Catching Up to Thorin – A Conversation Between KatharineD and Perry -Part 1

KatharineD is a regular guest blogger on me+richard and a daily voice on numerous blogs devoted to Richard Armitage. Lately, she’s also been utilizing her Aussie advantage of always being a day ahead of Perry by alerting  her to breaking news and interesting stuff.

Katharine:    When my article ‘Playing Thorin’ part 1 and part 2 was posted on me+richard recently, it received quite a number of interesting comments, one of which was from Perry. It became clear to me that she came to the Armitage fandom after The Hobbit, and was the only person I knew who had not only missed seeing the movie at the cinema, but hadn’t been around for all the fanfare and hoopla as well.
I thought it would be interesting to hear Perry’s perspective on The Hobbit as a movie, and, even more importantly, Richard Armitage’s portrayal of Thorin.

K: Hi Perry- could you just set the scene and remind me when exactly you became a ‘real’ fan of Richard’s  I think you mentioned previously that Lucas North was your first RA character.

P:  Sure. In March of this year when I came upon MI5 during a British mystery marathon I was engaged in on Netflix, I was completely captivated by Lucas North and the actor seemed familiar to me. I watched the entire series, then all of Robin Hood and finally North and South again. When I saw N &S it finally connected, since I’d been impressed by Richard Armitage when I first saw it.  Needing more RA, I went on-line to  find other works to watch, and in my searches, I came across links to ‘me+richard’. I started lurking. I followed Servetus’s blog roll to find more sites. Being able to share my admiration through the blogging community was what drew me in as a real fan.

K:  As I said in the introduction,you’re the only fan of RA that I’m aware of who didn’t discover him until after The Hobbit had completed its run at the cinema, so I’m interested to know what your experience of Tolkien’s and Peter Jackson’s worlds has been like.

Had you read any of Tolkien’s books?

    

P:  No, and I knew very little about Tolkien before my interest in RA developed. I didn’t watch Lord of The Rings until after I finally saw The Hobbit. A few years ago, I started to watch The Two Towers on commercial TV once and was totally lost and bored. I knew there were such beings as hobbits, probably by osmosis, and I recall now that one year there were  lots of trick-or-treaters dressed as elves and hobbits ringing the doorbell. As it was, even though it was available on Amazon for instant viewing,  I left watching The Hobbit for one of the very last Armitage works to see.

 

K:  Had you seen or been aware of any of Peter Jackson’s earlier films?

P:  Not at all. What I knew about Peter Jackson was that he and his crew swept the Oscars for The Return Of The King. Even that didn’t get me interested enough to find out more. If I’d known Viggo Mortensen and Sean Bean were in it, things might’ve been different, but I was too busy looking at the red carpet fashions to notice the groups of men arriving. 

J.R.R. Tolkien

Sir Peter Jackson

K:  If I’d known you ten years ago, you certainly would’ve heard about Viggo and Sean, but that’s another story!

Were you aware of any of the publicity for The Hobbit before December last year? Would you say you keep track of new movie releases in general? 

P:  I don’t recall noticing the publicity for The Hobbit, although now I wonder how I could possibly have missed it. I read film  reviews in The New York Times and New York Magazine,  but unless there’s something I’m particularly interested in for some reason, I usually just go along with what my friends want to see.  I’m always in a mad dash to see  most Oscar nominees unless the film is something I have absolutely no interest in. Besides Blue Jasmine which I  saw on opening day, the last film I can remember making a special effort to see as soon as it opened was Russell Crowe in Robin Hood.   Now, of course, I subscribe to a bunch of websites that track movies from their inception, because I’m looking for the next great role for Richard Armitage.

K: I wish you well with that particular enterprise! 

So, you said you left The Hobbit alone until you’d seen a lot of RA’s other work – was that because your experience with The Lord Of The Rings put you off, or aren’t you a fan of the fantasy genre in general?  

P: The Lord Of The Rings was such a bummer for me that it put me off The Hobbit. I like some fantasy. I’m a Harry Potter fan; I read and see everything to do with the Arthurian legend; I minored in Mythology as an undergraduate, so I like that sort of fantasy.  I’ve never seen or read any of the Narnia stuff and I dislike The Wizard Of Oz intensely. I think for a children’s book to resonate with me as an adult, it has to be something I discovered when I was a child – there has to be some nostalgia associated with it. I think not reading Tolkien as a young girl is the reason I never became a fan as an adult.

