** "Offbeat hilarious!" ** "RA tingles & laughs" ** "True to the characters! " ** "The fiction is great. Keep it up!" **

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Not Quite An Interview With A Dwarfleader

A smiling Dwarfleader promoting Captain America after filming block 1 of The Hobbit.

The Framework Blog caught up with Mr. A on an imaginary level in cyberspace to hook up answers for those much plagued questions RA followers' minds are mucked with.

We don't hear a lot from you these days. Maybe it's for the best. Do your research on the Net, Miss.. what's it, again? Violet. Okay, it's my alter ego, and we're in cyberspace so...

How's your beard hanging? "I grew my own beard after the first block because I felt that it was restricting my face. The jaw is so connected to emotion that I wanted to have that free. It made such a huge difference." Why don't you quote me some more? MTV.com, Jan 11, 2012

Are you not too young and too handsome to be a Dwarfleader? Should the cast of The Hobbit Movie include handsome actors? To have them covered in fat suits, prosthetics and heavy beards? Is the cast diverse enough? Is Thorin not too young? Are women Hobbit fans? I'm finding these questions so funny. The extents of these talks... reminds me to focus on my acting.  TheOneRingNet, Dec 8, 2010


The Hobbit set in Nelson, December 2011 (source protected)

How is your typical day on the set? I can't reveal details yet. However, I'm proud to say, my short appearance as Thorin in The Hobbit Teaser is already perceived as 'Aragorn's stand-in', see podcast. Back in the days of LOTR, my predecessor if you like, Viggo Mortensen ran errands, and he got the role because another actor was fired after just one day on the set. Sofar so good for me. A day in the life of the LOTR, ABC News, Dec 4, 2004

Has Peter Jackson seen your showreel? Not during the casting process, but on set he might surprise actors by mentioning he has seen your previous work, of which he doesn't say it was your worst, to put you in place, but he doesn't exactly say it was your best, either. He is also known to have a lot of books, mostly about The Hobbit and LOTR. My stash of books at my bedsite looks meagre in comparison. There And Back Again, excerpt Sean Austin, ABC News, Oct 14, 2004

How is Peter Jackson really treating you? Holy crap, this man eats you alive! Brain Dead, 1992



Top photo Mike Warsland/WireImage, Jul 20, 2011, adjusted by TheFrameworkBlog

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Another Profile The Women Adore


HOLLYWOOD - If you are a man and had the chance to visit Miramar’s Stone Street Studios when "The Hobbit" was being produced you would no doubt have been much more interested in how the picture was being shot, than in the personality of the star.

On the other hand, if you are a woman or a girl, it would be Richard Armitage you would be most interested in seeing.

I must confess that this clash of interest as displayed by the opposite sexes is not from personal observation.

That is what the guides at the studio told me - and they ought to know.

In fact, he so impressed the ladies by his gallantry of manner and courtly charm - two attributes by the way which were his great assets - that they began to pester the officials unmercifully.

Hence a ban on visitors for the rest of the production period.

None of this adulation, however, affected Richard Armitage. He carried on as usual, debonair, charming, always letter-perfect and in his usual high spirits.

However, the women who did manage to meet Richard Armitage in the early stages of the production were clearly pleased by his attention and all of them came away with the impression that he was their favorite actor.

In fact, he flattered them more than they did him.

In this picture he had keen competition - Orlando Bloom, Elijah Wood, Aidan Turner and Benedict Cumberbatch are in the cast - and he worked exceptionally hard to give of his best.

For several days he was trussed to a pony. Nothing about him could move except for his eyes.

Peter Jackson, who directed and produced the film, was finally moved to remark, "Looks as though we've got him where he'll behave at last."

To which the cameraman remarked, "That's what you think. Richard can do more with his eyes than most people, and if you look through the camera you'll see he's pinching the scene."

Film fans have alot of knowledge about starts. Most of his American visitors knew he was born in England and that he joined the circus in his determination become an actor.

Many of the visitors to "The Hobbit" asked when he expected to sing in a picture. He merely said he had no plans for singing on the screen, although he is to portray the life story of Thorin Oakenshield, leader of a group of singing Dwarves, in his upcoming picture.

It was his singing ability, however, which got him back into a singing role, having performed in musical theatre in England.

For several years he appeared on English television in several tv series, Robin Hood, Spooks and Strike Back.

Literally "tall, dark and handsome" Armitage seems to have all it takes to make an idol on the screen. Women talk about him and when they talk to him he has the ability to make every one of them think he has eyes and ears for her alone.

Yet their menfolk don't object for they recognize in his easy-going manner, friendly attitude and ready wit that he is also a "man's man."

**this is a fake article**
A scan of the original article published in Picturegoer, February 17, 1945, can be found on http://www.carygrant.net/articles/profile.htm
The rights of above picture of Richard Armitage are with Recognize Magazine/Daniel Higgins,
in classic Hollywood look photoshopped and cropped by The Framework Blog 

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

So Why ´re You Here?

