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stuff.co.nz
5 August 2007
Fans follow Parker to Middle Earth
LOTR has given Craig Parker an international fan base which will follow him wherever he performs.
He's best known here as Guy Warner in Shortland St - but to 20 fans from Brazil and the United States, actor Craig Parker will always be an elf.
So enamoured were they with Parker's role as Haldir, the elf leader in Lord of the Rings, they're travelling half way around the world to watch him every night in a three-week run of his new Auckland show, Pillowman.
Auckland Theatre Company marketing manager Elissa Downey says overseas fans began calling the theatre in November as soon as the cast list for Pillowman, which opens on August 23, went on the website.
"We've not had anything as full-on as this before."
Downey says Parker's die-hard fans have tried for six months to get details of his private life, calling the theatre and pretending to be his friend.
As the inquiries continued, theatre staff decided they might need to revamp their security to ensure he is not accosted.
Parker, who also gained an international profile with roles in Xena -Warrior Princess and Young Hercules recently returned to Shortland St after an 11 year absence.
He laughs at his star status.
"It's very flattering," he says.
Although his part in the trilogy was small, it has taken him to so many international Lord of the Rings conventions, they "blur into random madness".
"The fans are eccentric, passionate and wonderfully odd people who like dressing up and putting on funny ears."
The fan phenomenon is internet driven, but it is a mystery to the 36-year-old actor who says he is a technology Luddite who only emails.
In Pillowman, written by Irishman Martin McDonagh, Parker plays a writer whose stories become gruesome facts of life when people in his town are murdered.
The play has just finished award-winning seasons on Broadway and London's West End, where the Daily Mirror described it as "one you will never forget as long as you live". | | |