{"id":84172,"date":"2013-12-06T23:00:58","date_gmt":"2013-12-07T04:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/?p=84172"},"modified":"2013-12-07T03:52:00","modified_gmt":"2013-12-07T08:52:00","slug":"transcript-the-hobbit-the-desolation-of-smaug-world-premiere-press-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/2013\/12\/06\/84172-transcript-the-hobbit-the-desolation-of-smaug-world-premiere-press-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Transcript: ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ world premiere press conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Desolation_Press\"<\/a>This is a word-for-word transcription of a press conference held for \u201cThe Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,\u201d in a hotel in Los Angeles after the World Premiere of the film. Seated were: Philippa Boyens, Benedict Cumberbatch, Richard Armitage, Peter Jackson, Evangeline Lilly, Luke Evans, Aidan Turner and Dean O\u2019Gorman. <\/p>\n

Press were given microphones by moderators. Although TheOneRing.net attended, for which we thank Warner Bros., we did not have a chance to ask a question to the assembled group; we apologize for some that did. Transcribed by Twitter staffer @Saoirse_Loachlann<\/p>\n

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The Desolation of Smaug world premiere press conference<\/h4>\n

\"bg_NiZme\" Press:<\/b> Actually for both of you \u2013 for both sexiest men in the world. [Editor’s note: a reference to Benedict Cumberbatch and Richard Armitage.] Can both of you talk about\u2026a little bit about Benedict doing the voice over. Did you go to New Zealand and did that help you in terms of kind of, you know, being with Peter and did you get to mingle with the rest of the cast and so forth? <\/p>\n

Benedict:<\/strong> That\u2019s about five questions; I\u2019ll go with the first part of that. Yes, I did go to New Zealand. It was hugely, hugely helpful. I started off with Peter and Fran and Philippa \u2013 just the three of them and me, which was a privilege in itself seeing how large everything else is on this film \u2013 to have their sole attention – and we were in the MoCap stage so it began as a physicalization and both voice and face and body work \u2013 the whole thing. So that\u2019s how I kind of discovered him. Via my Dad who read me the book when I was either 6 or 7 \u2013 I\u2019ve really got to ring him, I keep saying this. I\u2019ve said this for two days and not found out. But I was young. I was younger than 8 when I went to school so it was a bedtime (story) at home, so that was my first bit of research.<\/p>\n

Then I went to the reptile house at London Zoo. It\u2019s so beautifully written the book and it\u2019s so well illustrated and countless editions of the book and then with Peter\u2019s input and our rehearsals and just playing like a kid really in this incredible freeing environment they call the mocap stage where we can kind of go anywhere with it. So, very, very helpful. <\/p>\n

Sadly, I met hardly any of the cast. Richard I met once \u2013 I crossed over with people as they were coming back to do, I think their ADR I think, but yeah and Martin, I didn\u2019t spend any sort of live time with Martin which was sad but that was fine. It\u2019s fine. We know each other quite well so we kind of second-guessed it with our performances to some degree I guess but yeah, I didn\u2019t cross over with anyone. I now see two people I haven\u2019t even met yet so that is bizarre. <\/p>\n

Press:<\/b> Anyone over on this side of the table you\u2019d like to meet? Because I could introduce you\u2026<\/p>\n

Benedict:<\/strong> [Laughs] Hello! Morning!<\/p>\n

Evangeline:<\/strong> Well, we did just meet on this press junket. <\/p>\n

Benedict:<\/strong> Yeah, I met you on the red carpet, yeah. <\/p>\n

Press:<\/b> I just want to add one thing to that which is: if it\u2019s Andy Serkis as Gollum, it\u2019s easier to understand how he would do a motion capture performance for that, but it\u2019s hard to wrap at least my brain around how you do motion capture of this gargantuan creature. How did you even approach that? <\/p>\n

\"Benedict<\/a>
Benedict Cumberbatch photyographed by Paola Kudacki for TIME.<\/figcaption><\/figure>Benedict:<\/strong> Well, it\u2019s obviously more abstract. It\u2019s only going to be a sort of impression of something that\u2019s a serpentine reptile who can breathe fire and fly and because I\u2019m a limited biped mammal – sorry about that – but Peter knew that when I auditioned so we work with my sort of my negatives and try to turn them into positives. <\/p>\n

One of the ways I did it was to try to squeeze my legs together just forgetting the fact that they were legs, trying to feel that as an elongated body, crawling on the floor on my elbows and using my hands as claws and sort of over-articulating my neck and shoulder to the delight of any physio who was unlucky enough to try and heal me afterward and yeah, just throwing myself at it with a kind of kid-like imagination and their brilliant expert guidance and it was a really fun way to work. And Andy came down to start on second unit and I said \u201cGod, I wish you\u2019d been there\u201d because he\u2019s the don, he\u2019s the originator and master of that form \u2013 art form I should say giving its proper title – and we just sort of laughed afterward. Obviously, you know, he\u2019s only done biped mammals, you know, no one\u2019s really tried a serpent before, so I don\u2019t think he would have been much help at all. (Laughs)<\/p>\n

