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How the Montreal Canadiens Helped Viggo Mortensen Find Himself

The actor opens up about the emotional role the Habs played in one of the hardest transitions of his life

American actor Viggo Mortensen might well be the Montreal Canadiens’ most recognizable fan. Best known for playing Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, he’s often spotted wearing a Habs jersey at film events around the world. He caused a stir in Toronto in 2012 by unfurling a giant Canadiens flag as he picked up his Best Supporting Actor Genie Award for his role as Sigmund Freud in David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method.

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“I thank David Cronenberg, but I dedicate this award to the Montreal Canadiens. We’ll be back next year with a vengeance,” Mortensen told a crowd that undoubtedly included way more Toronto Maple Leafs fans than Canadiens supporters.

Today, the Habs are in the second round of the playoffs, facing off against the Buffalo Sabres. Montreal is now the only Canadian team left in the hunt for the Stanley Cup. A few days back, Prime Minister Mark Carney called the Habs “Canada’s team,” and I think he’s right. In this new Donald Trump–inspired era of Canadian nationalism, I believe most across the country are pulling for the Canadiens against their American opponents.

Mortensen knows something about that cross-border pull. His own love for the Habs stretches back to a turning point in his life, when he was feeling a little bit lost as he entered his teenage years. He’d just moved with his family to Watertown, New York, not far from the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario, some forty kilometres south of the Thousand Islands. Mortensen had been born in New York City before spending most of the first eleven years of his life in Argentina. When his parents divorced, his mother brought her three sons back to her roots in upstate New York.

Young Mortensen hadn’t known what to make of his new surroundings at first. No one spoke Spanish. He felt as if he was at the end of the world, far from the Argentina he knew and loved. Perhaps worst of all, he felt worlds apart from San Lorenzo de Almagro, the Buenos Aires soccer club he’d rooted for throughout his childhood.

Mortensen looked back on those years over the course of a long conversation I had with him at his Madrid apartment. “We had left Argentina where I was a fan of a football team called San Lorenzo, which had the colours blue and red and very passionate fans. And I kind of lost contact with all that because, you know, there wasn’t internet and all that back then. Well, one day, I was at my grandparents’ house and........

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