Translation of Richard Armitage interview in BRAVO (German to English)
This translation will post shortly on RichardArmitageNet. Thanks to Ali for providing the original copy; a link will go up to it here eventually. No copyright infringement intended.
And Servetus has a new fantasy: Richard Armitage sturgeon spearing with her brother …
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[Part of the headline is cut off because it goes onto the other side of the page. This says: “The Dwarves” and then “The HAR?… . Also, Bravo is a magazine that’s directed at pre-teens and younger teens, so this interview had a lot of slang in it – I don’t know exactly how some of these terms would translate in slang used by those age groups in English – so I translated them into my 44-year-old slang.]
Caption on the left: Richard Armitage / Thorin / Coolest guy ever! /The Brit is one of the hottest singles in his home country
Caption on lower left: Dwarf king Thorin (Richard, left) hopes for help!
The little heroes from Middle Earth are brave – but not exactly good looking? Nothing of the sort! These two are real lookers!
A proud king, who was robbed of his throne and who wants to reconquer his homeland … Dwarf king Thorin Oakenshield in “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” takes care of providing the action and gets his friends and the hobbit, Bilbo (Martin Freeman), entangled in an amazing adventure. BRAVO met the actor who plays him, Richard Armitage, in a New York luxury hotel, the Waldorf Astoria, for an interview. The 41-year-old Englishman on fun, courage, and blood on set …
BRAVO: How does it feel to be part of such a mega-production?
RICHARD: Great! I could hardly wait for the filming to finally start – like a kid who’s anticipating his birthday …
BRAVO: Sounds as if you were a real fan of the fantasy saga?
RICHARD: Of course! At eleven, I read the book, The Hobbit. Since then I’ve been imagining how Middle Earth looks. So to stand in the middle of the set, all of a sudden, is like a dream come true!
BRAVO: Are you satisfied with the finished film, then?
RICHARD: When I was watching it the first time, I hardly knew where to look first. There’s so much to see! There were moments when I even forgot to listen – because I was totally overwhelmed by the images. When the film was over, it was immediately clear to me: I have to see it again! The second time, I was taken over by the story and even had tears in my eyes a few times. I think I’ll have to see it again (laughs) …
BRAVO: You’re almost 1,90 m– not exactly the best choice to play a dwarf that’s barely 1,50 m tall …
RICHARD: Honestly? I was also kind of surprised that I was cast as Thorin in spite of my height. But now I finally know how other people feel around me. When I’m in a conversation, I automatically bend down. Now I had to learn to look up!
BRAVO: Martin Freeman, who plays Bilbo, revealed to us that the physical training for the actors who played the dwarves was very rigorous. Is that true?
RICHARD: He wasn’t kidding! (laughs) We had fight- and sword-training. Sometimes we had to wear weights on our hips, so that we wouldn’t walk like people but rather like lumbering dwarves. For days!
BRAVO: Did you ever injure yourself on set?
RICHARD: One time I hit myself in the face with my shield, by accident. I was sitting on the ground, with an ice pack on my split lip, and was feeling sorry for myself. Then the director came to me and said, “The scene’s in the can!” and added the comment, “You look great.” When I looked in the mirror, I understood what he meant: There’s no makeup in the world you could have used to paint that up so well (laughs). So, my blood in the film is actually real!
BRAVO: You guys filmed in New Zealand for over eighteen months. What did you do on your days off?
RICHARD: I learned to fish and to ski. The landscape is really beautiful. I’m going to buy myself a house there soon!
BRAVO: The “Lord of the Rings” stars were always bungee jumping during their shoots …
RICHARD (laughs): I wouldn’t dare! I’m not going to throw myself off a cliff with an elastic band on my foot!!!
BRAVO: Oh, so you’re not as brave as Thorin, then?
RICHARD (laughs): Not at all! I always play it safe and think about everything three times first!
Me + Richard Armitage 
Somehow I don’t think he was talking about spearing giant fish through 2 feet of ice 🙂 …wishful combo of fishing and skiing?
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well, if he skis he doesn’t mind cold weather. Now we just have to figure out a way to make it cool to drink pinot noir in a spearing shanty.
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Cozy little “cabin”, toasty fire in the stove on a picturesque lake, sounds good far… (I must say, I find the prospect of staring for hours at RA much more appealing than staring down into a hole waiting for a prehistoric fish to lumber by)
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Exactly. He can watch the hole — and I’ll watch him 🙂 You and I can take turns. Might actually get me into a spearing shanty.