Press:<\/b> Excellent movie. The special effects were incredible of course. For Peter – I\u2019m just curious as to what were the challenges of filming the film with these special effects and for the actors – what was it like working on a special effects movie where not all the effects were there for you to see?<\/p>\n

\"Peter-Jackson4\"<\/a>Peter:<\/strong> Well, I mean the… what I tried to do is anytime we were on a green screen stage with a lot of, you know, just bits of set (and) green screen, I would try to bring in the conceptual art (something) Alan Lee or John Howe, or one of the Weta Workshop guys have done. So that we, you know, at least the guys know what is going to be back on the green screen behind them.
\nNot all the time because sometimes I didn\u2019t even know myself when we were shooting it. Some of those things you figure out later on. I mean look, its ultimately, I mean, other guys (vision) it but it\u2019s like, it\u2019s the power the imagination. It\u2019s just\u2026it\u2019s a suspension of disbelief really. <\/p>\n

You are, just as the audience, we are asking you to believe in a world that elves and dwarves and dragons and orcs exist. When you\u2019re on the stage, you have to also be in that same mind frame. You are in that world, whether it\u2019s green or whatever, if there\u2019s a tennis ball that\u2019s supposed to be Smaug, you\u2019re still, it\u2019s the same thing, really. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Press:<\/b> Evangeline, your character was a warrior. Did you do anything like learn to shoot bows and arrows to train? And then also, what did you think when you saw yourself on screen for the first time with this fiery red hair and pointy ears? <\/p>\n

\"Tauriel\"<\/a>Evangeline:<\/strong> Yeah, I went through five different types of training. I did weapons training, stunt training, movement training, dialect training, and language training. In the weapons training there were two different weapons \u2013 I had double daggers and a bow and arrow. Believe it or not I used to teach archery [laughs] to little kids at \u2013 yeah, Peter didn\u2019t know that either \u2013 at a kid\u2019s camp when I was a teenager, I used to teach archery but I\u2019m not a good marksman [laughs].<\/p>\n

Peter:<\/strong> Don\u2019t say that… just say… just stop at the first part.<\/p>\n

Evangeline:<\/strong> Ok. <\/p>\n

Peter:<\/strong> You just say you taught them and it will be fine. <\/p>\n

Evangeline:<\/strong> Yeah, ok. [laughs] and you know, I think that one the great gifts of CGI and working in the imagination is that you can imagine that you\u2019re much more talented than you really are and if you can imagine it, than it can appear as so with Peter Jackson\u2019s magic CGI brush and then, you know, seeing myself for the first time on screen as an elf, there was \u2014 it was a double-edged sword because I am \u2014 I\u2019m a real Tolkien geek and I had dreamed about being an elf since I was a little girl so there was an incredible amount of a sort of satisfaction and dream realization that when I first got to see myself as an elf.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019m also unfortunately an actor which means that I\u2019m very self-critical and it\u2019s very hard for me to ever give my\u2026anything that I do the stamp of approval without having the (voice) that says all the things I did wrong and what didn\u2019t work but just the ears and the wig and just the actual visual was very, very exciting.<\/p>\n

Peter:<\/strong> I mean, I\u2019ve said this to Evangeline but it\u2019s like I have spent more time in her company with just wearing the wig and the ears and I do look here and find it a bit strange. [Evangeline laughs] Strange, weird hair and (missing word) because honestly, I\u2019m much more used to hearing your voice, looking around and seeing the red wig and the ears. That sort of actually one of the strange things because I never see the actors, you know. They walk on set ready to go, they shoot and they go home at the end of the day and I\u2019m just not used to any of this stuff. I see them as humans, it\u2019s rather disturbing. <\/p>\n

Press:<\/b> Luke, you also spent a lot of time in the movie with a bow and arrow over your shoulder, how many little kids have you taught archery to? <\/p>\n

Luke:<\/strong> Ah, none. Thankfully. <\/p>\n

Evangeline:<\/strong> But he\u2019s much better than me. <\/p>\n

\"lukee_20110616221810\"<\/a>Luke:<\/strong> The long bow… it’s 2 meters 10 [centimeters] in height so it was actually\u2026it was taller than me. It was different to your bow and arrow but mine was very, very big so it was learning how to pull the arrow differently than you would with a normal bow and arrow because it was just such a long\u2026it\u2019s was a long bow but no, never taught any children, thankfully. But there\u2019s still time \u2013 probably not. <\/p>\n

Press:<\/b> Good morning. Mr. Jackson, about making three movies instead of two. Did that allow you to make the second chapter so much action-packed and what character benefited the most from that decision?<\/p>\n

