Armitage pitchman: A brief videography
These are all clips from longer publicity spots since I’ve been watching Armitage. [There may have been earlier ones to compare to as well, but I haven’t seen them.]
Please to compare:
1. Advance publicity for Strike Back — advertisement for Sky Interactive Magazine — sometime before May 2010. [Original vid source.]
2. Advance publicity for Spooks — advertisement for the series 9 DVD set — sometime before December 2010. [Original vid source.]
3. End of first red carpet interview for Captain America: The First Avenger — July XXX, 2011. [Original vid source; because it’s hard to understand, bccmee also provided a transcript.]
4. Advance publicity for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey — presumably December 2012. [Original vid source.]
It’s also interesting to ponder the matter of personal discomfort in these settings, since he also has done voiceover advertising.
Me + Richard Armitage 
[edited — Servetus]
Will come back and read this with great interest when I have a moment later today. Thanks for posting it.
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You might as well delete the rest of my comment, too
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OMG I really can’t watch the „Captain America“ interview or „promotion shoutout“ or whatever that should be… It freaks me out, it is so embarrassing, it even gives me an attack of sweating. There is no way that I just sit there and watch it in a whole (neither could I make myself watching the CA Red Carpet interviews last year. By now I also haven’t seen the film which I’m def not intending to do any time, besides somebody puts up the important parts with RA on Youtube!)
He obviously feels more confident with his „Spooks“ ad, but way too stiff with the „Sky“ ad (which I understand quite well!!) so he’s not doing a really persuasive good job there….(besides looking like JP and therefore gorgeous!)
Whereas I love those „60 seconds vids“. They are witty and hilarious and a pleasure to view. RA seems so much more at ease, having fun with his colleague (maybe thats the secret!) and is apparently enjoying the whole procedure.
Thanks Servetus for this (in parts painful) „evolution of RA doing marketing with his own face“ 😉
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yeah, it has really painful moments. Poor guy. I agree with your read except that I think he still seems tense in the last video, but he’s using it to his advantage instead of letting it master him. It’s like that particular performance allows him to use his irony instead of be punished by it or something.
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Maybe he tried to compete with MF as this is such a quick, nimble-witted and not so overly subdued guy?? …being punished is a good point in this connection!
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Freeman also seems to be making a particular effort to be … I’m not exactly sure what the word is. “Nice” is a bit too anodyne. Maybe — Freeman seems to be trying to smooth over his own rough edges, perhaps to widen Armitage’s comfort zone? e.g., the statements that Armitage could gain weight and not be fat, that it looks like he put effort into his clothes. So, yeah, Freeman tends to be more “schlagfertig” than Armitage — causing him to rise to the occasion a bit — but balanced by a different Freeman than we saw on a lot of this junket?
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Yes, I noticed that MF is actually kind to him when he could tease him mercilessly. Not just the twenty pounds question, but also the question about telling a joke, making clear that it is a theoretical question, that he is not forcing him.
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I loved those 60 second interviews! I felt they really showed the camaraderie which seems to exist between the two guys. Also great to hear them laughing and having fun instead of being so serious, as they seemed to be in other interviews. Plus I loved RA in that leather jacket. HOT!!
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yeah, it was a very cute interview — I don’t disagree! I’m only commenting on the “pitchman” aspects of it.
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Even though the four videos are promotions for projects, they are much more akin to self-promotion (as he is featured in said projects), and I believe that is where the air of awkwardness comes from. Promoting a bank or an Olympic telecast is far removed from him personally and more like an acting gig. Also, voiceover work doesn’t require him to be filmed, removing his “person” even further from what is being promoted.
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yeah — I picked these because in all of them he has to say his own name and thus he has to “be” Richard Armitage in addition to whatever else he’s doing.
