Last fall, word creeped up that Quentin Tarantino was eyeballing Viggo Mortensen to play "a ruthless gang leader role" in the upcoming "The Hateful Eight." That was sort of the first and last anybody heard about it, and it appears the gig was real, but simply couldn’t be coordinated.
Chatting with Grantland, Mortensen confirmed he auditioned for ‘Hateful Eight’ — and it wasn’t the only Tarantino movie he’s auditioned for. "All of last fall, I traveled nonstop. I was on a plane every two days to promote ‘Jauja‘ and ‘Far From Men.’ I knew as a producer and an actor that I needed to do that for those movies to have a chance to be seen. [Tarantino] wanted to start shooting at the end of the year and do rehearsals before that, and I just couldn’t do that schedulewise. That’s the only reason [I passed]. It would have been really, really fun to work with him. I think he’s really smart and funny. I’d never sat down and talked to him that much, although I did audition for ‘Reservoir Dogs,’ which he remembered." he explained.
"I don’t know which one it was. It was one of them," Mortensen answered when asked what part he was going out for. "I might have auditioned for two. I had fun. I did one take where I made the character Hispanic. I remember it was in this tiny office on the Fox lot, I think, and I read with Harvey Keitel. I wish [‘The Hateful Eight’] would have worked out, but that’s what I’m talking about [when committing to a movie]: You either see these films through to the end or you don’t."
Mortensen, Keitel and Tarantino? Guys, try and make it work for the next movie. "The Hateful Eight" opens on November 13th. [via THR]