In an interview with the popular The Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit fan site, TheOneRing.net, Graham McTavish discusses Outlander and also his acting profession and how he started. The interview took place in December, but was just published today. To read the entire interview, visit TheOneRing.net.
“greendragon: The first and obvious question has to be, are you looking forward to The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug European premiere, and what is it like getting back into Hobbit mode?
Graham McTavish: Yes, I am looking forward to the next premiere – very much. I’ve seen a fair amount of the film through doing the ADR [additional dialogue recording], but in an unfinished state – and even then it looked absolutely amazing! The sequence with Smaug is hairs on the back of your neck stuff, really. Going back into it – I was thinking about that the other day, because although I only just finished in August, it already seems a very long time ago, because I’ve started this new project doing Outlander. I’ve been completely immersed in that world – the world of 18th century Highland politics, and charging around in plaid and carrying a sword and a dirk and all of that stuff! So I’ve not really been in the Hobbit world in my head for a long time. I think it will take a little bit for me to get back into it, to be honest, when I’m in Berlin. Last time it almost felt like the premiere came hot on the heels of finishing filming, so everybody was locked in to that zone. This time some of us have gone on to other projects, some haven’t seen each other – so it will be a little strange perhaps.
GD: So how is it going with Outlander? Is it fun?
GM: Oh yes, great fun! No prosthetics! NO prosthetics! I can’t tell you – we all fantasized about that, when we were doing The Hobbit.
GD: Yes, I read an interview with Stephen Hunter, where he said, ‘They told me I could afford to buy a house with the money I’d get for this film – they didn’t tell me I’d have to be wearing it!’
GM: [Laughs] Classic Hunter!
GD: So you’re liberated.
GM: Yeah. You know, I’ve got my own beard – so great! Other than that – the character [in Outlander] is different, and he’s given the opportunity to develop over sixteen hours, which is even longer than the three Hobbit films!
GD: And is this just the first book, that the first season is based on? So potentially there are seven or so more seasons….?
GM: Yeah – she’s [Diana Gabaldon] just writing her eighth one.
GD: But does Dougal survive into book eight…?
GM: [shrugs] You see, having already explained that I don’t read these things, I wouldn’t know! [Laughing] So it’s a process of discovery for me as well! So when I get the script that says, ‘And Dougal falls to his knees and dies,’ I’ll know! – and approach it accordingly! But that’s a great gift, which actually television does uniquely – it allows you to explore a character over a great period of time. So yeah, I’m thoroughly enjoying it! We’ve been very lucky with the cast,that we’ve been given; to a man and to a woman, they are just thoroughly nice, interesting, different kinds of people. Good sense of humour – that’s very important. That was one of the real benefits of the guys on The Hobbit as well; you need a sense of humour. If you haven’t got a sense of humour – I mean, it’s true of anything, but especially if you’re locked together for a long period of time – if you’re in each other’s company continually, you’re going to be in situations that are difficult, sometimes boring, sometimes frightening, you need to be with people that you really like. And you grow to care about them; so, on something like The Hobbit, certainly we developed a very, very strong bond. One of the things that Richard used to say – and he was so right – was that nobody but us will ever know what it was like to be those characters, to do that job, to wear what we wore, and to carry that around with us for such a long period of time.”
So I wonder if Graham is going to skip ahead and read the other books?
Thanks to the Dwaliners for calling our attention to the interview.
Source: TheOneRing.net
