Richard Armitage: A Star is Born – A Tall Dude at the Japan Presser

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Richard Armitage hears that Japanese chicks really dig tall guys at The Hobbit Japan press conference.

The road crew cut the fiber optics supplying my internet access.  I’m working with shaky, intermittent internet and 3G access on my iPhone.  Definitely not a happy camper, but back to the man of the hour.

Live streaming at The Hobbit Japan press conference apparently sucked but I’m hearing the video quality for downloading is much better. Peter Jackson, Martin Freeman and RA held a  love fest, extolling each other’s virtues.  Clearly, the bromances still burn strongly.  Naturally, they would gush like that.  After all what could they say: “gah, I hated his guts,” “he hogged my shot every time,” or “I’ll need therapy for the next 10 years because of him!”   However, they so struck me with their quiet sincerity, that my snarky heart paused to consider: How did RA feel being showered with such praise? Did his Thorin portrayal really shock and awe? What if he turned in a truly Oscar caliber performance worth of Best Supporting Actor his first time out?  Wow.  My fangurl heart fluttered briefly.  I hope not, mainly because winning an Oscar could be a professional kiss of death (Halle Berry any one?). On the other hand, it would be lovely to see him offered quality artistic roles worthy of his skills.  But happily my snarky heart jolted back to life, and I’m just fine now.

I turned my attention to what was really important – his clothes!  Unfortunately, poor screen cap quality makes it difficult to tell if he’d recovered from the ARIAs misstep, but he was rocking another expensively black, casual  jacket, so I’ll give him props for that.

Next up: the Japan Hobbit premiere.  It starts during the middle of the night my time, a mountain that even this intrepid reporter probably won’t climb.  Europeans, take it away!

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Hang on now!

Want to congratulate him?  Why not join the gift bombing of his Justgiving page?  Show him and the world you care.

You know you want to.

 

 

31 thoughts on “Richard Armitage: A Star is Born – A Tall Dude at the Japan Presser”

  1. RA and Martin has a Thorin-Bilbo kinda chemistry in real life too. =) I’m rooting for him even just a nomination. He doesn’t need to win but just to see that somebody noticed how great his acting had gotten.

    • The studio is agitating for his nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category. If he gets nominated, that will be an amazing achievement the first time out. Unless he’s astounding, I suspect the Academy will make him earn his film chops first.

      • At this stage i’m saying even a nomination would be lovely (and agree with you Judy that he won’t get the gong) but then if/when he doesn’t actually win i will be inconsolable.

      • To be honest, if anyone should earn an actor nomination for the first movie, it should be Andy Serkis, because he deserves recognition for Gollum and has been overlooked in LOTR. And he is only in the first part.

  2. Apart from all the bromance stuff, the gruelling nature of the promotional tour was evident in this PR conference. Five? hour flight to Tokyo; East and West meet; responding to all the cultural variations; stamina, and for Richard and the cast, immense grace under pressure. Stamina. Much more to analyse in the Japan tour. Toronto Monday for Armitage. Yikes – how many hours from Tokyo? (I know, ’cause I done it…with a 3-yr-old)

  3. I’d say an Oscar nomination for RA is highly unlikely… Not that I wouldn’t be overjoyed if it did happen but…don’t think it will. I also thought both Martin and Richard were genuine in their praises for one another. I’m not a body language expert, but they do seem to be very comfortable in each other’s company. I wondered too what was going on in Richard’s head while he sat there listening to PJ and MF singing his praises? Must have been weird. I missed Richard’s red carpet interview but watched the rest of the event and gosh the Japanese really went crazy about them! But Richard handled it all with such aplomb- laughing and chatting with fans, helping them take photos etc. it was a joy to behold. I could not be prouder of him.

    • I think it’s possible that Richard might have been struggling to block his reaction to PJ’s and Martin’s praises for the moment, in order to get through the event, and not get too emotional.

      • Upon multiple viewings, I noticed there were two instances where he almost teared up during the press conf: first when he said the experience of making the film will stay in his heart forever, and the second time when he said Martin’s performance will live in children’s hearts for a long time. On a side note, how does anyone ever learn Japanese????(anyone who isn’t born Japanese I mean) Dear me they talk so fast!!!

  4. Judi,

    I had to jog my own memory in what categories The Return of the King was nominated when it won Oscar Best Picture – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167260/awards

    Seems to be mostly Direction, Screenplay, Cinematography, Music, & Effects – not to say that the acting in ROTK – only that in these fantasy films, the PRODUCTION categories can overshadow the recognition of acting. Any category with ‘ensemble’ in it will probably have higher chances of nomination for the actors.

    Also want to mention – as an aside – that however small a role an actor has in a film (or whether they are recognized critically) – that they still have the chance to really ‘breakthrough’ to audiences with their performance. I’m thinking here of Chris Hemsworth in his role as George Kirk, father to James T Kirk in the Star Trek movie franchise re-boot helmed by J.J. Abrams in 2009. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0796366/

    His performance lasted what – less than 5 minutes? Yet it was ENOUGH to make a key lasting impression on movie-goers & casting agents. After Star Trek was released, he was cast as Thor by Kenneth Branagh (winning the role over Brit thespian Tom Hiddleston – who was then cast as Loki) and now has his pick of projects and movie offers. So I say let’s just let the movie-goers and directors decide who they want to see more of. 😉

    • I didn’t realize that. Very good points UK. I’m wondering that if RA is being touted as the “soul” of the film, this is his once in a lifetime chance to make a huge impact. Really starting to look forward to his performance now.

      • I’m sure audiences-at-large will decide this for themselves. 🙂

        When I saw Thor a few years ago – my first thought was, “Who the heck is this newbie and how did he land the lead role in a blockbuster opposite Anthony Hopkins, Stellan Skarsgard, & Natalie Portman?” I didn’t even recognize him from his George Kirk portrayal (which might have only taken a few days to film on his part). 😀

        Now – it’s hard to find a movie in which he (or one of his younger siblings) DOESN’T star in as action / hero lead. 😉

    • We will see if that happens to RA. It certainly is what I hope for, that some other filmmakers start to notice him, and that among rubbish and action (I have no doubt that will be among the offers he gets and that he won’t hesitate to accept it) there might be a gem that has the potential to really launch him.

  5. I love how often during various press conferences, he wants to swap a glance, or a comment, with his mates onstage. You can feel kind of exuberance, joie de vivre, which is almost childish. He mostly fails, because the other person is not looking at him, and then he frowns a little, like a school boy who got reminded by the teacher to behave.

    • I must admit, I keep finding my opinion of his outfit to be the opposite to that of the majority. I did not have much of a problem with the one at the ARIAs, but this jacket looks to me like it was designed by ‘Standring & Deeming’ 🙂

    • Oops, the comment about the jacket was not a reply.
      But about his school boy behavior – he did it during the Wellington press conf, and in Tokyo again, and i think in ARIAs too. He is pretty incorrigible 🙂

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