John Rhys-Davies Town Hall
I attended a presentation, meeting, speech, not sure what you would call it with John Rhys-Davies on Saturday, September 17th. It was called "An Evening With Lord of the Rings' John Rhys-Davies" and the description was:
Join noted British actor John Rhys-Davies for a rollicking evening as he talks about the meaning and the making of The Lord of the Rings and answers audience questions about his long career in films and TV. Davies, who plays "Gimli" and supplies the voice of "Treebeard" in The Lord of the Rings, is also known for his roles in the Indiana Jones movies and in the science-fiction series "Sliders." Host for the evening will be film critic Michael Medved.
That description, sort of covers what the evening was about in a roundabout way, but not totally. The talk covered everything; from JRD's upbringing, his beliefs, the beliefs and feelings of the people in Wales, his parents, his World View, his career, to more specifically Lord of the Rings, the movie, its effect on the world and his experiences with it. It was a potpourri of topics and an interesting night had by all.
But I am getting ahead of myself.
I started the day at Game Day with the Northwesternesse group (Pacific Northwest based Tolkien/LotR fan group). We all went to one of the members house, well not all, about 12 of us ended up being there altogether, and played Lord of the Rings related games for about 5 hours; then we all caravaned over to the event.
More of the group joined us at the event so we had a pretty good showing, as there were about 30 of us all together. Many of us were in costume, including myself *grins*, and a wonderful young man named Casey. Casey has this fabulous costume that Pansey or I may have talked about before when doing reports on Ringcon, a full-on replica of Gimli the dwarf.
It's a fabulous costume and we were all thrilled when he agreed to wear it for the event. I will try and find a picture of him and give the link, because it's fabulous!
Anyhow, we were there about an hour before the event started, as of course, we wanted to get in line and get primo seats. Several of the Northwesternesse members were working the event, though, so we didn't have to worry about seats, as we had a whole section roped off for us.
After we got our seats, I was assisting Casey with his costume, fixing and making sure that his cloak hung right and that his axe hung over his shoulder properly and didn't hit anyone as he went by. Then once we got that taken care of, I escorted him to get something to drink. It was kind of humorous, an Elf escorting a Dwarf and assisting him with his costume. Obviously relations between the races have gotten better!
As we were there so early, Casey received a lot of attention for his costume. He had many many people coming up to take pictures of him or with him. It was actually very funny, as he ended up being almost the preshow to the actual event. We lost count at around 35, but I think it was probably closer to 50 people that took his picture, or wanted one with him.
As I was assisting him, I ended up telling him what way to turn and who was next and even taking pictures a couple of times. All of this led people in the group to start joking that I was Casey's Elf bodyguard, and press secretary. *laughs* See, Queenie! I told you I had experience! (That comment was in reference to Queenie searching for an agent after her world premier) (I can't help it, doing stuff like that is apart of the Stage Management personality and I just start fussing and taking over in a situation like that.) But hey! I don't mind being Gimli's Bodyguard and Press Secretary! I think this might be a great gig for me! (I think I may have found my new path in life!)
Ok there is a point to this report, I promise!
Finally, the event started. We had Gimli sitting right down front so that JRD could see him, though, I wasn't sure it was going to matter, as they turned off the lights and had lights on the stage. For anyone who has ever performed knows, that having the lighting that way makes it extremely difficult to see anything in the audience. (This is usually a good thing for the performers, but we wanted JRD to see Casey.)
Anyhow, the lights went down and some announcer dude came out from Discovery Institute and started yapping about their program
Now, I don't mean to offend anyone, but he was a Yuppie type person (though not that young anymore) and it's obvious, for the most part, that the Institute does programs for rich, stuffy, aristocratic-type people. Why in the world they did this program, I will never know. Not that I am complaining, but it totally didn't fit in with their overall agenda; or I should say, the type of crowd that they got with us, and other LotR freaks in costume, didn't fit in with their "norm". The "institute" people were all sitting in the middle dressed in suits and such and just totally clashed, as did their attitude. But I am so digressing here
Anyhow, the institute dude yabbered on, about what, I have no idea. I don't think anyone else did either. We were just thinking, "Shut up, get off the stage, Bring on Gimli!!!" Eventually, though, he stopped talking and got off the stage and then there was a 5-minute or longer film presentation of clips from Lord of the Rings.
There weren't any new clips in this little presentation and the majority of it was taken from FotR or TTT, though there was one or two clips from RotK - obviously from the trailers. However, there was a brief interview with Dom where he talked about how terrified the stunt people were to go against JRD. That whenever there was a fight coming up he would go up to the stunt people and say, "You come at me, and I will hit you here. And then you, and you, and I will hit you here and here " And so on. And that the stunt people would say, "Well try and miss us, but if you don't, it's ok. We have a lot of padding on." And that he would never miss. JRD ALWAYS hit them. They showed some close ups of the fights (ok, so there was some new video, not new - fight scenes; they were ones we have seen before in the movies, just seen from different angles and was raw footage) showing him actually hitting the stunt guys. There was huge laughter to this little bit of revelation about JRD.
