Summary

  • Viggo Mortensen reflects on the Green Book criticism, calling it "disingenuous" and "unfair."
  • Green Book faced backlash for the perceived "white savior" narrative, highlighting the controversy surrounding the film.
  • Mortensen defends the film and addresses the criticism, emphasizing the importance of dispelling rumors and inaccuracies.

Viggo Mortensen reflects on winning the coveted Oscar for Best Picture at the 2019 ceremony.

Green Book also won Oscars for Best Original Screenplay and Best ing Actor for Mahershala Ali.

Six years after the movie's release, Mortensen speaks to Vanity Fair at length about the controversy surrounding Green Book. According to the actor, many statements from him and others involved in the film were taken out of context, and unfairly condemned while the film was receiving criticism. He called some critiques of Green Book "disingenuous criticism." Despite this, he feels it will become a "small classic." Mortensen's full quote is below:

It was frustrating to me as part of the filmmaking team to see that the studio was somewhat cowed by the disingenuous criticism of the movie, of it being not historically accurate, so forth, or unfair in some way, being cowed by that kind of rumor-mongering that spread like wildfire because of the way social media is these days, and which rival studios greatly enjoyed and propagated as much as they could. That’s what happened. I thought they should have been bolder about refuting it. They eventually did what we—Peter Farrelly, me, and others—wished they had done early on: put out the recordings that show that this is actually a true story and that this happened.

Anywhere I go, when people show up with pictures or DVDs and things, I see as much Green Book material to this day as I do Lord of the Rings material. People loved that movie. The studio, if they’d been bolder and reacted properly early on, they would’ve made even more money in the box office. It’s a movie that did really well. Social media is a precarious place. I being asked about racism generally, and I said, “I think racism will always be there. It doesn’t matter how many laws you put in and how much progress is made, it’s just human nature. The target of racism and the vocabulary used changes from generation to generation, sometimes from year to year, and you always have to be wary. Every new generation of children has to be shown somehow, taught by example, to not fear that which is different.” And even that was taken out of context, and I found that to be really unfortunate. But this movie is going to be—is already and it will be—ed as a small classic.

Yeah. Yeah, it does. Talking about Green Book, for example, I ended up having to do months of interviews where every interview I had to address that issue. I’m like, “There’s nothing there, you guys. It’s actually based on a real relationship. It’s a true story. It’s a good story. I don’t know why I have to keep answering,” but I did.

You can ask any director I’ve worked with, I’ve always worked just as hard to try to promote the story that I’ve committed to helping tell as actually shooting it. I think it’s important. It’s part of the job, as you’re a professional member of the filmmaking team. That’s just all there is to it, and that’s just what goes with it. You have to take on board the nonsense and the people who are either ill-informed or ignorant as far as what filmmaking is about or the history of movies, or who are ill-intentioned and are doing it for other reasons—to get attention for themselves or in some indirect way working for other interests that are contrary to the interests of the project you’re promoting. You have to do what you can to dispel untruths and nasty rumors and inaccuracies. You can only do it conversation by conversation, and if it works, it works. If it doesn’t, well, you tried and that’s all there’s to it. That’s how I see my job.

Green Book's Controversy Explained

Viggo Mortensen Neglects Key Details About Green Book's Controversy

While Mortensen may be accurate in his claim that the Green Book press tour spent a lot of time dwelling on issues outside the film itself, he devotes a lot of speaking time to ignoring a key point when it comes to the controversy. Upon its release, a number of audience and critics alike were apt to liken Green Book's story to a white savior narrative. In that claim, these detractors would suppose that Mortensen's Tony is a man who comes in to save Ali's character, and learns the meaning of racism along the way.

Any of these critiques could be seen as distilled versions of Green Book's narrative, so it makes sense why Mortensen may get defensive of the film. After all, Green Book's plot is based on a true story, and this real-life duo went through some of what Ali and Mortensen's characters undergo in the film. However, this does not ignore the fact that Green Book, as a movie, centers on the white man's perspective in the story. This is evident by looking at its Oscar nominations alone; Mortensen was nominated for Leading Actor, while Ali was reduced to ing.

Therefore, while some of Mortensen's reaction to the fallout around the Oscar winner may be valid, it does not fully address the concerns that copious people had about Green Book. The truth behind the film may be, as Mortensen would put it, a "true story" and even "a good story," but that does not mean that its execution was of equally high caliber. Overall, Green Book will likely remain one of the more controversial Best Picture picks in recent Oscar history.

Source: Vanity Fair

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Green Book
PG-13
Biography
Comedy
Drama
8/10
7.8/10
Release Date
November 16, 2018
Runtime
130 minutes
Director
Peter Farrelly

Cast

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Green Book is an Oscar-winning road movie starring Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali as Italian American bouncer Tony Lip and pianist prodigy Dr. Don Shirley, respectively. They form an unlikely friendship in the face of the all-pervasive racism and homophobia of the Deep South in the 1960s. The 2018 film is inspired by true events and its title comes from a real-life guidebook made for Black travelers.

Writers
Brian Hayes Currie, Peter Farrelly, Nick Vallelonga
Studio(s)
Participant Media, DreamWorks Pictures, Innisfree Pictures, Alibaba Pictures
Distributor(s)
Universal Pictures
Budget
$23 million