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I’m pretty confident that Richard Armitage (or perhaps the complete exhaustion of all other food resources – in the world) is the only thing that would get me to go willingly into an a giant tin can parked on a frozen lake.
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honestly, I’d take that (assuming the lake were really frozen — a big if) over standing in waders in a trout stream.
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Nope, not doing that either…I will sit in a boat, I will cast from a dock (starting to sound like Dr. Seuss 🙂 ) Preferably, I will get my fish skinned, boned and fileted. Here’s my issue with the shanty…what happens when you’ve had a couple of glasses of pinot? I don’t care for the logistics…
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yeah, someone has to stay sober. And it’s true that the sheer boredom of icefishing makes that hard.
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That’s one more thing. I hadn’t even considered sobriety…not a huge issue for guys, more of a problem for ladies. (Although I’m sure Fleet Farm or Gander Mountain has some sort of gadget)
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Really, when it’s that cold out, no one should be drinking outside — alcohol gives you that flush and you don’t realize when you’re actually cold. However, I am sure you’re right about the gadget.
Actually, I can’t imagine anyone drinking pinot noir in a shanty, either. Although you wouldn’t have to worry about bacteria in your steak tartare.
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Not unless pinot comes in a can with a Packer coozy around it 🙂 Steak tartare on a stick maybe…I like rare meat, but I’ve never tried tartare – is it served cold cold?
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I think Sophia Coppola sells some of her wines in cans.
Ideally, yes, steak tartare is served quite cold. It’s a high grade of beef, and it should be ground and seasoned only shortly before serving. We actually always had it on new year’s eve but didn’t this year because mom’s immunosuppressed.
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I would like to try it some time – maybe in Milwaukee. (up and coming gastronomic city)
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I think you can get it already ground in the Valley — at Festival? Just make sure they ground it recently. I’m pretty sure that’s where I bought it for New Year’s Eve 2011-12.
I just mix it up with a little minced onion, salt, paper and top with capers. In restaurants it’s often served with a raw egg.
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OMG, Richard Armitage in BRAVO („Saucooler Typ“, *cough*) This is kinda shocking. I’ve to admit I read this teenie-paper when I was 13/14 years old, back in the Seventies. Nowadays kids start to read stuff like this with 7 or 8! I intrinsically considered myself in so long out of this age class!!! Sigh…… This really is weird.
I remember I must have read parts of this interview before or a similar one only recently. Can’t recollect where. I had wondered about him learning skiing, because one must think, that actors involved in such a longterm and incredible expensive production, are not allowed to indulge in such a risky sport as skiing. OTH he in the past quite often mentioned his enthusiasm for this wintersport, so I assume that he is quite a good skier and therefore doesn’t have to learn it?? Maybe they mentioned it especially to appeal to the German audience. as skiing is so excessively popular here. The other statement about buying a house in NZ, read a bit differently too, more like: He enjoyed his stay in NZ so much that he even started to think about buying a place there. (yeah, got it: it was the article of the „New Straits Times“ (http://www.nst.com.my/life-times/holiday/showbiz-dwarfed-by-his-height-1.191650)
Ok. this brings me back to the (Servetus) classification on how to read and comprehend an interview…. 😉
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Yeah, I had to giggle for several minutes when I saw it at first. I don’t know anyone who says “saucool” in my real life, either. And “krasses Abenteuer”? My German friends would wince.
Epistemological critique is definitely in order here. Although I liked the point about him now knowing what it’s like to be around him.
The odd thing about skiing is that he’s been doing it forever. This must be a misunderstanding or a misspeech (like him saying that when the RIII project gets made he’ll have gotten too old and too tall to play the part — wait, is he going to get taller?). He might have said he learned to fish and went skiing and it was misquoted, or he might have used the “learn” verb for fishing and not changed it for skiing … oh, the hypothetical possibilities are endless … 🙂
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maybe we should write to epd-film and get them to interview him 🙂
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Oh, this could or would be amazing!!!Presumably… ?? 🙂
Have you read the one-sided article about „The Hobbit“ im Feuilleton der Süddeutschen Zeitung? Published on Dec.12th. Quite interesting (except not mentioning RA), but we know there are more important things in a film than actors….Ha, Ha.!!! If you are interested I ‘d try to get it scanned (I’m terrible at this) and mail it to you.
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What’s the title? I have a link to something like “Peter Jacksons Bildaesthetik” but haven’t had a chance to read it yet. But yes, I’d love to read it if you think it is worthwhile.
