{"id":92966,"date":"2014-10-10T09:00:41","date_gmt":"2014-10-10T14:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/?p=92966"},"modified":"2014-10-08T09:22:38","modified_gmt":"2014-10-08T14:22:38","slug":"exclusive-jed-brophy-talks-to-torn-part-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/2014\/10\/10\/92966-exclusive-jed-brophy-talks-to-torn-part-three\/","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE – Jed Brophy talks to TORn: Part Three"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JedAsNori\"<\/a>At the start of the summer, TORn staffer greendragon had the chance to continue her series ‘Inside the Middle-earth actor’s studio’ –\u00a0discussing the craft of acting (and other things!) with cast members from\u00a0The\u00a0Hobbit<\/em> and\u00a0The Lord of the Rings<\/em> movies. This time she sat down with an actor who has been involved since the beginning of Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth films – the fabulous Jed Brophy. To celebrate the release of TORn’s new book Middle-earth Madness<\/em><\/a>, which features this and other interviews, here’s your chance to read what Brophy had to say.<\/p>\n

This is the third and final part of a long interview; you can find Part One here<\/a>\u00a0and Part Two here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

greendragon: The film you talked about \u2013 The Dead Room<\/em> \u2013 when does that come out? Does it have a release date?<\/strong><\/p>\n

JB: It depends on the distribution deal that the director can get. The hardest thing about making films in New Zealand isn\u2019t the making them; it\u2019s finding someone to sell them overseas. [Director Jason Stutter] is a film maker whose last film had quite a big budget, and had a good cast, with Jemaine Clements playing one of the leads in it, but they struggled to find a distributor who liked that particular genre. The reason he\u2019s making the horror film is because it\u2019s a very popular genre and he likes it, so\u2026 I mean, I\u2019m hoping it will come out before the end of the year, but that stuff\u2019s out of my hands.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another film I did called The Ballad of Maddog Quinn<\/em> \u2013 with Little Dragon Pictures<\/a>. We shot the last twenty minutes of a feature film, as a trailer to raise the money to shoot the rest of the feature over the summer. It\u2019s become the new phenomenon in film making \u2013 crowd funding. It gives you a lot more autonomy to make the film that you want to make. As soon as you sign up with a studio, there\u2019s a compromise that you have to make, in terms of making a film that they like, as well as a film that still has a semblance of the film that you started out making! It doesn\u2019t really matter where you are in the world, or who you are; you know, Spielberg still complains about the fact that he struggles to find autonomy as a film maker! You would think, given the success that he\u2019s had in his career, that studios would just leave him alone; but that\u2019s simply not the case. But when you come up with the money for a film, I guess there\u2019s a feeling of having ownership and putting your stamp on it \u2013 and marketing it to fit into the kind of films that you want to make. You can do it by crowd funding; or you can do it with a low budget, like Taika Waititi\u2019s just done with What We Do in the Shadows<\/em> <\/a>\u2013 the vampire film that he\u2019s made with Jemaine. You get it closer to the idea that you came up with; whether it\u2019s a good idea or a bad idea, it\u2019s still the idea that you wanted to film! The Dead Room<\/em> and Maddog Quinn<\/em> are on that model of being what we would call micro budgets: everyone got paid a limited amount; we all have points in the film, if it sells; but I think we all knew that we were making something that we could be proud of, regardless. Hopefully people will get to see it!<\/p>\n

GD: We hope so! My final question for you today is, do you enjoy the fan base associated with The Hobbit<\/em> and The Lord of the Rings<\/em> films? It is an extraordinary fan base, and can sometimes be a slightly obsessive and possessive fan base – which I would imagine can be a bit overwhelming?<\/strong><\/p>\n

JB: I do generally enjoy it! I have had to be a little stern with some people! I think the thing that I don\u2019t enjoy about some of the people in the fan base is when there is an elite snobbery about what you should know about Tolkien. I know quite a lot about him; and having been friends with Royd [Tolkien, The Professor\u2019s great-grandson] I know stuff that most other people probably wouldn\u2019t. But I believe that your fandom should be whatever you want to make it; as long as you\u2019re passionate about what the stories are, it doesn\u2019t really matter how many of the books you\u2019ve read! I mean, I\u2019m obsessive like that myself, but I don\u2019t feel an ownership over characters from other films; and it\u2019s been the weirdest thing \u2013 it\u2019s only really been in the last year that I\u2019ve had to say to a couple of people, \u201cHey, you know what? It is just a film! It\u2019s a film that we all love and it\u2019s based on books that we all love, but it is just Peter\u2019s vision of that! I don\u2019t think he was setting out to destroy Tolkien\u2019s name by changing that particular part of the film!\u201d It\u2019s interesting \u2013 Royd truly believes that his great-grandfather would be chuffed, that there are so many people who are now enjoying his work because of the films. They\u2019ve gone back and read the books, and gone, \u2018Wow I really like the book as well!\u2019 I think it\u2019s a positive thing.<\/p>\n

