Part 2 Top 5 Most Underrated Actors Of Today

Number 4:

Well faithful readers this next one is someone who is greatly underrated, and thought of mainly as a bit actor, or as one part. His name is Viggo Mortensen, and if you don't know who he is that may not be a huge surprise. Most people really only know him as Aragorn in The Lord Of The Rings movies. If you know him from anything else it more than likely is from one of the movies that shows just how underrated he must really be. That movie is David Cronenbergs A History Of Violence. This one is an excellent character film with Mortensen playing a man who after defending some of the members of his sleepy small town in his diner he becomes the subject of media attention and than the attentions of a mob heavy hitter. However, Mortensen really wasn't the star of this in a lot of ways. Honestly, the people around him are the ones who shine more so than him. Ed Harris in particular delivers a powerful performance.

But one of his next movies truly does show how wonderful and stoic an actor our Mr. Mortensen is. This movie is a little film called Eastern Promises, and was again directed by David Cronenberg. It is about a woman who is the midwife during a delivery of a baby from a young teenage girl one night in an England hospital. She begins to try and learn about this girl through her journal that is in Russian being translated by her uncle, a Russian immigrant himself. This than brings in the Russian mafia into the picture, and mainly our man Mortensen. He truly shines in this one as the driver/buttonman for the local Russian mob. From start to finish Viggo steals every scene he is in, even when he isn't speaking. His body language alone speaks volumes for him in the film. The film takes many twists and turns, and does not end even close to what you would expect. Mortensen truly deserved some award for his performance in this one. If you haven't seen it, I definitely strongly recommend seeing it.

Our next one by Viggo that we will discuss is a film by the name of G.I. Jane. Now I know this one isn't his movie at all. I also know a lot of people have seen this one and probably didn't even enjoy it that much. But if I am going to talk about this mans body of work, I have to talk about this. In this one he shows how much of a badass he really is in films honestly as the Navy Seal bootcamp drill sargent. He is down right nasty to the recruits he has in his camp, and in particular to Demi Moore's character. Honestly, if you haven't seen this already, I'd be surprised considering how long it has been out. So I don't think i need to dwell on it, it was more of a reminder that he was in it and played the horribly mean drill sargent.

One last film I want to be sure and mention his performance in is Apalossa. Once again our stoic character actor shows his chops in this modern-ish western with Ed Harris. All throughout this one he is the narrator, and the rock to Ed Harris' slightly foolish character. He quietly and continually tries and pushes Harris' character into the right direction when he would have otherwise self-destructed. Essentially, if you like old western movies or modern westerns you should see this one. The two actors in this one take a story that honestly would have been predictable and even a bit boring and turn it into an excellent and intriguing story with characters you actually care about.

So that is my number 4. He has done quite a few bit parts in his career as well, and he also was in all three Lord Of The Rings movies. If you'd like to see him in a rather small part the movie Carlito's Way has a great scene with him and Al Pacino in it (also just a great movie in general), as does the movie The Prophecy (he plays the devil in it trying to help the humans stop the renegade angel played by Christopher Walken). Hope you enjoy the movies if you haven't seen them and go watch them.