In this raging river of great new interviews it’s been hard to stop and enjoy the content for more than a moment before moving on to the next. But the interview Richard Armitage did with George Stroumboulopoulos stood out for multiple reasons. With a clip here and there from the film, it will please the spoiler seeker, and it features the typical Armitage insight into his character and Tolkien’s writing, AND it has its moment of genuine hilarity when the host reminds his guest of a few golden moments indelibly etched into our YouTube playlists.
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Mulubinba said:
Thanks DJ for posting. Great interview!! I just keep linking to all the interviews but really need to sit down and absorb what he has to say about the character. We haven’t got the movie here yet (Boxing Day), so it is going to be fantastic to finally see what he has done with Thorin. After writing about Thorin on my blog for so long, it is quite gratifying to listen to RA’s approach to the character and realise that my own guesswork wasn’t too far off.
Hopefully I will be able to find time to sum up everything I’ve read soon. At the moment, I’m spending hours just on the timeline.
D.J. said:
I know what you mean. I keep hoping that these interviews will get repetitive enough to stop listing them (way too many right now) but he always adds something worthy and insightful. Damn him and his highly articulate self.
Having seen the movie I can say I am in no way surprised by the portrayal of Thorin in this film, which is a good thing, since I had very high hopes and they were all met. I can’t say I know how he’ll play it after this one though, or how dark it will get. That will be most interesting to see.
jmurray said:
D.J. ,this was my favorite interview from the veritable storm of them we have been deluged with in the past couple weeks. I’m not sure why, I think it has something to do with the mix of articulate Richard and that unexpected moment of embarrassment he shows in relation to that fanvid. I too was completely satisfied with RA’s developement of the Thorin chatacter so far. One of my favorite scenes involving Thorin’s character portrayal in the book is his reaction to being stuffed in that barrell and his subsequent removal from it in Laketown. I am looking forward, as well to seeing how much of the shadows in Thorin’s character RA can portray and still maintain his nobility. I am one of few who actually maintained great empathy for Thorin even in his darkest moments since first reading the book as a child. I have been an RA admirer since N&S like so many others and the combination of one of my favorite characters with my favorite actor is indeed a high treat. I have great faith that RA will pull this off admirably as portraying complexity in his characters and making us like even the flawed ones seems to be his gift. Thank You for your tireless committment to keeping us up to date on RA, Thorin and the HObbit story. You’ve made those months of waiting for the reveal more bearable, we hope you continue to do so as we await the next installment.
D.J. said:
Seeing as how Thorin’s character really is almost devoid of humor in the film (there’s actually a bit more sarcastic humor in the book), and RA is very serious about answering questions (which I highly respect him for) that bit of embarrassment was a welcome change of pace just to snap us all out of our Hobbit stupor. And as you say, there is a tiny parallel with Thorin’s character who is dignified and assertive most of the time, but who does get stuffed in a sack and a barrel regardless. Gotta take the bad with the good!
From what I’ve read so far, I don’t think they will shy away from darkening Thorin as the story progresses. It is actually lucky for the character that he got a whole film without any competition for the action hero spot from Bard. Bard is a much more selfless hero in the book, while Thorin jeopardizes more people than he saves. I know they’ve made the film version of Thorin save Balin and Bilbo, and help Thrain and Thror, so they are trying hard to make him more selfless before trashing him later. But it is still going to be hard to keep loyalty to Thorin when Bard is running along the burning rooftops of Laketown and killing the dragon single-handedly! But I much prefer seeing that complexity unfold in Thorin, and as you say, there is noone better qualified for that task than RA. *That* is why they chose him.
Thank you for following along on the site.
lepingy said:
I know now to always come back here if i needed some more THe HObbit interviews, specially with Mr Armitage >_< This is by far my favorite, because it RA and because it's interview by one of my fav host, George T… I am not even going to try and spell that. I love the fact that Mr. Armitage answered all his questions genuinely, it's rather obvious how much he took Thorin Character seriously. I am looking for more of him.
thank you so much for sharing.
D.J. said:
It is that striving to be thoughtful in interviews that is so engaging. It’s obvious he is a very intelligent person who really enriches the world of Tolkien fans by being a part of this trilogy. But that comes from being a fan of Tolkien himself.
Thank you for visiting!
lepingy said:
was reading all the comments from above, one thing I do sorta kinda dreaded and not look forward to is the …eeeeek death of you know who T_T
Mr Armitage’s portrayal of Thorin made me fell in love with Thorin’s character in the movie, and to have so much emotions invested in Thorin’s character but to have him, you know what, at the end, i think I am gonna go crazy >_______<
B.A. said:
What a great video, what a lovely man (Mr. Armitage). *sigh*
Lise said:
I enjoyed to see him act at The Hobbit. He has a wonderful voice and seems so nice.
Will be nice to see and hear more….