•• Craig >> Articles >> An Interview with Craig Parker and Mark Ferguson
The following is an interview held between Craig Parker (Haldir) and Mark Ferguson (Gilgalad) during the Gathering of the Fellowship in Toronto, Ontario, December 17, 2003. This interview took place in a hallway behind the main stage, as press interviews often do (note the glamorous location in the middle photo above). Our guest interviewer is 13-year-old Christina Foss, elf friend and junior reporter with west-of-the-moon.net.
Present also from west-of-the-moon.net are Marea and the Web mistress, Shadow.
Christina: I’d like to begin by asking… before you started filming the movie, did you originally try out for another role than the one that you eventually got?
Craig: My audition was for Haldir…I think it was one of the generic elf-type auditions.
Mark: What they did is that a lot of us didn’t have a huge amount of speaking so you’d just get handed any script. I think that I actually auditioned with a Legolas script… it was quite hysterical really…so your initial reading was for that.
Craig: I think you’d make a GREAT Legolas.
Mark: I think so too… I’ve got… I’m more Leggy…
Craig: Yeah…. You‘ve got more Legs.
Mark: I would be LegoMORE…
-- laughter --
Christina: What is your favorite part of being your character?
Craig: Um…I think that the elves are cool. Such fun playing someone that is so different from the usual characters you play. And is immortal and thousands of years old and supremely skilled at fighting. It is every boy’s dream to put on cool armor and swords and beat people up.
Mark: Commanding an army was great…just to command vast forces of people was great. Bossing around Elrond was nice! “Hugo… go get me a cup of coffee.”
Christina: I’ve asked everyone from the movie that I’ve met so far this…. What’s your favorite line?
Mark: Mine is “You shall not pass!”
Craig: Yeah…that’s a good one.
Mark: There are some lines in it that could be so hokey delivered by somebody else, but he [Ian McKellan} is so fantastic. And uh…
Craig: The dwarf tossing line is good…
Mark: Dwarf tossing! Yes!
Craig: “Nobody tosses a dwarf!” That was great…
Mark: But yeah, “You shall not pass” is pretty damn good.
Christina: Have you ever died on screen before ”The Two Towers”?
Craig: Uh… a couple of times, yeah! I did a… um, a series called “Gold”, a Canadian production where I got run through and left lying in a rainy gutter… in a 1860’s New Zealand gold mining town, because I was having an affair with this mad actor’s wife. That was the last time I died on screen, I think.
Mark: I’ve never lived.
--much laughter--
Mark: I…every role I’ve ever played I’ve died, so actually I’m quite an experienced die-er. If they’re looking for someone for any character that dies, they call me. Yeah… don’t know why that is! But I’ve died in all sorts of things…I’ve drowned. I’ve drowned three times! Not just once… But … died often… what else?
Craig: All the times in Xena and Herc things… whenever, I’m never really nervous. You know you’re gonna die.
Mark: I always had hope, though. You know I’ve played about, uh… four warlords against Lucy Lawless and I thought: This time, I’m going to beat her! I’m not dying this time!
Craig: And next week the show will be called “Warlord!” “Warrior Warlords! “
Mark: Yeah! But… it never happened.
Craig: I’ve noticed that about Xena, she does tend to uh…live. Each week she tends to survive and not die.
Mark: I think they did kill her off though.
Craig: Oh really? How’d she die? Do you know how she died?
Christina: I think she was burned…
Mark: Yeah.
Craig: They burned Xena?! Oh!
Christina: Was there ever a version of the script where you didn’t die?
Mark: Um, well, in his version.
Craig: Yeah, in mine, I was like: Peter… Peter… Peter… This one is really cool, and I live, and I have a happy life! But um… reasonably early on in the production they decided that, yeah, they’re gonna do this, bring the elves to Helm's Deep and die. So, but initially the first scripts had them turn up at Helm's Deep. But it was during the shooting Phillipa [Boyens] or one of the other writers came up to me and talked to me about it and they said: Will you do this? Because Phillipa wants us to kill an elf.
Mark: And you’ve been selected!
Christina: Why not kill Legolas?
Craig: Well, but he has stuff to do in the later part of the movie, but Haldir had nothing going on so, you know I said: All right… I’ll die for you… That’s fine.
Marea: Actually, if I could ask one question… You’ve all been wonderful and lighthearted and comic but “Lord of the Rings” is… well it’s a pretty serious movie at times and all about the struggle between good and evil. You, Craig… you have a line that I love… “You bring great evil here.” And your character is, of course, a victim of evil.
So… do either of you in fact believe in evil and if so… how would you define it?
Mark: Oooh…
Marea: That’s a question I ask everybody I meet from the movie.
Craig: I don’t… I don’t think there is. I don’t believe that there is a specific right and wrong. I think things that could be called evil are done. That, um… evil is so absolute that good is so absolute… no… but that the things that are really screwed up just happen in the world.
Mark: I think it’s a really good question that… because I’ve actually played a few evil characters and it’s always an interesting one when you ask yourself, as an actor, if you’re actually playing it, because it’s very important in acting not to see yourself, because the character doesn’t really see or think themselves as evil.
I tend to believe it’s…that evil is defined by people who… who have such an absolute conviction that they’re right. Which is the complexity of evil. Because we’re talking a version of the truth defined by others. If there are more people who believe that you’re actually wrong… well, history decides you’re wrong and suddenly you become evil. But at that time the difference between a great hero and someone who is evil is often a question of history. I think those sort of things are actually being played out right at the moment.
Craig: See, if Sauron had won then we’d all be going “He’s cool”!
Mark: Yeah! Exactly…
Shadow: Yeah, because history is written by the winner.
Mark: And um… and the villains are often created by the winners. And there are things happening in the world at the moment-- it’s quite interesting of who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. I’m not 100% sure. And I think, it’s depending on which line you’re standing on… But I think the interesting thing is, if you ask those particular people who are absolutely firmly convinced of who is the villain and who is the good guy you will never hear it any other way. I think that’s the spawn of evil. You know, absolutism is the spawn of evil. But a healthy dose of cynicism um… a bit of a sense of humor … and evil evaporates.
Christina: Well… my two friends… they didn’t get a chance to come to The Gathering and so, I was wondering, I wanted them to have… to somehow let you talk to them… so…could you just… do your Gollum voice for them?
Craig: Ha! I… I did such a bad Gollum voice…
Christina: It was not bad!
Craig: Somebody did a real Gollum voice for me afterwards… and I was like: Ah! That’s what the Gollum voice is… but uh… --moves the recorder closer--
Craig: --in a somewhat shaky impression of Gollum-- My precious-… no that sucked.
--much laughter--
Craig: Um… --in a better impression of the voice-- It’s a pity that you’re not here… It would be nice if you came…- That’s not Gollum either! --trying again-- Oh well, bye-bye!- That’s Donald Duck!
--much laughter--
Craig: Donald Duck vs. Gollum.
Mark: You see, that’s the difference between good and evil, Donald Duck and Gollum.
Craig: Yeah, you see? Gollum, Donald Duck… I think that totally works because Donald Duck often has the two little Donalds on his shoulder, the Devil-Donald and the Angel-Donald.
Mark: That’s right…
Craig: --makes quacking noises--
--Mark and Craig’s assistants indicate that the interview must wrap up or else the actors will their next scheduled appointment--
Marea: Well thank you, I know you’ve got to go so we won’t keep you any longer.
Mark and Craig: No problem, thank you, thank you very much.
Marea, Shadow and Christina: No… thank YOU…and Merry Christmas….
--
SOURCE: WEST OF THE MOON
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