For all of you who love these things, here’s a complete transcript of todays Desolation of Smaug Live Fan Event. And for those who just can’t watch it enough we’ve included the video. 🙂
The event started with 9 minutes of twitter feed before the second Desolation of Smaug trailer played, then came the welcome from Anderson Cooper in New York.
Anderson Cooper: Welcome everybody to a global fan event for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. How you doing here in New York, you excited? (Crowd screams) We have got a packed theatre here in New York City, we have Hobbit fans and Elf fans and Dwarf fans, there’s one Orc in the crowd but we’ve given him a lot of buttered popcorn, and he’s gonna be subdued, so nobody is under threat. And as I said, this is a global fan event for fans around the world to ask questions of their favourite Hobbit actors and also to see some never before seen footage from the upcoming film, December 13th, it’s an incredibly exciting event. I want to introduce two amazing actors who’re in the film. I want you to put your hands together for Orlando Bloom (crowd screams) Legolas, joining us here in New York. And Richard Armitage (crowd goes wild) Thorin Oakenshield from the company of Dwarves.
Anderson to Orlando: Hi Welcome
Anderson to Richard: Welcome Sir
Anderson: He’s much taller in person… um… (crowd cheering) So as I said a lot of folks are watching this online and also in theatres all around the world and I want to check in with some of the theatres to see who else is gonna be joining us for this truly global event, lets check in with London, a lot of folks are already there and have been lining up for a long time, Edith Bowman is standing by, Edith! (Loud screams from crowd)
Edith Bowman: Hello New York. Yes we are live here from London. What an amazing crowd we have here, and we are joined by Luke Evans who joins the cast as the famous Bard. Along with Lee Pace who joins the film as Thranduil, King of the Wood Elves (crowd screaming loudly). And our returning champion is with us, Andy Serkis who we all know (crowd goes berserk) is the second unit director on the main shoot of The Hobbit trilogy. As you can see and hear,we have a pretty full house tonight of very excited fans and we’re all thrilled to join this amazing event. (crowd cheering even louder) Now back to you right now Anderson.
Anderson: Now I think the folks in London, I think everybody in London feels like they’ve got the most enthusiasm, but I think us New Yorkers have the most enthusiasm for this (crowd in New York erupts, Lee Pace, Luke Evans and Andy Serkis encourage the London crowd to go louder) I think we’re gonna cross to Los Angeles, Anthony is standing by, Anthony how’re things in LA?
Anthony: We are going to accept your enthusiasm challenge because Los Angeles is literally the birth place of Smog. We’re here with Evangeline Lilly, who a lot of you remember from the tv show Lost, she is joining The Hobbit trilogy as a brand new character, the Elven Warrior Tauriel.
Evangeline: Don’t hate… don’t hate
Anthony: We’ve been taking a survey here of the Lovers and Haters, but we have a lot of the Lovers here in the LA audience right? Let’s hear it! (crowd screams, Anthony turns to Evangeline) They all love you. She has threatened to kick the ass of anybody who doesn’t like the character, so, alright, back to you Anderson.
Anderson: Alright, let’s check in with the, really, the birth place, the heart of this film, Wellington New Zealand. Jed Brophy is standing by, who you all know from the films as Nori. Jed! (Crowd screams)
Jed: Hi Anderson, you’re coming to you live from Wellington, I’m here with a very excited bunch of fans and of course, the one and only Peter Jackson (crowd goes berserk, Jed conducts them) And very well behaved fans they are too, aren’t they Peter (laughter from the fans)
Peter: Yeah, they’re very very good. Is there anyone here in costumes? Oh yes, just you, I’m in mine, this is The Hobbit Director costume (laughter) that, um, I usually wear. So, um, I just wanted to welcome everybody and, um, it’s fantastic that you’re here in a cinema in New Zealand and there’s New York, Los Angeles, London, thank you very much (to Jed)
Jed: Brussels, Madrid
Peter: Yep, Rome
Jed: Mexico City
Peter: Miami, Paris
Jed: Sydney and Toronto
Peter: Have we forgo, Hamburg! Did we say Hamburg?
Both: Hamburg, Hamburg Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome
Jed: You’re actually our favourite, apart from Wellington and New York and LA.
Peter: So, um, now we’ve got some , obviously we’ve got some, um, guests in our cinemas around the world, but, um, we do, we are missing a Hobbit, who, um, is out in the wilds somewhere filming, um, a completely different thing. We’re not filming The Hobbit anymore amazingly enough.
Jed: Oh! We’re not!
Peter: He’s shooting something else, anyway Martin did want to send a greeting, so shall we have a look?
Martin Freeman video begins
Martin: Hello folks, I’m sorry I can’t be there to celebrate with you in person, but I wanted to send you a message of thanks and appreciation. Filming this movie was quite an adventure and I can’t wait for fans to see where the journey takes Bilbo, Gandalf and the Company of Dwarves in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. You’ll see Legolas again, and also meet some new Elves, like Tauriel and Thranduil, as well as the people of Laketown including, Bard, Bain and The Master. The film opens everywhere beginning December 13th and I hope you’ll come back with us to Middle-earth.
It’s been quite a journey playing Bilbo and seeing the enthusiasm for this character and these movies where ever I go has been fantastic. And I hope you’ll all enjoy this wonderful, ultimate Hobbit Fan Event.
Jed: How lovely seeing Martin again, he’s looking really, really good, he looks rested. Great seeing him again, wasn’t it Peter?
Peter: He does look rested, I know. He was a little bit stressed by the time we’d finished the Battle of Five Armies.
Jed: Yes, we put him through the wringer.
