Armitage North Oakenshield
Taken from this interview. H/t RichardArmitageNet.com.
Richard Armitage: Both of them—John and Alan—are just incredible. … They’re one of the reasons why I was able to take the role. I can never remember whether it was Alan…let me Google it. There’s a sketch of Thorin, a pencil sketch…oh, it’ll come to me… from one of them. Which one of the does the very fine pencil sketches? Because they paint differently, don’t they?
Steve: I think it’s John.
Richard Armitage: It’s John’s sketch of Thorin, then, and he’s got his hands crossed. That’s what convinced me I could play the role.
First: Howe’s sketch of Thorin; second, Blake’s “Ancient of Days” and third, “Urizen in chains”. Finally, in case you’ve forgotten, Lucas North in Spooks 7.1 (from when we were speculating about what would happen in Spooks 9).
***
![Blake Urizen in Chains[1]](https://meandrichard.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/blake-urizen-in-chains1.jpg?w=497)
***
This is CRAZY suggestive. Urizen represents alienated reason. I have to get on the road. Hopefully I can finish driving today. And now I really have something to think about.
I see the similarities — wow. Don’t know much about what Urizen stands for in Blake’s mythology, though. Thanks for putting these two together.
LikeLike
More research required. I’ve always wondered where Armitage became a fan of Blake anyway, and thought maybe that wasn’t his idea originally for Lucas. However, it looks now like it may have been …
LikeLike
I don’t know much about Blakes’ mythology, period, so it would be interesting to know what you find out. But I’ve noticed that RA seems to like (to me) heavy-duty, complex stuff like Crime and Punishment, or The Master and Margarita. So if there are similar themes running through Blake’s work, it would make sense that it would appeal to him as well.
LikeLike
I confess I am not a fan of Blake. I was introduced in my sophomore year English Lit class and found him tedious, to say the least. I read Peter Ackroyd’s Blake bio when Armitagemania hit and was planning to blog about observations but never published it. Maybe time to go back.
LikeLike
What saralee said…wow. As a believer in things often happening for a reason, when the stars align or however one wants to describe all the pieces falling into place at a given time, to me it’s as if Thorin was meant to be all along for Richard.
Safe travels, servetus.
LikeLike
Yeah. Laid in his path by the universe.
LikeLike
Interestin’!
LikeLike
Indeed!
LikeLike
[…] [Left: John Howe's drawing. See Armitage's remarks about that drwaing here.] […]
LikeLike
Playing Thorin, or: Pitfalls and rewards of taking on an iconic Tolkien character, part 1 [guest post by KatharineD] | Me + Richard Armitage said this on August 29, 2013 at 6:24 pm |
[…] kind of role (although we never figured out exactly what) in Spooks, and then of course there was the Blake connection as an impetus for his comfort with playing Thorin Oakenshield, and the significance of Blake for the narrative in Hannibal, and now […]
LikeLike
Someone really needs to ask Richard Armitage about Blake in an interview sometime | Me + Richard Armitage said this on February 6, 2018 at 7:10 pm |