Celebriel reports: Before talking about John Noble, I just want to mention that Elijah Wood and Sean Astin announced they are returning to New Orleans for Mardi Gras for the Krewe of Bacchus – it’s a great opportunity to see them, enjoy Mardi Gras, and contribute to the recovery of New Orleans (Mardi Gras site)
John Noble
If you enjoy hearing actors talk about their craft, you’ll want to see John Noble every chance you get. John, with a long list of stage, screen, and television credits, has worked as a stage director and drama teacher. He’s appeared in commercials and corporate presentations, and even (once) in an opera.
At his Saturday appearance at ORC, fans had many questions about his portrayal of Denethor and about his current and future projects.
John’s been busy since completing The Lord of the Rings. He has three films due out this year. Running Scared, a noir film directed by Wayne Kramer, opened this month in the UK and opens February 24 in the US. In it, John plays a psychotic Russian mob boss who’s killed by his stepson in a particularly gory explosive death.
In May, the epic historical drama One Night with the King: The Call of Destiny (no, this is NOT about Aragorn– it’s based on the biblical story of Esther) directed by Michael Sabjel and also starring John Rhys-Davies, Omar Sharif, and Peter O’Toole is due for release. Based on the trailer, the film has gorgeous production design, sets, and costumes and so if you tend to like big epic pictures with, uh, gorgeous production design, sets, and costumes, you might want to give it a look.
The third film is Nick Cohen’s horror film Voodoo Lagoon, filmed in Australia, about college kids on a tropical isle.Once again, John has a great death scene, in which his son plucks out his beating heart.
His recent television work includes an appearance in Stargate SG-1 (“Camelot,” due to air March 10, according to IMDB) and a run on the Australia soap opera, Home and Away, in which, John says, “I play a really evil man for a change.”
In 2006 he’s headed for Serbia to appear in Conflict, a thriller directed by John Ireland, filmed in English and Serbo-Croatian, in which he once again plays the father of two sons. Also on tap is a film in England, in which he plays the Devil.
John is an actor who believes in thorough preparation, a slow infiltration into his role, taking on voice, gesture, and working with props, so that when he goes before the camera it’s not really acting – he IS the character. During the wardrobe and makeup process each day he became Denethor. In John’s view, “the craft is about getting inside a character and playing that truth,” regardless of medium.
John was always interested in playing Denethor because of the complexity of the character and its King Lear-ish quality, saying, “the greatest gift you can give an actor is a role like that.” In the end, he lived with the character for nearly five years, from the readings in early 1999 through the start of filming in October 2000 and the return to do the ADR three years later, saying it was a challenge to get back into the character and deliver the dialogue after all that time.
John enjoyed the many challenges of playing Denethor. It was tough to move around in the heavy costume. Also, Denethor’s language comes straight from Tolkien and requires difficult, technical articulation. Getting the right voice creates the character and enables the actor to generate deep emotions. John, and Peter Jackson, had to deal with the challenge of introducing a major character late in the piece. One challenge was to make people care about Denethor – to do this, John worked hard to communicate his complexity and his history.
John maintains passionately that Denethor was not evil – “a great man who made poor choices, but like many characters, they seemed like good choices at the time.” To just see him as evil reduces his complexity. Denethor, like most characters in The Lord of the Rings, has a huge backstory involving the death of his wife, his longstanding concern about Faramir’s closeness to Gandalf, his concerns over many years that Gandalf was preparing to bring back Isildur’s heir, and his resentment that he, Denethor, has been doing the hard job of keeping the country together while Aragorn remained undecided for many decades about his fate.
He sees Denethor as having different expectations for each of his sons. Boromir, his heir, is strong and powerful, just like him, while Faramir, his younger son, more sensitive, scholarly, and influenced by Gandalf, is just tolerated. Why does Denethor agree he would rather Faramir had died? Because in his current state, he has nothing left to live for, as he believes the kingdom is doomed. Also, says John, it was the simple answer: another answer would have open up a host of questions. He chose isolation as a way to convey Denethor’s mental state – the character speaks only to Gandalf, Pippin, and Faramir and seems to live in the throne room.
John says he’s glad he didn’t know when he signed on to play Denethor how big the fan base was, and how huge and involved the online fan base would become during the production and release of the films. ”I would have been terrified!” he says.
John didn’t get nearly as many personal questions as Elijah, Sean, or Billy. He admitted he enjoys playing the guitar and singing, and his taste often runs to broody songs by Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan. (No doubt Denthor would approve!) John has two daughters and a son, and his elder daughter Samantha has already begun her acting career.
While John never received a prop or clapper from the production for his time on set, he considers his 2004 Screen Actors Guild award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast for The Return of the King, which he shared with 18 other principal cast members, to be his special memento.
Ringer Celebriel reports: Calligrapher and mapmaker Daniel Reeve met with a warm and enthusiastic reception from fans at ORC. He presented a slide show with dozens of images of items he created for The Lord of the Rings: countless books, invitations, scrolls, labels, maps, and even props like the telescope in the library at Rivendell.
