This comes to the conclusion that:
I love memes.
Anyway, I am here going to make a list, in no particular order, of reasons why I went from not having any clue whatsoever who this guy was to considering myself part of said Army.
(1) He's a Tolkien fan. A diehard Tolkien fan. He has admitted in interviews that the first book he remembers really reading was The Hobbit.
(2) The first stage production he was in was an adaptation of The Hobbit.
(3) He's read The Silmarillion. In an interview where the cast was asked to state the most obscure piece of Tolkien trivia they knew, most of the guys spluttered, paused, or admitted they had no idea of what to say. Richard Armitage, on the other hand, started calmly riciting the whole incident of the Nauglafring from The Silmarillion, which incident led to most of the hatred between the Dwarves and the Elves.
Put it this way, this fact alone could have made me a fan. One does not simply read The Silmarillion. It is not a simple book!
(4) Ladies, one of the best ways you can judge a man's character is by how he treats his mother and his sisters. RA took his mother to the London premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. I saw pictures.
(5) Let me just quote this interview:
Q: How did you keep the character in check?
RA: I do it by always staying with the novel. I am one of those readers that read that book as a child, read it as an adult, one of the fans that doesn't want to see this character ruined by some actor who thinks he knows better than Tolkien. I had the book with me through filming, if I ever got lost I was always back at the book, it was the only way I could honor the character.
(6) Another interview:
"I think the craziest thing I used to do is drive my car around Wellington, a Maori chant playing on the radio, and I used to scream very loudly, so I could get a kind of gravelly sound going in my voice. The reason I used to do it in the car was I didn't want to disturb the neighbors. So, yeah, that was part of my preparation."
He has also mentioned that he used lines from Shakespeare plays trying to get Thorin's voice right.
(7) He mixed up Fili and Kili. (Stone giant scene: the situation calls for him to be yelling, "FILI!" And he says, "KILI!") And he admitted it. This is adorable, and completely honest since most people mix them up as well.
(8) Did I mention he has read The Silmarillion?
(9) The poor guy actually seems to be rather embarrassed by how good-looking he is. He's always looking for roles where he can play a character who is not attractive. Word is he's been after Peter Jackson to have Thorin adversely affected in his physical appearance by the dragon sickness in the third movie. We all highly doubt PJ will let this happen.
The poor guy. That fact, coupled with The Silmarillion one (I just can't believe he's read it!), clinches it.
(10) He had a relationship with his horse. He said they had a bit of a "hair thing" going on. I have little gifsets of he and his horse flipping their hair. So cute.
(11) I love people who admit they're not great with technology. In an interview with Martin Freeman, one of his questions went like this: "Have a Twitter account, or I'd rather keep what I had for lunch to myself, thank you?" He responded, "I'd rather keep what I had for lunch to myself, thank you." Also, before the Wellington premiere of TH:AUJ, he sent a message to the fans on TheOneRing.net (or, at least, that is where I read it), which ended with: "Fumblingly sent from my iPad."
Isn't that adorable?
RA is awesome, people. You just can't convince me otherwise.
Why did I just post another picture of him? BECAUSE I CAN. I'm making the most of Google's fixing the error on Blogger before it stops working again.
Oh, and because the picture's cool, too.
In Pace Christi,
Elyse
No comments:
Post a Comment