Читать книгу An A-Z of JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit - Sarah Oliver - Страница 14

In the past, Mikael Persbrandt has worked as a taxi driver.

Securing the role of Beorn was a dream come true for Mikael as he had loved reading Tolkien’s books when he was a child (he used to visit bookshops in the hope of finding early editions). He must have been very keen to see the script for the first Hobbit movie, but this was kept under wraps until it was almost time for filming to begin. To start with, he was given only five pages of script and he had to sign to say that he had received them. No one wanted the script to get out because it would ruin the surprises Peter Jackson had in store for the fans.

On his first day on set Mikael was surprised how it felt to play Beorn, even though he had spent a long time preparing how he was going to play the character. He had to do a scene which involved him being hoisted high into the air in the studio where King Kong was filmed. It was a tough scene to do, and Mikael felt a bit awkward at first but he was soon made to feel at ease. Peter Jackson is a director who is willing to take on board his actors thoughts on their characters so Mikael was able to share his thoughts.

Before moving to New Zealand in 2011, he trained at the Swedish Nacka Martial Arts Centre, but once he arrived, he had training sessions with the rest of the cast. He trained six days a week and when he wasn’t in the gym, he would be cycling miles at a time on his mountain bike. As well as training his body to be physically ready to play Beorn, he had to have language lessons because his understanding of English was very limited to begin with.