craig-parker.net > Stage & Screen > Public Appearances > Istrocon 2003 > Review by Pennie (Sep 12th)
By Pennie
12 September 2003, Friday
After two weeks of feverish organization and nearly two and a half hours of traveling by train, we arrived to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. We had reserved rooms at a hotel in the town, but since the night before we had got a message from Ivan Alaksa, the main coordinator of the convention, that they had some spare room at Súza, we decided to go to ISTROCON first and check it out. At the train station the lady at the Tourist Info was very nice and helpful, she told us how to get to Súza, and even she looked up their telephone number and called them for us, but at the reception they couldn't tell us anything because it was in charge of the organizers of the convention... So we just hopped on the bus and went to try our luck. There was no free room there by that time, but they could offer accommodation at a school, right next to Súza, for a very low price, which we accepted gladly.
Our team: Supersonica, Reinatha, Hajni, Thaurwathiwen, Elanor and myself, all knowing each other from the message boards of Tolkien.hu, the largest Tolkien and Lord Of The Rings related internet site of Hungary and the cradle of the Hungarian Tolkien Society. At the con Monia joined us from Poland, who was there alone because her friends that she traveled together with were not interested in ISTROCON, and we contacted her through Craig-Parker.net (thank you, Bear, and sorry for messing up your Guestbook! :D). The next day we met Ada, who lives in Bratislava. She was our guide and translator - besides that she's a very good friend - for the rest of the convention.
On the first evening we couldn't meet Craig in person (except the lucky Hajni, who was allowed to talk to him for a few minutes in the bar, and Monia, who happened to sit near to Craig during the opening ceremony), but then during Craig's show we could communicate with him a lot besides our questions, which was awesome... but let's keep the chronology.
Since it was late afternoon/early evening when we arrived, we missed the movie Equilibrium (it was shown in the main room before Craig's show), and we were also worried about how would we fit into that room, because many people were watching the film from the doors. But to our biggest surprise when the movie had ended, most of the people were starting to leave the room, while we were pushing in, and found excellent places in the second row, just behind Monia, who was keeping her seat in the first row since she arrived. We got our cameras ready, and after just a few minutes of waiting suddenly Craig ran out to the stage. I was so excited, I can hardly remember the first questions and answers, and - poor Craig - I was constantly shooting with my camera!
Craig was wearing a black suit with a white shirt. He greeted the audience in Slovakian and he receioved a big applause. He also announced, partly for himself, that he must speak slowly because of the translator. She did her best, I think, but it was not really possible to give back Craig's stories, so those who didn't speak any English were missing a lot. He tried to say in Slovakian the sentence "I like Slovakia very much," but he forgot the words. He introduced himself and then asked for the questions.
First question was, what is his favourite restaurant in a particular place of New Zealand (I didn't understand it), and he started to speak about New Zealand, and said Queenstown is the best, that they are skiing now, and then somehow bungee-jumping came up, and he asked who had done that. Then he said to them, pointing at his head: "Stupid, stupid, stupid!!!!" Someone asked if he doesn't like extreme sports, he said "No, I love some extreme sports, but tying a plastic rope on your leg and jumping off the cliff is stupid!" He apparently knows the guy who invented bungee-jumping and said: "He's stupid as well," and then said that "Everyone knows everyone else in NZ, it's like a really small village. Everywhere you go there is someone who knows your mother, so if you do anything wrong, someone will tell your mother and pheww..." (imitating a biiig slap).
Then a guy said something in Slovakian about the extreme sports, and he pretended he understood it and acted like he was answering, and said some Slovakian words, but then he went to the translator. The question was: "Have you ever considered acting in The Lord Of The Rings as an extreme sport?" he said: "I didn't make it! I'm alive!"
Then it was my turn to ask, but just when I started, he noticed that someone in the first row was on the phone. He jumped down from the stage, took the guy's phone and said something into it, but the line went off...
So, my question was that I had heard from somebody that extras had to dye their eyebrows if they played a blonde Elf, but what about him or Orlando Bloom? He said, that it was enough to have the wigs on, which was glued on their heads, and at the end of the day it was just ripped off, so it bled everywhere, but his eyebrows stayed the same, except that they were taped up.
He tried to get the people in the back to participate, but nobody wanted to ask questions from back there, then the guy in the first row (with the phone) lifted his hand. Craig just pulled his cell phone and said: "Call me!" He asked something about the ears, and Craig said that they were made from jelly (he imitated eating it), and said that when they get hot they start melting, so at the big fighting scenes they were drooping. He acted this out as well.
Next question: "How long did you train for that beautiful death?" He said: "We spend the whole life training to death."
