Viggo Mortensen on Falling star Lance Henriksen: ‘He’s like a wolf who might gobble you up’

In the former's directorial debut, the pair play a father and son facing up to the older man's dementia. It offers 80-year-old Henriksen the meatiest role of his astonishing career

Viggo Mortensen first met Lance Henriksen when he shot him dead. Mortensen, the Lord of the Rings star and three-time best actor Oscar nominee, was facing off the older actor - a veteran of more than 200 movies including Aliens and The Terminator - in the 2008 western Appaloosa.

There were so many bullets flying around; I don't think any one person can take the credit for killing me," smiles Henriksen, his voice sandpapery but sweet. As we wait for Mortensen to join our video call, he says he is tip-top today. I turned 80. But I don't feel no 80." Then he switches the subject abruptly. I can't tell you how much Falling has changed my life," he says.