Daniel explained that the creating the actual film props turned out to be only part of his work. He went on to work with dozens of merchandising licensees, preparing a massive style guide for them to ensure uniformity in graphic presentation, and then also created the titles and graphics for the DVD releases in dozens of languages.
The scope of his work is pretty amazing: Every character and location in The Lord of the Rings has its own unique type treatment, a graphic style and look that helps communicate the essence of that character or place. Even individuals in the same culture were distinguished from one another – Daniel created different handwriting styles for Bilbo and Frodo even though they both wrote using the same hobbit alphabet. Daniel also trained the actors, like Elijah Wood and Ian Holm, who had to write on screen. Fan-favorite exhibits include Elijah’s calligraphy practice sheets.
After the Lord of the Rings, Daniel continued to work with WETA, creating maps and calligraphy for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and King Kong. If you saws these two films, you’d recognize his handiwork in Tumnus’ arrest warrant, signed and paw-printed by Maugrim, and in the map of Skull Island, which resembles a gorilla print, and the New York newspapers and posters.
In an informal Sunday morning breakfast, Daniel talked a bit about his recent projects. He was selected by the New Zealand government to work on a prestigious calligraphy project creating replicas of the Treaty of Waitangi (1840), the founding documents of the New Zealand nation, consisting of nine documents recording agreements between the British Crown and over five hundred Māori chiefs. The materials are a central part of an exhibition on the treaty, called Treaty 2 U, that’s touring New Zealand in a mobile exhibition trailer from January to May 2006.
He also worked on Dead Letters, a short independent film shot recently in Wellington by Quarter Acre Pictures and directed by Paolo Rotondo. The film, shot in just six days, is a wartime love story set in 1943 involving piles of letters sent to soldiers serving overseas. Grant Major is working on the film’s production design, and Park Road Post is one of many Wellington area businesses supporting the project. Dead Letters was one of only nine films funded by the New Zealand Film Commission’s Short Film Fund in 2005. It will be released this year.
For the film Daniel created letters in different handwriting. Daniel, or actually his hand, makes its film debut writing on camera, in an extreme close-up because the letter writer is supposed to be a woman. Like many others working on this independent film project, Daniel donated his time and talent.
He’s also created a set of illustrations for game cards for Hasbro’s upcoming game based on Pirates of the Caribbean (Reminder: Orlando Bloom fans can see their man in action as Will Turner starting July 7 in the US).
For ORC, Daniel had brought just under a hundred handwritten copies of Bilbo’s birthday party invitation to personalize for attendees and sell. They all sold out Friday, with lines forming at his table immediately after the presentation.
Daniel is a wonderfully talented, gentle, and unassuming artist. I found him standing in the back of the auditorium Saturday while Elijah and Sean were speaking and had to tell him more than once to go up and take an empty seat in the front so they could see he was there.
Silver Star writes: My notes + best recollections, but it’s NOT a transcript, please make that clear!
———————-
Good afternoon. Hi. Welcome to “Pippin in Pasadena”. Should we do question and answer or should I just make up a story?
[various audience yells]
Did I hear a perfect C sharp there?
[Billy opens water, is quiet] I forgot where I was for a moment, I’ll tell you what my thought process. I was thinking about this microphone, I was thinking that it’s this big, but then they also make them really small. I was wondering everything be shrunk and still work the same? [holds his fingers rather close together — audience slightly raucous laughter]
[Billy sees the woman wearing the Japanese coat auctioned in the morning.] Is that my kimono? No, it’s not a kimono, I can’t remember the real name for it.
[Japanese person in audience: Ha-pi] Oh, ha-pi, ha-pi.
Q: In Urban Ghost Story, you played an evil character, what is the most fun thing and hardest thing of playing someone so despicable
[microphone cuts out]
It seems if I press my thigh, the mic goes off and if I press the other side, my shirt falls off. [audience laughter and catcalls]
Playing that kind of character … as an actor you get slightly typecast, it’s nice to break out… independent film, the filmmakers have more flexibility while the studios don’t.
In that film, it was hard, there were a couple of kids involved, [rough?]language.. There was some stuff that was even worse that didn’t make film
When you have the character, it comes naturally. It was good fun doing that, I enjoyed that film.
[Billy gets distracted] Ha-pi. I knew it wasn’t a kimono. In Japan, [at the Return of the King premiere] there was a big barrel of sake, You had to break it with a hammer, Pete Jackson broke it. And then Dom tried to jump into it. I had to hold him back. He wanted to bathe in sake. [much audience laughter]
Q. In the blooper reel we saw, there was no Billy and no Dom.
That’s strange, because when I heard they were doing the blooper reels, there’s one that they showed at the wrap party, at the end of principle photography, there was plenty of me and Dom.
When you’re waiting around, you get bored. There was person making the behind-the-scenes film, Dom and I would call that person over and [do a little skit]. There’s one where I locked Dom in the cupboard, [I invited them into my trailer], and all the time I was talking, and there was a tap, tap, tap [mimes tapping]. He’d got me the wrong flavor of Haagen Daas.
Q: What’s the right flavor?
