Читать книгу An A-Z of JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit - Sarah Oliver - Страница 24

James Nesbitt (aside from Billy Connolly) is arguably the funniest member of The Hobbit cast. He has never done stand-up, but has the cast and crew in stitches with some of the things he says.

James’s family initially found moving to New Zealand a bit traumatic. His daughters Peggy (thirteen) and Mary (ten) didn’t want to leave their friends behind in London and so it was tough on them. James admitted at a Wellington press conference: ‘Kids at a certain age don’t necessarily want to be dragged to the other side of the world, but they’ve certainly been made to feel very welcome; they are loving the schools.’

His daughters soon settled in and were hoping their dad could have a word with Peter Jackson and get them jobs as extras. James confessed this was one of the conditions they made when they agreed to move to New Zealand for a year. His biggest struggle now that he lives so far from home is getting up at the crack of dawn to watch his horse (Riverside Theatre) at the races or to see Manchester United play.

James is married to the actress Sonia Forbes-Adam. The film company hired them a gorgeous house in Wellington to live in while James was filming. They arrived in New Zealand just before the Christchurch earthquake. James talked about what it was like to the Daily Mail, confiding: ‘When we first arrived it was so tranquil and calm that we relaxed immediately, but since the earthquake it has been a strange time. Wellington itself was unaffected, but a number of the crew and cast know people in Christ-church, and the whole country is in a state of shock.

‘It’s such a terrible thing to happen and it’s dominated the news every day, so it can’t help but affect the atmosphere. People are pulling together and there is a real sense of resilience in the face of adversity.’

James enjoyed the dwarf training they had to do for weeks before filming started. He told Digital Spy what was involved: ‘We’re doing lots of horse riding and stunts and stuff. We’re basically playing! It’s a very good way to earn a living; it’s great. They’re working us hard, I have to say but they’re very down to earth. It has such a feeling of being a little company, it just happens to be a little company of thousands of people! But everyone is enjoying it. Every day’s a little treat.’

He refused to say who was the worst pupil, instead choosing to say: ‘Richard Armitage [Thorin] is very good at the old horse riding because of course he did it in Robin Hood, so he’s very good at that. Of course he’s playing our leader, so it’s right that he’s good at that. Aidan Turner (Kili) and Rob Kazinsky (Fili), they’re fit young men. But we’re all shapes and all sizes and we all have our own skills.’

There were 21 trailers used when filming The Hobbit and the cast each had one with their name on it. James decorated his trailer with a big New Zealand flag, coloured garlands, an Irish flag, plus ribbons in the Irish colours of green, white and orange. He had a framed photo of his dog and lots of pictures of home and the seaside in Ireland; he also had a photomontage of his racing horse, Riverside Theatre.