RichardArmitageCtral
New behind-the-scenes pic of #RichardArmitage in #TheCrucible from @DigitalTheatre email newsletter.
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TIME to VOTE: As of today, RA has 25% for best actor in a play and Yael has 22%, best director:
http://www.broadwayworld.com/westend/vote2014region.cfm
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http://www.richardarmitagenet.com/images/articlescans/IntotheStorm/Episodi-Sept2014.pdf
In addtion to Into the Storm and The Hobbit, Richard Armitage has acted in Captain
America and even in one of the Star Wars films. He is not deliberately looking for effect
movies, though.
- I like to work without visual effects. I like filming where there is a feel of reality. The water
and wind machines in Into the Storm created realism. It fascinated me that the movie dealt
with something as topical but as commonplace as the weather, of which we are constantly
talking about and trying to document. The news on TV about the climate are largely made
up of material that people have filmed with their mobile phones.
He also wanted to distance himself from his previous project.
- I was finishing The Hobbit and looking for the next project. After playing a dwarf I wanted
to have a normal-sized role. After a fantasy, I longed for something more realistic and
closer to today. Warner Bros introduced various movies to me, and this movie was so
different from The Hobbit. That made me decide on this movie, Armitage says.
- I flew to Detroit right away, after finishing with The Hobbit. I had about 12 hours to get
used to being human again.
Putting one's soul into a fantasy creature or into a human demands different kind of
background work.
- In fantasy movies, especially in one like The Hobbit where I play a character that really
doesn't exist, you can only rely on your imagination. Luckily, I was an avid reader as a
child and I have a very vivid imagination. In movies where I play a character in the
contemporary world, like in this movie an American teacher, I look for someone real to use
as a starting point. I was remembering one of my own teachers when I was young and
updating the character to the situation here and now.
One of Armitage's routines is to create a backstory to his characters.
- In the case of Gary Morris, the most important thing was his family history, what had
happened to his family. His wife is dead, which has its effects in the relationships between
the father and the sons. It means it wasn't a heroic backstory. I made him an ordinary man
with a middle-class upbringing. There really isn't anything special about him until the storm
hits his hometown. He takes his responsibilities seriously, which has created distance
between him and his children. When he has to step into the hero's boots, hopefully the
background work makes the action seem believable.
A WET JOB
The storms in the movie were created by computer, but the actors could still experience
the force of tornadoes.
- Every second of filming was wet and windy, it became a real endurance test. But it was
good to do things that way because it really felt like a huge storm was just around the
corner. The filming crew did their utmost to make the takes realistic. They were throwing in
trees from windows and tearing down ceilings above our heads, a crane was dropping
cars in front of me and items around me were yanked up in the air with cables. Steve was
concentrating on real stunts at least as much as on digital effects.
Quale had computer-genarated models of what storms would look like. However, he
wanted the actors to think of the storms as monsters chasing them rather than as realistic tornadoes. At times he intentionally kept the actors a bit in the dark in order for them to be
realistically surprised by a new turn of events when the storm arrived.
While shooting the movie, the actors didn't get the chance to enjoy the impressiveness of
the sound, though.
- We mostly heard the sound of the wind machine, but when the sirens started wailing
there was something in their sound that made your heart beat and set your mood towards
disaster, Armitage says.
For Armitage, the most difficult moment in the shooting wasn't about storms as such.
- Technically and emotionally, the hardest part to shoot was one and the same scene. In
that scene, Gary has to dive in a water pool to save his son. First, I was upside down in a
very narrow space under water. When we tried to revive the boy, we did the scene in real
time. We went over what was done in reviving a person and how long each phase would
take. It felt real and it was a very emotional scene.
SERIOUS BUT FUNNY
Gary Morris is practically the only adult in the movie who behaves correctly.
- I deliberately made him perhaps a little bit boring and serious, and when I was trying to
find out reasons for him to smile, the storm hit. But we did have a lot of fun when we were
shooting, Armitage says.
The actor is obviously not interested in comedy. Even in entertaining movies, such as The
Hobbit and Into the Storm, he is playing the most serious character.
- It's more about what's being offered to me, Armitage defends himself.
I have done a couple of episodes in the famaous British TV series The Vicar of Dibley.
That was fun and new to me. It would be nice to do something more like that.
- Often, when an actor does a role, he is being offered more of the same kind. Although I
haven't done comedy, my friends tell me I'm a really funny guy. But nobody wants to film it!
The Hobbit success hasn't made it any easier.
- You always have to fight for your roles. It's a myth that you could choose your roles after
you've had success. Even the biggest names have to fight for the roles they want. People
are expecting to see something they've seen before, and when I go to auditions, the
directors are surprised to see that I'm almost 6'3'' and not 4'11''. At least at the moment
they are.
However he knows what he would do if he could choose any project.
- Maybe I could try to do some comedy, some romantic comedy perhaps. Something
where I could, in stead of getting wet, stand on a sunny beach in shorts and t-shirt, with a
drink in my hand.
For the time being, Armitage is content with acting. But he has some plans brewing up at
the back of his mind that he would like to produce one day.
- Before that, however, I'll have to make sure that my acting career is going on strong
enough to make it possible to produce other things. Maybe I could include that in my next
Five- or Ten-Year-Plan.
Maybe you could produce your own romantic comedy?
- I'm more likely to be going on slightly gloomier paths, but you never know! Armitage laughs
Becoming Jamie Fraser...
The CW channel's 'Reign' season2 has returned....
Hilarious ep 1 review:
http://www.tv.com/shows/reign-2013/community/post/reign-season-2-episode-1-the-plague-review-141226773934/ Another reign review--EXCERPT:
All in all, Mary 2.0 is a bit of a badass, and the plague gave her so much to work with. In fact, the entire show thrives under the constant threat of horrible death. ..and despite the absence of the wonderful Henry,Reign's evolution feels a lot like Mary's: What started as an innocent show that always had potential has now grown into its own as a sexy, powerful woman. In other words, Henry would now want to have sex with Reign. Have I gone too far?
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