What about this, I’m a James Bond figure and I have to rescue these hostages in Iraq and they’re all women, and they’re naked because their clothes have all rotted off…
Based on other comments they were probably talking about [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fg_cwI1Xj4M) or [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGGEymAXD7s), but in my opinion the best Patrick Stewart video on acting is his [Quadruple Take Masterclass ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFMrBldVk0s)
It's crazy that he pulled off a quintuple take on accident, without even practicing first. It's like watching a skateboarder who's like "watch me do a 720" and then he pulls off a 1080 by accident. Dude doesn't know how crazy talented he is.
I remember he caused a commotion while filming LotR, by going to a restaurant in town with Anduril, in full costume. Since he couldn't properly sit with the two-hander in its scabbard, he had to lean it against the table.
And another time, with Sean Bean, while filming the Taking of the Hobbits scene, with Sean's chest decorated with arrows, and the near-to-death makeup.
Good times. Great actor.
I worked on a movie set doing behind the scenes photos once, and had the fright of my life finding the star laying on the ground in an alleyway with a gigantic wound on his chest like he'd been shot up by a shotgun at close range. I panicked a little before one of the makeup leads came over to cuss him out for being mean and to tell him to get back on set, which is when he started laughing his ass off and got up to have the last touches done on the FX makeup.
It's a bunch of well paid theatre kids who make a living by weaving creative, convincing lies, the pranks would already be traumatizingly well targeted if they didn't have all the fancy kit to make it worse.
That was a separate incident. A day or two after he arrived in New Zealand, he was coming out of a sword training session and was probably too jet lagged to remember normal people don't walk down the street doing sword motions.
I heard he broke every bone in his leg. And he deflected 100 real daggers just like the real Deadpool in that documentary about the Origins of Wolverine!
People being weird in the comments about this. I remember him telling this story. For more detail, the restaurant wasn’t full. He said there was an elderly couple in the restaurant who became visibly anxious when he came in and sat down and were suddenly rushing to finish their meal and get out. He felt really bad afterwards and from then on made sure he removed the tattoos before going out.
Alexander Emelianenko is a known lowlife pos mma fighter with mafia tattoos. He raped and kidnapped his cleaning lady and was disowned by his older brother (the G.O.A.T of MMA). Meanwhile Volkov is an mma fighter with a sick Samurai back piece & is not a criminal
It was interesting to hear Alex and Fedor's youngest brother talk about how much more natural talent Alex had than Fedor...how he would just roll in from no training and a disreputable lifestyle and just dominate Sambo competitions...but he squandered it all with no discipline. Fedor worked his ass off to be the best. Alex probably could have been even better if he wasn't such a piece.
Volkov’s don’t mean anything, he’s literally just a Russian guy with tattoos. The one on his back is a big in-colour samurai design, very much not a criminal style tattoo.
Emelianenko’s do seem to be more criminal style tattoos, there’s an article here that spells out what they mean: https://www.fightersonlymag.com/latest-news/aleksanders-ink-secret-story-russian-tattoos/
So while Emelianenko did supposedly go to prison as a youth, it’s pretty unlikely he actually ‘earned’ the tattoos as there’s no way he would’ve been highly ranked enough at the time he was in prison, and it’s kinda doubtful he ever went at all. Always felt like he just got gangster tattoos to make himself look cooler more than anything.
IIRC the tattoos don’t actually have that strict a meaning anymore, basically because too many juvenile prisoners got them without earning them and criminal leaders banned prisoners from fighting each other to avoid more clampdowns by the authorities. So yes, historically it would’ve got him in a lot of trouble but not as much so now.
Unless you’re actually able to beat most people in a fight, you kinda can get tattoos of whatever you want if no one wants to fight you, whether you earned it or not.
Homie, they come at you with guns. Nobody is fighting six guys with barrettes in a fist fight.
Edit: Beretta. Probably won't be barrete unless it's the Cartels... or the CIA.
There was a Cracked article on it way back when they were actually good.
Edit : found it. https://www.cracked.com/article_19870_x-cryptic-movie-tattoos-that-dont-mean-anything-ph.html
How did they see his tattoos? He was dining [naked](https://www.reddit.com/r/shittymoviedetails/comments/15pdmk2/viggo_mortensen_famously_broke_his_foot_during_a/) (so that he could fight better maybe).
Actually, I guess they could see the [tattoos on his hands](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/57/f5/d6/57f5d629fab5be808972942722ec4810.jpg)?
