Dragon*Con: And they said?

I guess I should tell you what Bruce Hopkins and John Noble had to say at Dragon*con. (See "Call me crazy but..." below for my report on 2 days of Dragon*con.) Flip-flop shod Bruce Hopkins was a real card. First he joked about how his scene where he sleeps with Arwen was cut. He complained that he didn't get a death scene, just sort of disappeared, but that pretty Elf Haldir did. In response to audience questions, I learned that he had never ridden a horse before filming TTT, most of his prior work was in comedy, and he likes doing improv the best. His latest movie is improvised under direction. His favorite actor to work with was Viggo. He brought an energy to the set whenever he was there. Viggo also spoke fluent Spanish with his makeup artist Jose.

John Noble was a little more serious. He is quite handsome in person. He and Bruce Hopkins were never on the set together. All of his scenes were with Ian McKellan, Billy Boyd, Sean Bean, and David Wenham. The most touching scene that he was in was the one where Billy Boyd sings. No one had heard him sing the song before, and everyone on the set, about 200 people, stopped what they were doing to listen. His favorite scene overall is the one where Sam picks up Frodo and carries him up Mt. Doom. The first scene he filmed was his death scene and it was very exciting and fun to film. He said that he had directed theater, but that was nothing compared to what Peter Jackson did. He would come to the set, break out the story board, and set things up. He had five other television monitors going so that he could see what the other units were doing.

No matter what else happens in their career, they were both honored to be immortalized in one of the greatest films of all time.