"Was it hard to speak Elvish with the Kiwi accent?" He said that was the hardest part, but they had a woman there called Broushine (sp?), who was a translator of the Elvish, and she was there at the shoots and helped the actors out if they forgot their Elvish lines.
"Were the actors speaking Elvish in their free time?" "Yea, yea, sure" and he went to a chair on the stage and pretended he was sitting there, smoking, drinking and saying "Mae govannen." "It's much easier when you get drunk!" Then someone else asked "Did you speak English in your free time?" his answer was "Never!"
Still staying in this topic, someone asked what he knows in Elvish, and he said "mae govannen," and then asked what we knew. Sonica and Rein went into action saying "Namarie" and "mellon nin", then Craig was joking about that "melon" is something they eat for breakfast. And then he started to say something in Dwarfish too, then Rein and Sonica started to recite the Ring Poem in the black speech... Craig asked: "You know the whole thing? How many times you've seen the movie?" Rein's answer: "We stopped counting... after 18 times." "18 times?" "Yes, in the movies, but we have it on DVD too!" Sonica added. His answer was: "Take up bungee jumping! Get out any time!"
He was asked whether he likes shooting with the bow in his free time. He told us a story that when he was 7 he went to an archery club, and he was setting up his things and needed something from the other end of the room, so he went through the shooting area while the others were shooting. But he liked doing it, but during the filming they had to stand still for a long time, waiting for the camera, with the stretched bow. And also make sure your ear is not in that drooped state.
"What's your impression of Nepal?"
"Nepal! The most wonderful place I've ever visited - except
Slovakia!" Then he started to speak about his adventure filming
for the Intrepid Journeys, and as his biggest impression was the
fact that in the third world, despite they are poor, the people
live more content and complain less than us here, and for him
it was a great lesson. He mentioned that there are no flushing
toilets, only holes in the ground. And some have pigs underneath.
"I'll let you think about that. Especially when you eat beacon,"
he added.
"What did you find the best in Nepal - except toilets?"
"Sometimes in Nepal the toilet is the best you find!"
was his quick answer. But the greatest thing for him was to realize
that Playstation and a good car are not the most important things
in life, and he loved the people there.
The next question was about the Elves in Helm's Deep, and how was it explained to him this change in the story from the books. He said that there are no Elves in Helm's Deep in the book (I'm not sure why he said that, probably because the guy who asked the question didn't read the whole book yet), and later said, that it was because Peter Jackson actually wanted to see the Elves die... Like putting into visual the end of the age of the Elves and their loss.
Then the girl in the first row (she was with the guy with the phone) said that she had to leave, and would it be possible to take a picture with Craig before she left? And he was very nice, called her on the stage, they made the photo and he also gave an autograph to her. And she's got a kiss too! And said good night to them in Slovakian.
Then Monia asked, referring to an interview, where he once said he wouldn't like to end up starving under a bridge in London or LA, and was too lazy to go for auditions overseas and stays in New Zealand, could he name other negative character traits he has, and is there any propositions he's got from these cities to go and play in any movies or plays?
Craig first asked her to repeat her question in Slovakian, and Monia said she's not Slovakian but Polish, and the translator had some problems understanding. But then he answered for the bad habits question: "I have none. Like the saints. Like the Pope." You know, the Pope was visiting Slovakia on that week. "I can't think of any right now. I'm pure like a holy child." He forgot the other question, but Monia didn't let him go, so we got to know that the next few months he's spending going to conventions and also traveling around Europe and having fun, then he will play in an American film next year, though he couldn't say anything about it of course.
Then a girl asked him how they chose him to do the "Ringwraith thing", and he did the scream for us, and then started to talk about the early animated films in the preproduction phase of the film, with the voiceovers, like in a radio play, in which he was Frodo (he walked on his knees a little to show us what he would be like as Frodo), and that they tried to find the good voices for the Ringwraiths, and how Fran Walsh found out how to do it (or something like this...) and they used the sound of the metal and many things together for the sound we actually hear in the movies. Then he surprised us with the fact that he was in the film at the river, when the Nazgul want to take Frodo from Arwen, and he said it in a voice I did not expect from him: "Give us the Halfling, She-Elf!" He was asked to say it again, and he bent to that girl (she was sitting in the second row also) and said only for her again!
Then a guy asked, as he said on behalf of the present ladies, how did he feel in the arms of Viggo Mortensen? Craig's answer was: "He never sends me flowers... Never calls, ah..." then someone from the audience said: "Bastard" Craig laughed, and then he said earnestly that Viggo is a magnificent man and actor, and he cannot even find a word to describe him, he's a nice man.
