John Noble (Denethor) and David Wenham (Faramir)
Le Matin
December 13, 2003

(translated from French)

How have you to work together, David and you, because the relation between Faramir and Denethor is very dark…

David Wenham: For me, it was all the more particular because I played the part of the puîné brother. And I never met the elder one… As regards my contact with John, it was nothing very particular for actors. The roles were thus built that we did not need to really speak much together. The morning we arrived on the set, we said hello and we started filming. Nothing more. In fact, we did not have a true relationship with one another. And it was not necessary, nor conscious. These are the roles which required this distance.

How do you have to prepare the role of Denethor? Did you take as a starting point a Shakespearean character?
John Noble: Denethor is a tragic character, but not Shakespearean. It is a man on the decline, reached madness, falling. The way in which Denethor speaks is very complex and that can make one think of a character from Shakespeare. But the comparison stops there. Its exclusion, its loneliness, can also make one think, a little bit, of King Lear.

Into the book, Denethor falls because it has access to a palantir. What is not the case in film…

John Noble: We did not film any scene where Denethor looks in one to palantir. But Denethor is affected by the growing capacity of the ring, like all the other characters. It is it a little more, because Gondor is very close to Mordor. I tried to include/understand what Denethor knew of the search, the ring, of Gondor, to be able to interpret it with just…. I just tried to build Denethor according to his relation with Gondor, Rohan, the fact that a king is returning.

This film was very important for the New Zealand. You, as Australian, it was important too?

David Wenham: The Australians and the New Zealanders maintain a beautiful friendship, a beautiful competition also, but they are two very different countries. The Australians do not have the same national feeling as the New Zealanders. If I agreed to make film, it is especially because I know well the work of Peter Jackson better than of Tolkien. I had not read the novels before becoming Faramir. But I had seen all films of Peter Jackson. I am really a fan and I wanted to work with him. For me, it is really one of the five best directors of the world.

Tolkien said that if it were to be one of the characters of its trilogy, it would be Faramir…

David Wenham: I can understand why he said that. Faramir is a very noble character. He has qualities which we would all like to have. He thinks much, he is honest towards Gondor, he remembers a certain manner of the size of Gondor. Faramir has an impressive spirit and nobility of soul. It is not right the brother of Boromir. It is right than its elder.

What does the ring mean to you?

John Noble: It is a personal search against evil.

David Wenham: It is an object which joined us together. It did it various ways, but it is only one object. It represents the evil, but finally it is destroyed, therefore we withdrew we a positive one. That assigns the characters according to the part which they have to play with him. According to their position. The ring influences people in various ways, more or less deeply.

Was this difficult to work in such a production, with all these accessories, these costumes, these enormous decorations?

David Wenham: All that had a very positive effect on me. The costumes were extremely well carried out, as well as the decorations. That helped me to enter out of grounds of the medium. With me to feel Faramir. We could walk in the streets of Minis Tirith. It was not only one model. The city was built. We could touch the walls, we have really to cross the doors of Minis Tirith on our horses. The enormous doors were built. All that was real! It was not really a question of playing in front of a blue screen. We were really in Minas Tirith. The technical difficulties did not appear to me. For me, most difficult was to play with Gollum, since it was about an animation. These scenes were a little projections of the spirit. But for the remainder, I did not have to force it…