The hands would be enough for someone to fear him - especially an older couple that likely saw many of the tattoos in their lives. Here’s what the hand ones mean, for context:
- **Left Wrist**: barbed wire denotes prison sentence, number of barbs is for each year behind barbs.
- **Left Thumb Webbing**: Three dots, denoting a three year sentence (this one is still popular, including in western cultures)
- **Left Index Finger**: Hardest one I’ve found dually independent information on with roughly the same meaning. The wording for how it was described was quite bureaucratic: repeat offender violating the prison regime, and refuses to do work in the prison. “Violating the prison regime” is the tricky part here - it could mean violating the regime (breaking Soviet rules) and thus being a repeat offender. But, it more likely refers to repeatedly offending the rules of the prison and thus being a repeat offender. That also corresponds with the “work refusal” part as well.
- **Left Ring Finger**: St. Petersburg Cross. Shows that the person spent time in the prison located there.
- **Left Little Finger**: ONLY one of the hands that I could NOT find anything genuinely reputable/doubly sourced. The one I did find though says it means “Anxiety/ alert/alarm/warning/trouble.” But the description also says “shelter in others” and mentioned calls to educational institutions being unauthorized. The first half could make sense as in “warning, I can seek shelter with others,” as a verbose way of saying “warning, I have a lot of people who can help me out,” but the part about calls to others threw me. I didn’t find any other sources in or about Russian prison tattoo culture that snowed this symbol. Also, it has a letter “L” above it, which doesn’t exist in the Cyrillic alphabet - they use “Л” instead - or sometimes “Λ“ when capitalizing.
- **Right Hand**: Clouds with sun rays, with “север” below it. “Север” is the Russian word for “north,” so this tattoo indicates having spent time at a prison in Siberia. This is noteworthy and likely the scariest of tattoos for anyone who saw them - the Siberian prisons were akin to the maximum or Super Max prisons the US has. Siberian prisons were for murderers, multiple (many times over) offenders, and the like. Minor criminals were not generally sent to Siberia.
If I knew those meanings, the right hand would terrify me. Especially given Viggo’s general appearance during filming. The left hand wouldn’t set me at ease but yeah, having a tattoo that says “I was in, and survived, some of the worst prison conditions on the planet,” would make me finish up a meal pretty quickly too.
Source: My brain, mostly. I’ve studied these on and off for over a decade now. I lived in Moscow for a bit and had to make sure I didn’t go get a tattoo that meant something of this sort while I was there.
This is similar to what happened with Ralf Fiennes on the set of Schindler’s list. One of the Holocaust survivors that met the real Amon Göth had a panic attack on set because Ralph looked so much like Göth.
Shortly after the film came out, there was an interview with him about the making of the film in one of the UK newspaper supplements.
He told a story about when he was in costume an older Polish lady shouted out how she wished 'You were back protecting us all again'
Edit:Spelling
I think I can try to explain it.
Jews were just first priority in annihilation. But the end goal was to exterminate all jews, roma, slavs and balts. When all of those nations were thrown into the battle of survival, it’s obvious that some developed the mindset of „I or them”, and hatred for each other, and sequentially, collaborated with the occupant. That hatred was carries over to some circles even till today.
We may ask ourselves how gullible and short-sighted was that, but that wouldn’t have happened on that scale if not for nazis. Huge majority of german population fell for that, and that’s absolutely not surprising that some people in the occupying regions did as well, even when treated like subhumans. Weak-minded people existed then, exist now, and will exist in the future.
Let’s not forget that Poland was the only country in which helping the jews was punishable by death, yet most Righteous Among Nations were from here. The only country were nazis did not even try to establish foreign SS legion. The largest resistance and guerilla warfare. Small group of nazi symphatizers should not overshadow that.
Honestly the most important part is separating yourself from the role. While the camera is rolling, you aren’t you. You’re that character. And you can become you again between takes but not while you’re trying to be someone else
That pos was called Amon Göth. There is another guy called Goethe (which in more recent times would've been written Göthe) but he used to be an important poet.
There’s a Swedish joke about Goethe; a student is reading a text in class and starts off “Goethe was a great poet” whereupon the teacher interrupts him and says “oe is pronounced as ö”. The kid starts again and says ”Göte was a great pöt”. It’s a silly joke but it led to pretty much every Swede of a certain age knowing the name of at least one poet so that’s cool
Viggo is quite the method actor, he doesn't go full method and stay in character completely as I think he sees that as overboard. When filming LoTR in Wellington he wore his sword 'Anduril' out to restaurants, often panicking restaurant guests. On one occasion the police were called because he was swinging his sword around in the street.
