105 / 114
www.stack.net.au
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.
What do you miss about New Zealand the
most?
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
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.’
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
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
2 1
3
4