STACK #126 Apr 2016

2 1 3

4

with LUKE EVANS

scenes. Everything is in miniature – 3D. The city of Lake-town was completely set out on a table-top and he’s able to work out where he’s going to shoot and swoop down. So if you have any questions – technically, creatively, dramatically, narratively, or who you are, if you’ve forgotten – he usually has the answer. So were you nervous on that first day? [Laughs] When you see the scene I’m talking about, you’ll understand why. I think he was testing how far he could push me on that day and he found out. It was like jumping in at the deep end. Obviously, I’d had the training. I’d been there for three weeks, training. But it was an enormous scene – it took about a week to shoot. It’s been a while since I was there, but just the people and the culture and the laid-back attitude to life there. They’re a very positive group of people. I think that’s what I miss the most. For me, it always used to feel a bit like Wales. You’ve got the mountains and sheep everywhere. It’s funny; when you fly that far, though, and you stop in Singapore, and you feel very much like, ‘I’m far away from home.’ Then you get on another plane, for another 12 hours, and everybody talks like they’re from the Valleys [South Wales]. It’s very, very strange. Did you get a tattoo or mark your experience working on these films in any way? I didn’t feel the need to immortalise it with ink to my skin. I have wonderful memories and they’re tattooed in my brain. But I do have some wonderful memories of it. Lots. And I’ve stayed very close to a few people from it, who will hopefully be in my life for a long time – which is an amazing thing. Films are weird. These people are in your life for three months. And if you’re away from home, they’re the only people you know. So, you end up hanging out with them, acting with them, having dinner with them, drinking with them, getting drunk with them – and What do you miss about New Zealand the most?

Did you sense that the Kiwis are immensely proud of these films? Well, you’ve heard of ‘Six degrees of Kevin Bacon?’ This is like ‘Six degrees of The Lord of the Rings ’ Trilogy in New Zealand. Everybody is connected, within two or three people, to those films. It’s affected that many people. The airport looks like a branch of WETA workshop. During

then they disappear. And most of the time, you don’t really keep in touch. You just don’t. That’s life. But this one was different. It’s a long period we were with each other. A lot of us lived on the same street. It was like Coronation Street. Gandalf at the end – in the Rovers Return – and Peter at the other end. It was a whole street and we all lived on it. It was very fun. It made the whole thing feel very community-like. You saw a lot of familiar faces. And Wellington is very small anyway. It’s the quickest trip from my home to the studio I’ve ever had in my life. I came back to London, and I remember starting Fast & Furious. I live in East London, and Shepperton is in the other side of London – it would take an hour-and-a-half. Twenty minutes into the journey I’d be like, ‘This is ridiculous. What the hell’s going on? I need to move closer to the studio.’

the premieres, they cover the whole thing in incredible sculptures. It’s amazing. Very special. What’s the strangest fan experience you’ve had? To do with The Hobbit movies, it’s probably seeing photographs on Twitter and social media of people dressing up as my character. A lot of women dressing up as Bard the Bowman, which is very interesting. But the attention to detail is extraordinary. I went to Glasgow Comic-Con, as well as the one in San Diego, and I met a load of them – I’ve seen quite a few incarnations of my character. Do you get asked to say lines in character? No, I’ve never been asked. They usually are a little bit like ‘Argh.’ from meeting

www.stack.net.au