Peter:<\/strong> It\u2019s an interesting question. I don\u2019t think any character really benefited from that decision. It was like we, I mean, we didn\u2019t really change a lot. We made that decision after we had shot… we made the decision to\u2026I mean after we had shot most of the film, I mean it was a decision based on what we had shot and we just thought you know what we\u2019re going to have to…you know, we\u2019re going to have to somehow cut a lot of this stuff out and we can reshape it and then we did some more shooting.<\/p>\n

We did 10 weeks of shooting this year as well \u2013 pickup shooting for the second and third film. Look, what it does is it allows you to let the characters drive the story because in a novel, you know, the writer of the novel is the … you\u2019re often the person who writes the story, who kind of takes you on the journey and Tolkien\u2019s voice is obviously fantastic at doing that. You feel like he\u2019s right beside you telling you a bedtime story, but in the movie, you don\u2019t want me on screen talking about what\u2019s happening, so in a film, you know, the discipline on the film is you have to have the story told through the dialog of the characters, through the actions.<\/p>\n

\"cumberbatch-smaug\"<\/a>Benedict:<\/strong> I do want you on screen telling a story.<\/p>\n

Peter:<\/strong> We\u2019ll just do that privately Benedict back in your hotel room. Don\u2019t worry. I\u2019ll read you a bedtime story. But you know you want your narrative of the film to be told through either the dialog that your characters are saying or the actions that they do. That\u2019s really why we ended up wanting to give it the sort of the depth and the characters and explore some of the character depth that we had done on The Lord of the Rings. I was also acutely aware that, you know, there is going to be ultimately when the cycle of releasing a movie each year is done, you know, you\u2019re going to end up with six films \u2013 the Unexpected Journey being the beginning and The Return of the King being the end and I did want to have a unity \u2013 I didn\u2019t want to make The Hobbit feel anymore simple. We just wanted it to feel like it was the same filmmakers.<\/p>\n

Evangeline:<\/strong> And in the end, Peter, and Fran and Phil brilliantly I hope I can give this away \u2013 brilliantly tied the last Hobbit film to the first Lord of the Rings film through the one character who could do that which is Legolas. <\/p>\n

Peter:<\/strong> Well, I mean, that\u2019s actually, I mean that\u2019s a good point because people always ask about Evangeline\u2019s character Tauriel and why we felt the need to create her. <\/p>\n

You know in The Hobbit novel, they are captured by the elves and they escape in the barrels and it\u2019s a memorable part of the book but you \u2014 actually the elf king is not even named \u2014 he doesn\u2019t have a name and it was only later on that Tolkien decided he should be Thranduil and then he also decided that he had a son when Lord of the Rings was written, you know, 18, 19 years later, he created the character of the son of the king. <\/p>\n

So, you know, you\u2019ve got material there, but you can\u2019t \u2014 I mean you can\u2019t have a scene in a film that\u2019s a memorable scene and not have just one person as the elf. I mean, we wanted like, you know, three elven characters who were all different. I mean, that\u2019s the thing too is to create characters that have conflict with each other and they have different agendas. <\/p>\n

Thranduil, Legolas and Tauriel are all on different flight paths which makes for much more interesting ability for Philippa, Fran, and I to sort of write the narratives through their eyes. So that was it, yeah. Sorry, I rambled. Sorry. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Press:<\/b> For Luke. Playing Bard, you got to use a bit of your native accent and what else about him did you identify with and what was the most fun for you playing him? <\/p>\n

Luke: <\/strong> Well, having my own accent was very special. I love the gift that Peter, Fran and Phil gave to me. For the first time I\u2019ve ever used my own accent in a movie and probably the last. But it was very nice because it freed up my own\u2026who I am, you know, and my heritage and my personality was very much part of Bard. <\/p>\n

It did do something very different to the character. My performance was different because of the fact that I was speaking with my own accent. I was Welsh and part of the other people in Laketown, some of them are Welsh as well and I have an affinity with them because we all have common ancestry and all of that stuff. It all sort of paid off. What was the other part of the question? <\/p>\n

Press:<\/b> [Audio lost]<\/p>\n

Luke:<\/strong> Oh. It was very much so. And it\u2019s difficult to talk about everything because we have another film that\u2019s coming out next year and we all play a very big part in the next film as well and I can\u2019t talk about that but it was a lot of fun. <\/p>\n

As you can see, I\u2019m often either being chased and chasing and being\u2026chums are trying to lock me up or something\u2019s always happening in Bard\u2019s life and he knows Lake-Town like the back of his hand and I actually did know Lake-Town like the back of my hand because Pete used to get me running all over on a daily basis either on the roofs or through the streets. That was very fun. And it was a fantastic set to work on. It was just so expansive and real and you can keep walking and walking and turning corners and you\u2019d never come to the end of it which was brilliant. It was really great. Really, really great. What was the last bit? <\/p>\n

