Viggo Mortensen arrives in Sants to catch the AVE train with the ARA under his arm: "People have been very patient."

BarcelonaAmong the many commuters who were unable to take the AVE (High Speed Train) from Barcelona to Madrid yesterday—a thousand of whom remain stranded in the Catalan capital, according to the Catalan government—was a familiar face, actor Viggo Mortensen. This morning, after sleeping at a friend's house, he returned to Sants station hoping to travel to the Spanish capital. He did so wearing a sweatshirt with the Ukrainian coat of arms and carrying the ARA newspaper under his arm.

"I was trying to leave yesterday, and I have to leave today, like many people," he explained in statements to this newspaper in Spanish, assuming that there would still be "delays" on Tuesday. "That would be normal, after what happened," he said. Mortensen lamented the lack of information for commuters in recent hours, but emphasized that people had been "very patient" despite the chaos on the train. "Good morning," he concluded in Catalan.

The American actor's presence in Sants had already been reported this Monday. Photojournalist Pau Venteo, for example, captured an image of him while he was at the station after his train to Madrid was canceled and shared the photo on social media.