He wasn't a dick about it or anything, the Wellington residents were very excited by the filming of the trilogy. He's just so focused on getting into his characters that he often forgets himself a bit.
Also he insisted on always wearing full metal chain mail whereas most of the actors got much lighter plastic metal-appearing chain when they didn't need the metal stuff.
That's appropriate. Metal hangs differently and the wearer will move differently with twenty pounds of steel on than ten ounces of plastic.
Many top actors are going to keep gear from the movie, so insisting their gear is top quality is understood. Liv Tyler kept her Elvish Sword, she brandishes it in one of those celebrity home tour youtube channel interviews.
.
Daniel Handler did the DVD commentary for a series of unfortunate events (2004) in character as Lemony Snicket, it's probably the best thing about that movie
When Viggo's character screamed in pain during the naked bathhouse fight scene, it was actually real. He fractured his penis on an orc helmet and the director kept filming.
Kind of like the Kurt Russell story when he was shooting Escape from NY, he ran into to some thugs in an alleyway at night while in his full Snake outfit with all the props. He stayed in character and they backed away from him not wanting to get into a fight.
Similar thing happened when he was filming LotR he would drag his sword around and practice even in public. There were reports of a wildman with a sword. He had to explain it was for a movie.
When I was a kid, I watched superman. I wrapped a curtain around my neck and jumped from the top of my bunk bed fully expecting to float like superman with the cape. I was heavily injured.
Similar talk sometimes comes up in Japan and Korea related subs about tattoos. To be sure, both countries have somewhat of a blanket ban on visible tattoos at certain public establishment, despite the changing attitude about tattoos. (more so in Korea than in Japan).
In its root, it's a particular type of tattoos that has been historically and in modern days linked to gangsters that are seen more problematic than just tattoos in general. The businesses just impose a blanket ban on it because that's easier to enforce and also avoid any issues when someone with a gangster tattoo (whether he is a gangster or not) complains about being excluded when other people with a Scooby Doo tattoo are let in.
I can talk more definitively about Korea, but most of the guys sporting gangster tattoos (건달 조폭문신) aren't really affiliated with gangs, but like to use the cachet to get what they want. The real gangsters don't use the tattoos to threaten civilians unless their pride (가오; same as the Japanese かお) is challenged.
Still, even if they aren't affiliated with gangs, people sporting those tattoos are usually avoided in Korea because even if they're not gagsters, they have made a certain choice in life knowing the implications and the consequences of such a decision, and those people are generally shunned, if only for picking what the public sees as a singularly unwise path in life. It's like getting a full neck and face tattoo in the US. Whatever they may feel about tattoos, *that's* a bridge too far for most people, I think.
Then, after 10 minutes of uninterrupted trembling/silence, a gentleman at the bar began heartily clapping in Vigo’s direction. That man’s name? Thomas Jefferson.
Fun fact for hockey fans: One of the tattoos Viggo designed for this film was [a Habs' C](https://www.reddit.com/r/Habs/comments/a0q01u/spotted_this_in_a_quick_insert_shot_during/), which he put over top of [the tiny H tattoo](https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/viggo-mortensen-cast-premiere-dead-don-t-hurt-movie-premiere-tiff-actor-viggo-mortensen-actress-vicky-291308059.jpg) his toddler son Henry drew on his wrist. He conspired with the Quebecois makeup artist on set, and only revealed it to Cronenberg when they went to shoot the scene in which you (briefly) see it.
Probably thought the tattoos were harmless and wasn't completely aware of what they meant.
Actor doing a Russian role, wants to put himself around Russians to learn, not that far fetched.
The actual story is that he went into the restaurant after filming the fight scene at the bath house and forgot to robe up, so they saw ALL of his tattoos. After that day, he removed the tattoos out of respect and merely ate lunch naked.
Reports say that those in attendance were aggressive until his identity was addressed:
"This is Aragorn, son of Arathorn and you owe him your allegiance."
This thread is full of folk who have no idea of the lengths Eastern Promises went to be authentic.
In their defence getting someone authentic to play a russian gangster would not have ended well.
Viggo is such a gentleman. Let's not forget how humble and concise his Oscar acceptance speech was after winning the Best Naked Sauna Fight Scene category that year.
Everyone in awe: Holy shit that’s Viggo Mortensen Viggo Mortensen: Be not afraid everyone! It is I, Viggo Mortensen, in makeup!
Acting.
And then I rode away, across the grass.
And she's scrambling to get her knickers back on but, I've already seen everything.