Peter:<\/strong> Oh. There we go. Done. <\/p>\n

Press:<\/b> This question is for Peter. I do want to confirm that this is true: Did all the dwarves make you a sexy calendar and gave it to you as a gift? And if so, what was your reaction to that? <\/p>\n

Peter:<\/strong> Why exactly do you want this information? (Laughs)<\/p>\n

Press:<\/b> Just to put some color in the story. <\/p>\n

Peter:<\/strong> They did… look, they tried to make me a sexy calendar and failed \u2013 quite badly. They thought they were making a sexy calendar.<\/p>\n

Press:<\/b> Dean and Aidan \u2013 anything to add to this? I\u2019m curious? <\/p>\n

\"Aidan<\/a>Aidan:<\/strong> I want to know where the calendar is. Where\u2019s the calendar hanging up? <\/p>\n

Dean:<\/strong> There is only one of them. Only one was made like the ring so I want to know where it is. Peter where is it? <\/p>\n

Press:<\/b> EBay <\/p>\n

Aidan:<\/strong> And it\u2019s very sexy. <\/p>\n

Press:<\/b> I want some more description.<\/p>\n

Aidan:<\/strong> We all posed. I don\u2019t want to give too much away because it is a bit secretive but we did pose as naked dwarves which meant that all of us were in our…<\/p>\n

Dean:<\/strong> We had fat suits on which from a distance look like we\u2019re naked, not actually naked. <\/p>\n

Aidan:<\/strong> What was our pose? I think we did a tango pose and I might have had a rose in my mouth. <\/p>\n

\"01<\/a>Dean:<\/strong> I think Aidan was dipping me. <\/p>\n

Peter:<\/strong> You\u2019re given too much information. <\/p>\n

Aidan:<\/strong> Sorry Peter. Case closed.<\/p>\n

Peter:<\/strong> You\u2019re going off into little fairy land there. Let\u2019s just…<\/p>\n

Aidan:<\/strong> Apologies, sorry ______<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Press:<\/strong> Hi. Evangeline, I read that you are ready to retire. You just had a little baby when this came and sort of changed your life. Can you talk about that? It seems like such a crazy idea and also about the character of Tauriel \u2013 how you see her exactly having this longing for a dwarf and for Peter and for Philippa – this has been sort of controversial creating a character that wasn\u2019t in Tolkien, if you could talk about how you knew you might piss off some fans but you felt the movie was worth it. <\/p>\n

Evangeline:<\/strong> Um, I\u2019m distracted by this, so I have to get it off my chest before I answer your question. Are there any Wolverine fans in the audience (some press raise their hands) lots of them. Anyone who knows, who remembers in the first Wolverine film, Wolverine\u2019s brother? Yeah? Can you stand up and turn around. [Laughs] No, you! You! Yeah in the\u2026yes! Stand up and turn around. Does this guy look [laughs] Wolverine\u2019s brother? I mean not when you smile, you\u2019re too friendly but when __ serious face, he really looks\u2026look! See, that\u2019s it, right there. Right? Sorry, it\u2019s just been distracting me all afternoon. <\/p>\n

Press:<\/strong> So you\u2019re supposed to speak about your alleged retirement.<\/p>\n

Evangeline:<\/strong> Retirement, yeah. What\u2019s so strange about retiring at 30? I think that\u2019s most people\u2019s dream. That\u2019s\u2026that\u2019s\u2026I was. I had retired into what I thought would be a life of quite motherhood and writing and didn\u2019t really plan on taking any more acting gigs. It had been about at least five years since I had taken a meeting or engaged in a new project. I just was sort of off the grid so to speak. <\/p>\n

I was so far off the grid that when Pete, Fran and Phil were trying to find me to get ahold of me about this role, they couldn\u2019t reach me and somebody on their production team just coincidentally used to work with my partner so he got a text message one day saying \u201cPeter Jackson is trying reach Evangeline. Do you think she might be able to pick up the phone please?\u201d So they did eventually get a-hold of me and of course because The Hobbit was my favorite book as a little girl and the Sylvan elves were my favorite characters in the book and it would be a dream come true to play one, I jumped at the opportunity. <\/p>\n

I picked up the phone very quickly. And then they said, your character is not in the book and I took great pause as a great fan of Tolkien. I kind of gulped and went: waaaaa..what? Everyone is going to hate me. And it didn\u2019t take long for them to completely convince me that it was the right thing to do and it was a good idea and that… like we all knew we were going to come into some sort of…<\/p>\n

\"Philippa<\/a>
Philippa Boyens. Photo: KENT BLECHYNDEN\/Fairfax NZ<\/figcaption><\/figure>Philippa:<\/strong> I remember that phone call and I remember that moment where I said, \u2018And the love story.\u2019 You know, there was this moment… it\u2019s not a conventional love story and you were like – right, okay and um with a dwarf. And there was silence. And then I went \u2018Really, but hang on I\u2019m going to send you his photo, its Aidan Turner, so it\u2019s okay!\u2019.<\/p>\n

