Gimli role that dwarfs the rest

By RUSSELL BAILLIE


John Rhys-Davies likes to say he told you so. The British character actor does just that in a deep, melodious Welsh accent. Though should you mention his two Lord of the Rings voices - of dwarf Gimli and Treebeard - he will slip into their respective tones in an instant. You imagine if there are LOTR fan conventions in years to come, Rhys-Davies will rise from unrecognisable supporting actor to headline act.

The told-you-so bit? He was much quoted in the early days of the film's production that the trilogy would be bigger than Star Wars. "And it was ridiculed in some of the papers. If there is anybody prepared to own up and grovel I just want the opportunity to say, 'I told you so'."

He also tells a good yarn about his initial wariness about taking the role of the dwarf, having enjoyed a steady career on the British stage and in Hollywood bit parts, including the Indiana Jones films.

"I came out from England having had to take this bloody part because my agent said if you turn down this we can no longer continue. I had been around enough to know that what Peter was attempting to do was rather like announcing that you were going to climb Everest having done a two-minute walk around your own home farm.

"I didn't see anything in his work which suggested he could handle anything of this magnitude. I didn't see any chance that New Zealand would have the strength or depth to make a film like this, and, frankly, I didn't want to spend two or three years of my life doing a failed first picture and two direct-to-video ones, if they were ever completed.

"So I confess I came with duplicity in my heart. I came just to confirm my prejudice, and I would have gone to Peter and said, 'I am sure this is going to be a great picture but I can't be away from home for that long', and he would have had to replace me.

'So, the first two weeks I was here I went to every department ... To my horror I discovered a level of excellence in every bloody department that you could only really expect in the great film-making capitals in the world. But I still had some hope, so I thought, 'Well, I will go and watch Peter Jackson and see how he handles his crew and how he handles his actors' - and I watched him direct for two and three days. I was a convert from that point on."

Not that his time during the shoot was great fun, he admits. The makeup and costume requirements to turn Rhys-Davies into a red-haired dwarf half his size were arduous. His face suffered throughout.

"You know you're in trouble when your girlfriend looks at you and says, 'You know what, sweetheart, you look so bad I can't bear to look at you any longer. I have to go back to LA'.

"So, yeah there have been happier films. But I never lost sight of what we were doing."

And of course he bonded with the cast - to a point.

"They'd get drunk in Queenstown and come up with wonderful ideas like, 'We should have a tattoo'. They came to me with a demand that seeing there were nine members of the fellowship [of the ring] we should all have tattoos. I did what any self-respecting actor does when faced with a physical challenge that might be life-threatening. I sent my stunt double.

"I'm not going to get tattooed by a drunk Maori with a dirty piece of glass ... and in this politically correct world I should say I have nothing against drunk Maoris. Drunken tattooists are different."

As in the first two films, Gimli acts as a sort of comedic relief among the escalating peril. His Scottish accent helps.

"There is a gritty sort of fierce belligerence, and in the end I thought an almost Glasgow Scottish accent would serve the character."

As for Gimli playing the funny guy, Rhys-Davies says it's in his character.

"There is something innately wonderful and funny about Gimli in this respect. I don't think he actually realises that he is small and that is rather funny. I think the only time he becomes aware of this is when he is running cross-country with this immortal elf and this long-legged ranger on his tiny little legs day in and day out.

"It is one of Jackson's great strengths is to be able to control the pace and emotion of stuff and the emotional pressure within a scene and within the overall film. It's hard to do that when all you have is increasing tension, so we sort of deliberately chose to use Gimli as a lightning rod - to diffuse situations, to give us a laugh, just to relax the audience prior to the next set-up."

Rhys-Davies also provided the voice for the ancient, lumbering animatronic character of Treebeard.

"I lost more sleep over Treebeard than any character I've had to play in the last 20 years. You cannot play it the way it is written [in the book]. He's too slow. In your imagination you can hear the time he takes to ponder. You can't do it on film. When I realised how important Treebeard is to so many readers, I really did begin to sweat and we tried all sorts of things."

Now Rhys-Davies, his face healed from the makeup and his sleepless nights over, says he can look back at the experience as one of the greatest in his career.

"I mean, I'm living and working in this industry where by and large what we do is crap and by and large we have to take it because unless you have an exceptional career you only get one good script every 10 years. You have to live on that. To do this and do it so well ... it's one of the great accomplishments of my career."

And it doesn't worry him that he doesn't quite get recognised as the red-haired axe-wielding ball of fury off screen?

"It's very disappointing for some of the little ones who look up and say, 'This is not my dwarf'. It's lovely though. We are so lucky with our fans."

John Rhys-Davies was initially sceptical about The Lord of the Rings trilogy until he saw the cast and crew at work.


* Return Of The King opens in New Zealand on Dec. 18.

Red carpet commentary: Wellington celebrates the world premiere

Herald Feature: Lord of the Rings