After the 5-minute or so presentation that they gave, JRD came out and the applause was tremendous, and of course, we all gave him a standing ovation. (Save for the Yuppie institute guys).
It took a while before we could be quieted and actually sat down for them to start speaking. The first thing JRD said was, "So that we get this out of the way, I am sorry ladies but I do not have Orlando Bloom's phone number. But know, if I did have it, I would give it out, just for the revenge!" He said this with a twinkle in his eye and laughter on his lips.
The talk started with the host wanting JRD to give a brief overview of himself. But JRD just sort of started talking about well about everything, and then in the middle of it, he stopped, turned to the host and said something to the effect of "Well that's enough of the introduction, and lets get into it." JRD talked a lot about his family and the influence his father and mother had on him both negatively and positively. He spoke about his views on Wales and whether or not he felt it should be separated from England and whether or not others felt the same way. He talked about his worldview and opinions on political matters and current events, as well as what he has observed as the view that the rest of the world has on the U.S. He talked about different religious views and well, a ton of stuff with relation to religion and politics. And he talked about Lord of the Rings, though often times, when asked about Lord of the Rings, it would turn back into one of the previously mentioned topics.
After about 45 minutes or so, it was opened up to questions from the floor. (At that point, the lights did come up on the audience). I don't remember if what he talked about came from the first portion with the host or with the Q&A, so I am just going to mix it all up, as far as what I remember and what I think you might find interesting.
JRD was asked about how he got the role of Gimli and Treebeard. Unfortunately, he never answered the portion about Treebeard as he launched into the Gimli part and went off on a tangent about the movie and then moved on to the next question. A shame, as I really wanted to hear the answer to how he ended up being Treebeard's voice.
As for Gimli - he said when he auditioned, he originally auditioned for the role of Denethor. JRD said had reservations about the movie, and of course about PJ, (especially after seeing his previous films *laughs*), and figured that Denethor was a good role because he wouldn't be committing his life to the movie. He would be in New Zealand for only a couple of months for filming, and if the movie worked out - great, he was apart of it, if not, he could distance himself from the movie. He said he was devastated when he learned he got the role of Gimli. He went to New Zealand with the idea of bowing out of the role. He accepted, apparently, due to pressure from his agent, though I am not sure if that was true or just a joke on his part. Anyhow, he went to New Zealand with every mind to tell PJ that he couldn't commit that much time due to family issues and figured that shortly he would be on a plane back home.
JRD said, "Much to my horror, after spending two weeks visiting every portion of the film set and every department having to do with the film, I realized what a wondrous thing this would be to be apart of. I would spend half a day in the armory, then the next half in the costume department; then the next day at Weta digital, and then the next watching Peter work. I realized how much work, effort, and support was being put into this movie, and the amazing vision that Peter had. I knew that this was going to be one of the greatest works to be created in our time and that I had to be apart of it." (Quoted, but paraphrased) He said that at the end of his two weeks, he was telling everyone that they didn't realize how great a thing they were involved in. Apparently, he was even laughed at in an interview that he gave in New Zealand, when he said that these movies would make history and would be remembered 20 years from now as some of the greatest films ever made.
JRD stood up and said, "You know, when I went back to Wellington for the premier, I tried to track down those reporters, but none of them would admit to laughing at me, *laughs* and printing that I was insane." or whatever it was that they called him. A shame, he said, "I wanted to get some Dwarf revenge!" He was asked if he did anything or hung out much with the other cast while he was in Wellington. He talked about the allergic reaction he had to his prosthetics and makeup that developed after the 6th month of filming and how that affected him.
If you don't know, JRD became extremely allergic to the prosthetics and stuff used to transform him into the wonderful dwarf, Gimli, after they had started filming. Every time he had to be in makeup he would get a reaction and go through an entire face peal; meaning, he would loose an entire layer of skin whenever he was in make up. He would usually be in make-up, I think, for a day or two, and then would have to have a couple of days off to recuperate. And several of the times he was in make-up, he had to be on some sort of medication due to the reaction.
Anyhow, he talked about the peal and how that affected him on the set and off; how he became very self-conscious and wouldn't go out into public much because of how he looked. He talked about how the life of an actor on a film set can lead to lots of drinking when you are not filming, and that to combat that, he would always learn a new hobby every time he went to a new film set. JRD said that he really needed the hobby this time around, as he felt so isolated and alone, and he really focussed on it for this film.