She: "I don´t need you." His reply: "So why ´re you here?" (Spooks ep. 9.2)

Because I'm not writing the scripts? I should have mentioned this above scene in Spooks in comparison with the scene in Moving On when I was reviewing Spooks series 9.

She: "I wanted to see if I still feel anything."  His reply: "And, do you?" Silence... (Moving On)

AND NO-ONE MENTIONS THIS SCENE COMPARISON ON THEIR BLOGS???
(Sorry, this post is full of tree branch jumping,
caused by lack of oxygen in my brain, due to breathless moments)

Writing is not always easy. Especially for paid writers who have a tv series to write within months and seek approval for it... So when these writers do character/story research based on the actor's previous works - in this case I can conclude this, because watching RA's diverse back catalogue was *gasps* - I don't mind.
This scene I selected here in Spooks feels like this scene in Moving On, but it was put in a different place in the storyline, which made all the difference. In Moving On it was at or just after the Second Act Climax, in Spooks more at the beginning, then he calls her, she comes at his house, she has an affair with him, it goes wrong...
If you have something to add on story writing, I´m studying this now.

The reason for above question was a request to join the Fanstrafaganza 3.
It made me think: why do I blog?
Also it was a rhetorical question for myself. These days the awareness to be still alive really kicked in.
I joined in a national joking experience of a viral infection which caused three months of sudden throat clamming moments, which made me see four doctors, but I didn´t see one in a heli.
(Most people around me had this infection too, but their effects lasted only 10 days).

No Golden Hour for me, every time felt like a matter of minutes... so no ambulance, either..
Besides I couldn´t speak, so how was I able to call an ambulance?

Are you ready for a breathless moment? Captain America movie had Mr. A's underwater escape.
Quite.
It was no underwater escape for me.
On another level I am in too deep.
Read that Mr. A prepared himself by taking swimming lessons - 50 strokes
 (vivid detail, keep those coming)
and after one take didn't like to do more,
because he ran out of breath and survival panic kicked in. I sooo know how he must feel.
*takes deep breath*

This scene of Spooks ep. 9.5. got me breathless in not a very nice way.
Can't even show RA's played struggle for life here, being stran*gled with a belt and tied to the trench.
I thought: "No, not the ending of Lucas!" Second time I had to laugh, because the struggle made me uncomfortable. Karma, I had it coming.... so bad...
Love that RA gave his extra 10% input here.  

So why I am here?
When I started this blog I wanted to write about acting and use illustrations of RA.
Breathless moment: doing ´smart´ (Spooks ep. 9.2)

Somebody back then suggested I could write for the Dutch version of this pink financial paper.
(OT: I recently heard "newspapers bring fairytales", used by Moriarty in BBC Sherlock ep. 2.3)

Maybe I am about to write for actors, currently joining a script writing contest, which provokes my quest to finish this historical thriller in my drawer,
thanks to being inspired by following Mr. A in a broader sense.
Not that I was inspired to start writing it, I already had,
but to be thinking about the people/energies/dynamics I would like to have in this story.
(Currently I think it´s BBC3 material).
But I should up my goal (no offence) and give it my extra 10%,
because there have been others (RA minders) with similar quests.
So believe or not I then had this dream where I sat on a black velvet Chesterfield bench at a swank club, waiting, when Mr. Depp (looking like he´s now) came to sit next to me.
He had a book in his hands which looks like the book I´m reading now on story writing.
He said: "Is the story like the story of such and such?"
Me: "No, it´s more like this happened then that."
"Is it any good, ´cause I´m gonna act in this movie."
Me: "Yeah, I wrote it."
"Oh, right, will you sign it for me then."
"Yeah sure, it will be an honor, OMG."
Don´t ever think Mr. D prepares his movies like this, it seems sooo unlogical.
Why Mr. D? Someone said to me to like to see Mr. D in Tha Hobb It.
Then I had to think of the movie (can´t recall the title) in which several people say:
"OMG, have you been talking to Jim Morrison too in your dream?"
So yeah, my creative input is weird enough, now how to put it to paper.
(Sometimes I dream whole movies, just awake remember only scenes, then impressions).

I was saying I was here again, why?
It started with stubble.... erm, Mr. Giz... on YT... *faints*


Now there is The Beard. *sighs*
I like this in combination with the rough sweater.

But it´s for a good cause, it´s for the movies of The Hobbit, a story for children of all ages. *breathes*
It currently leads to finding pics of Hobbit fans like these... taken in December 2011, in Nelson, NZ.

I think I stick around, then I do get to see and hear things RA didn't have to do,
but sooo show his extra 10%.... commitment...

Warning for breathless moments (!)

The Strike Back Viral

That drop wet Strike Back promo...

The Hobbit trailer
http://on.wb.com/thauj-720-mov

Life lesson: the flesh is weak, but the mind is strong.
Until RA says "he would disappoint" me.
Mr. A, does "you confused me back in the days" count?
I might not always blog Mr. A related,
so who's getting disappointed now?

Yep, life is struggle. That´s what makes a story.
*breathes again*
So why are you here?

Seriously.

Breath mints: RACentral, BBC/Kudos, Project Magazine, Unidentified Blogger