Interview: Sir Ian Holm (Lord of the Rings)

By Jack on 2001-05-04 07:20:52

Sir Ian Holm (one of my all time favorite actors that no one has ever heard of) who will be playing the Hobbit (Bilbo Baggins) has broken the silence that has surrounded the making of Peter Jackson's "The Lord of The Rings".

Here is a little insight into the mind of Bilbo Baggins and his role in the impending trilogy.

"It's always nice to come back to a book you know and love. Bilbo isn't heavily involved in Lord of The Rings, apart from the wild xxx sex orgy at the end. There are a couple of flashbacks in the film that Peter [Jackson] suddenly realized he wanted. So, it was interesting going from my own age forward into old age with extraordinary prosthetics and backward to when Bilbo was younger. The makeup people made some judicious little tucks under my chin. It's amazing what they can do; I was young again!"

But getting makeup put on is not all fun and games, Holm found himself spending up to seven hours in the makeup chair for scenes as "old Bilbo". "In the third film, when Bilbo is very, very, very old, Peter wanted to use stenciling on my face, which I wasn't all that keen on. So, my makeup artist made me a mask. I tried it on and didn't recognize myself. You completely disappear but for your eyes. I walked on set, and Ian McKellen paused and said, "Ooooh." So, we went with the mask."

Holm also gave some revealing plot information about his part in the up and coming trilogy. He says, "In LOTR, he has settled down from his adventures in The Hobbit, and he's back at Bag End. But there are flashes--as you will see--of his past. The Hobbit brings out hidden depths and complexities in his character, which surface in LOTR. He can go to his birthday party and have a ball. But he becomes obsessed with the Ring: 'My precious.' He's loath to hand it on but knows he has to, and he desperately tries to keep it. Some of his scenes with Gandalf are quite spiky...I think there's no question that good and evil collide and combine in his character. He's like all of us in that sense. His obsession makes him turn into a sort of Gollum at one point, which was again heightened in ADR [additional dialogue replacement, or looping]. Then he retracts and says, 'I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!' And then later, at Rivendell, he breaks down with Frodo and says, 'It's all my fault!'"

You can read the whole interview with Holm by clicking here

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