\""The<\/a>But there\u2019s no fan base like the Tolkien fan base! Star Trek\u2019s got a huge fan base; Star Wars has a huge fan base; but the Tolkien fan base is something that\u2019s based on an amazing piece of literature first and foremost, which has been turned into a whole lot of other things. That fan base for the literature was there for a long, long time before the films were made; and I don\u2019t think that you can say the same for those other two franchises. Star Trek and Star Wars came out of films and out of television; but something which comes out of literature has a depth to it. There are a lot of artists, a lot of writers and a lot of other people in industries\u2026 opera, for example; there are a lot of things that it translates to, and that we can see in our own lives \u2013 and that are reinvigorated in that passion by watching the films. That\u2019s what makes it unique.<\/p>\n

I feel privileged to be part of these films. I didn\u2019t ever imagine it would happen; it\u2019s not something you\u2019d ever think would be on your CV! Certainly I\u2019ve got to do a lot of travel because of it, and I\u2019m very thankful for that. I got to have a great trip with my son this year which I don\u2019t think I would have done, otherwise. From that point of view, it\u2019s been an amazing journey.<\/p>\n

GD: So although some fans may get a little carried away about things they dislike in the films, or whatever their own particular slant is, do you find generally that they are respectful of your space as a human being?<\/strong><\/p>\n

JB: They are. I mean, there\u2019s always the exception that proves the rule! There\u2019s always the one person to whom you have to say, \u201cYou need to go away now\u2026\u201d [laughs] There\u2019s always one; you say, \u201cLook, I\u2019ve given you three hours of my time; I really need to go!\u201d There\u2019s always going to be that; I\u2019ve had that with theatre! I was doing a theatre show, and there was a woman who came to all eight major territories that we did here in New Zealand, and followed us overseas. She was passionate about the play, she was passionate about the characters in it. That\u2019s great; but I did actually have to say to her, \u201cDo you not have a job? You seem to be here every night! What do you do to support your habit\u2026?\u201d [laughs] I guess you could say the one thing that some of the fans, especially of Middle-earth, do have is \u2013 they spend a LOT of money travelling to see their favourite people! And I do worry that at the end of it, they may be financially crippled\u2026 I do worry for some of them.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard too, because the people who run the conventions have certain rules; they don\u2019t want you to have lots of photos with people outside of the photo opportunities. But I\u2019m always happy to do a sneaky one for people! I think it costs very little to make someone\u2019s day; and I don\u2019t mean that in a cheesy way, that we should go around thinking, \u2018Wow, we\u2019re doing this great thing because we\u2019re helping people!\u2019 But there is a certain percentage of people who have found that the Tolkien literature, and films particularly, have helped siblings, and children, and people that they know with learning disabilities and all sorts of things\u2026 That, to me, I think, is one of the best things about the fandom; there are genuinely people out there for whom it\u2019s been a life saver. They\u2019ve found a community that they belong to.<\/p>\n

As a performer, you don\u2019t often get to touch people in a way that has an emotional reality to it. There\u2019s a play I did years ago called Skin Tight<\/em>, which is a love story, which we toured for ten years; and someone said to me, \u201cWhy are you still doing that play?\u201d And I said, \u201cBecause every single night, there are people in the audience who are touched in a way that they want to go and find this level of love for themselves\u2026\u201d We do a lot that\u2019s just pure fluff; we do a lot that\u2019s pure entertainment. There are a lot of CGI films out there where I couldn\u2019t tell you what they\u2019re even about \u2013 they just were a lot of explosions and people running around screaming, and a lot of flesh! But what do they actually do for people\u2019s psyches? What do they actually do for them in a holistic way? Not an awful lot!<\/p>\n

\"Nori\"<\/a>These [Middle-earth] films, for whatever reason, and these books, and the art attached to them, and the weaving, the artistry, attached to it, all of those things, have a real depth and integrity which comes from the man himself \u2013 from Tolkien. I think it all starts there. If he were a lesser person, and a lesser writer, we wouldn\u2019t be having this discussion today. I think he was a very generous person, in terms of allowing this part of his psyche to be transferred into a book, and to be made so popular; and it was great that Peter Jackson was allowed to make them into films; not just for the people who were lovers of the book, but for New Zealand as whole! People look at our country now as more than just a bunch of rugby players or sheep! There\u2019s a wealth of artistry here that\u2019s sprung up around WETA and the support people for those films that has been a major positive for our country, and for the people involved.<\/p>\n

And we meet artists overseas; I am in awe of some of the stuff that people bring up for me to sign, that they\u2019ve done themselves! I\u2019m like, \u201cWhy are you not doing this for a living?!\u201d And often Richard [Taylor] and other people who are involved, and websites and support things around that, give people a way of channeling their talent into something which makes them feel positive about themselves. I think it\u2019s an amazing thing. I think there\u2019s a generosity of spirit which comes with these projects; and which the fans bring, as well. And I think TheOneRing.net does a lot of good in terms of creating that community spirit!<\/p>\n

GD: I hope we do; we work hard at trying to! It\u2019s been great chatting with you, Jed; many thanks for giving so much of your time!<\/strong><\/p>\n

JB: You\u2019re welcome. As Ian McKellen said to all of us, \u201cWe\u2019re a part of history!\u201d It\u2019s an amazing thing. Long may it continue!<\/p>\n

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