Richard Armitage is really doing the rounds pressing the flesh lately and chatting with journos. Here’s another interview, this time with Joe.ie.
A couple of interesting quotes:
If you look at the detail on the Lake-town set (in The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug) some of the glasses have specific carvings into the glass and the cutlery –- it’s astonishing and the camera sees it all.
…even the title, the Battle Of The Five Armies, suggests something that is going to be pretty epic. When I saw the model of the battle ground, which was in a little secret room that you could sneak into and take a look at, something made me realise that Tolkien’s description of that battle is quite limited to where Peter has expanded it to.
JOE: Morning Richard, how are you today?
RA:I’m good thanks, very good.
JOE: How’s the head anyway? You were at the Empire Awards last night, yeah?
RA:I was but I didn’t hammer it too badly on the Jamesons, but it was good. We won Best Sci-Fi Fantasy and Aidan (Aidan Turner, Armitage’s co-star in The Hobbit films and Dublin native) walked away with Best Male Newcomer so yeah, it was a good night.
JOE: Yeah, it was brilliant news for the film and for Aidan as well. You obviously spotted his incredible talent up close when you were working on The Hobbit films with him…
RA: Yeah, he was such a great guy to work with. He was playing my nephew which was a little bit disconcerting considering that we’re not that far away in age, but he’s a great guy and he’s made something really exciting with that character. We’ve got some nice moments coming up in the third movie together.
JOE: How did you actually first get involved with The Hobbit? I imagine that getting a phone call to say that Peter Jackson wants to work with you has got to be pretty special?
RA: It is, and the fact that you even get to go into the room and audition for it is something that you think “God, I never would have thought that would happen” and then, when they turn around and say they’d like to cast you, it’s all a bit of a blur.
You move on and you have to take stock and think that actually really happened to me, and then on another level I was quite surprised that they wanted me to come and play a dwarf. I never thought that I would play a dwarf. I’m usually too tall for everything but yeah it was great and it was a bit of a no-brainer really.
JOE: And how is it working with a filmmaker and visionary like Peter Jackson?
RA: It’s pretty amazing. He leads from the top and he works in such detail, I know that he expects nothing less from the people that work around him. He hires people that are uncompromising and he asks the things that nobody thinks are possible and they all go away and they make it happen.
When you see that happening with his crew, his designers, the innovators and his digital technicians, it makes me work in a more detailed way and that was the most exciting part of it, down to every single buckle and button on the shoes and coats. I think he realised that, because he was going to be shooting on 48-frames per second, that so much detail was required in the final image, but also in the layers of the character; the writing is incredibly detailed and specific and it’s exciting to work like that.
JOE: Speaking of the buckles and buttons, here at JOE we’re huge fans of The Lord Of The Rings books and film adaptations and it’s clear to see the detail that goes into the design of the costumes and weapons. Do you actually get to keep any of the really cool souvenirs from the set for yourselves though?
RA: At the end of the shoot they gave me my sword, which is now one of my prized treasures. Again it’s the detail of the sword and the workmanship and craftsmanship that goes into it. It’s not a fake sword, it’s a real crafted sword that is useable, not that I would…
