Viggo Mortensen revealed in an interview with GQ UK magazine that he used Aragorn’s iconic sword Andúril from “Lord of the Rings” in his latest movie, “The Dead Don’t Hurt.” Mortensen wrote and directed the 19th century Western, in which he stars as a Danish immigrant separated from his love (Vicky Krieps) during the Civil War.
For one fantasy sequence in the film, Mortensen asked his “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson if he had his permission to use Aragorn’s sword again on screen. Mortensen played the character in Jackson’s original “Rings” trilogy and kept the sword after production wrapped.
“We had everything for this sequence with a knight. We had found this great, spirited horse, the right kind of saddle, and we made a medieval kind of blanket, and we had the costume for the knight,” Mortensen explained. “Everything was right, and then I said, well, we should have a sword. And I did look and there were some good ones and I thought, well, it might be kind of good to use [Aragorn’s sword] that I had because it’s really good. But I knew I would have to ask permission because I’m sure somebody would notice it, even if you only see it for a few seconds, it’s not really essential to the scene and certainly not to the movie, it’s just something in passing that you either see or you don’t.”
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“I did ask Peter Jackson if he’d be all right with it, and he said, ‘Well, is it very important in the story?’ I said, no, it’s not, actually,” Mortensen continued. “You hardly notice it, but somebody will, probably. He said it was okay with him but that I should ask the movie company. So I contacted them and they were fine with it. They realized it wasn’t essential, it wasn’t going to draw a lot of attention to itself. And they were very nice about it, and they gave us permission. That’s why we did it, just because it seemed right. It was kind of a last-minute accident.”
Jackson is returning to Middle-Earth as the producer of a new “Lord of the Rings” movie that is going to be directed by Gollum actor Andy Serkis. The movie, “The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum,” is being eyed for a 2026 theatrical release. Would Mortensen return as Aragorn? He doesn’t seem opposed, but the story would have to make sense.
“I don’t know exactly what the story is, I haven’t heard,” he said. “Maybe I’ll hear about it eventually. I like playing that character. I learned a lot playing the character. I enjoyed it a lot. I would only do it if I was right for it in terms of, you know, the age I am now and so forth. I would only do it if I was right for the character. It would be silly to do it otherwise.”
“The Dead Don’t Hurt” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year. The film is opening in theaters May 31. Head over to GQ UK’s website to read Mortensen’s interview in its entirety.
