Paul Randall, New Zealand’s tallest policeman, is back on the beat after his stint as an actor and scale double in The Hobbit.
Paul, who is 7’1″ (216cm) tall, was given 18 months off from his job as a policeman to work on The Hobbit, where he doubled for tall characters to make the hobbit characters look small in comparison. He has done similar work in the past for The Lord of the Rings trilogy and was also in another Peter Jackson film King Kong.
Talking to Dominion Post about his film work Paul said,
“It’s bloody great. It’s good for me, I just chill out, do my work.”
But he admitted he did need to adjust from the world of policing to that of acting.
“It’s hard to mix those two up. It’s a real left and right brain kind of thing. It was a massive step out of my comfort zone, especially [coming] from the police where it’s quite closed and defensive.”
And just to show it wasn’t all work and no play here’s Paul with Hobbit actor Kiran Shah and the NZ band Claude Rains singing “You Say”