Evangeline:<\/strong> She did! <\/p>\n

Philippa:<\/strong> I did and then you went: okay. I can (handle) that. <\/p>\n

Evangeline:<\/strong> She did. She goes: \u2018He is soooo handsome.\u2019<\/p>\n

Philippa:<\/strong> Yeah, you\u2019ll wait and see. <\/p>\n

Evangeline:<\/strong> But also at that moment when she said there\u2019s a love story, and you guys might not remember this, Phil might not remember this, but I agreed to the job under one condition, one condition \u2013 and they agreed to the condition and that condition was in place for two years. The condition was: I will not be involved in a love triangle. Right? Because any of you who were fans of Lost, I\u2019ve had it up to here with love triangles and sure enough I come back for re-shoots in 2012 and they go, \u2018We\u2019ve made a few adjustments to the love story.\u2019<\/p>\n

Philippa:<\/strong> Yeah, that was a (missed words) that was genuine. It really wasn\u2019t a triangle. It wasn\u2019t. But what happened was when we saw it playing and just that look \u2013 that first look between Kili and Legolas, you know, that kind of exchange and looks, it was so perfect that we were like \u2014 and it was interesting with Legolas because one of the things that we were trying to do was he hates dwarves in The Fellowship of the Ring. There\u2019s this animosity, there\u2019s this whole kind of \u2014 that had to have come from somewhere. What was it about? And we wanted it to make it a little bit more emotional than just – I don\u2019t like them.<\/p>\n

Evangeline:<\/strong> And that played well. That played well.<\/p>\n

Philippa:<\/strong> And then also I said to her when you did come back and you went oh no God, and then I said hang on \u2013 Orlando bloom, Aidan Turner. You\u2019re caught between the two of them. I\u2019m sorry. What\u2019s the problem? <\/p>\n

Press:<\/b> I love this idea of you having to convince your actors that their plot lines are okay. You know? Is that something you have to do a lot? <\/p>\n

Philippa:<\/strong> With Tauriel and because – Evangeline is not joking. She is a huge Tolkien fan. You were concerned and we understood that but we did explain where some of that came from \u2013 the relationship between Gimli and Galadriel, that was a kind of a very pure but sort of interesting love and also the idea that \u2014 that feminine energy that was lacking because professor Tolkien actually wrote fantastic female characters, he just didn\u2019t write one for The Hobbit and you understood that immediately and you were brave. <\/p>\n

\"tolkien_nu_promo\"<\/a>Evangeline:<\/strong> And I think to his defense, Tolkien was writing in 1937. You know, the world is a different place today and I keep repeatedly telling people that in this day and age to put nine hours of cinema entertainment in the theaters for young girls to go and watch and not have one female character is subliminally telling them you don\u2019t count, you\u2019re not important and you\u2019re not pivotal to story. And I just think that they were very brave and very right in saying we won\u2019t do that to the young female audience who come and watch our film. And not just the young female audience but even a woman of my own age, I think it\u2019s time that we stop making stories that are only about men especially only about heroic men and I love that they made Tauriel a hero. <\/p>\n

Press:<\/b> Sort of a small expansion of that. One of the things that exists in any large fandom is fan fiction and it seems like in some ways Tauriel is the quote unquote fictional character. Is that in some ways a tribute to the fandom?<\/p>\n

Philippa:<\/strong> Women are huge fans of these films. It\u2019s wonderful. You know, right from the Lord of the Rings there was this immediate engagement of women. You know there\u2019s this notion that it\u2019s a genre for boys, you know, dungeons and dragons or something like that but you know I\u2019m living proof that that\u2019s not true. I\u2019ve always loved these stories. I think they spoke to me. The characters of The Hobbit especially speak to me \u2013 Frodo and Bilbo of course – and when you meet these young women, you do the red carpet and everything, things like that, and they talk to you, you understand that that passion for the storytelling that they\u2019ve received that is going to create a new generation of young writers \u2013 young female writers \u2013 and I think we\u2019re starting to see that now coming through. The way that fantasy is being used and one of the things that women, I think especially enjoy or relate to is that professor Tolkien attempted to make these stories real; that they feel real, like a history. They read like a history. This exists and this was true. And Pete is, I think, a genius at sort of making these films feel real even though you have a giant fire breathing dragon, that he\u2019s a real character \u2013 a real being. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Press:<\/b> Richard I want to ask you \u2013 we spoke this morning and you were talking about the barrel sequence down the river which I think is one of the highlights of the film and I had no idea that there actually was some real danger there. Do you feel like, can you tell the crowd here what you all went through and do you feel like it was worth it now that you\u2019ve seen the finished product? <\/p>\n

