December 2003, source: SF-Radio
Craig Parker Interview by SF-Radio
Hey Craig, it’s a pleasure meeting you here in Berlin. You were attending the European premiere of “the Return of the King”, even though you’re not part of the official actor’s line-up. How was it?
“The Berlin premiere for the Return of the King was wonderful. Berlin’s a magnificent city and I think everyone was very excited to be having the European premiere in such a wonderful place, but what really amazed me was all the people who turned up around the red carpet. I met people there who had been standing out in the freezing cold since first thing in the morning. That’s true dedication!”
How did you like “the Return of the King”?
“I loved ROTK. I know that the trilogy is really one very big film, but this third part is my favourite. It’s bigger, better and all those other “er” words, and even though there are all those amazing fight sequences, the story is still the most important thing.”
Have you been involved in the third part at all?
“I managed to sneak into the film. I do the voices of a few guys running and screaming in the battles, but the fun stuff was supplying voices for a couple of the orcs, Gothmog and his evil lieutenant. The characters were beautifully played by Laurence Makore and Joel Tobeck, so making up voices for them was great fun… Great fun but hell on the voice. I could hardly speak for a couple of days afterwards. Gothmog is the witch king’s right hand orc. His face is a wonderful homage to the elephant man, and his lieutenant, played by Joel Tobeck, is the nose-less beauty with a head stuck on his helmet. All very charming chaps.”
How did you cope with your transition from the pretty-boy elf to this kinda pizza-face looking orc?
“Ha ha! I’m not sure Haldir’s looking so pretty after taking that great axe in the back… The great thing about just recording a character voice is you don’t have to spend hours getting made up to then stand around in the rain. Just pop into the studio, have a cup of tea and play around making silly sounds. Very civilized.”
Even though your role in the movies is more of a supporting kind, you have a big and strong fanbase following you. Did you ever imagine the hype about your person?
“As the saying goes, “don’t believe the hype”. There are so many people who have such strong attachments to this story and its characters and a little bit of that spills over. I have been amazed by how important these films are to people and how dedicated they are to them.”
You have done a lot of conventions lately, one here in Germany called Ring*Con2003. What is your overall impression, since you attended Ring*Con for the second time now.
“Ring*Con is a great event. Three days of madness and partying. Last years Ring*Con was my first convention. Mark Ferguson and I flew over from New Zealand together and we both had no idea what to expect. To be honest, we were scared. The idea of 2000 plus people dressed as elves and hobbits was rather daunting, and having never experienced anything like it before, we feared we would be meeting a lot of very strange people… This turned out to be true but thankfully, they were strange in a wonderful way. Passionate and funny people having a great time together because of a story they have in common and love.”
Will we see you at Ring*Con2004?
“Who knows. I’ve been invited back and the offer is very tempting as I have made great friends with many of the guys from Ring*Con, but November is still a long way off. Who know what will happen.”
You are currently spending a lot of time in Europe. What are your further plans over here?
“I’m based in London from Christmas. I’m taking some time off to relax, catch up with friends and do a bit of traveling around Europe. There are so many foods left to eat, wines to try and galleries to visit.”
Did you ever look at your fanpages on the internet? There are tons of them, really neat ones.
“No. it’s very flattering to know that they are out there, but i don’t really want to know what’s being said. it’s like eavesdropping on conversations about yourself. You may not like what you hear. It can be a very dangerous thing for actors to start believing the hype.”
Thank you so much.
“My pleasure.”