For The Hobbit's dwarf king, it's a long way to the top if you want to stop a troll


Richard Armitage started small in showbiz, and as dwarf king Thorin Oakenshield he's pushing that line to the limit.

The Hobbit star Richard Armitage had an unusual introduction to the entertainment industry. ''I was actually in the circus in Hungary, doing a little bit of juggling, some skateboarding and a bit of tumbling,'' says the tall 42-year-old English actor. ''It wasn't my intention to get into show business in that way but it was an English company and at the time it was the only way I could get a union card to work in the theatre that I wanted to work in. So I was sleeping next to the elephants,'' he adds with a chuckle, ''which felt like the bottom rung of the business for sure!''

Armitage was born in Leicestershire, England, and after visiting the Royal Shakespeare Theatre as a young high schooler, decided to pursue acting and attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. After his circus stint, he made his screen acting debut with a one-line role in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999) and continued with a string of English TV roles, including Robin Hood (2009) and Spooks (2010). But it was from the 2004 BBC period drama North and South that Hobbit director Peter Jackson remembered him when Armitage came to audition for the role of Thorin, King of the Dwarves.

In The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) continues his journey with the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and 13 dwarves, led by Thorin Oakenshield, on their epic quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain and the lost dwarf kingdom of Erebor.


''In the first film, the quest was controlled very much by Gandalf, but in this film you see him leave it in Thorin's hands, and the first thing he does is to get captured by the elves, so I guess it's the lowest point in his career,'' Armitage says. ''But what's also an important turning point in this film is he goes from being anti-Hobbit to being pro-Hobbit and finally learning to trust Bilbo.''

Looking clean-shaven and with short hair, Armitage says he's not often recognised for portraying the ruggedly handsome, bearded and long-haired dwarf, but he does miss the hair. ''We tried to make him not look like an ageing rocker,'' he says sheepishly, ''but deep down I kind of did enjoy having that hair!''