{"id":42176,"date":"2011-02-10T19:31:57","date_gmt":"2011-02-11T00:31:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/?p=42176"},"modified":"2011-02-10T20:39:58","modified_gmt":"2011-02-11T01:39:58","slug":"thirteen-singing-dwarves-and-a-very-funny-hobbit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/2011\/02\/10\/42176-thirteen-singing-dwarves-and-a-very-funny-hobbit\/","title":{"rendered":"Thirteen singing dwarves and a very funny Hobbit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Martin Freeman (Bilbo) and Aidan Turner (Kili) at today's press conference - this cast is a killer combo of wit and good looks.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cFourteen individuals \u2013 and an ensemble.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s press conference opened with an apology from Peter Jackson, who said he couldn\u2019t be there as he was \u201cunder a form of medical house arrest\u201d since being hospitalised with a perforated ulcer last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd to be honest, perhaps it\u2019s just as well. These guys make me laugh so hard that I\u2019d be in danger of popping a stitch or something,\u201d Jackson continued in his statement.<\/p>\n

Confirming the truth of that, the cast of 13 dwarves and one hobbit kept up a constant flow of quips and wisecracks throughout the whole press conference. We knew Martin Freeman was funny with a good script \u2013 well, he\u2019s hilarious without one as well.<\/p>\n

Many fans have been wondering whether 13 dwarves would become a generic mass in the film, or whether they would be fleshed out in the script to have individual personalities. <\/p>\n

Dwarf actors William Kirchner and Peter Hambleton spoke on that: \u201cWe are thirteen distinct and strong personalities \u2013 but we are an ensemble as well\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking of ensemble, the dwarves confirmed they\u2019d be doing their own singing. \u201cIt\u2019s all staying very close to the book \u2013 yes, there WILL be singing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dwarves apparently all look very different. Aidan Turner, or Fili, said that they were still experimenting with different amounts of facial hair to define their look. “Facial hair is under review – hence the different beards we’ve got today!” Jed Brophy, or Nori, (who played numerous highly- prostheticised characters in LOTR) said that yes, he [and we presume the others] would be recognisable. \u201cI\u2019m so happy to be me. And I hope to get through this film without dying. Horribly.\u201d<\/p>\n

As we saw before in LOTR, the script apparently offers each dwarf a chance to be highly individual, but furthermore, PJ, Fran and Philippa were alert to the quirks and strengths of each actor that became evident as they rehearsed together. So in that sense, the script \u2013 and its impact on the characters \u2013 is fluid.<\/p>\n

Seeing the humour, camaraderie and respect between the actors already, I felt very positive that once again the film makers have picked a group whose synergy will power the appeal of the movie.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great bunch of guys,\u201d said Hambleton. \u201cWe feel like a bunch of mates already.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all strong personalities, but we\u2019re all equal and we get on well together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cast said that far from being downcast about the delays in filming, they were appreciating having even more time to bond with each other. (There were a lot of jokes about dwarf bonding\/bondage). \u201cWe don\u2019t have to wear as much latex for these roles\u2026but we can still enjoy some on the weekends.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team have been training hard in the four or five weeks since they arrived \u2013 going to the gym, learning some stunt moves, getting dialogue coaching. (Didn\u2019t get to ask what dialect \u2013 a question for another day!)<\/p>\n

The Kiwi actors talked about meeting and working with international stars like Martin Freeman, Ken Stott or James Nesbitt. Mark Hadlow (Dori): \u201cIt\u2019s an amazing experience as a theatre actor, when you\u2019ve been an admirer for years, as I have been, of Ken Stott\u2019s work on stage and screen\u2026to meet with him and get to talk about all the things that we share, has been extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n

The visiting actors paid tribute to the Kiwi\u2019s talent as well. \u201cLook at Jed here, he\u2019s done it before and he\u2019s been everything in the [LOTR] movies!\u201d<\/p>\n

John Callen (Oin) said it wasn\u2019t just the cast who got on well. \u201cWhen we\u2019re together, we\u2019re a group. We\u2019re \u2018as one\u2019. But it\u2019s not just us. The crew work \u2018as one\u2019 too. I\u2019ve met hundreds of people working on this movie, and I have not met one tosser. Except Mark Hadlow,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n