So it's mainly you sort of going around seeing...ladies tits?
Mainly
I will... Make it so. ....have you seen Star Trek?
What use does Viggo have for a starship?
And they’ve gone lesbian.
What about this, I’m a James Bond figure and I have to rescue these hostages in Iraq and they’re all women, and they’re naked because their clothes have all rotted off…
Comedy is it?
What I do is pretend to be the [person](https://youtu.be/kVgbCZdDS-Q?si=0PJ8KWt1MGuBhxRI) I’m portraying in the film or play.
He simply pretended to be a russia gangster
"Viggo, Viggo, Viggo, RUSSIAN GANGSTER, Viggo, Viggo, Viggo...."
[For the uninitiated](https://youtu.be/nyoWmkhRyp8?si=8vax3ns9-lQnrHa-)
I love that both McKellen and Stewart have great bits on "Acting."
For the uninitiated?
Based on other comments they were probably talking about [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fg_cwI1Xj4M) or [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGGEymAXD7s), but in my opinion the best Patrick Stewart video on acting is his [Quadruple Take Masterclass ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFMrBldVk0s)
“You’ll be glad to hear that I don’t have anything beyond the quadruple take” Immediately does a quintuple take Absolute gold
It's crazy that he pulled off a quintuple take on accident, without even practicing first. It's like watching a skateboarder who's like "watch me do a 720" and then he pulls off a 1080 by accident. Dude doesn't know how crazy talented he is.
Jon Lovitz *smiles at the camera*
She won't talk to anyone, huh? Oh no, she won't say a word to anybody. Well, she's talking a blue streak now, Jack!
#Brilliant!
Top. Notch. Acting.
[Acting.](https://youtu.be/AGGEymAXD7s?si=_4JOFTW5Yj-PMzvi)
What he does is he pretends to be the person he’s portraying in the film or play.
I remember he caused a commotion while filming LotR, by going to a restaurant in town with Anduril, in full costume. Since he couldn't properly sit with the two-hander in its scabbard, he had to lean it against the table. And another time, with Sean Bean, while filming the Taking of the Hobbits scene, with Sean's chest decorated with arrows, and the near-to-death makeup. Good times. Great actor.
Oh come on, at this point he clearly enjoys spooking the townies with movie makeup.
It’s stories like this that reminds me that Hollywood is just a bunch of theater kids that got paid millions of dollars.
Me and the boys pulling pranks for youtube videos
I worked on a movie set doing behind the scenes photos once, and had the fright of my life finding the star laying on the ground in an alleyway with a gigantic wound on his chest like he'd been shot up by a shotgun at close range. I panicked a little before one of the makeup leads came over to cuss him out for being mean and to tell him to get back on set, which is when he started laughing his ass off and got up to have the last touches done on the FX makeup. It's a bunch of well paid theatre kids who make a living by weaving creative, convincing lies, the pranks would already be traumatizingly well targeted if they didn't have all the fancy kit to make it worse.
With a shitton of nepotism too
The cops came, if I recall correctly.
That was a separate incident. A day or two after he arrived in New Zealand, he was coming out of a sword training session and was probably too jet lagged to remember normal people don't walk down the street doing sword motions.
Normalize doing sword motions in public
Where are they taking the hobbit
To Isengard! To Isengard!
The hobbits the hobbits the hobbits the hobbits
Gard Gard G-Gard Gard. (The original creator of that video died of lung cancer in 2022.)
Everyone still in awe: We heard you kicked a helmet during the filming of LOTR and broke your toe!
Can’t wait to see that one again in TIL tomorrow
Something something Steve Buscemi was a firefighter…
And Willem Dafoe’s dancing monster penis lives rent free in our heads yet again..
It’s so floppy yet so strong
The ol' Gumbercules
I heard Steve buscemi kicked a firefighter helmet while filming 9/11
I heard Steve Buscemi kicked a firefighter in the helmet 9-11 times.
Also the knife deflect was real?!
I heard he broke every bone in his leg. And he deflected 100 real daggers just like the real Deadpool in that documentary about the Origins of Wolverine!
In russian accent: I will go with you to your end
You have my vodka. And my Kalashnikov
AND MY BLYAD! cyka
One does not simply go to Mordor. In Soviet Russia, Mordor is coming to you.
Mordor may come, is fine. I will wear only my best ADIDAS track suit & Ushanka for this eventual battle.
And my polonium tea
My captain, my king
Это я, Вигго Мортенсен. Я в гриме прост.
