Q&A
Herald Sun (
NEALA JOHNSON
David Wenham, who plays Faramir in
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,
tells NEALA JOHNSON he now feels a
part of cinematic history
Have the actors who appeared in the first Lord of the Rings
film warned you
what impact being in this film
could have on you?
Not really, no. I must say, I don't
think the guys who were in the first film
have changed one iota. They're
exactly the same people we all worked together
with, whatever years ago.
Do you consider this film a big career opportunity?
No, I don't see it like that. What I see it as is . . . I
pinched myself the
other night in
something that really is cinematic
history. I'm a part of not only a film of a
legendary piece of literature, but
I think this film will go down in history
as being a landmark piece of
cinema. And that's something I feel extremely
lucky to be part of, and very proud
to be part of. And very lucky to have had
the opportunity to work with
(director) Peter Jackson on this project.
So was Faramir an exciting part?
Yeah. When I was offered the role, first of all I didn't
believe I had been
offered a role, then when I did,
the most exciting part was the opportunity to
work with Peter.
I'd seen every one of his films. Bad Taste, Braindead and Meet the Feebles --
when I saw those three films at the
this guy was wicked, he was
certainly on the same wavelength as I was at that
time.
I hadn't read Lord of the Rings, so my prime motivation was
working with Peter
incredible thing to be involved in.
And now I'm obviously a convert -- a huge
fan of the book and the story.
Were
Yeah, they were. And every now and again, I'd catch a
glimpse of that wicked
sense of humour
that was in those early films.
There are some great moments in The Two Towers -- the
creature who's obsessed
with eating Merry and Pippin's
legs, that's drawn from the early Peter Jackson
days, and that gives me a big laugh
each time I see the film.
Do you see Faramir as a bad guy in
The Two Towers?
He's mysterious. And the audience members know by this stage
who Frodo and Sam
are, then they come across this
mysterious man who takes them prisoner. But at
the end of this film the character
does redeem himself. In the third film (The
Return of the King) you get an understanding of possibly why
he went down that
road.
Did you feel a bit of a bully, turning up on set and pushing
little Elijah
Wood around?
I must say, yes I did. In a way, I felt very much like Faramir -- torn. There
are these two little Hobbits, but
they do possess the most powerful thing
around, which is the Ring, and it's
the only thing that could help him at that
particular time.
What the audience finds out in the next film is that Faramir leads a group of
rangers through Ithilien,
but they are so undermanned and underarmed, and his
father won't help them out at all.
His father wishes he (Faramir) was dead and
his brother, Boromir,
still alive. And you'll then accept far more willingly
the stress and tension the poor guy
was under in The Two Towers, and why he
was tempted by the Ring.
How physically gruelling was your
4 1/2-month shoot?
I was exhausted by the end, but it was a pleasurable
exhaustion. If, whenever
we were ready to wrap at night,
Peter would say, ``OK, let's do another
hour'', people would and there'd be
no complaints.
Some of those guys in that Helm's Deep
sequence, they were doing three months
of night shooting under horrendously
bitter conditions, but they did it
because everybody was totally in
love with the project.
Are you still ambitious about acting?
The odd thing is, as my ambition has decreased as I've got
older, strangely,
opportunities have come my way. I
don't know what I could read into that, but
it does happen to be the case.
I think if you try too hard for something, you're not going
to get it. But if
you just relax and free up a bit,
sometimes things come to you.
What will we see you in next?
I did an Australian film called
year. The next thing I do is a film
called Van Helsing, overseas, which is a
big action-adventure-comedy, and I
provide the comedy in that film.
Do people expect you to work overseas now, especially after
The Lord of the Rings lifts
your profile internationally?
Who knows? I'm about to do a big film, but I'm playing a
totally ridiculous
character. I'm looking forward to
the opportunity to be stupid, which is very
close to what I normally am. Then
there's stuff back here that I'm absolutely
passionate about, and I will be
back here to do. So, whatever takes my fancy,
I suppose. But you know, one day it all might dry up, and
that's when I might
go and be a gardener.
Are there any roles during your career that you don't feel
you've nailed?
Oh, I've done many jobs that I thought I hadn't nailed,
absolutely.
Conversely, there are very few jobs I've done where I think:
``Yep, that's it,
I wouldn't change a thing.'' Never really satisfied, but
that's good. Wards
off complacency.
Name a role you really did nail.
The Boys is probably the performance I wouldn't change in
any way.
How intense is the love triangle between Faramir,
Eowyn (Miranda Otto) and
Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) in The Return of the King?
I don't know -- I haven't actually seen the film (laughs).
But what I can say
is, people who have read the book
won't be disappointed because it ends
exactly the same way.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is now showing.