Richard Armitage on saying goodbye to The Hobbit
Monday 8 Dec 2014 1:58 p.m.

By Kate Rodger

Richard Armitage's unexpected journey as Thorin Oakenshield comes to an end in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.

The final film in Sir Peter Jackson's Middle-earth saga opens in Kiwi cinemas this week after its world premiere in London last week.

I sat down with Armitage to discuss what it's like for him saying goodbye to The Hobbit.

Well, this is it, isn't it?
This is it, but not the Michael Jackson version. But kind of in that realm, right? You know what I mean?

It really is. For a little bit of this, and I don't want to give much away, but I wasn't sure I liked you.
As a person?

I love you as a person! Let me rephrase that, Thorin has a big emotional journey in the film doesn't he.
He does, you know it's one of those things where it's a very tricky line to tread in terms of the way the character is written and the way the filmmaker chooses to portray the character and myself. You have to allow the audience to be at odds with the character and I myself watched it for the first time last night and I was despairing at how Thorin was behaving. But at the same time, we follow him as he's caught with this addiction, and you think he's beyond help. But it's very satisfying to see him redeem.

What do you think it was for Thorin that took him to the point where he could make a decision, one way or the other?
I think it's that moment where he recognises in himself. It was a difficult scene to portray and I think Peter chose to do it in the abstract. Thorin recognises in himself what he's become, who he's become, through everything he's experienced. Particularly through the scene with Dwalin, it's Dwalin's words that bring him back - literally Dwalin says to him: 'You do not know what you've become." It's that spirit of what is right and wrong that lives in him. That conquers the addiction, the dragon-sickness, and he's able to come back and lead his people into battle.

And Bilbo was good for a bit of a hug for him too wasn't he.
He was. It's so moving to see that character behave in that way. I think there's a moment where you see Gandalf and there's no dialogue, but you see everything in his face - he sees Bilbo behaving in a way that no one else in this world is. There's a reason to him and a real, true love in this little man that is going to save the day.

How does it feel to be saying goodbye to Middle-earth after it being such a big part off the last few years for you?
I'm really thrilled that we're all here together and it's going to be a big party tonight and there's a huge celebration of Peter's work. He's about to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, it doesn't get better than that. It's so well-deserved. But I'm sad to say goodbye.

Your time in New Zealand was good for you?
It was amazing, I never stop thinking about it. I sometimes wake up and still think I'm back there. Hearing your accent made me think I wish I could go back to Wellington. That's one thing I'm sad about, that we didn't get to take the movies back to the Southern Hemisphere. But it's almost like an unfulfilled wish that I suspect I'll go back there again and work. I would do it at the drop of a hat.

With the Hobbit films and of course The Lord of the Rings trilogy, there are some very serious fans who take these films very seriously. Has that become really clear to you?
Absolutely and I'm one of those fans. I was a fanatic of The Hobbit book, I was dedicated to The Lord of the Rings book and adored what Peter did with the three movies. I'm one of the fans but I also think Peter is too. He understands what the fans want. He does the impossible, he creates the movie he wants to create and tells the story in the way that he wants, but he also really serves that appetite for the world of Tolkien that the fans are so invested in. Every single detail has to be there, because they're all experts.

Do you feel that pressure, being part of it?
Yeah, there's a huge pressure. It's a huge responsibility to take on a character like Thorin and it may not be everybody's cup of tea, my interpretation of this role. I was a seven-year-old when I read it and it's all of those thoughts and memories manifested in this creation.