The right flavor: anything with nuts, except walnuts. He got me chocolate, I like ice cream, I like chocolate, but I don’t like chocolate ice cream. [shrugs and makes a face]
Q: Greetings from Seattle. We’re still waiting for you to plant your flag on the space needle.
I will!
How high is that? I’m not good with heights.
During Master and Commander, there was a scene, we’re on the top of the crow’s nest. It was supposed to be on the deck, but we got there that morning, and they told us up there. Russell Crowe’s got this big sword, and the space was very small [demonstrates on the stage] Every time Russell Crowe comes by he hits me on the leg with his sword. It was about five hundred feet down, I was holding on with one hand.
[walks to the stage stairs, holds the bannister] I always hold on. [much laughter]
Q: [bit about the Scottish Parliament building]
It cost a lot, I think they got more expensive carpets.
Q: favorite part of Scotland?
The West Coast, Fingol’s cave. I think we should paint up the cave. [bits I missed]
It was lovely to talk to you, quite surreal, but lovely.
[Turns around, sees his back view on the big screen. JUST LIKE ELIJAH, Billy pulled up his shirt and tucked his shirt into the back of his trousers. He played with his hand, wiggled it around, flexed, moved it over his arse, flexed it as though he was going to grab himself, back and forth from his side for quite a long time. Audience screaming, with a notable soprano note to the laughter.]
Q: When Pippin told Treebeard to go south, did he do it expecting something to happen?
Totally that, it was part of showing a character maturing. The writers wanted to show that. Because Merry is trying so hard to convince Treebeard, he’s trying so hard, that, sorry, he couldn’t see the wood for the trees. So after he told me that the Shire could be destroyed, it comes to me [to do something]. I like the idea that Pippin gets the idea that actually changes Treebeard. He’s been listening to Treebeard, he gets Treebeard, he knows he has to do it. After they come out of the forest, he apologizes to Treebeard, he says sorry.
Q: what about your CD?
I just can’t find enough time to rehearse it, we’re writing quite a lot of stuff. Just enjoying it very much.
[Showing off: puts his water bottle in his between his heels, jumps and and flips it up, catches it. Then throws his bottle over his shoulder and fails to catch it.]
Q: what are your future projects?
Quite a few things. I don’t like to talk about things until they’re actually happening. You say you’re going to do something and people ask you why didn’t you do it? You say you’re going to plant a flag in Seattle and they ask why you didn’t, and you have to say “I’m a liar.”
The Scottish National Theatre, I’ve been involved in getting in started, it would be odd not to work there.
[Laughs] “I’ll help you with theatre but I won’t work you”
[missing bit]
The French horn. You have to play it with your hand up it, that’s weird. [bit of mime and jokes about the horn] If I was designing it it would have a handle. If I was designing it, it wouldn’t be French, it would be Scottish.
I’m going to tell you a joke, my favorite joke ever. Oh, I’ve talked up so much it’s going to be rubbish.
When I was younger, I had a trumpet tree in my garden. But a man from the council came and rooti-ti-tout. [in American: root-toot-toot-ooot]
You’ll be thinking about it at night, lying in bed, thinking oh, rooted it out!
Q: Dom says you watch Laurel and Hardy movies, what’s your favorite?
Ijust got it, they now have a box set of everything they ever made, five million hours, brilliant. I love that Stan Laurel can light his thumb, if they need a fire. I love Way out West, I love all the movies. I could watch them for hours watching them getting a piano up a staircase.
Peter Sellers, I could watch him as well.
Q: Elijah was talking about pranks, what was the best prank?
Best prank, probably, was the game Tig Tag, not because it was best, but just cos it it went on so long. Three months later, Elijah came up and said “why don’t we ever play Tig?” [audience laughter]
Elijah’s such a lovely guy, open and innocent, it’s almost to easy.
Orlando, you’ve got to be a bit more sly to get him. But we got him.
Q: Could you quote one of Pippin’s lines in an American accent
[In American accent:] I wish I knew how to quit you! That’s not Pippin. That’s Brokeback Mountain isn’t it. [audience laughter]
Pippin is so kind of in that voice, It would be kindof weird to do it.
[Asks questioner to do it, she says “Second Breakfast” in a Scottish accent, laughter all around.]
Q: Come to Oregon and go windsurfing.
I’m going up to plant a flag, paint a cave…
I don’t like windsurfing, you can’t rest, you have to hold onto it all the time. On the surfboard, you can sit, have a chat, a dolphin could come by [makes dolphin jump motion with his hand]
Q: In the scene with Pippin and Gandalf, talking about death, your neck pulses. Did you do that on purpose.
I don’t have that kind of body control. I think it’s just, hopefully as an actor you try to be in the moment you know, and if you’re working with a great actor like Ian… And the lines, the first time I read that scene I cried. The lines written by Tolkien and by Fran Walsh. [mentions issues of dealing with hobbit sizes: camera tricks, green screens.] For that one, we just sat down, and it happened to work.
Q; What scene makes you most proud, what would you have wanted to change?