\"Richard<\/a>
Richard Armitage listens to a question during a press conference before the World Premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in Wellington, New Zealand.<\/figcaption><\/figure>Richard:<\/strong> I think the most dangerous part of filming the barrel sequence was when we were in these little cutoff Flintstone-style barrels which were powered by our feet because we were… it was like ___ and we bumping into each other and… but yeah, it came together in quite a few different places on the Pelorus river which is an extremely fast flowing river with a (missing word, laughs). It\u2019s the end of the sequence and it\u2019s… we were racing each other to get to the water (missing word). <\/p>\n

Peter:<\/strong> And doesn\u2019t Thorin say: We\u2019ve got to get out of these barrels because there isn\u2019t any current, we\u2019ve lost the current? <\/p>\n

Richard:<\/strong> Um… yeah. <\/p>\n

Peter:<\/strong> Yeah, no it was really dangerous though, yeah.<\/p>\n

Richard:<\/strong> I ended up getting dragged under by that very current…<\/p>\n

Peter:<\/strong> He did actually. That is true. You got dragged under after you got out of the barrels.<\/p>\n

Richard:<\/strong> That\u2019s true. But we went into a sound stage where Pete had built a kind of water course powered by two V8 engines which we were there for about two weeks, weren\u2019t we? And it was like being at a theme park for two weeks and they were dumping tons of water on us and trying to get us to go under the water but I think Martin had the most difficult role in that because he wasn\u2019t in a barrel and there was an underwater camera and he would swap out with the stunt guy and it got quite hair-raising but I think it was worth it.<\/p>\n

Peter:<\/strong> We had these big V8 water jet things that we built on a\u2026like a circle\u2026about as big as this room and yet we were worried because we thought how fast can we actually wind the engine up. We could sort of wind it up \u2013 the speed \u2013 and you know we better be careful because, you know, we don\u2019t know quite, it\u2019s going to be unpredictable and its was. We had stunt guys doing it around and around and testing it and everything else but you know these are actors \u2013 they\u2019re a little bit fragile. (Gets a smiling, surprised look from Richard) But you know\u2026but by the end of the first day the guys were just yelling faster, faster! Faster, faster, faster! And we had it on max. We had the thing going maximum pretty quickly. <\/p>\n

\"6a<\/a>Richard:<\/strong> I don\u2019t think Ken Stott was coming and yelling \u2018faster.\u2019<\/p>\n

Evangeline:<\/strong> The reference to those underwater camera shots is very interesting to me because of course I am just an audience member in most of the dwarves\u2019 scene. I haven\u2019t seen what they did. And the fact that there were underwater shots that I didn\u2019t see \u2013 I didn\u2019t see the underwater shots \u2013 is a testament to just how much footage we had and that Peter had to cut, I mean, an incredible amount of work that we did out of these films to squeeze them into three movies. Which would sort of explains why it went from 2 to 3 movies. <\/p>\n

Peter:<\/strong> Just to talk about the barrels actually, there\u2019s \u2014 one of the things that doesn\u2019t really get referenced in the barrels is we also did another shoot on a different river in New Zealand. A river in the north island. And that was a shoot where… that\u2019s a particular river… it\u2019s like a gorge or a canyon \u2013 a rocky canyon that stretches about a mile and right at the head of the canyon is a big dam. And four times a day they open up the sluice gates and they just let this enormous torrent of water out and they let it out for ten minutes and then they close the gates again. And so we got a lot of the really kind of hair-raising barrel stuff in there. <\/p>\n

It would be too dangerous to put a stunt guy down. I mean we didn\u2019t even dare putting anyone in the barrels. We sent the barrels down completely empty and we put the digital dwarves in later but that got some great stuff, the more dramatic footage was this. And it was just great because we could set up the cameras when it was dry in between the dumps and we set up about six cameras right the way down the length of the gorge and then we were there for about three days and every single time, you know four times a day on the dot these things would open for ten minutes and we had a team up the top throwing the barrels in at the top and we had another guys, you didn\u2019t know what the hell was going to happen to them. They just were filmed on the way down and we had a team at the bottom recovering the barrels. We lost three of them, I mean to this day we don\u2019t know where three of barrels have gone. <\/p>\n

Press:<\/b> Benedict I want to know \u2013 so you and Martin Freeman – you\u2019re Sherlock and you\u2019re Watson. You\u2019re now Bilbo and Smaug. What\u2019s your vision on what the third collaboration that you and Martin will do? A buddy cop comedy, a love story? What could you guys do that you haven\u2019t\u2019 done yet? <\/p>\n

\"Martin<\/a>Benedict:<\/strong> Romeo and Juliet. We like our Shakespeare. <\/p>\n

