Filming Hobbit 'like a war' says star dwarf

Billy Connolly says filming the Hobbit is a massive undertaking. Photo / Supplied

Scottish comedian Billy Connolly is relishing the chance to be a part of Middle Earth in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

Connolly has been cast as the dwarf Dain Ironfoot in the movie, which releases on December 13, and its sequel The Hobbit: There and Back Again.

He made a brief trip over the Tasman to promote his new animated film Brave in Australia, before heading back to filming in New Zealand.

"What an experience," he says of filming The Hobbit. "It's a huge undertaking. It's like a war."

He says as a dwarf, he's doing a lot of fighting.

"I hate them all. Kill them all, the bastards. Especially elves," he says.

"Get right in among the elves, but they're the most beautiful of them all.

"Blonde hair, braided and they're all slimmy and extremely tall.

"And we're very broad and low and f****n 'Have that' with our axes and they've got their skinny swords and all that."

He got the part because someone just called up and asked if he would do it.

"It's what happens with all my stuff," he says.

"I tend to get chosen to do things, I don't audition for things. I haven't auditioned in years."

- AAP