How Many Languages Does Viggo Mortensen Speak?

Viggo Mortensen is so good at languages, he once scared people half to death at a London pub when they thought he was a notorious Russian mobster.

He's done at least eight languages in films, but he never just learns his lines – he throws himself in head-first until he becomes Russian, or Spanish, or Arabic. What's really extraordinary is how fluent he is off-camera too.

He switches between languages like it's nothing, and the reason he sounds so real is because he takes risks most learners wouldn't dare to.

If you've ever felt shy about speaking another language, Viggo's story will show you why being fearless matters way more than talent.

If you prefer watching videos to reading, hit play on the video version of this post at the top of this page. Otherwise, here's what you'll discover in this article:

How Many Languages Does Viggo Mortensen Speak?

Viggo Mortensen speaks 10 languages to varying degrees of fluency. Viggo grew up speaking Spanish and English. He later learned his father's language, Danish, by living and working in Denmark. He also speaks French, Italian, Lakota, Catalan, Galician, Russian and Arabic.

Viggo Mortensen's Language Learning Beginnings

You probably know Viggo Mortensen from “Lord of the Rings” – but did you know he's really from Argentina?

He was born in New York, but his family moved to Argentina when he was only two. Mum was American, dad was Danish, so right from the start he had three languages going on in his life.

And his mum would take him to see those big epic films, like Lawrence of Arabia – and Viggo loved pretending he was somewhere far away.

Then he turned 11, and everything changed. His parents divorced, and he moved to upstate New York with his mum – right near the Canadian border.

Growing up in Argentina, he was mostly only speaking Spanish. The only person he ever spoke English to was his mum.

Suddenly, in this small American town, nobody spoke Spanish. At first, that was really rough – but he pushed through by copying his American friends – starting, as kids do, with all the swear words!

No wonder his brain got so good at switching, listening and fitting in wherever he was. And it might just explain a few things coming up later.

Viggo's Spanish

When he was only six or seven, Viggo started writing in Spanish. Little stories about animals, kid stuff. By 15, he was into writing poetry.

He said, “I always write. In aeroplanes, in bed, in the bathtub.” And he didn't stop! He's got a degree in Spanish and has published whole poetry books.

Fast forward a bit, and that love lands him a massive role in a Spanish film, “Alatriste” – it's a big historical drama. But there's a catch: see, this soldier character he played was from northern Spain, so Viggo had to lose his Argentine accent. Big differences – trust me.

And he went all the way to León in Spain to figure out the exact way northern Spaniards speak! Just walking through towns, sitting in bars, eavesdropping.

The script made it even harder: it was written in old 17th-century Spanish – the kind no one uses any more. Not easy stuff! Even Spaniards say it's hard to read.

A few years later in Argentina, he played twin brothers with completely different accents and lives who decide to swap places. Now just try to imagine how you'd act as one person pretending to be the other, who's pretending to be you.

Viggo Learns Danish In Denmark

Viggo's dad was Danish, but he barely spoke it at home. Viggo would hear him speaking Danish on the phone, so he'd pester him to speak it with him. But remember – this was all in Argentina, before he was 11. There was no chance to use it.

When he was a teenager, he tried to get the hang of it but found it really hard. He said Danish was harder than Arabic – can you believe that?!

When we get to that part of the story, you'll probably think he's lost his mind. I mean, according to my language difficulty chart, Arabic is a Tier 8 beast of a language; Danish is only Tier 1!

But that all changed when he grew up and moved to Denmark. Yep – total immersion did the trick! He worked as a lorry driver, sold flowers in Copenhagen, just living day-to-day in Danish. Then one day, he got his chance to be a real Dane in a film.

The funny part is the film was half Danish, half Spanish, and for his Spanish lines he doesn't sound like an Argentine at all – he sounds like a Dane speaking Spanish! Of course, that was the trick. He'd copied his dad's accent in Spanish.

And remember those Spanish poetry books? He wrote one in Danish too. Writing poetry in Danish pushed him ahead faster – our brains love getting the language from every angle.

Don't be surprised that he also knows a little Norwegian and Swedish. You could do it too if you learnt one Scandinavian language – the three languages are so close, you can pick one up from another!

Why Did Viggo Learn Lakota?

Now this one is really different. For the film “Hidalgo”, Viggo learnt to speak some Lakota – it's a Native language of South Dakota. His tutor was a Lakota elder, Sonny Richards, who plays the older guy in the wagon at the end of the film.

If you've been paying attention, I bet you realise Viggo didn't just parrot the new sounds. He wanted to understand the words in the way Lakota understand them. And it's why I always tell you: if you get the chance, immerse yourself in the culture as well as the language.

Anyway, Viggo rode out to the Pine Ridge Reservation, and they loved him – he got a bunch of invites to people's homes. And that kind of hospitality leaves a mark!

Here's something new for Viggo: he made practice tapes – yeah, those things from the '80s. He'd record his coaches helping him say the lines correctly, and then use these recordings to drill them later when he was alone.

By now, Viggo was realising how useful it was that he already knew more than one language. It felt like a head start – he could get his mouth around new vowel sounds a little easier.

