craig-parker.net > Articles > Craig Parker Interview by 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."