Viggo Mortensen up in arms over Spanish far-right ad using Aragorn
MADRID Danish-American actor Viggo Mortensen has rebuked Spain's far-right party Vox for featuring in a political tweet the sword-wielding hero Aragorn whom he plays in The Lord Of The Rings movies.
On the day of Spain's recent election, Vox posted an image of Aragorn, with the Spanish flag and party emblem on his back, charging against an enemy army under banners of left-wing, feminist, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, liberal media and Spanish separatist groups.
"Let the battle begin," it said.
Mortensen, 60, wrote in a letter to Spanish newspaper El Pais published on Tuesday: "You'd have to be pretty ignorant to think that using the character... to promote the campaign of a xenophobic, ultra-right party like Vox would be a good idea.
"I would laugh at their ineptitude but Vox has won 24 seats in Congress; it's no joke."
Warner Bros Spain also said it did not authorise the use of its copyrighted property in any campaigns.
Mortensen said Vox's message was absurd because Aragorn is "a multilingual statesman who advocates the knowledge and inclusion of the various races, customs and languages of Middle-earth" and should not be associated with the far right. - REUTERS
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