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Oh dear, that CA “shout-out” is excruciating to watch. First time for me. I am of course inclined to blame the interviewer. Poor Richard… But well, that’s his job, and promo is part of it. He has come a long way and is beginning to “act” the celebrity. In a way I resent that because I want to see the man behind the roles, but I am glad for himself that he is presenting himself so well these days. I wonder whether he not only has acquired a stylist but also a media adviser who has taught him how to look, how to stand, how to behave and what to say…
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I’m pretty sure he had media training, has learned how to talk to the camera and how to speak in front of an audience at a press conference. And that he has prepared what to say, which message he wants to get across, and how to deal with questions he might not want to answer.
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Yes, I think there were clear signs he had been coached before the Hobbit junket. He knew enough about the venues in which he was appearing to adapt his behavior to them (this was esp clear w/r/t “Kathy and Hoda”).
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He was jetlagged and clearly overwhelmed in both interviews we saw (there was a third one from NYC that we never saw — it wasn’t released, apparently).
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Thanks for the videos Servetus!, For me in these videos you can see that Richard has no problem showing his characters, but not himself … it perceives stress, or at least that’s what I find
good day!
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Yes, agree.
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I’ve long thought that RA does every interview ‘in character’ and when he said, in response to a query about whether he would ever appear on a celebrity dance show, that we would never see Richard Armitage on TV, he was being very honest about that. Perhaps introducing himself does test his boundaries somewhat. What i found most interesting about the 60 second clip is how powerfully he uses the camera. Even though (or perhaps because) he was being ironic in his delivery of the “This has been 60 seconds with Richard Armitage” line, when he looked directly at the camera it blew my mind. Up until then he had been (IMO) less of a presence than the effervescent MF but at that moment he completely owned the screen. PJ was right – the camera loves him. I also believed (for the first time) RA’s assertion that he can move around in his daily life unrecognised. I’ve always wondered how a man as beautiful and tall as him could do that. But in that clip i saw a man who is comfortable with allowing others the limelight but knows exactly how to command attention when he wants to. Perhaps that is the legacy of Thorin.
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If he had been able to do every interview in character, I suspect we would have seen a different and more confident interview persona. I’m actually wondering what is happening now. Maybe he has finally managed to create an interview “character” he can disappear behind, but somehow I feel that is not the case, at least not completely. If you are a shy person and feel uneasy, and you take the shyness and unease away, doesn’t that reveal the true person? If you take that away and the person becomes more comfortable and confident, it doesn’t make him a different person that is suddenly arrogant and boastful, but you see him as he is when he is at ease, for example hanging out and joking with a friend. Or talking about the work he loves and is proud of. I know all this is PR and the aim is to get a certain message across, but I feel there is a good deal of genuineness in it anyway.
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By ‘in character’ i mean that when i look at the back catalogue of interviews, he seems to take on a certain amount of the persona of the character he is promoting. For example, in a CF interview he said that not even he could get on top of a girl (or something to that effect) within a few minutes of meeting. That, to me, was something i would expect Lee to say, not RA. To be clear – i’m not saying he is being deceptive but i do think he looks for an angle that allows him to promote his role as best he can. And Servetus’ choice of clips appears to show that, in the past, he has found being RA on camera challenging. I think the RA we have seen on TH promotional tour has partly gained confidence from playing a king for the last 18 months but he is also doing his utmost to promote both the film and himself. He may have taken advice and training. He has consulted a stylist which may have given him confidence. Whatever he’s done- good for him. I like it.
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I see I misunderstood you. Not sure I agree, as the difference between interview RA and character has always been so obvious, you could tell from a screencap even if he was in costume. With regards to what he said in the CF interview? Who knows? He certainly has a cheeky, flirty side. If he acts upon it, I don’t know.
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[…] December I collated a list of Richard Armitage as pitchman for his own projects, here. (For Strike Back, Captain America, Spooks, and then The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.) To which […]
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Armitage pitchman progress? | Me + Richard Armitage said this on October 1, 2013 at 10:55 pm |
[…] he’s been involved in. I’ve put the videos below, but earlier commentary is found here and here. There are several more that I remember but haven’t located yet. Will update. The […]
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Richard Armitage’s latest Audible pitch | Me + Richard Armitage said this on June 14, 2018 at 3:35 pm |
I love the last video, the cutest one💞💖💗
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That was really cute.
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