K:  I remember having to read TH as a school text, and didn’t particularly enjoy it, but as for other authors in the fantasy realm, I couldn’t get enough of C. S. Lewis and E. Nesbit. I was so upset when I’d read all their work and there were no more new books to look forward to!

OK, so you reached the point of watching The Hobbit – tell me, did you read anything at all about it before watching? Film reviews, blog articles, plot synopsis, or did you go in completely unspoiled?

P: Some elements filtered through, of course, because I was reading archives from the blogging community.  I tried to keep away from synopses, reviews and other spoilers as much as possible. On the whole, I would have to say that one Saturday morning I just gritted my teeth, said to myself, “how much Robin Hood can you watch?” and I settled in to watch it. So I was pretty much a virgin.

K:  What were your impressions after that very first viewing? I know you’ve seen it more than once, but what did you think of the movie as a whole that time, and RA’s role as Thorin in particular?

 

P:  Richard was wonderful as Thorin. Visually, he was just stunning. Some of the shots of him were breathtaking; his arrival at Bilbo’s, scenes as a young prince, whenever he was silhouetted. I was relieved that Peter Jackson went for majestic, regal and masculine instead of comical. I found the movie boring in many parts and difficult to follow. Some of it moved so fast I couldn’t really figure out everything that was happening, for example the fights with the trolls in their cave. It was one crisis and fight after another.  I couldn’t figure out what was happening with the rock monsters. I thought the attempts at humor were hokey. The scene with Gollum and Bilbo seemed to go on forever.

Source: RichardArmitageNet.Com

On the other hand, I was quite moved by the singing of ‘Misty Mountains’, and I was on the edge of my seat when Thorin was struck by Azog. The scenery was another story – I mean, you could watch the film just for that.

K:  This is where your experience and mine differ greatly – I had the joy of seeing RA as Thorin on the big screen, and on one occasion in 3D/ 48fps, but I wasn’t able to stop and rewind for a second or third look at particular scenes, of course. I think most people would agree there was a great deal of action that only became clear after multiple viewings, so you’re not alone there. I’m glad RA’s Thorin made such an impact on you, even if the rest of the movie let you down somewhat.

P:  Well, the movie didn’t let me down because I had really low expectations. Seeing RA on the big screen though, is going to be thrilling.

K: After that first viewing, did you then feel a need to immerse yourself in the vast amounts of press TH generated? Did you watch every interview, read every press report? I can only imagine how overwhelming that must’ve been when you arrived at that point.

P:  Once I had seen the film I allowed myself to do what I hadn’t done before; I watched interviews that were available on You Tube and read print articles, and that’s when everything changed for me. Ultimately, it was Richard Armitage himself who sold me on it, or made me want to look at The Hobbit in another way. He was so enthusiastic that he actually beamed when he spoke about Thorin, what the character meant to him, and what he tried to imbue his performance with, as he became Thorin Oakenshield. Of course, I was mindful that this was his first starring role in a major film, that it was incredibly important to him.

K:  RA’s passion for the role is tangible, isn’t it? You could never doubt his commitment to Thorin.

I’d imagine at some point you stumbled upon Peter Jackson’s video blogs?

P:   I spent a few hours watching all the production vlogs – twice. I was charmed by them, couldn’t get enough. The vlogs and the interviews also introduced me to the actors who played the other characters – mainly the dwarves, who until then were all a blur to me (I still don’t know all their names or who plays whom, but I’m getting there).

These vlogs had a big impact because once I was ‘behind the scenes’, as it were, watching as the film was coming together, I became more invested in it. Peter Jackson was brilliant in that way, because he made fans part of his project.

I read some reviews as well. Of course I wanted to know what the public and the critics thought of Richard’s performance, and the movie in general.

Just recently, I read as many archived blog posts as I could find written by Armitage bloggers, about how their first viewing of the film on the big screen affected them.

K: I quite agree that the video blogs are charming, they give a unique insight into TH movies, no matter at what point you get to watch them.

Did you watch the video of the Wellington premiere, by any chance? Watching that coverage, you can well imagine the excitement RA fans felt after such a long wait for the movie to be finished.

P: I saw clips of the premiere – I don’t know if it was the entire event, but even they were exciting. The set designs and decorations around the red carpet, the hobbit hole, the plane that flew over – I’d never seen anything like it. Richard’s  interviews, the introduction of the cast.  The excitement was palpable.

K: I think it’s safe to say, that was a red letter day in Armitage World!

Source: Kelly Duck

Continued in Part 2 of Catching Up to Thorin – A Conversation Between KatharineD and Perry. Coming Soon.