I’m very proud of that scene with Gandalf. Proud of the relationship of Merry and Pippin, hope it came across. Hopefully by the end when he finds him on the battle field, the relationship has all been leading up to it.
What I’d like to do again, do it again [New Zealand is] a beautiful country
Q: Did you know there’s snow in Chicago?
Let’s go plant a flag!
[Billy moves chair] Repositioning things, it’s like a chess game up here.
Q: no matter how much I’ve watched you on TV, you’re more [adorable?] in person.
Oh gosh, thank you.
Q: If not Pippin, what character would you have liked to have played? And what would it take for a girl to win your heart?
[Billy clowns a little]
I’d like to have done Gollum. That was exciting, the first time that technology had been used, as well as being amazingly written character. When I read the books, it just jumped out.
To win my heart – chocolate, ice cream, but not chocolate ice cream. I don’t know. Strange isn’t it, attraction. It’s chemical, biological, you don’t know [why]. You don’t pick who to fall in love with. [American accent:] Ah wish ah knew how to quit you.
Q: [Brings Seed of Chuckie doll up] Could you make the doll talk?
Cute little fellah.
[Glenn voice:] I don’t know who I am, I don’t know if I’m a boy or a girl.
I’ve never seen one of those. He’s quite the sexy one
[Billy asks questioner:] was that painful that tattoo? I’ve often thought of having a tattoo there [forearm]. Someone, the girl who did my makeup for a long time on the Lord of the Rings, called Margaret, had a boyfriend, who’s now her husband, and they have two kids. [how much time has gone by] He had a tattoo that was great, a mountain that became a wave. It was supposed to go right round, but he stopped, it was too painful.
Q: Do you hate getting asked the same things all the time?
I’m not getting asked the same things over and over. A lot of the questions I’ve been asked today, I’ve never been asked before
Q: How did you go from bookbinding to acting?
I was just bored, really really bored. I used to be a bookbinder, I enjoyed it when I was learning, but then I went to a big place [and was bored.] So I left, hung about down at the Florida keys. It’s a good place to hang about: hot, wet.
[then he got into Drama school and went back to Glasgow]
[I’m missing a bit]
Q: Do you really hate cinnamon?
I hate cinnamon: smell, taste, everything about cinnamon. I don’t mind chewing gum, Big Red, but doesn’t taste like cinnamon. I don’t know why I hate it so much. When I was younger, we were going to Six Flags or something. My cousin made me cinnamon toast that morning, and I was sick on the roller coaster. It might not have been the cinnamon but the two are connected in my mind.
It’s the first thing you smell when you get off the plane in LA, is cinnamon, there’s a cinnabon place.
But if you see me in the street, and say have a bit of Big Red, I’ll say yeah. It doesn’t taste like cinnamon to me, it tastes like anise. I quite like anise.
Q: Do you like World Without Sundays?
What a great band!
Q: What was the strangest or most unusual gift you’ve gotten?
I get a lot of stuff that’s quite strange… I quite like that I mention in an interview that you like something, you get get it. I should say I like whiskey! I said I like scarves, I got scarves for a long time.
Q: Is it harder or easier to play a character based on a book?
Kindof a bit of both, actually. Sometimes it’s nice, you can go back [and check]. If it says in the book the character can be funny, you can be funny. [something about not funny]
It’s also fun, when you have the script, you have the freedom to make it up. A bit of both, really
[back to French horn] If there’s a blacksmith, or a metalsmith, you could make a handle for French horns.
Q What would you play in a marching band?
Is there a French horn? Really? [Something about holding it up.]
Cancel the handle!
It’s not a French horn, it’s a ‘mellophone’.
Q: What instruments do you play?
A little bit of guitar, a little bit of bass, a little drums, a little mouth organ.
I used to have a binatone, it’s a keyboard from the 80s. I can play the theme from Superman, and Beautiful Dreamer.
[teases the questioner, a teenager who plays flute in marching band] It’s easier to carry, can put it in your bag, can’t do that with a French horn, even if you have a handle.
Mellophone, remember it rhymes with ‘deep groan’
Q: What’s you’re favorite Beatles song?
Favorite ever ever Beatles song, that’s so hard, that’s the same like your favorite movie. I like “Something”. I like George Harrison songs, “Two of Us”, I really like. I’m going to say “Across the Universe”, which rhymes with ‘just a slightly bit perverse’
I almost went right off the stage there.
Q: About sound production, ADR, Peter Jackson’s sound awesome. Was Billy’s background with music helpful?
ADR, for anyone who doesn’t know, you’ll film the scene, but have to do additional dialog recording. Because in some scenes, you know there’ll be a fan on to make wind, or other noise. Some actors don’t enjoy it cos you have to re-create the scene. I like it cos you have a chance to revisit it.
I quite enjoy it, even for emotion scenes. Except for, you have to do breathing and such like, if you have to do running scenes [takes deep breath, pants] It’s always at the end of the day, you end up really dizzy, hyperventilating.
I was working with a camera man once, he’d been in the business for twenty five years, and for twenty of those, he’s been waiting for sound. Sound guys are always going “I can hear an aeroplane”
[Effective sound example: in Moria, after Pippin knocks down the skeleton] it was very quiet, you could hear breathing.
