ORLANDO BLOOM: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because we shoot it all– The Mumakil moment in the Rings trilogy actually came out of a re-shoot that we did, that I came back to New Zealand for. Then it was a blue screen. They didn’t have green screens, they were doing blue screens then. So it was a big, blue tower of sandbags, and I did all the climbing moves, jumped up and did the fight sequence on top of it. So I’ve done the same here. So there’s a couple of cool beats.
That’s what I was referring to about the shooting on Saturday. We did some cool stuff with Pete for that. So that was great. I hope Leggy fans will be suitably impressed with a few of the moves that we’ve got down for this next couple of movies. It’s cool. Certainly the third movie, there’s a cool piece, and there’s a few flurries throughout the second movie. But I don’t really have a sense of how much I’m in the movies. Can’t tell at all. Can’t get my head around that.
MEDIA: What got you, other than, obviously, working again with Peter and the whole team? What got you creatively excited about coming back to this role, the way that he’s going to be involved in these two pictures?
ORLANDO BLOOM: There was an interesting discussion which played out quite nicely, I think, about the father-son dynamic between Legolas and Thranduil. I was initially concerned that obviously Legolas doesn’t feature in the books and that that would be a problem, particularly for fans of the books, who you always want to be conscious of and respect their take on things.
But at the same time, I think it was more than feasible. It was perfectly possible that Legolas would be somewhere around, even if he wasn’t mentioned in the books. And the way that Pete and Fran and Philippa are all positioned the story for Leggy, it seemed like it would be fun to go back and do that.
MEDIA: How was that evolved? Because I know the way Peter, Fran and Phil, especially, work is that they have the main script and then they work on it as shooting’s happening and as the pick-ups happen.
ORLANDO BLOOM: Yeah, yeah.
MEDIA: Was Legolas’ involvement smaller when you first joined on, and has it grown since?
ORLANDO BLOOM: Yeah, I think there was a template of an idea that developed as we went along. Obviously, it’s the story of a hobbit and thirteen dwarves.
And there’s an Elven realm which is called– We get to see Mirkwood. Less wise, more dangerous, right? So that’s kind of cool. That’s the way Tolkien described the Elves of Mirkwood, and it’s always the way I saw Legolas.
It was one of the ideas that was– I wanted him to be, throughout the Rings movies, a red-blooded action elf, not like a Rivendell elf or a more– But to have the grace and lethal capability. And I think it’s–
MEDIA: (interrupts) He’s a warrior elf.
ORLANDO BLOOM: He’s a what?
MEDIA: A warrior elf.
ORLANDO BLOOM: Yeah, exactly. He’s a warrior elf. So I think it’s cool to see that world of Mirkwood on screen. I think it’s cool to see the elves in that environment which is different to anything you’ve seen before, like in Rings and stuff. It’s not Rivendell. It’s different to Rivendell.
And Thranduil’s an interesting character. He’s got a complex past and history of his own. It’s fun, yeah. Yeah, things developed and the world’s getting more interesting, I think, for these movies, going into Lake-town, and it’s great.
MEDIA: Anything new in Peter’s bag of directorial tricks that has been fun for you to watch or participate in since the original trilogy?
ORLANDO BLOOM: Well, obviously, the technology has moved on, and Pete’s always on the cutting edge of that stuff. So there’s a lot of that that will play out in the movie that is hard for me to necessarily– I mean, it’s different. You know what I mean? It’s like the shots– I think you’ll see that, you’ll experience that. I’ll experience that more watching the movie, as opposed to what it was like on set.
We still have great sets to use, which is awesome. It’s just something that Pete does, use his sets. And then green screen. And the stuff that you’ll see in green screen, I think that’s where you’ll see the magic as it were.
MEDIA: What stage is the script in at this point? Because, obviously, Philippa Boyens has been– It’s been a work in progress for her in terms of the script’s evolution. So is this like you guys working off a “final” final script now, or is it constantly evolving?
