Dean O’Gorman on The Hobbit

Actor Dean O’Gorman, who plays the dwarf Fili in The Hobbit, talks about filming the trilogy and says how he’s looking forward to the premiere of The Desolation of Smaug.

In an interview with Rip It Up Dean is asked about the upcoming The Hobbit film and says, ‘…You do press about the second film and you can’t really talk about the second film! But I suppose that I couldn’t really talk with any accuracy about the second film [due out at Christmas] as I haven’t actually seen it, of course. It looks pretty good, from what I’ve seen, but I’ve only seen it in the very early stages…

‘Bits and pieces are always missing, and that makes the premiere very exciting for us as it’s our first chance to see the film in all its glory and how it was all originally envisioned, and not the way that we saw it, with tennis balls and greenscreens and all of that stuff.’

Dean talked a little about filming The Hobbit saying, ‘I was lucky as, with a few exceptions, I got to work with almost all the actors. I didn’t get to meet Cate Blanchett, but Andy Serkis was actually working [directing] Second Unit, and so I worked with him a lot. And Ian McKellen was in a lot of scenes with us, and James Nesbitt and all the guys who played the dwarves, you know, I saw them all every day… As much as possible it was all shot sequentially [very unusual, and on such a mammoth production too], which is great for an actor… And the way that Peter shot The Hobbit was, like, everyone was in Wellington, everyone stayed in Wellington, and everyone just became part of this big family. There was always something going on. Someone was having a barbecue or something, and so yes, it was a very social two-and-a-half years!’

Asked about being cast he says, ‘I did an audition for Bilbo and I thought that that was it and I just forgot about it… It might have been cynical but I also didn’t want to be disappointed, so yes, I just forgot about it. And then a year later I got this call offering me this role, and I was like, ‘What? But is it a good role? Do I actually get to speak? Or do you just want a dwarf or an orc running around in the background?’ But no it was a really good role. And yet how that happened I don’t know. Maybe I… Hang on, no, I’m not supposed to mention that, sorry!… No, basically, I just had no idea that within a week I’d be in Wellington dressed up as a dwarf and standing next to Ian McKellen and Martin Freeman!’

Dean, who’ll be at Australia’s Supanova  in November, also talked about conventions saying, ‘I like doing these conventions very, very much. It’s all very new for me… I did a few in Australia last year and the fans are all really, really lovely. People see the movie and it affects them in various ways and they all have interesting things to say… I just think that it’s really good to connect with the people who actually see the movie, you know? It reminds you that you really do have an audience, and that people really like the movies. And yeah, the fans are just lovely.’