Liz Berry and Kylee Southon saw the long and the short of it yeasterday. The Nelson pair were two of the more then 500 hopefuls who turned up to Wellington’s National Dance and Drama Centre in a bid to become extras in film director Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.
And they reckoned they were just what the production company was looking for. “I’m 4ft and that’s with shoes on,” laughed 21-year-old, Southon. “I could be just what they’re looking for if they’re after an elf or a hobbit.” Berry, an avid horse rider who stands 60cm taller then her friend, is keen to play a giant if she is successful.
Berry, who modeled at the 1996 Smokefree Fashion Award, confessed to not having read The Hobbit but was confident of proving herself on horseback with a sword. “I decided to give it a go for the fun of it, really, but I also like the idea of being in a film.”
The friends caught the 4.30 ferry from Picton to join the Queue for casting. They filled out forms asking for everything from head size to bra size.
They then drew an outline of their feet and were photographed Publicist Sian Clement said the production company was looking for 15,000 extras for the $264m adaptation of the JRR Tolkien book. Filming is due to start in New Zealand later this year.
“We’ll be looking over the applications over the next few weeks and deciding who’s suitable.
Casting of extras for the Lord of the Rings got underway in Wellington this weekend.The J.R.R. Tolkien classic is being filmed in New Zealand by Wellington director Peter Jackson, with backing from Hollywood. The film publicist, Sian Clement, says 15 thousand extras will be needed for the movie, and this weekend’s casting session is the first of many.
Aspiring extras lined up in a 40-metre queue and waited for two hours this afternoon to have their photographs and details taken. Hopefuls spoken to said they would take any role they were offered, but many expressed an interest in playing orcs, hobbits or trolls.
The main roles in The Lord of the Rings have not yet been announced.
The official hunt for extras in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings will begin this weekend.”Official [casting calls] will be held shortly.Ads will probably be placed this week,” a WingNut Films spokeswoman said.
The extra’s call will be held at Te Whaea:National Dance and Drama Centre in Newtown, the former Wellington Show buildings, on Saturday and Sunday from 10 am to 4pm. But she warned that a casting call being run today by AKA Screen Actors in Manners Mall wasn’t official. Unofficial casting calls have been held around the country since Jackson announced the $266 million project last August.
The calls attracted film wannabes in their thousands, prompting the production company to issue numerous warnings that the people recruited had no guarantees they would be considered for the project.The offical hunt for film extras will be run this weekend by Three Foot Six Production company.The spokeswoman said Jackson was still in the process of casting leads. AKA Screen Actors couldn’t be contacted.
