Talking to us at the Cannes Film Festival, Viggo Mortensen says he smiled when he read the title of Captain Fantastic’s script. “I smiled and said, it can’t really be called that, it can’t really be serious.” It was, and soon Mortensen was enchanted by fellow actor-turned-writer-director Matt Ross’ screenplay about a radical and devoted dad raising his six children off the grid in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. “Several times I stopped and I was laughing out loud, just imagining the situation or mood, and surprised that things weren’t the way I thought. (…) But if you don’t risk something, you are not going to make something special.” Which most certainly he did, in fine, nuanced performance that’s nothing but fantastic. This is Mortensen’s third nomination; in 2008 he was nominated in the same Drama category for Eastern PromisesA Dangerous Method.