Pippin’s Sunshine writes: Attached are my pictures of John Noble at the Dallas Sci-fi expo this weekend. John was an incredible person to meet. He took the time to shake your hand and talk to you for a moment before signing your picture or whatever. In the afternoon, he gave a small Q&A, which was fascinating. He talked about palying baseball (and how he was missing a game to be here) and a little bit about how he had retired from rugby last year. He mentioned that he really enjoyed Texas because it is the ‘sister-state’ to Australia (didn’t know that!) because we had the same sesquincential. He was througholy impressed with everyone involved in making the films, especially Peter Jackson. He was very impressed with how PJ could keep everything together in his head while watching 6 or 7 monitors all at once.
He said that he had originally read for both Saruman and Denethor and after about 6 months found out Christopher Lee had recieved the role of Saruman. Then, a few months later, they called him to say he had the role of Denethor.
He briefly mentioned his career as a stage actor and some of the differences between stage v. film v. tv. One of the coolest things though was he was asked about the dialects between the cast members and if they ‘slipped’ into their regular speech on set. He commented that it was pointed out to him that he did slip back into the Aussie accent occasionally, but he said he wasn’t aware of it. Then, came the cool part. He was explaining the “Gondorian accent”– or what the dialect coaches had come up with for it– he described it as lengthening the O. Then, he gave an example that sent chills down my arms, “No lose of sleep. No tomb for Denethor or Faramir…” Said it exactly as he did in the movie.
He was also asked about the stunt where he caught on fire and ran off the cliff. He said the people at WETA made the ‘oil.’ He was unsure what it was made out of, but it felt like oil. He said that David Wenham mentioned that it stung his eyes whatever it was. John also mentioned, that for obvious reasons, they had to get the oil pouring right in one take. He said that the pyro guys were excited because, all though they had all of this new technology at hand, they decided to use an ancient trick to pretend that the stunt guy was on fire. He said that there was a slight gap between the fire and the actors, but it was still hot. So, the guy who gets lit on fire and runs out is a stunt and the fall off the cliff was CGI. HTe other part of that scene that he mentioned was when the horse hits him and knocks him back into the fire. He said that it was just a prop guy holding a horse leg.
Someone asked him about Sir Ian hitting him with staff. He seemed to remember that well. He said that Sir Ian seemed to enjoy doing that too much.
He told very few stories involving other cast members (don’t think he could without getting in trouble!). But he did mention that one night, he had had his daughters over in NZ with him and had taken them to a concert. Viggo started making a beeline for this girl and John realized it was his daughter. He said he didn’t remember saying this, but “It’s anecedotal now and that I said, ‘Viggo, no.”
He mentioned a little bit about the extended versions of the films being better than the cinematic ones, don’t we all agree? He mentioned that The Houses of Healing would be in there (yea!) as well as some new/extended scenes between him and David Wenham, including apparently a scene where he gets so mad at Faramir that he ends up falling backwards on the dais of the throne (oops!). And that his ‘bum was so bruised, he couldn’t hardly sit down.” And apparently, Billy took a picture of it.
