Throughout cinema history, there have been some iconic nude scenes that have transcended the bounds of the films in which they appeared. Our new column Anatomy of a Scene's Manatomy will take an in-depth look at these scenes, their history, their deeper meanings, and their legacy. This week, Viggo Mortensen holds nothing back on his way to his first Oscar nomination in David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises.
Back before he earned a Best Actor nomination for playing Vinnie Boombatz in Green Book, Viggo Mortensen earned his first Oscar nomination for his chilling performance as Nikolai in David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises. In a move even more eerie now than it was 13 years ago, Mortensen said he based his character in part on Vladimir Putin, namely his "unfazed look no matter what was happening, or that cat-that-swallowed-the-canary." His unflinching portrayal of a man deep undercover within the Russian mafia world operating in London reaches its apex 77 minutes into the film.
Seeking revenge for an unsanctioned hit by Nikolai's boss' numbskull son Kirill (a delightfully smarmy Vincent Cassel), two goons ambush Viggo in the bathhouse, attacking him in brutal fashion with linoleum knives, all the while thinking he's Kirill. Viggo loses his towel immediately and spends the next three minutes of screen time locked in mortal combat with these two thugs while buck naked. He prevails, but only after barbarically killing the goons and ending up in the hospital.
In an interview with Lincoln Center's Film Comment in 2007, Cronenberg described the way Steven Knight's screenplay gave them a lot of leeway with the scene...
The script said, “Two men come in with knives and there’s a fight.” The question of whether Viggo is naked or not isn’t addressed. And of course the details of the choreography are not in the script. That is the work of many months working with the actors, and with Carol Spier, the production designer, and with the stunt coordinator. If I had had an actor who wouldn’t play it naked, I would have had to shoot it with a towel around him, which would have been pretty silly, or I would have had to shoot it in a very restrained way. But for Viggo, there was no question. He said, “I have to do it naked.” That freed me to do it the way it had to be done.
Viggo Mortensen had already done better full frontal in The Indian Runner, and has since done even better in Captain Fantastic, but there's something about the brutality and carnality of this scene—coming as it does in a film charged with homoeroticism—that seems a more appropriate setting for Mortensen's decision to show it all from tip to taint to tail. This scene, in fact, ranks the lowest among his nude scenes here on Mr. Man. Not totally surprising given the context, but very surprising given how much of Mortensen they show. Blood makes some people queasy, I suppose, but he shows plenty before he gets himself all bloody...
The scene itself took three days to shoot, so it's not difficult to empathize with Mortensen's plight being nude on set for three straight days, though I'm sure many actresses have had to endure similar ongoing conditions. It's one thing to be able to choreograph things in such a way that they look vicious without actually being dangerous, but it's another thing entirely for your balls to be exposed the entire time you're dodging kicks and rolling on the floor. No matter how spry a 49 years old Mortensen was, we all know what starts happening to your balls in your late 30s. You'd probably seek to avoid any sort of nude gymnastics at that age.
In the same interview with Film Comment mentioned above, Cronenberg brought up one critic with Ain't it Cool News' obsession with Viggo's balls in his review of the film*. Mr. Man wasn't in business at the time, so he's not talking about us sadly, but he more or less describes what we've just done...
It wasn’t like there was a close-up of (Viggo's balls). But this guy was obsessed. He even wrote “big hairy balls.” Well, that’s one way of looking at it. They’re definitely there, as you would imagine, but it’s only if you’re looking for them that that’s what you see. Because mostly he’s shot in full figure. So when people decide to run the DVD frame by frame, they are going to see everything at one point or another.
Well, we did, and as brutal as it was, we liked what we saw. Join us again next week when we'll dissect the moment people only began associating Michael Fassbender with his penis, in Steve McQueen's Shame.
Catch up with our other editions of Anatomy of a Scene's Manatomy...
—Two of History's Manliest Men Wrestle Naked in Women in Love
—Ewan McGregor Has Got It, Flaunts It in Velvet Goldmine
—A Pair of Stars are Born in Y Tu Mamá También
—Harvey Keitel Goes Hog Wild in Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant
*Ain't It Cool reviewer obsessed with Viggo's balls can be found here
