1980s–1990s: First films Mortensen's first film role was in the
Woody Allen film
The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), but his scenes were deleted from the final cut. He was one of the four finalists to play the title role of
Tarzan in the adventure film
Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984), though the role eventually went to
Christopher Lambert. His first onscreen appearance was playing an
Amish farmer in
Peter Weir's
Witness. He was cast because the director thought he had the right face for the part. Although he was simultaneously cast as a soldier in
Shakespeare in the Park's production of
Henry V, he chose to work on
Witness instead, citing a desire to try something new. Mortensen credited that decision and the positive experience on the film as the start of his film career. Also in 1985, he was cast in the role of Bragg on the TV soap opera
Search for Tomorrow, and played
Tybalt opposite
Michael Cerveris in a stage production of
Romeo and Juliet at Chicago's
Goodman Theatre. Mortensen's 1987 performance in
Bent at the Coast Playhouse, Los Angeles, won him a
Dramalogue Critics' Award. The play, which revolves around homosexual prisoners in a
concentration camp in Nazi Germany, was known for the leading performance by
Ian McKellen, with whom Mortensen later costarred in the film trilogy
The Lord of the Rings. The same year, Mortensen had a supporting role as Jerome Stample in the black comedy
Salvation! , and played a co-lead role as a convict in the horror film
Prison. He also guest starred as a police detective on the hit TV series
Miami Vice. In 1988, Mortensen played a minor part as Green, the abusive husband of Jewel (
Molly Ringwald), in
Fresh Horses. The following year, Mortensen appeared in a minor role as Hans in
Tripwire. Mortensen made three film appearances in 1990: Edward "Tex" Sawyer, a member of a cannibalistic family in the horror film sequel
Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, John W. Poe in
Young Guns II, and Cameron Dove, a military veteran suffering from radiation poisoning in
The Reflecting Skin.
The Reflecting Skin was Mortensen's first film to premiere at the
Cannes Film Festival. The following year, Mortensen starred as Frank Roberts in
Sean Penn's directorial debut
The Indian Runner.
Sandy Dennis, who played Frank Roberts's mother in the film and was a personal friend of Mortensen, was dying of ovarian cancer during filming. Mortensen described the filming experience as having an "undercurrent of loss," and wrote the poem "For Sandy Dennis" in her honor. In 1992, Mortensen starred in
Ruby Cairo alongside
Liam Neeson and
Andie MacDowell. Although Ruby Cairo was Mortensen's highest-budget film at this point in his career, it was a commercial failure, bringing in only 608,000 on its 24 million dollar budget. The next year, the film was recut and given the title
Deception. Several scenes were reshot for
Deception, including a sex scene between Mortensen and MacDowell, which was removed and replaced with a less intimate dialogue on a balcony. By the mid-1990s, Mortensen was consistently making several film appearances a year. During this time, Mortensen was frequently cast in crime dramas such as Lalin Miasso in ''
Carlito's Way, Carl Frazer in The Young Americans, Nick Davis in American Yakuza, and Guy Foucard in Albino Alligator''. Other films from that time include
Jane Campion's
The Portrait of a Lady, where he played Caspar Goodwood, a love interest of the film's protagonist, Isabel Archer (
Nicole Kidman). He also acted in
Crimson Tide,
Daylight,
A Walk on the Moon,
The Passion of Darkly Noon,
28 Days, and
The Prophecy, with
Christopher Walken. With a budget of $50 million,
G.I Jane (1997) was Mortensen's biggest budget film appearance prior to his role in
Lord of the Rings. Although the film earned his co-star,
Demi Moore, a
Golden Raspberry Award for her role, Mortensen's performance as Command Master Chief John James 'Jack' Urgayle was favorably received. In 1998, Mortensen appeared in remakes of two
Alfred Hitchcock movies:
Psycho and
A Perfect Murder (which was a remake of
Dial M for Murder).