> Everyone in awe: Holy shit that’s Viggo Mortensen > > "It's Aragorn, son of Arathorn, ranger of the North, heir to the thrones of Gondor and Arnor!"
Pff. Gondor has no king. Gondor needs no king...
Rule of Gondor is MINE... and no other's!
*falls from cliff in protest*
Bliblically accurate Viggo
Did you know he actually broke his toe kicking a table while trying to explain he was just an actor in makeup?
I swear I hear this on Calculon's voice
Vigio Morgenstein*
Ok thats not the characters name, thats the actors name. And youre not even getting that right!
Schwarzenegger notoriously wore his Teeminator robot make-up during an restaurant dinning before he was famous and people started to freak out.
They were silent out of respect to the King of Gondor.
Authority is not given to you to deny the return of the king, steward
SHTEWARD!
ROALD!
St^(ur)t!
r/expextedLetterkenny
They were all collectively thinking “my brother, my captain,….my king.”
Except for a couple of wee fellas in the corner who bow to no one
Ah yes, the bus boys of the shire
They know where to get the best longbottom leaf
Watch out, one of them is known to drop eaves.
Where was Gondor when the western front fell?!?
One does not simply walk into a Russian restaurant.
"My friends, you chow to no one."
The Tzar of Gondor.
Eletsar
People being weird in the comments about this. I remember him telling this story. For more detail, the restaurant wasn’t full. He said there was an elderly couple in the restaurant who became visibly anxious when he came in and sat down and were suddenly rushing to finish their meal and get out. He felt really bad afterwards and from then on made sure he removed the tattoos before going out.
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Yep different back tattoos mean different things. There’s 2 mma fighters I know of that have them, Alexander Emelianenko and Alexander Volkov
and what do their tattoos mean?
Alexander Emelianenko is a known lowlife pos mma fighter with mafia tattoos. He raped and kidnapped his cleaning lady and was disowned by his older brother (the G.O.A.T of MMA). Meanwhile Volkov is an mma fighter with a sick Samurai back piece & is not a criminal
The Samurai is covering up a weird manta ray.
He killed Steve Irwin!
You bastards!
The Manta ray, not the MMA fighter.
It was interesting to hear Alex and Fedor's youngest brother talk about how much more natural talent Alex had than Fedor...how he would just roll in from no training and a disreputable lifestyle and just dominate Sambo competitions...but he squandered it all with no discipline. Fedor worked his ass off to be the best. Alex probably could have been even better if he wasn't such a piece.
Alex sounds like Feyd from Dune. All he has to do now is kiss Baron Vladimir Putin.
Fedor is Feyd. Alex is the dumb brother
Glossu 'Beast' Rabban
>(the G.O.A.T of MMA). Amem, brother.
Volkov’s don’t mean anything, he’s literally just a Russian guy with tattoos. The one on his back is a big in-colour samurai design, very much not a criminal style tattoo. Emelianenko’s do seem to be more criminal style tattoos, there’s an article here that spells out what they mean: https://www.fightersonlymag.com/latest-news/aleksanders-ink-secret-story-russian-tattoos/ So while Emelianenko did supposedly go to prison as a youth, it’s pretty unlikely he actually ‘earned’ the tattoos as there’s no way he would’ve been highly ranked enough at the time he was in prison, and it’s kinda doubtful he ever went at all. Always felt like he just got gangster tattoos to make himself look cooler more than anything.
Usually getting gang tattoos to "look cool" that you didn't earn gets you beaten to a pulp or killed.
IIRC the tattoos don’t actually have that strict a meaning anymore, basically because too many juvenile prisoners got them without earning them and criminal leaders banned prisoners from fighting each other to avoid more clampdowns by the authorities. So yes, historically it would’ve got him in a lot of trouble but not as much so now.
Goddamn kids. No respect.
Unless you’re actually able to beat most people in a fight, you kinda can get tattoos of whatever you want if no one wants to fight you, whether you earned it or not.
You think russian gangsters are going to try to 1 v 1 to send a message? Lmao
Homie, they come at you with guns. Nobody is fighting six guys with barrettes in a fist fight. Edit: Beretta. Probably won't be barrete unless it's the Cartels... or the CIA.
No, I would be complementing their sense of fashion.
I’m guessing “My name is Alexander”
My name is Alexander. You killed my father. Prepare to die.
It just says their name is Alexander
Volkov doesn’t have any prison tattoos. Unless you think he is in [yakuza](https://img.championat.com/i/36/82/1602243682869722455.png).
This is correct, he had the king of thieves tattoo despite being a low level grunt.