Evangeline:<\/strong> Which one is Romeo and which one is Juliet? <\/p>\n

Benedict:<\/strong> Oh come on! Come on! You know Martin would look very pretty in that blond wig. Yeah, no. The weird thing about it is all that chemistry and then it\u2019s just, it was very peculiar acting by proxy with him. And there\u2019s no joke to come out of that. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s no way I can say what it\u2019s like down on the set (missing word). It\u2019s very, very brilliant and he\u2019s a bit of an inspiration to be around. So that was the biggest con really of what was otherwise a (great experience). I mean hearing all of these stories of the live action, perils and you know the amount of work that all these people at this table put in. I did my job in about 8 days. You know, I feel like I\u2019m the cheater at the table really. So, thank you very much. But you know\u2026yeah, yeah, Martin and I will probably have some kind of an outing in the future or something else. Who know? Who knows? <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"THE<\/a>Press:<\/b> For Peter. Given the fact that you\u2019re working on three films simultaneously, how do you sort of distinguish each film esthetically as you\u2019re making them and then sort of further along those lines, what adjustments or changes do you make, did you make maybe in your approach to assembling this film if at all in response to sort of the reaction from fans to the first film?<\/p>\n

Peter:<\/strong> I mean there wasn\u2019t really any ability to respond too much because we\u2019d shot everything pretty much\u2026I mean apart from, you know, the ten weeks of pickups we did this year was like half of that was the third movie, so it was five weeks of dramatic stuff. You know, these are\u2026I mean this is a story, this is a script or story that was charted at the beginning and it\u2019s um\u2026and we shot it kind of in chronological order-ish to some degree. And so it was\u2026it is actually interesting because you get, you know, I get\u2026I mean by the time we were done with pickups, I was getting in my groove. <\/p>\n

I thought I was, it was, you know, it was interesting. It was interesting to just, to get completely into the narrative in the story because as a filmmaker you\u2019re almost getting swept along with the characters. You think, okay today they\u2019re going (here) and so you actually got the filmmakers on the same journey as the dwarves to some degree over that period of time.<\/p>\n

You know the good thing with a middle film is you don\u2019t have to set things up, you literally do just\u2026you can just drop into the story because we\u2019re, you know, assuming that no one\u2019s going to see this film if they haven\u2019t seen the first one.<\/p>\n

You just get stuck straight into it. Because, again, I mean as I say, the ultimate life unfortunately, I mean, as much as the romance of the cinema and the big screen and the 3-D and everything else, you know the ultimate life of these movies is going to be one of home video, Blu-rays and downloads and hopefully for years to come so that\u2019s where they are going to find their final resting place. So you kind of, you know, you\u2019re telling a continuous story. Its three movies, but its telling one narrative arc and you\u2019re trying to make each film work individually. <\/p>\n

\"10405822716_740f0db2c5_o\"<\/a><Press:<\/b> So the ending leaves audience aghast because we have to wait another year. So was that always the stop or was it a challenge to figure out where you were going to end this film?<\/p>\n

Peter:<\/strong> We did talk about it. There was certainly discussion about it. It was just a chance, like it\u2019s very rare that you get to do films back to back whether its two or three films back to back and to actually, to be able to just end on a cliffhanger and think well, you know, we have shot the, I mean I do know what happens in the film and you will see that in a year\u2019s time. You know, I mean I remember when I was, I would have been what – about 17, 18, 19 years old? I remember the Empire Strikes Back had a big cliffhanger ending and it was like three years before the next one came out. I mean we\u2019re being pretty generous. One year. I\u2019ll tell you what – as a Breaking Bad fan? I was hanging out a long time for that last half season or whatever they call it on Breaking Bad this year. So that was a big gap too.<\/p>\n

Press:<\/b> (Hard to hear question about already working with Martin) you\u2019re working with him and because Sherlock is his buddy \u2013 your buddy and this one is enemies so it\u2019s talking about it is a different dynamic obviously. <\/p>\n

Benedict:<\/strong> Yeah, very, very different. Yeah. Very different. Because one I\u2019m in the room with him and I\u2019m not a psychotic flying napalm machine and you know I can be acerbic and dismissive of him as Dr. Watson. So it\u2019s, yeah, they are friends. They\u2019re in collusion. Yeah, very different. You said it, really. You answered your own question. I don\u2019t really know what to say, sorry. <\/p>\n

Press:<\/b> What is to like about Martin Freeman.<\/p>\n

\"9cf75913-cafc-4bd9-b141-c94b7b4db5a9_hobbit-feet-reax\"<\/a>Benedict:<\/strong> What to like about Martin Freeman? Oh, it\u2019s too early in the day to do this, isn\u2019t it? It\u2019s tricky, it\u2019s tricky. I haven\u2019t got my list for the day ready yet. But um, but he\u2019s very smart, he\u2019s really good company, he\u2019s one of the funniest men I\u2019ve ever met, and he\u2019s a craftsman. He works incredibly hard and creates authentic characters and moments in drama and he\u2019s an inspiration to work opposite and I\u2019ve got nothing but good things to say about Martin.<\/p>\n

Peter:<\/strong> The one thing about Martin that I think is amazing as a director is that he gives you choices. What that means is that every single take he does is different. Is it the same as on Sherlock as well?<\/p>\n

