Return of the swashbucklers

By HELEN BARLOW

Bob Anderson is a character, the kind of English film veteran whose stories can mesmerise for hours.

His speciality is swords, and he probably knows how to wield them better than anyone in the business.

He's been busy with both Die Another Day and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. He was also behind the thrilling fencing scenes on The Mask of Zorro with Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. On that film he even managed to make a kind of swordsman out of Anthony Hopkins, something which clearly chuffed the gentlemanly actor.

"Tony is wonderful to work with. He was 50-something when we worked on Zorro. He'll never be the world's greatest swordsman, but he had more interest than most actors I've worked with."

Anderson's forte is that he instils confidence - he ought to, he's been doing this for over half a century. His first film was with Errol Flynn, in The Master of Ballantrae 52 years ago.

He asserts that swordplay is making a comeback in movies.

"It's very romantic. Aren't you getting fed up with guns and fast cars that blow up? How far can you go today, getting bigger, blowing up more? It gets boring."

Certainly the sword suits Bond, and few are better at wielding it than Pierce Brosnan, says Anderson.

"Because Pierce is in every shot in this picture, he has done fewer rehearsals than any actor I've worked with.

"However, the outcome is that he's the most natural actor I've seen on film with a sword, and he picks it up like that [clicks his fingers]. He's got a fantastic memory and great timing."

But then he admits, "The better swordsman would be Antonio Banderas." Is that because he's Spanish? "That probably helps."

Anderson explains the history of duelling and swordsmanship, and how it all happened on the continent rather than in England.

More recently Anderson worked with broadswords on The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but they weren't just any broadswords.

"Richard Taylor and his staff at Weta, who made all the weapons, are geniuses," he says.

"They make swords that you cannot break. When I go into a film quite often I break about 15 blades, but not with Richard's swords. I don't know what he puts in them but they're bloody good, and they're lightweight."

Lightweight aluminium swords were used for Die Another Day as well, to give the actors more control.

"This has been a very interesting picture for me, because I've never had a film where I start with modern fencing and go on to the heavy weapons," says Anderson.

"In this scene they are starting with the epee, because they're uncomplicated swords. You don't need elaborate clothing and you can strip off down to a T-shirt. Then we go onto the heavy weapons, military sabres, and now Pierce and Toby [Stephens] are crashing into the big case with the swords and the armour, and when they smash it the swords come out, and they grab a broadsword."

Rosamund Pike is about to slash her way around the room too, and at the mention of her name Anderson becomes all paternal.

"She's marvellous. She is the most studied actress I've met. When she gets her teeth into doing something, she never stops. She came for lessons almost every day when she wasn't working and she now is the most competent swordsman. Nobody can tell the difference between her and the experts when she's fencing."

The aim is to make it look authentic, he says, noting that Brosnan and Stephens make it seem "more real than almost anything I've seen before. Most swordfights on film look artificial ... all except mine, of course!"

The mood, one imagines, is so much more professional and a lot more goody-goody than in the golden years when Anderson worked with rabblerousers like Errol Flynn.

"He was a man's man. He used to get drunk every night."

Still, Flynn wasn't bad with a sword either.

"He was so well trained in the art of drinking and acting that one didn't interfere too much with the other. It was just that the stuff he used to drink was eating his kidneys and everything away inside.

"He died at 50, and that's young for an actor, but he was a great actor and a good swordsman. We worked out like anyone else, he remembered his lines, he remembered the routine. His only problem was he deteriorated so quickly."

Anderson outlines his philosophy on swordfighting:

"Standing toe-to-toe with a sharp sword in your hand requires great courage, and it therefore is the ultimate weapon in the struggle between good and evil.

"Anybody can hang around corners, shoot guns and drive fast cars, because you probably don't even meet the person you're killing.

"But when you're doing a swordfight, standing eyeball to eyeball with that guy requires courage, and usually for me it's the greatest test in the struggle between good and evil.

"And we hope the good guys win all the time - and they do in the movies."

Herald feature: Lord of the Rings