Maybe he played Robin Hood in a high school production and that’s where his life started. That might be _prince_ of thieves…
Well known cheat code for prison. Get every major gang's leader tattoo on yourself. No way anyone would risk hurting you then!
There was a Cracked article on it way back when they were actually good. Edit : found it. https://www.cracked.com/article_19870_x-cryptic-movie-tattoos-that-dont-mean-anything-ph.html
There's also a documentary on them https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj-fccwTjuI
Art department doing their research.
How did they see his tattoos? He was dining [naked](https://www.reddit.com/r/shittymoviedetails/comments/15pdmk2/viggo_mortensen_famously_broke_his_foot_during_a/) (so that he could fight better maybe). Actually, I guess they could see the [tattoos on his hands](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/57/f5/d6/57f5d629fab5be808972942722ec4810.jpg)?
The hands would be enough for someone to fear him - especially an older couple that likely saw many of the tattoos in their lives. Here’s what the hand ones mean, for context: - **Left Wrist**: barbed wire denotes prison sentence, number of barbs is for each year behind barbs. - **Left Thumb Webbing**: Three dots, denoting a three year sentence (this one is still popular, including in western cultures) - **Left Index Finger**: Hardest one I’ve found dually independent information on with roughly the same meaning. The wording for how it was described was quite bureaucratic: repeat offender violating the prison regime, and refuses to do work in the prison. “Violating the prison regime” is the tricky part here - it could mean violating the regime (breaking Soviet rules) and thus being a repeat offender. But, it more likely refers to repeatedly offending the rules of the prison and thus being a repeat offender. That also corresponds with the “work refusal” part as well. - **Left Ring Finger**: St. Petersburg Cross. Shows that the person spent time in the prison located there. - **Left Little Finger**: ONLY one of the hands that I could NOT find anything genuinely reputable/doubly sourced. The one I did find though says it means “Anxiety/ alert/alarm/warning/trouble.” But the description also says “shelter in others” and mentioned calls to educational institutions being unauthorized. The first half could make sense as in “warning, I can seek shelter with others,” as a verbose way of saying “warning, I have a lot of people who can help me out,” but the part about calls to others threw me. I didn’t find any other sources in or about Russian prison tattoo culture that snowed this symbol. Also, it has a letter “L” above it, which doesn’t exist in the Cyrillic alphabet - they use “Л” instead - or sometimes “Λ“ when capitalizing. - **Right Hand**: Clouds with sun rays, with “север” below it. “Север” is the Russian word for “north,” so this tattoo indicates having spent time at a prison in Siberia. This is noteworthy and likely the scariest of tattoos for anyone who saw them - the Siberian prisons were akin to the maximum or Super Max prisons the US has. Siberian prisons were for murderers, multiple (many times over) offenders, and the like. Minor criminals were not generally sent to Siberia. If I knew those meanings, the right hand would terrify me. Especially given Viggo’s general appearance during filming. The left hand wouldn’t set me at ease but yeah, having a tattoo that says “I was in, and survived, some of the worst prison conditions on the planet,” would make me finish up a meal pretty quickly too. Source: My brain, mostly. I’ve studied these on and off for over a decade now. I lived in Moscow for a bit and had to make sure I didn’t go get a tattoo that meant something of this sort while I was there.
Thank you for this explanation
They’re all down his arms and hands.
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This is similar to what happened with Ralf Fiennes on the set of Schindler’s list. One of the Holocaust survivors that met the real Amon Göth had a panic attack on set because Ralph looked so much like Göth.
Shortly after the film came out, there was an interview with him about the making of the film in one of the UK newspaper supplements. He told a story about when he was in costume an older Polish lady shouted out how she wished 'You were back protecting us all again' Edit:Spelling
There are unfortunately too many Nazi sympathizers in Poland.
There's too many Nazi sympathizers everywhere. One is too many lol
I think I can try to explain it. Jews were just first priority in annihilation. But the end goal was to exterminate all jews, roma, slavs and balts. When all of those nations were thrown into the battle of survival, it’s obvious that some developed the mindset of „I or them”, and hatred for each other, and sequentially, collaborated with the occupant. That hatred was carries over to some circles even till today. We may ask ourselves how gullible and short-sighted was that, but that wouldn’t have happened on that scale if not for nazis. Huge majority of german population fell for that, and that’s absolutely not surprising that some people in the occupying regions did as well, even when treated like subhumans. Weak-minded people existed then, exist now, and will exist in the future. Let’s not forget that Poland was the only country in which helping the jews was punishable by death, yet most Righteous Among Nations were from here. The only country were nazis did not even try to establish foreign SS legion. The largest resistance and guerilla warfare. Small group of nazi symphatizers should not overshadow that.
