Viggo Mortensen is one of my favorite actors of all time. My first time seeing him in any movie was in Witness, but like many people, I didn't see him as a star until I saw The Lord of the Rings.

Since then, if Viggo is in it, my butt is in a seat. It feels like he has impeccable taste as an actor.

And he has good reasoning for that, he cares about storytelling.

Mortensen's new project, The Dead Don't Hurt, is a Western that he wrote, directed, and is producing.

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Mortensen was pressed on returning to the Lord of the Rings universe, and said he would have to read the script to decide if it was right for him.

Mortensen hilariously said, "The script is the most important thing to me—unless I’m broke, I have no money and I’m lucky to get any job. So it depends."

I love it when actors just keep it real. If the money is right, and the actor needs it, they're taking roles. But I also wish more of them thought about the story the way Mortensen does. It would open up a lot more opportunities for most of them.

At the end of the day, everyone in Hollywood is finding their own balance of art and commerce. Not every job has to be a passion project. Sometimes you take gigs because the money is there and you need to pay for something.

We should all be as realistic about this job as possible.

Because there are other times you may take less money because you love the story so much.

Still, all these decisions are made to build your career and to get you in a place where you don't have to take the bad jobs.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

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