Benedict:<\/strong> It is. <\/p>\n

Peter:<\/strong> He\u2019s just exploring. He\u2019s exploring the whole time. He\u2019s not saying okay I think that one was perfect. I don\u2019t need to go any more than that. He\u2019s actually just, the next take he\u2019s coming up with a different approach to it and sometimes very radically different approach.<\/p>\n

Ten years ago I was at a day on the Lord of the Rings we were shooting with Ian Holm who plays Bilbo obviously as an older man and Ian McKellen came up to me and said are you okay with what he does? And I said why? What do you mean? It\u2019s great. And he said, \u2018Well, he just, every single take is completely different.\u2019<\/p>\n

Ian McKellen is a much more of an actor who has a vision for what the scene needs to be about and he\u2019s moving towards that particular goal and yet Ian Holm was exploring and experimenting and I just said yeah, they\u2019re both great approaches. I mean you\u2019re the stable, steady one, I know where you\u2019re heading and I\u2019m giving you lots of choices and Martin playing the younger Bilbo coincidentally is exactly the same style actor as Ian Holm.<\/p>\n

Press:<\/b> Question for Evangeline. As a huge Tolkien fan have you found that his work has inspired your writing that you\u2019ve been working on and has your experience working on books of your own informed your acting in a significant way, particularly in this role? <\/p>\n

\"Lilly<\/a>Evangeline:<\/strong> I think Tolkien definitely inspires me as a writer \u2014 and inspired me probably towards writing because good story impacts your life. And I think somewhere deep down inside one of the great motivations to write is to have an impact and to say something and then recently I have been doing a lot more studying of writing. <\/p>\n

Much like acting, I\u2019m not trained, I\u2019m not formally trained in writing and writing, I think, is a little bit more of a structured specific craft. So I\u2019ve been doing my homework. I have been studying. And as I study and learn about story structure and learn more about what it takes to develop a story that will have an impact, that will resonate with an audience the more it starts to impact my choices as an actress. And I find myself right now as I look at different roles and potential things for the future. <\/p>\n

Where before I would read a script and instinctively I knew if I wanted to do the job and if that story was resonating and might feel impactful or say something to the world. Now I\u2019m able to sort of make a cerebral choice. My mind, I can actually break it down and say well what\u2019s missing is x, y and zed and if only they had added these six elements then the script would have come to a place where I would be willing to do it. So I think something that I just… we all know by gut instinct since we\u2019ve been telling stories since the beginning of time we all instinctively know what works and what doesn\u2019t, I\u2019m now starting to intellectually understand that.<\/p>\n

The press conference ends and they are clearing the room. TheOneRing.net approaches Benedict Cumberbatch for a final question.<\/b><\/p>\n

TheOneRing.net:<\/b> Benedict we never got any kind of time to talk about your other character you voiced. How did you differentiate between your two evil ______. <\/p>\n

Benedict:<\/b> He\u2019s a disembodied spirit, so it had to be something more ethereal, something less grounded and a physicality something a little bit more\u2026well of the voice anyway, but a bit more headstrong intellect rather than a dragon and not fully formed, not fully physical, sort of otherworldly. So I experimented with the idea of \u2014 you know normally breath it goes over the vocal cords and the vibration makes a sound. <\/p>\n

That goes out into what we know as speech so I thought well, what if you reverse that? So I did stuff where I was, sort of, breath in backwards and tried to do the reverse of that and then other things where we did black speech and then wrote it out phonetically backwards and then let that into the sound and that\u2019s kind of what you hear when you encounter the necromancer speaking in both this and the previous film and yeah and it, again it came out of physical experimentation on the MoCap stage. <\/p>\n

In the first one you can see it\u2019s my outline very, very – they say it\u2019s my outline but I can see it\u2019s my outline – walking and the sort of cutout silhouette in the smoke; the kind of ethereal nothingness, the gas that he\u2019s sort of forming from and it was sort of manifested by being on a pulley, being on a bungee, so sort of walking forward at the same time as being pulled back. Peter gave me great notes about the Necromancer. He said he\u2019s like a black hole. All energy falls into him as opposed to Smaug, he\u2019s obviously very aggressive very confrontational.<\/p>\n

(After this, Evangeline Lilly approached TheOneRing.net in a big crowd, somehow aware that there was a level of frustration about not being able to get in a question. She walked up to our reporter, confirmed what she suspected and offered to help with an answer if she could.)<\/p>\n

TheOneRing.net:<\/b> Pete loves to shoot. Does anybody think there are really more pickups to come?<\/p>\n

Evangeline:<\/strong> [Laughs] Yes! We all said when we left in 2012: Pickups? See ya next year! But now that this film has come out, I\u2019m sort of feeling a little bit more like maybe it won\u2019t happen because I haven\u2019t heard any rumblings but we were all saying that at the end – yeah, see ya next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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