Richard Armitage is a lucky boy; or so he says. I think those of us who had the chance to hear what he had to say at interviews this week were the lucky ones; there are few interviewees who are as erudite and as interesting as this thoughtful actor. I already posted my ‘one on one’ interview with him, which you can read here; below is the longer, ‘round table’ group interview which took place later that afternoon. Once again, Armitage was charm itself, giving each questioner his undivided attention, and each comment his full consideration. The half hour chat was filled with fascinating insights – revealing more about how he works; what it’s like to act with Sir Ian McKellen; how they came up with the design of the oakenshield; where we might see a glimpse of Guillermo del Toro’s influence in The Hobbit movie; and even when Armitage himself thinks he looks his best!
I’ve indicated the questions your TORn interviewer asked with ‘GD’ – the rest were asked by my colleagues at the session. The interview contains a minor spoiler. Enjoy!
Q. What did you like most about playing Thorin in the film?
RA: I really liked learning to fight in a specific way. I liked using that sword. Because it’s shaped in the way that it is, it has a motion of it’s own, and it’s very hard to control, and once you’ve got it moving it does its own thing; so that was interesting.
Q. What was it like going from a BBC miniseries to one of the biggest movie trilogies ever?
RA: A hell of a lot more money! But not in my paycheque… [laughs] Do you know what? I suppose, the amount of people who work on it, it feels bigger; but Peter makes it feel incredibly intimate. I guess the money that I’m talking about, jokingly, actually just buys you more time – so there was much more time to experiment with the character, which I think is why many actors crave working in film – because you get time to develop your character further. And there is time to push yourself further with the character – and I really felt that Peter allowed me to do that.
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