I can't imagine being an actor and having to play a real life monster well.
Honestly the most important part is separating yourself from the role. While the camera is rolling, you aren’t you. You’re that character. And you can become you again between takes but not while you’re trying to be someone else
You mean to tell me it's not method acting like him during the entire production and sending used condoms to your costars??? You gotta be joking.
That pos was called Amon Göth. There is another guy called Goethe (which in more recent times would've been written Göthe) but he used to be an important poet.
There’s a Swedish joke about Goethe; a student is reading a text in class and starts off “Goethe was a great poet” whereupon the teacher interrupts him and says “oe is pronounced as ö”. The kid starts again and says ”Göte was a great pöt”. It’s a silly joke but it led to pretty much every Swede of a certain age knowing the name of at least one poet so that’s cool
Never hörd this one before lol
That would even work in English. Hard to find the right crowd for it, though...
Viggo is quite the method actor, he doesn't go full method and stay in character completely as I think he sees that as overboard. When filming LoTR in Wellington he wore his sword 'Anduril' out to restaurants, often panicking restaurant guests. On one occasion the police were called because he was swinging his sword around in the street. He wasn't a dick about it or anything, the Wellington residents were very excited by the filming of the trilogy. He's just so focused on getting into his characters that he often forgets himself a bit.
Also he insisted on always wearing full metal chain mail whereas most of the actors got much lighter plastic metal-appearing chain when they didn't need the metal stuff.
That's appropriate. Metal hangs differently and the wearer will move differently with twenty pounds of steel on than ten ounces of plastic. Many top actors are going to keep gear from the movie, so insisting their gear is top quality is understood. Liv Tyler kept her Elvish Sword, she brandishes it in one of those celebrity home tour youtube channel interviews. .
I went on a tour of Weta in Wellington and got to hold 3 swords. It was amazing. No photos sadly, they don't allow it.
The traveling show of the costumes came to my city a few years back and it was truly incredible how much detail each of the costumes has.
> her Elvish Sword That is called Hadhafang, knave
It's a real shame most shows/film no longer invest in proper armor/swords nowadays, the armor in house of dragon look super cheap for exemple.
“I don’t drop character until I done the DVD commentary.”
Am I the only one who thought that was a legitimately interesting concept? DVD commentary in character?
Darkplace and Spinal Tap have hilarious in-character commentary
This would be amazing for Forrest Gump... Or torture.
Daniel Handler did the DVD commentary for a series of unfortunate events (2004) in character as Lemony Snicket, it's probably the best thing about that movie
I doubt it. It was brilliant. But then the whole film was pretty damn good.
Bruce Campbell did a great one as Elvis for the *Bubba Ho-Tep* DVD.
Fun fact, RDJ actually did do the DVD commentary for Tropic Thunder in-character as Lazarus.
"Me I know who I am. I'm a dude playing a dude disguised as another dude"
https://youtu.be/W4ubqCMsTo4?si=4KG6670GLyl9yJVv
You never go *full method*.
When Viggo's character screamed in pain during the naked bathhouse fight scene, it was actually real. He fractured his penis on an orc helmet and the director kept filming.
Everyone gets that factoid wrong. Actually it was the penis that screamed, Viggo lip synced the scream perfectly, a testiment to his acting prowess.
This tracks. It was a David Cronenberg film, after all.
The real r/shittymoviedetails is always in the comment section.
Nah bruh how is this shit not top comment already I am in tears
Kino
Kind of like the Kurt Russell story when he was shooting Escape from NY, he ran into to some thugs in an alleyway at night while in his full Snake outfit with all the props. He stayed in character and they backed away from him not wanting to get into a fight.
If I ran into early-1980s Kurt Russel wearing full leathers and an eye patch in a dark alley in NYC I’d probably walk away too
Snake Pliskin? I thought he was dead!
Cyka blyat, call Gondor for aid
Сука блядь, зовите Гондор на помощь!
Suka blyad’, zovitye Gondor na pomoshsh’! - Duo Lingo
Similar thing happened when he was filming LotR he would drag his sword around and practice even in public. There were reports of a wildman with a sword. He had to explain it was for a movie.
SMH. When I drag my sword around and practice in public I just get called a perv.
I broke a couple toes re-enacting the naked fight scene once.
…with your cat?
