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Interview done by Twenty-Five Percent. Reprinted here with permission, and many, many thanks!
November 2003
Chris Zeller
Interview with Craig Parker
He might hear the Dwarf breathing. But he wouldn't shoot him.
A thoroughly nice guy and a gentle, generous soul - and in case you wish to know more about Craig Parker, read the interview.
PK: One of the most amazing things about Lord of the Rings is that really everybody who was in the movies has a loyal fan base - including extras. Do you remember the first time you realized: "Gee - I got a lot of fans out there!", and what was your reaction?
Craig Parker: It was coming to RingCon last year - Mark Ferguson and I both came over and on the plane we were talking about the same. "Why have they invited us?" I have to say that we felt guilty about it, and we arrived here and discovered there were about two thousand people here who were here to have a really good time, who loved the stories and because of that passion for the books and consequently for the films, because we were involved in it in a minor way, we were embraced into that passion, and it was fantastic! So - being asked, I still find it a little bit strange, but it's lovely to be part of a very passionate and excited community of people, and there is so little passion in the world, so little good passion in the world, it's great to part of it.
But you were really surprised when you saw two thousand people screaming for you...
(laughs) Oh yes! You think: "Oh, if only I was thirteen again! I dreamt about this!" But yes, I was very flattered, but very surprised. I still am, I keep on looking behind me to see if somebody else is standing behind me.
What do you think is the reason that Haldir is so popular?
Being an Elf is a good start - there is a very strong love of Elves, though I'm the shortest of all the Elves, the least Elvie - ah, I don't know. I think it's perhaps the sacrifice, how Haldir was put into Helms Deep which was not in the books, and I think some of that was that Peter wanted to show the passing of the Elves, the passing of their age, also the nobility of them, they were willing to give their lives, sacrifice immortality for an idea, a cause, for honour. I don't know - if you have a good death scene in a film, it can help. Sean Bean has a beautiful scene in movie one...
You really did die beautifully, and if we had been Haldir, we'd have goofed the death scene about twenty times just to sink back in Viggo Mortensen's arms again and again. How about you?
(roaring laughter ensues) A lot of my women friends have said they would have done anything to die in Viggo's arms! One of the original ideas was that Arwen was there, so I was supposed to be dying in her arms, and all the guys I know went: "Oh, cool!" and this didn't happen, so all the women were going: "Oh, cool!" Viggo is a wonderfully, lovely, generous man, it was really nice to do the battle stuff with him, it was always fun to work with him.
I don't really think we did it that many times - you shoot so much stuff when you shoot a scene, anyway, with the camera from different angles. So we did the fight scenes an awful lot of times, but the actual moments of dying we only did a few times. But the one thing was that beautiful shot of the camera over all the bodies lying on the battlement. You did not have to pretend like when you were playing against the blue screen. We were right there on the battlements and there were people lying around. It helped a lot to kind of realize the hopelessness of war and actually get back and die.
Looking back at your work on Lord of the Rings, for you personally, what was the experience which counted the most for you that you took with you?
The opportunity to meet and work with people I have such huge respect for, and meet people I have developed such huge respect for. You know, it was a film full of so many wonderful actors, people working behind the camera were magnificent, WETA Workshop, Richard Taylor, who runs WETA, who did all the special effects, who has put together a team of beautiful, talented people who love what they do and are passionate about it, it was great to work with them, and also to get to see the country I was living in and had seen so little of. Every week, every month you were in some new location, beautiful use of the scenery in our country. There were endless good things about Lord of the Rings.
You have been to Nepal for TV One's "Intrepid Journeys". A friend of mine who has travelled there as well recently said that he never felt "closer to the gods and myself" than in this country. How did you experience this?
I went to Nepal and spent a month there, doing a travel documentary type of thing, and it's a very poor country, a very difficult life for the people in this country, but it's a great example of generosity and human spirit; these people who have very little were the most generous and welcoming people I ever met, and I think we in the West can be very wrought up into having the right car and all that, and if you see people who don't have this, who could not even imagine a life like this, it's very affecting to see that they are generous and kind. I'm rambling a bit, I know, but for me, this was about pushing myself, climbing high mountains under really horrible conditions at times, to test yourself like that, to push yourself, throw yourself out of the comfort. I loved it, it was wonderful, and it is such a beautiful country. The religions there co-exist, it's Buddhists and Hindu and most of them are Christians, there are literally I think over a hundred different religions, and they exist incredibly cooperatively and collaboratively, they could really teach a lesson to the rest of the world.
You travel a lot?
Yes, I love it!
Is there one place you haven't been to yet and really never managed to see?
I've never been to Africa. A friend phoned a few weeks ago and asked if I'd come to a safari and go to South Africa, which I was very keen on, unfortunately something happened this year that prevented travelling. Africa is such a diverse continent, I was very excited by that. But yes, there a lot of places I want to see before, so I have to cram it all in before I die.
You've still got a lot of time then.
Yes - and the planes are very fast. | | |