Mar. 29th, 2009 at 10:43 PM
"The Empire Icon, given to a talent who, in the eyes of Empire and its readers, is so much more than a star, they have reached the status of icon."
Bean: "It's a real pleasure to be here tonight to present this award to an actor who's a very good friend of mine. The work I did with him will always stay in my heart. Let's see the man in action."
AND THE WINNER IS... VIGGO MORTENSEN (cue some bromance)
Mortensen: "Thank you very much. you don't have to stand on ceremony, you can all leave now. Thank you Sean and thank you Jameson. I hope I've had a good time, because I've been given to understand that this award is a gentle nudge to go offstage, to just sort of fade away. I think I'm ready - I think a lot of other people are too. But what have I got to lose at this point?
There were a lot of other candidates. For this, you can't send a video, you have to be here. For this (holds up Perspex award) you had to be here. I tried to record a video, and I couldn't make this thing work. I kicked the camera and fired the first director. But the first candidate was Russell Crowe: he was supposed to get the Icon award and I was supposed to get the Actor of All-Time award, but I traded with him because he couldn't stay, he only came for a second. There's a lot of pressure at the top. But in fairness to all those who were maybe a little disappointed that after regalling us with his unfathomable literary aspirations, that he had to go because he had to go to take his Maltesers and his shampoo down to the Great Ormond Street hospital already, because he knows a matter of life and death when he sees it.
Let's talk about Sean Bean instead.
Empire was an early and ardent supporter of Lord of the Rings before it even came out. They're trying to make more money from it now, make it Mexican with Guillermo del Toro, who's very talented. Now we're not in the book, but they may try to link that book to the book we were in, they're trying to make it happen. But I was looking at Tolkien's version of the world. In order to do a prequel to Lord of the Rings, I'd have to be changing Boromir's diapers because I live longer or whatever.
But seriously, I would like to dedicate this award to a great actor, Alan Howard. I know this is not the right crowd for that, with a few exceptions. I saw Alan Howard more than a quarter of a century ago in a play of Good, the role I play in the movie that's coming out soon, Good. He was remarkable, mesmerising. I only wish I'd seen him play Henry V, Johann in Scenes From A Marriage. But from what i understand, he's the sort of actor I really aspire to be: meticulous, professional, who was never in danger of being seduced by flattery or prone to grandstand like I'm doing right now. Unlike his peers and contemporaries like Anthony Hopkins and Ian McKellen, he never made the transition to fame and fortune in the movie business. But I think that his approach to acting is probably going to be more long-lasting and more valuable in some ways that some of his more celebrated colleagues. He was an actor, through and through, no bullshit, and I admire that. Anyway, enough. I thank you, and I thank Empire.
And I got my hot little hands on some actual decent-sized photos of the two of them. I'm not cutting the thumbnails because they're too good to hide, and any click should take you to the MQ version.
(cross-posted, a bunch)
Comments
Oh the smiles! I'm all giggly.