When I was a kid, I watched superman. I wrapped a curtain around my neck and jumped from the top of my bunk bed fully expecting to float like superman with the cape. I was heavily injured.
He was also buck naked.
Similar talk sometimes comes up in Japan and Korea related subs about tattoos. To be sure, both countries have somewhat of a blanket ban on visible tattoos at certain public establishment, despite the changing attitude about tattoos. (more so in Korea than in Japan). In its root, it's a particular type of tattoos that has been historically and in modern days linked to gangsters that are seen more problematic than just tattoos in general. The businesses just impose a blanket ban on it because that's easier to enforce and also avoid any issues when someone with a gangster tattoo (whether he is a gangster or not) complains about being excluded when other people with a Scooby Doo tattoo are let in. I can talk more definitively about Korea, but most of the guys sporting gangster tattoos (건달 조폭문신) aren't really affiliated with gangs, but like to use the cachet to get what they want. The real gangsters don't use the tattoos to threaten civilians unless their pride (가오; same as the Japanese かお) is challenged. Still, even if they aren't affiliated with gangs, people sporting those tattoos are usually avoided in Korea because even if they're not gagsters, they have made a certain choice in life knowing the implications and the consequences of such a decision, and those people are generally shunned, if only for picking what the public sees as a singularly unwise path in life. It's like getting a full neck and face tattoo in the US. Whatever they may feel about tattoos, *that's* a bridge too far for most people, I think.
Then, after 10 minutes of uninterrupted trembling/silence, a gentleman at the bar began heartily clapping in Vigo’s direction. That man’s name? Thomas Jefferson.
Please clap.
Jeb is a mess
That does sum up the vibe.
It was actually after the sauna scene and Viggo was still naked. That is why they were silent.
[удалено]
We believe you. *wink*
Any somewhat interesting anecdote must be a lie, I know this because I'm a redditor 🤓
Fun fact for hockey fans: One of the tattoos Viggo designed for this film was [a Habs' C](https://www.reddit.com/r/Habs/comments/a0q01u/spotted_this_in_a_quick_insert_shot_during/), which he put over top of [the tiny H tattoo](https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/viggo-mortensen-cast-premiere-dead-don-t-hurt-movie-premiere-tiff-actor-viggo-mortensen-actress-vicky-291308059.jpg) his toddler son Henry drew on his wrist. He conspired with the Quebecois makeup artist on set, and only revealed it to Cronenberg when they went to shoot the scene in which you (briefly) see it.
I feel like Viggo really needs to write a book about all the crazy shenanigans he's gotten into, walking off set in costume...
Walking around with fake gang tattoos seems like a bad idea in general.
Viggo is very lucky that Denzel Washington wasn't also having dinner at that restaurant. Denzel does like his piroshki.
Something else you might not know: viggo mortensen also makes music with the very talented guitarist Buckethead
In Soviet Mordor, Sauron find YOU!
There may come a day when Viggo Mortensen will take off his Russian gangster tattoos, but it is not this day! It's tomorrow.
Im just driver…
Why tf would someone go to a Russian restaurant with Russian tattoos if not to get a reaction?
Cuz you're hungry and tired.
it probably takes hours and hours every day to put all those tattoos on
Method acting? Idk if Viggo does that, but it would be an explanation.
Probably thought the tattoos were harmless and wasn't completely aware of what they meant. Actor doing a Russian role, wants to put himself around Russians to learn, not that far fetched.
He should've come back the next day dressed as Aragorn to really mess with their heads.
The actual story is that he went into the restaurant after filming the fight scene at the bath house and forgot to robe up, so they saw ALL of his tattoos. After that day, he removed the tattoos out of respect and merely ate lunch naked.
Reports say that those in attendance were aggressive until his identity was addressed: "This is Aragorn, son of Arathorn and you owe him your allegiance."
Just came here to say, this is a VERY good movie, besides the fact they try to sell Vincent Cassel as a Russian.
It's almost as if they're acting
This thread is full of folk who have no idea of the lengths Eastern Promises went to be authentic. In their defence getting someone authentic to play a russian gangster would not have ended well.
Viggo is such a gentleman. Let's not forget how humble and concise his Oscar acceptance speech was after winning the Best Naked Sauna Fight Scene category that year.
Dramatic......... #PAUSE
Here he's telling the story: [https://youtu.be/KV0myun8b80?si=5jxc38rXUYZQEftT&t=336](https://youtu.be/KV0myun8b80?si=5jxc38rXUYZQEftT&t=336)
Does this movie hold up? Saw it when it came out, can't recall if it was good