2000s: The Lord of the Rings and breakthrough '', December 1, 2003 Another major mainstream breakthrough came in 1999, when
Peter Jackson cast him as
Aragorn in
The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. According to the Special Extended Edition DVD of
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Mortensen was a last-minute replacement for
Stuart Townsend, and would not have taken the part of Aragorn had it not been for his son's enthusiasm for the
J. R. R. Tolkien novel. He received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Aragorn, and was ranked No. 15 on a 2015 survey of "The 100 Greatest Movie Characters" conducted by
Empire. In
The Two Towers DVD extras, the film's swordmaster,
Bob Anderson, described Mortensen as "the best swordsman I've ever trained." Mortensen often performed his own stunts, and even the injuries he sustained during several of them, including two broken toes, did not dampen his enthusiasm. At one point during filming of
The Two Towers, Mortensen,
Orlando Bloom, and Brett Beattie (stunt double for
John Rhys-Davies) all had painful injuries, which led to Peter Jackson jokingly referring to the three as "the walking wounded." Also, according to the Special Extended Edition DVD of
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Mortensen purchased the two horses, Uraeus and Kenny, whom he had ridden and bonded with over the duration of the films. In 2004, Mortensen starred as
Frank Hopkins in
Hidalgo, the story of an ex-army courier who travels to Arabia to compete with his horse, Hidalgo, in a dangerous desert race for a contest prize. Mortensen starred in
David Cronenberg's 2005 film
A History of Violence as a family man revealed to have had an unsavory previous career. He was nominated for a Satellite Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture for this role. In the DVD extras for
A History of Violence, Cronenberg related that Mortensen is the only actor he had come across who would come back from weekends with his family with items he had bought to use as props on the set. Daily at the 2005
Toronto International Film Festival, for
A History of Violence In 2006, he starred as Captain Diego Alatriste in the Spanish language film
Alatriste, based on the series of novels
The Adventures of Captain Alatriste, written by the Spanish writer
Arturo Pérez-Reverte. In September 2007, the film
Eastern Promises, directed by David Cronenberg, was released to critical acclaim for the film itself and for Mortensen's performance as a Russian gangster on the rise in London. His nude fight scene in a steam room was applauded by
Roger Ebert: "Years from now, it will be referred to as a benchmark." Mortensen's performance in
Eastern Promises resulted in his winning the Best Performance by an Actor in a British Independent Film award from the
British Independent Film Awards. He was also nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Actor. Mortensen appeared as himself in the 2009 film
Reclaiming the Blade, in which he discussed his passion for the sword and his sword-work in films such as
The Lord of the Rings and
Alatriste. Mortensen also talked about his work with
Bob Anderson, the swordmaster on
The Lord of the Rings,
Alatriste,
Pirates of the Caribbean and many others. in March 2012 In 2009, Mortensen performed in
The People Speak, a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian
Howard Zinn's ''
A People's History of the United States. Later that year, he joined the cast of The Road, a film adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name, and collaborated with David Cronenberg for a third time on A Dangerous Method''.
2010s–present: Critical acclaim After two years, Mortensen returned to theater in 2011, starring in
Ariel Dorfman's
Purgatorio ("Purgatory") in
Madrid.
Purgatorio is Mortensen's first play in Spanish. The play is about a man and woman confined either in a psychiatric hospital or prison together. During production, Mortensen's mother became ill and he pulled out of the initial premiere date, the first time he had ever done so for a project. The play premiered from November 4 to December 18. During production for the 2012 film
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Mortensen was offered to reprise his role as Aragorn, but he declined because the character does not appear in
the novel the film is based on. Mortensen starred in the 2016 film
Captain Fantastic, for which he received his second
Academy Award nomination. Alonso Duralde of
TheWrap praised Mortensen's performance, saying, "The movie really belongs to Mortensen, who allows Ben to be exasperating, arrogant, and impatient but also warm, loving, and caring. He's a tough but adoring father, a grieving widower and a passionate defender of his wife's final wishes, and Mortensen plays all these notes, and more with subtlety and grace". In 2018, he starred in the film
Green Book. Mortensen portrayed
Tony Lip, an
Italian-American bouncer hired to drive and protect pianist
Don Shirley (
Mahershala Ali) on a tour through the
Jim Crow South from 1962 to 1963. Reflecting on the character, Mortensen stated, "I was attracted to playing Tony in part because it was a different kind of character, but the main thing I liked about him was his heart". Mortensen received his third Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Lip. In 2020, Mortensen released his directorial debut
Falling, which he also wrote, produced, composed the score for and starred in alongside
Lance Henriksen at the
Sundance Film Festival. Mortensen had based the story on his own family's history, including his parents suffering from dementia. The film is dedicated to his brothers, Charles and Walter Mortensen. During the
COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020, Mortensen along with fellow Lord of the Rings actors
Sean Astin,
Sean Bean,
Orlando Bloom,
Billy Boyd,
Ian McKellen,
Dominic Monaghan,
Miranda Otto,
John Rhys-Davies,
Andy Serkis,
Liv Tyler,
Karl Urban,
Elijah Wood, writer
Philippa Boyens, and director
Peter Jackson joined actor
Josh Gad's YouTube series
Reunited Apart, which reunites the cast of popular movies through video-conferencing, and promotes donations to non-profit charities. Mortensen was cast as British cave diver
Rick Stanton in the biographical film
Thirteen Lives directed by
Ron Howard which was released in July 2022. Mortensen was taught cave diving by Stanton personally to prepare for the role. Mortensen reunited with David Cronenberg in the horror sci-fi film
Crimes of the Future in 2022. Mortensen reunited with
Lisandro Alonso on the film
Eureka. Mortensen and
Caleb Landry Jones will star together in the
Vietnam War thriller
Two Wolves which will be directed by documentary filmmaker
Alex Gibney. He wrote, directed, and stars in a Western film titled ''
The Dead Don't Hurt''. It also stars
Vicky Krieps and it was shot in Mexico. == Literary and arts career ==