The hobby for this filming experience was boating. He bought boats and learned to sail. Not only did he just buy boats, but he also bought different parts for boats and traipsed all over New Zealand looking for new parts and then had it put together. In the mean time he bought a regular boat so he could sail while his boat was being built. He mentioned that he had his boat taken back to England and then it promptly sank. He then went into Gimli voice, shook his hand and said, "I went back to sue the builder this last time I was in New Zealand, and he is bloody out of business." Lots of laughter. JRD was asked if he wanted to be involved in King Kong or if he had been asked to be involved by PJ. He said that when everyone came back for the last shooting, that they were all auditioning for PJ at various times. Whenever PJ would look their way, various actors could be seen (he stood up and demonstrated) hunched over (his arms were hanging like an ape) running around like this and making low grunting sounds. He said that he of course, was one of them. But that PJ got him when he said, "John, you realize that there would be full prosthetics, hair, the whole thing." JRD stopped, put up his hand, and said. "No, nevermind. I was just kidding!"
He was asked if The Hobbit was going to be filmed or not and if it was, would his Dwarf brilliance be seen in the film. His answer was more about the difficulty of getting the film rights for the Hobbit (just as Andy Serkis had mentioned) and said that of course there would be Dwarf brilliance in the movie, it would just not be his. So, any rumors that he would be playing Gimli's father Gloin is false, not unless he is talked into it.
At one point during the Q&A, Casey/Gimli did get up to ask a question. I think it was purely to be seen in the costume. Anyhow, he asked JRD how hot and uncomfortable the costume was since he had mentioned at one point that it weights over 70 pounds. (Casey said, he couldn't imagine the real costume, because his was hot and uncomfortable and not even close to the real one) JRD actually never answered the question, as he pointed to Casey and said, "It's so good to see some female dwarves out in public!" The entire audience burst out laughing, our group being the loudest, as we all know Casey. Casey raised his arms, punched them in the air, and sort of did a little dance - it was great. I think that the audience reaction was so great and JRD was having so much fun, he forgot there was a question. JRD was asked if he has the same relationship with Orlando as Gimli had with Legolas. He said that due to the way it was filmed, it was difficult for much of a relationship to build with him and any cast member, especially with the self-esteem issues he was having over the allergic reactions. But that being the fact that he was old enough for his children to be Orlando's father that it would be sort of wrong and sorted for the same relationship to develop between Orlando and him, as it had between Legolas and Gimli. He did say that he thinks very highly of Orlando and that if he chooses his way carefully he has a long career ahead of him.
JRD talked about how Orlando was or can be considered the new Leonardo Dicaprio and how wonderful an opportunity it was for him. The danger is that well there was an old Leonardo Dicaprio and before that there was another and another. That it was actually a rather dangerous time for Orlando, but that he had a good start in his career.
He was asked about his relationship with Viggo. I don't really remember the context of this question, but it must have been something political or well, maybe not because JRD has a tendency to wander when he talks, but it ended up political. He said that he highly regards Viggo and thinks that he is a well educated, highly intelligent, wonderful, soft-spoken man and while he may have differing views of Viggo he respects him. That being said, he felt that it was inappropriate for Viggo to have made the comments he had made while he was promoting the film. (That is what JRD said, I don't know which comments in specific of Viggo's he was referring to.)
He also talked about how difficult it was to do the fighting scenes. He said that he went through weeks of training for the fighting scenes and then when they got to the first one, he was told that he would be fighting on his knees. His eyes got really big. He stood up and got on his knees and said, do you know how difficult it is to fight on your knees? He started to show us, and was saying how he would swing and then He fell flat on his face. The entire place roared with laughter.
We had been told that he wasn't going to be doing autographs, but apparently since our group gave him a card in the green room ahead of time, he decided that he would. Go us! The card had a picture of Casey in full Gimli outfit and we all signed it with various notes of appreciation.
It was really nice of him to do the autograph signing, as he ended up being there for probably an hour and a half afterward the event signing autographs, all out of good will and love for his fans. I was unprepared for the signing, as we were told he wasn't going to be doing anything. But luckily, at the game day earlier, I had bought LotR stamps and coins from one of the members who had gone to New Zealand (my bank account is so not happy with me at all!) ; so I did have that. I got him to sign the coins, and JRD was tickled to see the New Zealand coins in Washington. He did say, "This isn't a very good collection at all! No Dwarfs!" I laughed and said that that was horrible and an injustice. Also one of the stamps had Legolas and Gimli on a horse (note, I don't think that scene is in RotK, EE maybe ) so I got him to sign the stamp as well.
At the very end, we got to have a group photograph with him. JRD was very patient and had a great sense of humor about the whole thing, but you could tell that he was really starting to get worn out.
And it is true that if you get a picture taken with him, be ware! He tickles everyone that comes near him. Everyone was subject to the tickling, even Casey the dwarf. It certainly lightens things up!
It was a great night and I can't believe that I had the privilege of seeing Andy Serkis and JRD within two days of each other. My head is still reeling from it all.
That's it I promise!