Thaur asked how heavy was the armour. He said that it was made of fiberglass, so it wasn't heavy just a little uncomfortable, but he immediately started to talk about the full body costumes of the Uruk-Hai, and said: "They had the hard job."
Someone asked how many Uruk-Hai Haldir killed, (I couldn't really hear the question) and Craig started to count on his fingers and said: "Shest million!" (6 million in Slovakian - sorry I can't spell Slovakian, so I wrote it kinda phonetically)
A guy asked, how was working with Liv Tyler. He said that whenever she showed up for shooting, all the guys of the crew started to behave better and everyone was excited because of her, but she had a boyfriend. "She's very sweet."
"How did you like eating Elf-bread all the time?"
"I had halushki (typical Slovakian meal) last night. If the
little hobbits would eat halushki at the beginning of the trip,
they would never need to eat again."
Then Rein asked him about the rumour Haldir may be returning in the third movie. We knew he can't say anything about it, and he said that indeed: "Well, if we would say anything about the third movie, someone from up there will shoot us." But this was a good opportunity to show him my t-shirt, with the picture I found on Cara's site (sorry for using it without asking you, but I just couldn't resist making a t-shirt of that picture!), saying The Lord Of The Rings - The Return Of Haldir. Craig loved it! He asked me to stand up and show it to the others!
Then a man asked if Orlando Bloom is jealous because many people consider Craig more Elvish than him? He said, that Orlando is the perfect Elf, and when we said: no, you're better, he said "Oh, shut up" and he blushed... He was so sweet!
A guy asked that after playing an Elf in a long blonde wig, does he mind the jokes about the blonde women? Craig told us a blonde joke, and then said sorry to every blonde girls in the room pointing at them!
The next question was I think about how he liked Slovakia, I could hardly hear it, but Craig told us, that he was here for this weekend only, he arrived the day before and saw only Bratislava, but he's coming back in November to Germany (for Ring*Con) and after it he will travel around in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary (YAY!!! - he asked us if he can stay at our houses, LOL), and then he will travel through Slovakia and try the wine and slibowitza, and Martini (the main sponsor of ISTROCON).
A girl asked why Haldir didn't smile in the movies (or something like this), and Craig said that they laughed and smiled a lot during filming, but in the movie the Elves are sad and they have to say goodbye to the Fellowship when they are leaving with the boats. He said that Haldir was like a guard he saw arriving from Vienna, because of the extra security for the Pope's visiting.
A guy asked how was it for him leading an Elvish army, and also asked him to say in Elvish: Back to the keep. Of course, Craig remembered the words "Nan barad", and said that it was really cool, because he's not a fighting kind of person, but walking with a whole marching army at your back is very cool. "I wish I had that in school!" he added.
Then Ada asked which of the actors had Craig made friends with. He said it was Billy and Dom. He also said that for him Ian McKellen and Christopher Lee were superstars, so he felt very intimidated in their presence. He also told us this story that in the beginning of the shooting they went to have a dinner with Billy and Dom, and one of them had a phone call, it was about somebody joining them for dinner, and when Ian McKellen walked in Craig was shocked. He didn't dare to say anything during the entire dinner, and his two friends, who didn't know who Ian McKellen was, were chatting with him all night, and had the best time. Later Craig told told them, "That was Ian McKellen!" and they said "Oh, was it?"
Then someone asked something about Christopher Lee, and that he read the book many, many times. Craig said that he never worked with him, just met him on the set sometimes. He imitated his voice, and said that yes, Christopher Lee knows everything about the books and you could ask anything about it he knew the answer, He knows it even more then Peter Jackson or Fran.
And the last question was: "Do you like Star Wars"?
Big applause in the room... "Which Star Wars do you mean,
the first good ones...?" HUGE applause and laughing. "Or..."
Then he started to parody Jar-Jar and Amidala's "I love you,
Anakin, I love you!" And then he said he loved the ones he
saw when he was a kid, he adored them "and hoping that the
third one would be better! I'll say nothing more."
Then it was the end, he said goodbye, and then Ivan said important things only in Slovakian. This was one bad thing about the con, that they didn't really think about the foreigners, so we ran after them and managed to speak to Ivan and asked him what was it all about. He told us the next day there would be autograph sessions at 2pm and after Craig's show, and at 4pm would be a tea-time for 8 people with Craig and told us how and where we could sign up for that.
The next program in the main room was The Fellowship Of The Ring and Rein, Sonica and I stayed there to watch it. All the big movies were shown in English with Slovakian subtitles. We enjoyed it for the who-knows-which-time again. Then we went back to the school, checked the video we made, and then went to sleep.
So, our first day on ISTROCON had ended.