A lot has been said about the camaraderie between the actors playing the dwarves in The Hobbit so, when Dark Horizons visited the set last year, they took the opportunity to ask Graham McTavish (Dwalin), Jed Brophy (Nori), Mark Hadlow (Dori) and Richard Armitage (Thorin) about it.
‘Considering what we’ve all been through, which is like some sort of bizarre, dysfunctional scout camp where you’re forced to wear strange outfits for eighteen months, we’ve all got on really, really well, actually,’ said Graham, ‘and have, I would say, got on better and better as the job’s gone on.’
The dwarves spent much of their time teasing each other with insults. One example Graham gives as a favourite is ‘Yeah, I don’t care what the director says, I think you’re great,’ Jed gives another with, ‘Is that the way you’re going to do it? That’s a brave choice.’
All the dwarves except Aidan Turner and Dean O’Gorman wore a lot of prosthetics. Aidan’s only prosthetic was a nose tip and Graham said, ‘”One of the prosthetics artists gave me one of Aidan’s tips. I have it in my pocket of my robe because I like to look at it every now and then just to remind me why I hate him so much.’
Richard Armitage said how close the group had become. ‘We’ve created such a bond with each other because we’ve been together for eighteen months now and we know each other’s best points and worst points. It’s a great group of people and there are no arseholes, if you’ll excuse the expression. So it works. It ticks over really well. I don’t think we’ll get a tattoo. We’re trying to think of something else.”
Mark Hadlow described the experience as ‘cathartic’ saying, ‘I think, the second week that I was here, the earthquake happened in Christchurch where my family was. So I got to experience how these guys have become so much of an important part of what I do. We’ve become extremely close. We’ve become extremely close, we really have. And that also extends to our team.’
You can read more of Dark Horizons great set report here.
