I admire Mortenson as an actor because he brings incredible conviction to his work. I have a few complaints about the writing of movie-Aragorn, but none about the acting.
Townsend is, frankly, not as good of an actor -- and he isn't able to project the life experience of someone Viggo's age. Can you imagine him trying to convince audiences that he's really 87 years old? I imagine the results would be much the same as his stab at Lestat in QotD, i.e., not very convincing. You need someone who can really bring life experience to the part to bridge the gap between McKellan's Gandalf and the young Hobbits.
I've never heard that Day-Lewis was considered for the part. Great actor. First thing I thought of when I read that above was Last of the Mohicans. He certainly could have played the part, but there's something distant about him which I think makes him an inferior choice to Mortenson. Another factor is that Day-Lewis is Day-Lewis, whereas Mortenson was something of an unknown quantity coming into LotR. Day-Lewis would've (IMO) been fighting his recognizability in a way that Mortenson didn't have to.
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