours with her new music group Henry stays with him & vice versa when Viggo needs to be on location filming Henry can stay with his mother. None the less Viggo & Exene remain close friends, according to Viggo "were still very close, not because of Henry, though that would be a good reason, were close because we still enjoy each others company,". And the three actually still take yearly vacations together. I think it's a very rare and mature arrangement for all of them.

By the end of the twentieth century Viggo's career, for the first time, was on a consistent rise with each role & this is when we got Viggo's best performance since The Indian Runner in A Walk On the Moon in 1999. It was around this time too that Viggo's long time friend Dennis Hopper took interest in the thousands of photographs Viggo had been taking since high school in the 70s. Hopper himself is an acclaimed photographer & helped Viggo get the recognition he deserved. Viggo's first photography exhibit was in July 2000 at the Robert Mann Gallery in NYC called Errant Vine.

The success of the Mann exhibit led to his first art exhibit at the Santa Monica Gallery 'Track 16' in January 2001. During preparations for this first Track 16 exibit organizers noticed the large collection of multimedia paintings Viggo had been experimenting with in his spare time. That first exhibit called Recent Forgeries included several of his paintings along with poetry & photos. Exhibits of Viggo's Art & Photography at Track 16 are still ongoing. His work continues to received critical acclaim for both his photographs & paintings and he is now recognized as a highly talented artist. His journey into poetry started when he was very young and in his second book Recent Forgeries (based on the exhibit) he includes all three of his artistic mediums, poetry, photography & painting. Though Viggo's first book of poetry "Ten Last Night" was published in the late 80's.

After Recent Forgeries Viggo decided to dedicate a large portion of his time to painting. He turned his small rented home into a studio with drop cloths over everything & found objects for his multimedia works in boxes filling the rooms. Soon Viggo began to comment on how separated he was becoming from the rest of the world, painting day & night for months on end. He said he was starting to have trouble being with large groups of people and preferred long solitude. This is something many artists claim to go through.

During this time Viggo also made clear to interviewers that no matter how well "the art thing" did to provide a steady lively hood he would not give up acting. In his own words "When they (art & acting) work, they both work on the same level". We are all very lucky he thought this way since as it turns out his greatest performance on the silver screen was still to come.

In November 1999 Viggo had already finished work on the movie 28 Days, and as usual had allot on his plate. Among other things he was looking for funding on a short film he wanted to produce (based on a recurring dream) and had started work on his latest music CD. Then he received a call from his agent. The actor Steward Townsed who had gotten the role of Aragorn in the upcoming Lord Of The Rings Trilogy was gone & Peter Jackson (the producer) wanted him to take his place. This would mean going to New Zealand for a year. Viggo didn't know what do & decided to think about it. He had two days to decide. Viggo admits that he usually considers a role a long time before accepting it & once he accepts it becomes very familiar with the character & it's history before filming begins. In this case he hadn't even read Lord of the Rings & he would have to be in New Zealand three days later taking another actors place, on a project already started.

Viggo had a big decision to make & no time to make it. He asked his son since they would have to be apart for a year. Henry was familiar with Tolkien's work, knew that his ok would be important to Viggo so he told his father "Dad you have to do this". Viggo knew it was a huge privilege to have a director ask for him directly & comments that people would think he was a coward since this was such a daunting undertaking he was being offered. Truth is that Viggo was afraid, who wouldn't be under the circumstances!
"I guess in the end I did it because (if I hadn't) I would feel like I had been chicken shit. I had to leave the next day , so I'm on a plane reading, looking at this gigantic book and thinking 'What the hell have I done?' " In the end he accepted. Three days later he was in New Zealand & two days after that filming re-started.

Viggo says that he read Tolkien on the flight to New Zealand & started to understand the character. But it was when he realized that Aragorn was afraid of his destiny in-spite of being such a great hero, that Viggo & Aragorn connected. Since Viggo too was afraid of the challenge he had accepted. From that moment on Viggo turned on his character acting gift & did what critics & fans alike are hailing as his best performance to date. Ironically what was originally scheduled to be a 10 month filming schedule ballooned into a 2 year odyssey for Viggo. Who knows if he would had agreed to do it if he had known how long he'd be away from his son.

I'm writing this a few weeks after the premier of Fellowship Of The Ring. It is still number one at the US box office & promises to make at least 400 million world wide. And just won "Best Movie Of the Year" by the American Film Institute Awards on January 6th. In the midst of this Viggo is for the first time in his acting career the center of strong media attention. As much as he is proud of his work, he is very uncomfortable with this attention. For a man who is so private that he is uneasy in social situations & can barely muster the voice to talk about his work, this is not an easy time. And hints that if things become worse he might give up acting have popped up in several interviews. But I doubt we will stop seeing Viggo on the silver screen. I hope he loves the complex craft of becoming a different person & then learning from that experience, too much to give it up. He will probably stay way from large roles & from mainstream films as he always has. But after the media's attention has moved on to someone else he'll be back.

Most recent interviews tell us Viggo no longer lives in Venice Beach & that he is building a new house in Idaho where he'll probably be keeping the horse he purchased in New Zealand. I doubt he'll be living in Idaho full time since his music, painting & acting are all still centered around LA. Another interesting fact is that ever since he came back from New Zealand Viggo seems to prefer going barefoot. In New Zealand bare feet are a custom & it seems to suit the nature loving Viggo perfectly.

To Viggo's slight embarrassment knowledge of the "Fellowship Tattoo" has gotten out. Upon the end of filming the LOTR the nine actors who played the members of the Fellowship decided to commemorate their experience by getting tattoos, so they had custom ones designed. Then they went to the only tattoo parlor in the area & in the midst of celebration & picture taking, each had the Celtic number nine tattooed on. Each got their tattoo on a different place on their body & promised to keep it a secret. I have no idea where Viggo put his tattoo, so now he has three of them.

I think I've covered all the general questions that one might ask about Viggo but one:
How on Earth can Viggo do so much at once??
He has help. When he is filming on location he has close friends mail him packages containing the materials he needs to paint, take pictures & write. Then he has his camera with him at all times. Taking pictures of everything & everyone around him that inspires him somehow. No matter how small his hotel room, he sets up his canvases & paints. And when ever he's inspired he pulls out his note book & writes. That's why so may of his photographs show actors from movies he has worked on.