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At your service!! 😉 Mmmhh. I’m unable to present the title right away. It is under a certain pile of stuff to read or re-read in my kitchen…… have to search a bit, but as it is weekend again, I’m going to be sucessful! But the „Bildaesthetik“ sounds somehow familiar…..
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This sounds like the German equivalent of Tiger Beat…is Justin Bieber on the cover?
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yes, that’s the approximate equivalent (except perhaps that BRAVO is practically the sole publication that serves that market in Germany). While I was translating I was reading up on their recent history — they now have a circulation of only about 500,000, but it was much higher in the 60s and 70s.
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There are a couple of other magazines as well, like „Popcorn“ or „Mädchen“ but their circulation has diminished as well severely over the last years. Yep, all is available via the net!!!
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I was reading that Bravo essentially segmented its own market by creating “niche” versions of itself. Fascinating 🙂
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Yep, BravoGirl, BravoSport and there used to be BravoPoster! You quite certain have heard of Dr. Sommer????
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Indeed. I didn’t realize that was part of Bravo, too.
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Thank you Servetus 🙂
Oh Bravo! The legend newspaper in my country(back then in early 80)Even more hard to get then ham,chocolate,coffe…or any other article.
One girl in my class had uncle in Germany(Bonn) and she was a hero,I tell you! 😀 I made her a scarf and knit cap for the photo of Duran Duran (actually for a single Bravo’s page with the drummer of the band;) )
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Jazzbaby needs to read this — to see how far Duranies would go to cultivate their fascination, even behind the Iron Curtain.
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Really? Jazzbaby?! 😀
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What a blast from the past! I remember what a treat it was to get the German Bravo as a kid. We’d wallpaper our bedrooms with the posters even if we had no idea who the celeb was. Then a Polish edition came out and I read it all through my teens 🙂
I also remember Popcorn and BravoGirl!
I’m loving this!!! *huge grin*
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Even adult fan girls can squee about this stuff, I see …
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Bravo is the only German mag that had an interview with RA yet. In November, at the beginning of the PR they also had an article about the dwarf heroes that was actually quite nice and well-researched. Everyone has to start somewhere.
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BTW I wish I would read an interview with Spiegel Online, one of our largest news sites. An interview introducing him with the words the he is not just a pretty face but also can act and that not only women love him, but the best directors want to work with him. The latest who was honoured with such a treatment was Bradley Cooper, but he had to earn a golden globe nomination first. RA has still a long way to go.
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Interesting — I’ve never read Spiegel’s entertainment / culture commentary. Of course, it would be a huge expansion for his prominence.
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They had a lot of Hobbit coverage and actually a very favourable review (something I never expected in a million years, they like to be very cynical and trash everything mainstream).
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Actually, that’s why I have basically stopped reading Spiegel. The constant tone of outrage and insistence that everything is terrible tired me out. Also, my German got better and I noticed that their style started to irritate me. (And then I thought: who are you to be making snobby judgments about their German style ? 🙂 )
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Jane!!!!
I watched ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ last weekend and absolutely LOVED IT. LOVED. IT. (I enjoy most David O. Russell films) Cooper and Affleck – me thinks those two pretty boys are going to have an interesting year. 😉
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There was a Swiss – German piece, iirc (I think I translated it but my memory is becoming a sieve in the face of the flood of stuff).
Given that they want to market this film to teens, this was an appropriate place for him to be interviewed, no question.
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He went back down to #4 on IMdb and If he’s allowed to ski before the hobbit is finished, I’d say he’s lucky.
True Jane, he’s got a ways to go before he’s taken seriously.
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Instead of ice fishing, how about just fishing in the summer. I am sure I could find a nice lake by me to take him to. I would have to get some help as I don’t fish. But Richard could get me to go I am sure. I would not go ice fishing this winter so far in Wisconsin, to warm and freezing rain on Thursday night and into Friday. I am pretty sure that everyone in our town would even just get on with a fuss. After all that Q.B.that use to be with the Packers was here while he was still with the Packers and people just let him enjoy himself up here.
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White bass run, anyone ? 🙂
I wouldn’t go out on a lake at the moment either. Although some idiots will, they always do.
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We have already had one death by drowning right before Christmas. The weather has been to warm to make ice. Something that I forgot to add last time. How about some cross county skiing? I am sure Richard could get the hang of it. Great trails here to ski on and there are a few places for down hill too. Well white bass, walleye, pan fish or the other big daddy musky. Maybe a smelt run in the spring.
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