Because film is quite a visual experience, people forget how great sound is, but sound makes a movie definitely.
Q: Who was your best friend on the set?
That would probably be Dom. Me, Dom, Elijah, Orlando, we all kinda hung out together. But Dom most, cos his house was closest to me. I had an internal switch, seem to be listening to Dom [nods, looks interested] but really I was listening to my internal music. We liked a lot of the same things, playing pool, watching movies.
Q; Of all you experiences, which would you relive?
So many great things. I loved, after we come out of Moria, on top of that mountain, so beautiful, I can’t even say. It was a place of natural significance, I think I just made that up, I don’t think that’s the real thing, but, natural significance. Not many people were allowed up there, just cameraman, sound, actors, maybe a makeup person. We spent a couple of days up there, beautiful.
Q: How were the premieres?
The premieres are great, but hard work. Doing one in new york, then you have to go to the party afterwards, sounds like fun, but it’s work. But all the crowds, and people energy, the n next day on on the plane…
Q: What was your favorite costume?
The Gondorian uniform, it was sexy, strolling around the set. [strolls across stage] Kicking Viggo, knocking him off his horse. It was really comfortable, the chain mail was plastic, so it didn’t weigh anything. There were a lot of layers, so it took quite a lot of time to get on in the morning and off in the evening. The sword was on this kind of X thing, and it kept slipping down. It’s really annoying, when you’re in the middle of a battle, and it keeps slipping down!
Audience: SPEED ROUND
I thought you said ‘spin round’, like Wonder Woman.
Q: Your music career, when did you start and how?
I played in a band when I was at school, like 14, with some guys, we played music for like 10 years. Actually, two of them are still playing with me now [Audience: awww] I don’t know if that’s worth an awww. [laughter] One of them has a kitten! [Audience: awww]
Q: What is your favorite color?
Blue!
Q: asking all the actors, because I’m going to paint my house.
Billy: I’m going to paint a cave! [audience laughter]
Q: Last year, Dom told us to ask about ‘door, x, triangle’, what can you tell us?
Very little then. We were in Hawaii last year: dom, elijah, other people, guys from World Without Sundays, random people who were there. I’m not a big playstation player, I get bored. Some of these guys can play until they’re physically sick. [description of the stages of playstation addiction] When they get to that point they can only speak, “cross select zero triangle”! The house we were in the door didn’t close, we had to yell, ‘door’, or a mosquito comes in, bites you, you get malaria…
Q: In the Return of the King, there’s a publicity photo from the Black Gate where Merry is hurt and Pippin is holding him.
The battle at the Black Gates, there, we did a lot of what they call ‘pops’, of battle things happening, which might have been Viggo going through three orcs. And one of the things was that Dom gets hurt by an axe and falls to the ground and I grab him and I’m calling for help. [they decided they didn’t need it] It’s a little piece of battle footage that they used as still.
Q: It’s the opposite of Merry holding Pippin coming out of Moria. [Billy agrees]
Q: About the Fellowship tattoo
I did, actually, but when we got the tattoo, I’m sure everyone knows the nine of us got an Elvish tattoo of the number nine. Because the job has so much to do with feet [I decided to get mine on my ankle]. I was the first one to get it, everyone thought Viggo would go first but he [dithered around] so I went ahead.
Q: Show it?
I made a promise to myself not to show on camera, and there’s at least one camera here. [applause]
What I didn’t think of, was doing it about two weeks before the end of principal photography, it was painful. An open wound, putting on glue! Don’t do that.
Q: Your favorite movie growing up?
When I was growing up, my sort of Lord of the Rings was Star Wars, I loved all the characters. I love comedy, Peter Sellers.
This weekend TORn’s IRC chat will conclude our latest round of movie-watching parties with The Return of the King Extended DVD. Join us in The Hall of Fire chatroom at 5:30 pm EST on Saturday when we dust off our copies of the film and pop it into the DVD player. After the usual confusion, at around 5.30pm EST we’ll all press play on our individual DVD players and proceed to cheer and jeer (or discuss and argue, if you like!) the finer points of the film.
We’d be delighted if you could join us.
We plan to take a break midway through the film, to allow for stretching of fingers and backs. Barliman will be on hand to serve drinks and snacks (and to enforce the house rules).
* * *
WHEN WILL IT HAPPEN?
Saturday January 28
Time zone conversions:
Not sure what time the chat will be where you are? Check this little conversion table out for some help.
America:
5.30pm EST (New York)
4.30pm CST (Chicago)
3.30pm MST (Salt Lake City)
2.30pm PST (Los Angeles)
Once everyone is in #thehalloffire and has their DVD ready to go, the ops will moderate the room and have a countdown to “Play.” I expect that we will be able to give minute-markers throughout the evening for latecomers. A break will be taken midway through — the exact point will be announced in the topic.
writes: My notes & best recollections, not a word-by-word transcript. Please do not rely on these notes for anything important!