Viggo's Italian

In Argentina, Italian culture is everywhere – there's a huge immigrant community. So much that Argentine Spanish even has a touch of Italian rhythm. So when Viggo started on Italian, it felt a little familiar.

I saw on his poetry website that he worked in Rome for a while, and that's when he got really good. He said: “I have to admit that I deeply love the musicality of Italian.”

Hard to argue with that. (And honestly, Italian is the easiest language on his list – a great one to start with if you're on the hunt yourself!)

But speaking Italian is one thing. What are you going to do when they ask you to sound like an Italian from the Bronx?! That's Viggo's role in “The Green Book”. But I want to rewind a bit, because long before that, Viggo was falling for another language.

What Sparked Viggo's Interest In French?

French started in a fun way: listening to Radio-Canada broadcasts of ice hockey games. He was obsessed!

Because remember when they moved near the Canadian border? Little Viggo had no internet and no TV, so every day he'd spend hours and hours just listening to hockey commentary – and that's how he got started in French.

I couldn't find out what he did beyond that, but one day a producer saw Viggo on YouTube – he was introducing an ice hockey player. Next thing, Viggo gets a call and they say, “Could you do a whole film in French?” and he says, “Who knows, but I could try.” So he did.

In “Far From Men”, he plays a French schoolteacher. But there was a catch: it wasn't Parisian French or Quebec French. The story was set in Algeria – in the 1950s! They speak French there, but with a very different accent that's full of Arabic and Berber words.

So Viggo had to unlearn the French he knew and rebuild it from scratch – the pronunciation, the rhythm, the tone – until he sounded like a teacher who'd lived in Algeria for years, not a foreigner faking it.

His trick? He listened constantly to how locals pronounced things. Listening is powerful stuff in language learning – and he knows it! And just in case you're wondering, yes, of course he also learnt Arabic while he was at it.

Viggo Takes On Arabic And Catalan

Arabic was a completely new language for Viggo. Nothing he already knew could help him! So it was tough, but he had about a year to learn the basics. And listen – you can do a lot in a year, even with Arabic – I did it myself in Cairo.

It's one of the hardest languages on my language difficulty guide – Tier 8 – which means the grammar is intense. And don't ask me how, but he swears it was easier than Danish!

This next part is so typical Viggo: at home in Spain, he found himself a language exchange partner from Morocco to help him practise his Arabic lines. (That's always a good idea, by the way.)

But wait – he then got him to help translate all his French lines into Arabic, just in case the director suddenly said, “Hey, let's do this scene in Arabic instead!” And remember – he's not fluent. He just commits like mad.

And then, one day, Viggo fell for a lady from Barcelona, the actress Ariadna Gil, and learned Catalan for love.

Most tourists travelling in Spain don't even realise they speak a different language in Barcelona. But Viggo lives in Spain with Ariadna, so of course he's learning Catalan!

But out of all of these amazing language adventures he's had, nothing comes close to what Viggo did with Russian.

Russian So Good, He Sounds Like A Mobster

This is so ridiculously impressive. Viggo gets cast as a bad guy in “Eastern Promises” – he has to be a notorious Russian mobster.

But his character was going to be a little tricky: see, this mobster had learnt English in London, which meant Viggo had to juggle two things – real Russian dialogue and English lines spoken with a Russian-London accent.

So what did Viggo do? He flew to Russia. Because of course he did. Lived in Moscow, St Petersburg – just listening, watching, absorbing.

Was this enough yet? Heck no. He decided to hang out in a real Russian prison, studying how gangsters moved, what they said, the slang they used. He wanted the details to be perfect.

He researched the Russian mafia to death – right down to prison tattoo codes. And then – the body language. Who do you copy if you want to move like a Russian gangster? Viggo's answer: Vladimir Putin. So he watched all his speeches!

And then – stop me if you can't keep up – he went and learnt all of his English lines in Russian too, just in case they decided to switch languages! In the end, Viggo got his way: more Russian lines.

All in all, Viggo spent six very intense months studying Russian and getting coached by a native speaker. Which brings us back to that pub.

One day after filming, Viggo walked into a Russian pub in London. He still had the tattoos on – too much effort to scrub them off. Ordered a drink, sat down and overheard a couple talking in Russian.

So he eavesdropped to see if he could understand them, but they noticed – and they were terrified! They thought he was one of them – the mafia. And that's when you know your transformation is complete!

And if all that wasn't enough, Viggo has even added Galician to his list of languages!

How Many Languages Does Viggo Mortensen Speak FAQ

The Viggo Mortensen Method

Viggo Mortensen's language journey reveals something crucial about successful language learning: fearlessness trumps talent every time.

He doesn't wait until he's perfect. He doesn't shy away from accents that seem impossible. He simply jumps in, makes mistakes and commits fully to the transformation.

Whether it's spending months in Russia to nail a gangster's accent, rewriting his French lines in Arabic “just in case”, or pestering his Danish father to speak with him as a child, Viggo demonstrates that real fluency comes from immersion, cultural understanding and a willingness to look – and sound – foolish along the way.

The next time you hesitate before speaking in your target language, remember: somewhere out there, Viggo Mortensen once felt like an idiot too. The difference is, he spoke anyway.

Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.