Peter: But anyway, we’re gonna be, video production blog is what we wanted to show you first of all now. We’re gonna be answering some questions and things, but there’s a new blog that we’ve just finished off and we wanted to play it now and which shows actually some of the pick ups that we were doing, you know, the last ten weeks of shooting that we did, um, was it May, June, July this year? It was kind of, it was just about the most intense 10 weeks I think I’ve ever shot in my life, it was, it was, I mean, we had some incredibly emotional and intense scenes, climatic scenes from both the second and the third movies. I mean normally in a film you know, you’ll have, you know, quiet scenes that you can and you have a climactic scenes and it sort of like all evens itself out. But this was kinda like 10 weeks of pretty intense stuff, but, um, there is a blog that kind of, um, um, we have just finished which shows everyone a little bit of this, so shall we run the blog?
Jed: I think we should. I think we should run it right now.
Peter: Cool.
Video Blog 12 is shown
Jed: Well that was great Peter. I hadn’t seen that before, it was very very funny especially my bits.
Peter: Yes..
Jed: I think we now have a question from the floor, the first question from the floor for Peter, so if you’d like to step up to the mike and ask Peter the question and he will answer you.
Fan #1: Ah yes, hello. My question is, with a more expanded cast in this film than the previous did you find it difficult giving each character the opportunity to develop and have their own characterisation?
Peter: Ah, well, not really, no, because in a way that’s why the characters exist in the way that they do in the film, because, obviously there’s lots of questions about Legolas coming back and Tauriel and development of characters like Bard, but, I think the fundamental reason, the fundamental thing that people should understand is that when you are reading a novel, it’s the voice of the novelist is obviously the storyteller, that they’re able to, you know, the voice of the novelist is able to guide you through the story, um, and in a way the novel of The Hobbit does a lot of that, it’s that Tolkien is taking us on this journey and describing, you know, his observations about the story. But, when you’re a film maker you don’t really want to insert the voice of the film maker in quite that way, that basically, um, movie storytelling should be told through the characters and the way that you convey the story is through the characters which are on screen rather than the narrator as such. And so, um, it’s not really hard because as we developed the story of The Hobbit and developed the appendices material, it became very very clear that, um, that, that, you know, that the, that these characters should be the ones taking us on this journey and they sort of develop along this organically with the way that we are telling our story and, um, so, it’s not really difficult to do that part of it at all, no and with fantastic actors obviously, um, you can create a memorable, memorable performances and memorable characters, um, that’s sort of like a different perspective on the story because you”re telling it through their voices to some degree.
Fan #1: Thank you very much.
Jed: Thank you. We now have a question from the audience for Evangeline Lilly in Los Angeles. Um, so hello Evangeline, hope you’re ready for this question? Hope it’s not a difficult one for you.
Fan #2: Hi Evangeline, I think you’re simply stunning as Tauriel.
Evangeline: I’m listening.
Fan #2: I’m looking forward to seeing more, my question is, what was it like on your first day on set? What was it like?
Evangeline: I think, I think I know what you’re asking me, what was your first day like on set? Can I just say that has anyone else been watching the, um, feed that’s going under the screen? Did anyone see that comment that someone said “Peter Jackson is doing this fan event like a boss”? I like that one. The Boss. My first day on set, well I think I’ll have to start, I have to start by explaining, that for those of you who aren’t aware, that things are very organic on Peter Jacksons sets and so one of the great things about the writers is that they write as they go and therefore they can tailormake the character to your performance, which is, you know, really great for blowing up actors big egos. But the thing that can, the downfall that can happen with that is that sometimes, for some characters, their first day on set turns out to be brand new pages that they were handed the night before, speaking in or an accent that they’re just learning and in Elvish and, um, commanding five Dwarves and being in the middle of an incredibly healing ritual. So sometimes the organic nature makes for an interesting first day on set.
Anthony: We have a question here now, but before we do that, I just want to point out that Peter Jackson isn’t the only one getting his Hobbit on, you’re halfway there with your shoes.
Evangeline: Oh!
Anthony: Right
Evangeline: Yeah, well
Anthony: Half bare foot
Evangeline: You know you can’t see this foot, so what’s the point
Anthony: Why only one?
Evangeline: I’m comfortable
Anthony: Do we have a question here in Los Angeles? For you?
Evangeline: Now, do I look at her or do I look at the camera?
Anthony: You look anywhere in that general direction
Evangeline: Well then quit telling me what to do, it was working just fine (laughs) What’s your question?
Anthony: Don’t hit me with your shoe
Fan # 3: Hi, um, my question is this, Tauriel is an original character specifically created for this film, so, is there any other Tolkien character that served as an inspiration to you in order to develop this character?
Evangeline: Um, well, Tolkien characters, no. One of the things I intentionally did when I was told about this role, when I was preparing for this role was to not go back and watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which I love, love, love, love , love. Because one of the things I was afraid of was that I would try and copy the performances of Liv Tyler and Cate Blanchett because of course, their performances were flawless and perfect and it’s tempting to want to just recreate what they did instead of come up with something on my own. Um, so, so, actually one of my most, um, one my like, inspirations that I used when I was preparing Tauriel was Tinkerbell. (audience laughs)
Fan #3: Nice one
Evangeline: Come on, Tink is a bad-ass little fairy. She’s tiny and she’s cute, but she is fierce and you don’t want to get on the wrong side of Tink. And so, um, in a weird, yeah, somewhere in my brain those two things connect and she, then she ended up as one of my inspirations for the role.
Anthony: Excellent. Tinkerbell!
Evangeline: Tinkerbell!
Anthony: You both fly through the air
Evangeline: And they both fly through the air, one with wings.