Miranda Otto Q&A Transcript:
Hello, hey, wow, what a lot of people. [about the tall chair] Most uncomfortable. [looks at the audience] I can see someone in one of my costumes [laughter and cheers]
Q: Comparing the book Eowyn & Aragorn relationship against the movie, wa there more of a love story?
Certainly my imagination went a long long way, we strung it out. I’d imagine in my head that we’d take it a long way, we’d rewrite Tolkien! [audience laughs] We wanted to string it out a little bit more and that was fuuuun. Viggo wanted to make it clear that Aragorn was in love with Arwen, whether or not she’s there. But it was fun to make you think that maybe, they’d get together.
Q. About the scene in Houses of Healing?
We were trying to keep it going, keep the sexual tension going. Based on the fact that she’s so in love with him. She keeps hoping beyond hope that it will lead to something else.
Q. Eowyn is strong and vulnerable at the same time, had to overcome so much discouragement. Did Miranda have to do the same?
Yeah definitely, you always draw on lots of parts of yourself I think. there are lots of times when you think you might give up. [bit about keeping going] I used to dance when I was younger, I gave up, and then I went back…
Q: The Houses of Healing was missing so much, we felt cheated.
I felt cheated too! One of my favorite sections of the books, very beautiful. But they were really going fast in the film, so much action. Houses of Healing very lyrical section, but in the film, they have to keep the pace up. Um, most of what we shot in is in the extended version. A part where they’re standing at the window and looking out and talking about the rain, I think? The bit with Viggo, where he comes in as Aragorn and does the healing.
Q: Did you enjoy being one of the guys?
Yeah, I did, I used to hang out with the guys and that was fun. I wanted to do more and more fighting, I was sort of badgering them a lot to do as much fighting as possible. We were shooting at all different times and all different places and talking to the them [Peter, Fran, Philippa, etc.] about ideas… The Killing of the Witch King, we re-shot some of that
Q: Were you battling the men in rehearsal?
Not really, no. I had two women, stunt doubles. But the guys took it easy on me.
Q: Compare directors, Stephen Spielberg and Peter Jackson
They’re both great. People who are good at what they do are relaxed and encouraging. They’re both really cuddly kind people.
Q: Directors and actors you’d like to work with?
I’d really like to work with Ang Lee, actually, not just from Brokeback Mountain, I’ve liked him a long time. Paul Thomas Andreson. Stanley Kubrick, — he went died on me! Billy Wilder, I would have really liked to have worked with
Gene Hackman. God there’s lots of women. Joan Allen, I’m really a fan of. Juliette Binoche. Judy Davis, I nearly got to work with her once.
Q: There’s an amazing scene, at Theoden’s bedside, alternately drawn and repulsed by Wormtongue, was it difficult?
That was a scene I really really enjoyed doing. I liked working with Brad, he puts a lot in, he gives you so much. He’s partially seducing her, everyone else is sort of fobbing her off, he’s saying I understand what goes on in your head…. She’s a bit seduced and repulsed at the same time. It’s a really interesting thing to play when you can play two opposing things at once.
That day, we were in a place with a tin roof, there were gale-force winds,, evidently. I didn’t notice. Brad said ‘I couldn’t believe you were still working’ with all the noise of the winds and the airplanes.
Q: The Flight of the Phoenix, what was the most challenging part?
Being in the desert, that’s really hard. It was the second time, I did another film in Namibia once, and it gets really really hot. Very isolated, no services. Walking into the sand dunes every day, a lot of wind, a lot of sand, physically quite demanding. And also being away from family, really a long way away.
Q: What about being the ‘other woman’?
I like to think that she really doesn’t know that much about Arwen and assumes Arwen’s long gone. For me personally, if there’s another woman, back off. She thinks he’s a free man.
Q; Watching Eowyn & Wormtongue, it explains the whole relationship, which was unclear for me in the book, so thank you.
Oh thank you.
Q; Do you think sword training for women was common in Rohan or just for Eowyn?
I thought it was partially unique, with her royal heritage, she was expected to lead. She does say in the film that the women of Rohan had to fight, that they’d be die on the sword so she had to be able to wield one. But she has to lead.
Q. have you seen King Kong yet?
No, I’m desperate to see it. I had a baby recently and I don’t get to the movies very often, but I might see it here.
Q: Challenges and easiest things in movies?
The biggest challenge I think for me was the scale issue, working with the small people, and when you had to work with people who were actually not the actors. And working with ping-pong balls on sticks. When we did a re-shoot with Legolas giving Aragorn the Evenstar back, that was to a ping-pong ball because they weren’t there. But someone told me that was their favorite shot.
The easy – just really believing that you ware a part of that world, because unlike other films, the sets had incredible detail, the costumes, all my shoes were made, all my jewelry was made, that made it easy.
Q. What was your favorite costume?
Hmmmm. The white dress, my favorite, symbolic of her character, simple and beautiful. I loved going to the costume department to get new costumes.
