James Nesbitt has been talking about what it was like to be a part of The Hobbit .
In an interview with The Telegraph James says he was asked to read for the part of Bofur, one of the company of dwarves, early on, before there was any script,
“I got a call to read the character of Bofur on tape and it seemed to go quite well, but then I didn’t hear anything,”
He then met Peter Jackson and Philippa Boyens a couple of months later. Time passed and James had,
“…kind of forgotten about it. Then I was offered the part. I didn’t see it as life changing. For me, it was just a fantastic opportunity.”
The length of time spent filming in New Zealand meant the cast became really close. James describes Ian McKellen as, “funny and generous” and Martin Freeman as “a young lead shouldering huge responsibilities, but being witty and collaborative at the same time”.
“The fact is that we really had to become very close to make everything work. Me and the other dwarves – Aidan Turner, Dickie Armitage – I suppose we were trying to achieve a level of brotherhood. In the film we are on a quest and it was kind of the same when we were filming.
“There were times when it was tough,” he goes on. “It could be incredibly gruelling. There were long days, we were moving around a lot. We would spend hours in prosthetics and then film these long battle sequences…”
He was sometimes amazed by the enormity of the production.
“It was incredible being taken from location to location by helicopter. And when you get there, the whole thing is huge. They have created this entirely Tolkien world. We had glass-blowers and mechanics on set all dedicated to this fantasy vision. I have seen quite a lot of the film already and it is incredible.”
On how the film is viewed in New Zealand James says,
“Air New Zealand is running a big advertisement across its planes with a picture of Bilbo Baggins and us nine dwarves with a tag underneath saying ‘Air New Zealand, the airline of Middle-earth’. It’s huge over there already and they are immensely grateful to Peter Jackson. Martin Freeman says that he’s as rich as Croesus and I guess some of that filters down.”
James can be seen in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in cinemas from 14th December 2012.
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