Hollywood celebrity Viggo Mortensen has expressed his displeasure after Spanish populist party VOX created a meme using his portrayal of Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings films.
The image, which is based on a scene from the trilogy of films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s landmark fantasy novels, shows Mortensen as Aragorn with the VOX logo over his face, facing down far-left extremist groups like Antifa, feminists, Communists, and anarchists, Spanish newspaper El País reports.
Upon seeing the meme, Mortensen expressed extreme displeasure telling El País, “Not only is it absurd that I, the actor who embodied this character for Peter Jackson, and a person interested in the rich variety of cultures and languages that exist in Spain and the world, is linked to an ultra-nationalist and neo-fascist political party.”
“It is even more ridiculous to use the character of Aragorn, a polyglot statesman who advocates knowledge and inclusion of the diverse races, customs and languages of Middle Earth, to legitimise an anti-immigrant, anti-feminist and Islamophobic political group,” he added.
Warner Bros., who own the rights to the Lord of the Rings films directed by Peter Jackson, also released a statement saying they did not endorse the use of the images saying, “Warner Bros has not authorised the use of our intellectual property for any political campaign.”
Since winning 12 seats and 11 per cent of the vote in the Andalusian elections in December, VOX has emerged as a new political force in Spain. In the Spanish national elections, which took place late last month, the party won 10.2 per cent of the vote and 24 seats in the Spanish parliament.
Going into this month’s European Parliament elections, VOX looks once again to enter another parliament as they are currently, according to an electoPanel poll, polling at 10.3 per cent which could net the party six seats.
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