Q. Eowyn is an inspiration, do you see yourself as an inspiration?
The character Eowyn is definitely inspiration for girls, the character not so much of myself. My job was simply to read and interpret that and try to do her as much justice as possible. She’s in some ways a perversion of the classic fairy tale, where the girl sees the knight in armor who saves her. In this book, she has to become her own knight and save herself
Q. In the extended Two Towers, Eowyn feeds Aragorn soup — are you a better cook than Eowyn?
Not much! [audience laughter] I wish. I’m not much of a cook. It’s something that when I’m fifty, I’ll devote some time.
Q. When you took the role, did you realize what you were getting into?
When I took this role I didn’t know much about it at all. I hadn’t read Lord of the Rings, when I was a kid. I read a lot of other things and I’m quite surprised that I didn’t read those. Then, I read the first script, but the script changed so much, it wasn’t until I got there that I realized what a big part it was. It’s a big responsibility, but there were so many people that were trying to make you look right, make you move right….
Q. When Eomer found Eowyn on the field, was that hard to film?
He hugged me so tight, and he was so involved, I didn’t want to interrupt. But I remember that all the armor was sticking into my face, he was holding me so tight, and my own armor was poking into me. I didn’t want to interrupt him, he was so into the moment.
Then after that scene, I had huge bruises, huge black bruises all over my legs form falling over and being hit.
Q. What was your favorite scene?
Gosh, there were so many. Killing the witch king was a lot of fun, though we actually shot it twice. It took me a lot of days to recover from. Probably the most for me was Edoras, it was so beautiful, that exterior, it was like being in a fairy tale.
Q. Tips for aspiring actress?
First of all if you want to be an actress, you have to want it beyond anything, because it’s quite tough and you have to take a lot of rejection. If you want to do *anything else*…
I still really believe in having training, I studied in drama school for three years and it really helped in this film, portray someone who’s from a different time.
You have to be very committed, use your imagination, read lots of books so you can imagine yourself someone else.
Q. What was it like, working with Viggo?
Brilliant, it was like working with Aragorn really. He’s quite an amazing person, a Renaissance man, great painter and photographer and musician. A kind and gentle person, he sees himself the same as everyone else. He’s non-starry, won’t let anyone clean up after him or anything. He was a great example to everyone else.
Q. What was your favorite scene with Bernard Hill?
We had lot of fun together, Bernard and I, good chemistry, we got on really well. I think the scene that we shot on the very last day of shooting, original shoot, not re-shoots. It’s the scene where he’s saying he probably won’t return and she should take over for him. Also his death scene, last day of re-shoots.
Q. Do Ringers still freak you out?
it wasn’t exactly Ringers that creeped me out, what creeped me out was professional autograph hunters. They want you to sign millions and millions of things and then go on ebay. They’re not polite, which is what really got to me. They didn’t know when to leave you alone. But no, you guys are FUN!
Q. How did you kill the witch king?
When you shoot a big piece of action, it’s done in all little bits all little bits he has this mace, iron maiden, what?, [audience” morning-star!] Right. A lot of my time my sword was real, but sometimes when I did the actual stabbing it would be just the handle. Sometimes it would go on for a long time, a minute to two minutes… I had something inside the shield that made it blow up when he hit it.
Q: Were there any scenes shot that you were disappointed were not in the final version?
I’m never really disappointed because I trust the director that if the scene isn’t there, it wasn’t necessary. And people need to go to the toilet, you can’t have it too long or… In the extended dvd, [she was happy to see the part where Eowyn and Theoden talk]. There was originally a scene, a fight scene at the end of the second film, in the Glittering Caves, the orcs came in… I spent a long time on that fight and I was a little disappointed it didn’t make it.
Q: Who was your favorite cast-member?
I mainly worked with Dominic, and he was a lot of fun, always making gags. He and billy were a funny double-act, they had pictures of themselves, dressed up as other people, pictures all over.
Q: Did you like the horses and swords?
Sitting with someone in front of you and riding is a lot harder than riding by yourself. It’s better to have someone really experienced. I started training for the fighting for about three weeks before. During shooting, we would go and train for particular fights. They would have us learn different positions, different ways of using the swords.
Q. There’s been discussion in Tolkien circle, do you think Eowyn was a heroine or deserter?
i always thought of her as a a heroine, I just did. I never thought of her as a deserter. It felt like at times the whole world was going to end. In some way, she was making a mark for herself, there was almost nothing left to save. Almost a death wish, her going off to war. She was symbolic of almost anyone left during a war.
Q. Did you buy your horse?
No, I would have liked to have to have taken my horse home, but it needed someone with experience. He was very expensive, originally bought for Viggo, but he was a gelding and Viggo wanted a stallion. [audience laughs] Someone bought him, and they fed him so well, when they brought him back for the re-shoots, he was about twice the size! He has a very nice life.
Q. In the movie, it’s Eowyn and Merry, as opposed to the book where it’s Dernhelm and Merry
It was interesting cos we decided early on that there was no way on screen that you could really disguise it was me, that Merry didn’t know who it was. I didn’t really think about them so much as being female and male, more both outcast in some way, orphaned, not allowed to join in, belittled. More similar [than romantic].
It was definitely a maternal thing in wanting to look after him. She’s not very maternal in the rest of the movie, she’s not portrayed as a very female character.
