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Actor Aidan Turner, who plays the dwarf Kili, talks to the Irish Examiner about filming The Hobbit, working with Peter Jackson and the pressure of shooting scenes with a large cast and actors like Ian McKellen and Martin Freeman.
Asked about the fleshing out of Kili’s role Aidan says, “Peter shoots hours and hours — seven or so per film, then cuts it down to two and a half. When I saw the last Hobbit movie [2013’s The Desolation of Smaug] and how big my storyline was I thought, ‘… that’s really nice’. I thought they were going to cut me — they didn’t.
“I had no idea my part would be as big as it was and am really proud and super happy. It wraps the films up for me in a really cool way. Did Peter plan it from the start? I have no idea: he was constantly working on the screenplay. You’d get back to your room after a long day and one of Peter’s assistants would knock on the door with a new script for the next morning. If someone had stolen the original script at the start of the shoot it would not have made any difference — there were so many changes along the way.”
Talking of some of the mishaps that happened while fiming Aidan says,“I remember fighting an orc — he was this really nice New Zealander, wearing a green bodysuit [so the CGI details could be added later]. I swung and accidentally struck with the butt of my sword. I thought nothing of it and was delivering a line of dialogue. Then, I noticed red coming from under his mask. I’d broken his nose. Things like that happened all the time: on another occasion, the dwarves were up a tree, flinging pine-cones at the goblins. We had all these stunt guys hanging on wires. We noticed they’d all nodded off. The wires had wrapped around their legs and cut off the main artery that is responsible for circulation.”
On working with Peter Jackson Aidan says, “… when you were talking to him about a scene or your character, you felt you could have asked him anything. He’s extremely affable — a humble individual and not at all a huge personality. The atmosphere on set was extremely calm. That may be hard to believe if you’ve seen the films. But that’s how it was: calm and enjoyable.”
Here is the complete interview ‘Aidan Turner is Hitting the Big Time’ for you to enjoy.
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