DAVID WENHAM: The fans have been absolutely incredible, overwhelming. I think if I remove myself from the cast and see how other people react to the fans and interact with the fans, I take my hat off to them because I think they’ve done an extraordinary job of involving themselves with the fans. It comes from Peter [Jackson] as well. Peter was involved with the fans from Day 1. From the websites and them following his intentions, which were always honorable, I think it’s been quite a harmonious relationship.
John, how was the insanity described in the book and how much room did you have to interpret it?
JOHN NOBLE: Well look, to be honest with you, I don’t remember now how it was described in the book and that probably wouldn’t have helped me much at the time. I guess what I did was look to the history that I needed to know, and I hadn’t read the books before I was cast. My point of view was I needed to know Denethor’s point of view, not necessarily Tolkien’s point of view. It was easy for me to see how that man could become as destructive as he did become, given what was happening in the world around him and the humanity of the man. It was a tough role but to me it was quite understandable. There but for the grace of God go many of us.
Did you know that your scenes from the second film would be included in the DVD version?
JOHN NOBLE: Originally Denethor was to only be in the third film. Then I had a call sometime later saying, “Would you come back and do a scene?” which we did, which is the scene you are referring to in the extended “Two Towers,” which was a great scene to do. But when I was employed, it was only for one film. In a sense I can understand that reasoning because having a new character introduced in the third film could have been a good thing. But I’m glad we did that scene because I think it really did help to explain a lot of things about the family. And really, ultimately, the extended versions of the DVDs in years to come are going to be the defining films, and that’s just a fact. It’s not a bad legacy.
David, can you talk about your role in “Van Helsing?”
DAVID WENHAM: Very briefly. I play a character called Carl who is a monk who invents extraordinary weapons. He’s sort of like a very period Q, if you like, out of James Bond. He’s somebody who has spent his whole entire life deep underground in this monastery. At this particular time he’s told by his superiors to go off with Van Helsing on this mission to hunt down Dracula.
So what is the action like compared to this?
DAVID WENHAM: They’re two totally different films. They’re sort of incomparable in a way because the period themselves in terms of the action, the fighting involves very different forms of weaponry, and the genre is totally different as well. There’s nothing in common from one to the other. The only thing they have in common is that they’re films.
How about visual effects and working with things that aren’t there?
DAVID WENHAM: In “Van Helsing” I did, in “Lord of the Rings,” I didn’t. I was one of the few characters, along with John, where all of my scenes in “Lord of the Rings” involved real people. There may have been a little bit of blue screen behind us somewhere so that they could paint in the rest of the set. But I acted with real people the whole time. Even in my stuff with Gollum, Andy Serkis was always there so I had no opportunity ever in “Lord of the Rings” to act with a blue screen.
David, had you read the Tolkien’s books?
DAVID WENHAM: I hadn’t read the book before I was cast as Faramir, but then it was pretty compulsory once you were about to invest your time in a project like this. I ran out immediately and picked up the book and tried to absorb as much as possible. I earmarked all the pages that involved Faramir and had those readily available when we were shooting. Sometimes there were deviations from the book to the film, especially with my character. But I always had the book to prepare.
Additional “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” Press Junket Interviews:
Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Bernard Hill, John Rhys-Davies, and Richard Taylor/Barrie M. Osborne
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” Premiere Coverage:
Orlando Bloom/Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Elijah Wood/Ian McKellen, Dominic Monaghan, David Wenham/John Noble, John Rhys Davies/Bernard Hill, and Peter Jackson/Richard Taylor
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"Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” Photo Gallery
"Return of the King” Trailer, Credits, Soundtrack Info and Movie News