Q. How did you prepare for Theodred’s funeral scene?
It was originally not supposed to be singing, more wailing. I had a group of other women and we did it together. It given to me the night before, we had to learn it quickly. When I arrived on set, Peter asked me to kindof chant it instead so we came back. later decided to sing, it was quite hard, i’ve done some singing but it was a strange melody, had to work quite hard to pitch.
Q. You saw the original script – what were the differences between that and the final version?
There was more competition between myself and Arwen. Arwen was at Helm’s Deep at one stage. They were trying to build the character up. There was more comedy, and as they went on, they went more back to the books.
Q. What is your favorite movie?
Mmm, you know, I like Gone With the Wind a lot? I still love watching that, and the Wizard of Oz, and the original Willy Wonka.
Q. Did you wear a wig in the Lord of the Rings?
Almost everyone had a wig. My hair was a little shorter than, I was doing a another film, where I had to have red hair. It was just easier. It was good they did, for the amount of reshoots that they did,. They didn’t have to worry about your hair, ‘is it still long? is it still blonde?’ They were beautiful wigs.
Q. There’s a bit at the end of the Two Towers where Eowyn hugs Aragorn, he’s in his wet falling-in-the-river clothes, after he got all armored up, is that right?
Well spotted! Yes, Aragorn was wearing the river clothes. It was originally from when he comes back on Brego, Eowyn was to run over and hug him, but they changed that, so that was taken from there.
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Corrections gratefully accepted, also video or audio so I can fix my own mistakes. I love fixing things, so please comment if you see an error!
And the nominees of the MOVIEFONE MOVIEGOER AWARDS are…
It’s movie award season again, and while we all know what the critics and industry groups think are the best films and performances of the year, Moviefone wants to hear the opinions of the real moviegoers who spend their $10 for a ticket.
Voting is now open for the 11th Annual Moviefone Moviegoer Awards. Real movie fans on Moviefone.com selected the five nominees in each category below, and now millions of movie fans across the country will cast their votes for the winners, to be announced Feb. 28. Don’t miss your chance to make your voice and heard and help your favorite film, actor or actress take home the award. Vote now at: [aoltrack.com]
The Nominees for MOVIE OF THE YEAR are:
HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE
STAR WARS: EPISODE III – REVENGE OF THE SITH
CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
KING KONG
THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN
The Nominees for ACTOR OF THE YEAR are:
Daniel Radcliffe, HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE
Johnny Depp, CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
Joaquin Phoenix, WALK THE LINE
Hayden Christensen, STAR WARS: EPISODE III – REVENGE OF THE SITH
Heath Ledger, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
The Nominees for ACTRESS OF THE YEAR are:
Emma Watson, HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE
Reese Witherspoon, WALK THE LINE
Keira Knightley, PRIDE & PREJUDICE
Dakota Fanning, WAR OF THE WORLDS
Naomi Watts, KING KONG
The Nominees for BIGGEST BADASS are:
Ewan McGregor, STAR WARS: EPISODE III – REVENGE OF THE SITH
Angelina Jolie, MR. & MRS. SMITH
Christian Bale, BATMAN BEGINS Orlando Bloom, KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
Brad Pitt, MR. & MRS. SMITH
The Nominees for SEXIEST KISS are:
Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie, MR. & MRS. SMITH
Clive Owen/Jennifer Aniston, DERAILED
Steve Carell/Leslie Mann, THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN
Joaquin Phoenix/Reese Witherspoon, WALK THE LINE
Will Smith/Eva Mendes, HITCH
The Nominees for MOST HYSTERICAL PERFORMANCE are:
Vince Vaughn, WEDDING CRASHERS
Steve Carell, THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN
Jim Carrey, FUN WITH DICK AND JANE
Owen Wilson, WEDDING CRASHERS
Ralph Fiennes, WALLACE & GROMIT IN THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT
The Nominees for VILEST VILLAIN are:
Ralph Fiennes, HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE
Hayden Christensen, STAR WARS: EPISODE III – REVENGE OF THE SITH
Tilda Swinton, THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE
Ian McDiarmid, STAR WARS: EPISODE III – REVENGE OF THE SITH Elijah Wood, SIN CITY
The Nominees for BEST SCENE STEALER are:
Brendan Gleeson, HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE
Vince Vaughn, MR. & MRS. SMITH
Will Ferrell, WEDDING CRASHERS
Cillian Murphy, BATMAN BEGINS
Michelle Williams, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
The Nominees for BEST CROSSOVER are:
Jessica Simpson, DUKES OF HAZZARD
Nelly, THE LONGEST YARD
Mos Def, THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY
Dwight Yoakam, WEDDING CRASHERS
Dave Matthews, BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE
The Nominees for HOTTEST RISING STAR are:
Freddie Highmore, CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
America Ferrera, THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS
Deep Roy, CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
Isla Fisher, WEDDING CRASHERS
Jennifer Carpenter, THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE
The Nominees for BEST UNSUNG GEM are:
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
CINDERELLA MAN
SERENITY
THE CONSTANT GARDENER
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE
