DID YOU KNOW?
Luke was thirty years old when he auditioned for his first movie.
Because Luke’s character doesn’t appear until the second movie (2013) he didn’t start filming at the same time as Martin Freeman and the dwarf actors. He also had to wait longer for his script to arrive. Luke confessed to Empire Magazine: ‘I think what’s been great about what Peter’s doing online at the moment is doing these video blogs, which are just brilliant because for somebody who’s not joined the cast at the beginning of the film, it’s quite nice that by the time I do join it, I’m going to know who the actors are, who the roles are; I’m not going to be daunted by turning up in Middle-earth.’
He found walking around Bilbo’s home the strangest experience because he remembered the first time he had seen it in the cinema when he was twenty-one. Back then he had no idea that he would be acting in a Tolkien movie.
Being cast as Bard was life changing for Luke – he had to leave London behind and move to New Zealand for a year. He says it’s been the best job he’s ever had, he’s had an absolute blast and made some lifelong friends. Luke told MTV: ‘Living in New Zealand, it’s like a different world – it is a different world. It’s very, very cool.
‘We’re so far away from home. We have a little family. Peter [Jackson] and the team create a very warm atmosphere, on set and off set. We all socialise, it’s really special – I just feel very lucky to be a part of it.’
Initially, Luke was a bit jealous of the members of the cast who had been in The Lord of the Rings movies. He confessed to Collider.com: ‘I feel very lucky to be here, you know – I’m watching this being made, and then watching Pete do his thing – because you only have to read any articles about the boys who were in the first three movies and how they talked about the experience being in New Zealand and working with Pete and the long period of time that you spent here.
‘I was just very jealous of them, in a healthy way, but it was always something I was envious of. And now I’m here, and now I’m actually one of those boys – I’ll always remember this as one of those experiences in my life.’
Luke thinks the hardest thing will be the return to normality as he has loved playing Bard so much. And he is so glad that director Peter Jackson decided to be faithful to the book, as he explained to Q TV at the British Film Awards: ‘It’s very loyal to the book. When you have a book like The Hobbit, you don’t really need to embellish it much. The characters are so well written and everybody who loves the book will absolutely love this.’
Beorn
Name: Beorn
Alias: Skin-changer
Race: Man
Played by: Mikael Persbrandt
Character description: Beorn is a skin-changer – he can change from a huge man to a black bear. His past is a bit of a mystery. He lives in a house on the edge of the mountains near the Carrock with his servants, who are animals with the ability to talk. The orcs killed the rest of his race.
When Guillermo del Toro was the director he had planned for Hellboy actor Ron Perlman to play Beorn and had written the part with him in mind. Ron had been planning on doing it, but once Guillermo stepped down, the casting changed. (See ‘Delays’ for more information on what happened.)
DID YOU KNOW?
For a while Guillermo del Toro had thought that Ron would be the perfect Smaug.
In the end, the actor chose to play Beorn was Mikael Persbrandt. When he was cast, Peter Jackson issued a press release, in which he stated: ‘The role of Beorn is an iconic one and Mikael was our first choice for the part. Since seeing him read for the role we can’t imagine anyone else playing this character.’
Mikael was born in Jakobsberg, Stockholms län, Sweden. A sporty child, he enjoyed football and boxing. He also liked building things and thought he would like to be an astronaut when he grew up. As he entered his teens, his career ambitions changed: he thought he wanted to become a dancer and joined the Academy of Ballet. After finishing his studies there, he caught the acting bug. His first role was as an extra in a production of King Lear at the Kungliga Dramatiska Teatern (Royal Dramatic Theatre) in Stockholm. He continued acting in plays before joining the cast of Swedish soap opera Rederiet in 1992. In 1999, Mikael was nominated for the Guldbagge Award for Best Leading Actor – a huge achievement. Following this, he quickly became one of Sweden’s finest actors. Mikael gained international fame when he played Anton in the Susanne Bier movie In a Better World, which won the Best Foreign Language Film at the 2011 Oscars. Usually, he plays tough characters.
DID YOU KNOW?
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.
DID YOU KNOW?
Mikael Persbrandt did some of his training under the instruction of the Navy Seals.
Mikael is a man who likes to make a difference and he was a Swedish UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for six years. He has visited children living in Brazilian slums, child soldiers in Liberia, children in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake and been on many trips at home and abroad to raise the profile of UNICEF.
Bert
Name: Bert
Alias: Liar, Lout
Race: Stone-troll
Played by: Not cast yet (likely to be CGI – computer generated imagery)
Character description: Bert, William and Tom are trolls and spend their time eating anyone who passes their way on the road west of Rivendell.
DID YOU KNOW?