Touted as an epic fantasy adventure film, The Hobbit is back and how. Peter Jackson’s second installment of a three-part series shot at exotic locales in New Zealand is all set to break records. Made on a whopping Rs 200 million crore budget, the film has potential to draw in audience from even the remotest territories. Canadian actress Evangeline lilly and Martin Freeman talk about their avatars in this second part and what they are looking forward to in the final installment
EVANGElINE lIllY as Tauriel
How did you become involved in The Hobbit: The Desolation of SmaugIJ Had you read the bookIJ
I actually got drawn into the project. I had just delivered my first child when someone called to say that ‘Peter Jackson would like you to play an elf in his upcoming Hobbit film and would you mind getting on a call with his writing team and discussing the possibilityIJ’ I was overcome with happiness because at that point I thought I had retired from acting and was moving into a stage of life with motherhood and attempting a writing career was the way to go. My focus had totally shifted from acting. The Hobbit had been my favourite book as a teenager. Peter Jackson’s realisation of The lord of the Rings films had been my favourite movies ever. I was a huge fan of JRR Tolkien, The lord of the Rings trilogy, all of Tolkien’s works.
I had also heard from others that Peter and his team were incredibly good people so I took the call. They told me they wanted me to play a wood elf. Wood elves were my favourite characters. I couldn’t say no.
You flew to New Zealand with the baby in towIJ
Yes and I was nursing him in between. I had to nurse every three hours, so I would be working, then I would run to my trailer and there would be two wardrobe people ripping layers off me. I would nurse, and then we would put those constumes all back on and I’d run back to the set. It was very difficult.
It was not great timing, but in a way, it was perfect timing because I had mommy brain still and because my focus was so much on my baby, I was relaxed about the whole thing. It was great.
Your character Tauriel is a new character not explicitly described in the book. Did you see that as an opportunity to contribute moreIJ
I was fortunate because my character was brand new so there was all this room for writers to open up the floor for me and ask, ‘what do you envision and how do you see her and what would you want to contribute.’ I have never worked in a situation where writers are so collaborative with an actor.
I was able to infuse a lot of my own thoughts and feelings about Tauriel into the character, which, of course, is a double-edged sword. Because if the world knows that, they’re going to be particularly angry with me if they don’t like her. But I’m very willing and ready to deal with the masses coming with torches to burn me at the stake.
What’s Tauriel like and what did you like about herIJ
She is an empowered woman figure because she is head of the Elven Guard, so she’s in a leadership position. She is a ruthless, precise, talented fighter. She mows down Orcs like they are blades of grass.
But what I like about her is that that is not what makes her a strong woman in my mind, or a strong woman character. When I see films where women go out and kick butt, their aggression looks like a woman trying to mimic a man.
I think that’s counterproductive to women empowerment because I don’t think women should aspire to be like men. I think women should aspire to be the most incredible, powerful version of themselves, which means in my mind, they hold onto their feminine virtues of compassion, grace, love, and beauty, and things that shine out from the inside.
What does Tauriel make of these Dwarves when she encounters themIJ
Well, all of the Wood-elves, the Silvan Elves, hate Dwarves. They have an animosity. There is an old rivalry there. There’s old very bad blood there from the history between Thorin’s people and Thranduil’s people.
What was it like for you to shoot in New ZealandIJ
It was wonderful. I was the only Canadian represented. We have been on American films so everyone drinks coffee and Coke, everyone on this one drank tea.
We had this commonality in our cultural backgrounds that made it a very quick, easy entry into the group. I came in a year after they'd been already filming together for a long time, so I was the new kid on the block. And it would have been very easy for me to feel ostracized or on the outside, but never for a minute did I feel that way.
I think to a certain extent that I had a leg in because they were grateful to have a woman on set who was smiling, and giggling, and doing the things that girls do. So it was wonderful.
MARTIN FREEMAN as Bilbo Baggins
What aspects of Bilbo Baggins have you most enjoyed bringing forth across the three films, and on this one in particularIJ
I think it was after the time where he turned the corner from being fairly mild and meek to finding a bit more of a backbone. I was always after that. I was always saying to Pete ‘Is it nowIJ Surely this is the time where he’s a bit stronger.’ And very often he would say, ‘No. But it is coming.’
Did you actively seek a wry humor when playing the more timorous BilboIJ
Ironically, my instinct now is not to bring humour to it, but either I can’t help it, or the writing dictates it. Also Bilbo is not a straight hero. He is a flawed, funnyish, slightly ridiculous character. He is pompous and he is fairly small-minded. So it’s not like he can be James Bond. And from Bilbo’s point of view, when he thinks he is being really serious, actually the world is going, ‘Prat!’ Because he is puffing himself up in a classically English pompous way. It is funny.
How do you think Bilbo has changed in his journey with the Company of DwarvesIJ
In this film, he has to change; it's life and death. He comes across situations where, in Mirkwood with the Spiders, for instance, he has to do or die and save his friends.
It is not a choice. He has to do it. It is always good to play heroism out of necessity, which is what heroism is, I think, a playable, real thing that we can all relate to-something that you know is true or has a bit of reality to it.
What did you enjoy about finding Bilbo’s inner heroIJ
It’s just great playing the hero. It is a funny, self-fulfilling thing in some ways; people do not always see me as the classic, rugged hero, like Aragorn, for example, because they have never seen me as that before. Or maybe is it because of what I have done before that they don’t see me as that.
What can we look forward to in The Hobbit: The Desolation of SmaugIJ
The Spiders are going to be great. I think it is a lovely bit. From my point of view, that is where Bilbo gets to find something else.
Is it quite a frightening sequence in MirkwoodIJ
I think it is. Spiders are just frightening. I still think that The Incredible Shrinking Man is a great film, especially the part where he is fighting a spider with a needle and thread. It’s a film from the ‘50s, so the effects are very rudimentary by our standards, but it is terrifying.
There is just something about the way a spider moves. If a spider is big enough to dominate a human being with its big fangs, or even a Hobbit, then that is really horrifying.
And then there’s Smaug, of course…
Smaug will be very good, absolutely. Rather like the Gollum and Bilbo stuff in the book, which is lovely-and I think they adapted it brilliantly for the first film, —Smaug and Bilbo is pretty iconic stuff as well.
Mirkwood is excellent, too. We all start to freak out with this drug or this spell that is put over Mirkwood. Then, also, there is Beorn, the skin-changer played by Mikael Persbrandt. There is lot’s of good stuff.
Has playing this role made you very popular with the children of your extended family and friendsIJ
I think so. You are aware of it at school, at picking up time and dropping off time. All the school kids are suddenly looking at you very differently.
What do you regard as the highlights of the time you spent in New Zealand shooting The Hobbit filmsIJ
The camaraderie. That was really good. Meeting people who I really liked, great laughs, a very easy, simple, manageable way of life. Wellington is a pretty small place. It’s easy. I mean, I love london more than anything else, but Wellington doesn’t have the stress about it. The things that were good were meeting good people, making new friends-because it is very rare that you meet that amount of people at the same time on a job. You usually meet a few people, but I met a lot of people that I thought were really groovy people!