The cast have met their scale doubles briefly (\u201cWhat a great bunch of guys\u201d) and will be working closely with them later. The scale doubles are doing their own gruelling schedule of gym, fight and stunt training alongside the cast.<\/p>\n

During the press conference I took note of who took a leadership role or spoke the most, since I suspect that will be a good indicator of how they act on screen.<\/p>\n

William Kircher and James Nesbitt \u2013 Bifur and Bofur \u2013 spoke a lot and also bounced off each other like a naturally comic team. They\u2019re very funny. Nesbitt went to the rubgy Sevens ( a sort of sports carnival we have in Wellington, with lots of costumes) dressed as a chicken. \u201cI was in the corporate box and I was the only one in costume. People were talking to me obviously thinking \u2018he\u2019s supposed to be somebody [important] \u2026.but\u2026.he\u2019s a chicken.\u2019\u201d Why a chicken? \u201cIt just felt right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rob Kazinsky \u2013 Fili \u2013 also took charge of a lot of the answers, with well-thought-out responses. He was sitting next to Aidan Turner, or Kili, who was also very charismatic \u201ctake charge\u201d, as well as funny. They\u2019re both good-looking guys and I imagine we could expect to see a lot of them on screen.<\/p>\n

John Callen (Oin) said a few things. He had the air of a wise elder statesman, undercut by a strong vein of very dry, sly humour bubbling just underneath.<\/p>\n

Richard Armitage (Thorin) spoke surprisingly little, but when he did he had a notably deep voice, exactly right for Thorin, and real gravitas. He walked into the conference with a kind of testosterone charged lope. I don\u2019t think he\u2019ll have any trouble holding the audience\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n

Martin Freeman (Bilbo) was simply hilarious. He spoke a little more seriously about how he had spent time watching Ian Holm\u2019s performances as Bilbo. \u201cOf course I\u2019ve been looking at what he\u2019s been doing\u2026I need to look at it and then forget it, in a sense, though. I look at what he does with his voice and movement\u2026Without trying to blow my own trumpet nor with too much false modesty, I think I\u2019m quite a good match for him. I have to try to echo and give a nod to what he\u2019s done, but still be me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freeman spoke highly of PJ. \u201cFor somebody who is as rich as Croesus and has that many Oscars, he\u2019s phenomenally normal. And I mean genuinely normal, as opposed to those people that play at being hip or cool or ostentatiously normal, sort of \u2018look here\u2019s me being normal and having a normal cup of tea\u2019. No, PJ is a practitioner, not a star. I get the feeling that if you were to have known him when he was twelve, he\u2019s basically the same person now \u2013 an enthusiast.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no tossers on this production \u2013 and you certainly don\u2019t want one at the top.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nesbitt (Bofur) commented that PJ, Fran and Philippa, the writing team, were exceptionally clear and could articulate what they wanted. \u201cBut very importantly, they\u2019re great listeners and take on board what you have to offer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked how they were preparing for megastardom and crazy fan hysteria, Freeman and the rest said that it was all theoretical at this point. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to be good first!\u201d<\/p>\n

On the strength of this press conference, I think we’re going to see some memorable performances from a cast that is bound to become highly popular.<\/p>\n

Questions were mostly confined to things the cast themselves would be concerned with, so we didn\u2019t get into details some fans have been asking, such as the impact of Del Toro\u2019s departure, or whether casting for Smaug was imminent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cFourteen individuals \u2013 and an ensemble.\u201d Today\u2019s press conference opened with an apology from Peter Jackson, who said…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1344,1294,65,1295,22,1300,4,1320,1296,1298,1260,1299,75,1292,1293,1297,148],"tags":[2877,906,2883,1437,2874,165,1436,2875,221,2886],"class_list":["post-42176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adam-brown","category-aidan-turner","category-walsh","category-graham-mctavish","category-headlines","category-hobbit-cast-news","category-hobbit-movie","category-james-nesbitt","category-john-callen","category-mark-hadlow","category-martin-freeman","category-peter-hambleton","category-boyens","category-richard-armitage","category-rob-kazinsky","category-stephen-hunter","category-hobbit","tag-aidan-turner","tag-bilbo-baggins","tag-james-nesbitt","tag-ken-stott-graham-mctavish","tag-martin-freeman","tag-peter-jackson","tag-press-conference","tag-richard-armitage","tag-the-hobbit","tag-william-kircher"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1tLoH-aYg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42176\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}