The (Hobbit) actor who would be Richard Armitage

Tall, clean-cut thespian is nothing like the short, stocky and hairy warrior he portrays


LOS ANGELES — Richard Armitage finds himself in a professional quandary.

He is so good at playing Dwarf King Thorin Oakenshield in the Hobbit movies, it’s been bad for his career.

“I think the biggest challenge for me is that when I walk into a room they think the wrong guy has come in to audition,” said the 42-year-old promoting The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug at a Beverly Hills hotel.

“It’s a compliment, but on a business level it’s difficult because it’s hard to convince people it was really me playing the role.”

The confusion is not a surprise. Armitage looks nothing like Thorin.

He is a modern-looking six-foot-two clean-shaven thespian compared to the short, stocky long-haired warrior king he portrays in The Hobbit movies.

Regardless of his current Hobbit circumstances, he wouldn’t have traded the filming experience for anything.

In The Desolation of Smaug, Armitage’s Thorin is front and centre with Bilbo (Martin Freeman) and Gandalf (Ian McKellan) as they lead a band of dwarfs to the Lonely Mountain. Their mission is to reclaim their Dwarf Kingdom, and its treasure, from the evil dragon Smaug.

Along the way, Thorin and company battle orcs, elves, giant spiders and, of course, begin their clash with Smaug.

Meanwhile, the dour Dwarf King continues to be in turmoil as he leads his men toward their destiny.

“It’s a fine balance because Thorin has to be one of his group but he has to have that regal presence, too,” Armitage said. “He is a sort of a tortured Shakespearean soul.”

How so?

“He hides a lot of his emotions behind a facade and he’s kind of grumpy, and he’s rarely in private and his reactions are always being judged and gauged.”

The character complications are some of the reasons Hobbit director Peter Jackson signed the classically trained actor to play the layered part.

Armitage, besides being athletic, is also committed to his craft. He started acting — he says one of his first stage parts was playing an elf in a production of The Hobbit at Birmingham’s Alex Theatre — post-graduation from Pattinson College in Coventry.

After a while, Armitage decided to get serious about his intentions. He enrolled in the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and then landed a spot with the Royal Shakespeare Company playing support roles in Macbeth and Hamlet, among many stage plays.

Minor roles in British TV shows followed. In 2004, he earned a leading role in BBC’s North and South.

The next year he impressed as Peter MacDuff in a post-modern Macbeth show and he portrayed Guy of Gisborne in the popular 2006 BBC series Robin Hood. In film, he was Nazi spy Heinz Kruger in 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger.

Shooting Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy in New Zealand for 266 days will always have a special place in his heart, however. “I knew before I started The Hobbit it was going to be a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing, so I tried to enjoy myself,” Armitage said.

“It’s very different from other pieces I’ve done because I remember every moment of this,” he continued. “I think it’s because we did everything in such detail, I remember how I felt about each scene — it was very vivid.”

Armitage credits Jackson for the positive tone and the creative atmosphere. “And he’s very good at describing what the audience sees,” said the actor. “Sometimes, Peter would change the course of where I was going but we were of the same mindset 90 per cent of the time.”

The exciting conclusion of The Hobbit trilogy, There and Back Again, is out next November. He also stars in the thriller Into the Storm set for theatres in August, which will be a change.

“I play a high school teacher,” said Armitage. “It’s a found-footage movie about a giant tornado in the Midwest.”

The part couldn’t be more different than his Hobbit portrayal. “I need to continue to enjoy Thorin,” he said. “But at the same time I want to let him go a little.”
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