Ministry of Richard Armitage Walks, chronological file, incomplete
There are a few Richard Armitage walks that are not in here for various reasons — the big missing one is Guy of Gisborne. This is partially because it’s a pain to upload Robin Hood for reasons of copyright restrictions, and partially because I think that cutting that vid will probably take most of an afternoon. I also didn’t have time to do Thorin. But here are some of our favorite Richard Armitage characters walking. Feel free to suggest additional moments of Armitage walking that are unbelievably mesmerizing and I will follow up.
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John Standring (2002)
Lee Preston (2003)
Mr. Thornton (2004)
Dr. Alex Track (2005)
Claude Monet (2006)
Guy of Gisborne (2006-2008) — to be added
Harry Kennedy (2006)
Lucas North (2007-2009)
John Mulligan (2009)
John Porter (2010)
Me + Richard Armitage 
It’s interesting. John Standring walks as if very conscious of gravity, with his shoulders pulling him down. Richard himself is very hips-forward. And his cockier characters (John Mulligan, Guy of Gisborne, even Porter to some extent) are chest-first, as if being drawn onward by an unseen energy. (And Thorin, of course, is very grounded and heavy, with his momentum all in the soles of his feet.) All of course exhibit his own unique way of moving, but every character has his own physicality and walk. As if we needed more confirmation of the care and precision he puts into his work, but there it is.
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Mulubinba (fellow blogger who’s still around intermittently) is a physical therapist and she said his hip rotation is perfect — like the goal of what they’re trying to teach people to do when they’re training them to walk but which most people never achieve.
I thought those few seconds of Mulligan were really intriguing — those four steps say, I’m always ready for a fight.
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Very interesting to compare and contrast (with episodes of drooling of course). Is it my imagination or did he struggle to give Lee quite the cockiness he should have had in that scene? I think he was embarrassed… 😉
Thanks for my favourite Lucas bits! (Well, some of them… There are many…)
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he has an interesting forward lean in his walk away from the camera that I think is just part him but also suggests a little struggle …
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Please don’t shoot me but I am gonna put myself out here and confess that I am not a fan of the Armitage walk at all. I have always found it a bit too ambl-y, almost a little bit too feminine. I can’t quite put it down to anything in particular, I just think he kind of sways and bounces in a way that I perceive as slightly ambiguous, particularly when playing super-macho roles like Guy of Gisborne and John Porter. Sometimes, I felt, he was almost swaying his hips. That certainly draws attention to the arsitage (which of course is good), but irritated me at the same time. It probably is just his gait – which he can’t change. I do concede that he is able to express different characters with his walk, as Alyssa pointed out. The heavy trodding of the farmer Standring as opposed the stalking of Lee. On Thorin I found it hard to discern a pronounced walk at all, hidden under all those clothes, pelts and heavy boots.
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Do you mean ambiguous or androgynous? Is it the gender thing? Just wondering, I would never shoot you.
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Hm, you are making me think here, Kathy – no, I think I do mean ambiguous. Open to interpretation.
BTW, just read on another thread you have broken your leg. You poor thing. Get well soon!
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Thanks, Guylty. If there is a way to fall down, I will find it. Back to walking,which I have yet to master properly, I have wondered about his “hands in the pockets” walk. Often his pants are so tight, I would think his hands could not fit into his pockets. Not that I’m complaining. The swaying thing I haven’t noticed.
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You are right I think – this is not his top asset (and please don’t shoot me either). Once in a while there is something a bit odd with his walk – though not always. I am tempted to use the ugly word *overacting* – cause that is what comes to my mind. Especially when being in character of Lee (which was an overall ridiculus part and the scenes in speedos make me cringe every time. Is there an english expression for fremdschämen?)
Or maybe it is a kind of heritage from his days as a dancer. Old habits are hard to kill. According to the footage of the Cats rehearsals he does know how to move elegantly – although nothing of that could be compared to a *normal* walk. Rather a question of true colours bleeding through.
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Fremdschämen LOL – for the non-Germans: “displaced embarrassment” or “cringing for someone else”. And yeah, when it comes to Lee and his noteworthy Speedo moment, I agree. Not easy to watch. (And yet very easy to watch… eh).
I don’t know whether it is overacting. I put it down to a subconscious awareness of being watched. He does not show any of that in his other movements – like a pro, of course. But hey, maybe I just simply don’t like his walk and that is all.
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I would never shoot you, dear, Guylty. To each her own. I personally *love* the awkwardness of the way he moves. It is both one of the things that keeps him real for me, and also one of the things that makes me feel connected to him — I too am capable of grace despite a regularly ungainly gait. Perhaps erroneously, it makes me think I can identify just ever so slightly what’s going on with him. If that makes any sense.
I hadn’t considered the idea of his walk being (ambiguously? androgynously?) feminine, but I’d argue that women don’t tend to walk as hips-forward as he does (women have more outward sway in the hip joint.) If there’s anything that appears feminine with his hips when he moves it’s probably that they’re wider than average, which is a matter of construction rather than gait though his walk makes them noticeable. What is more feminine is that he conspicuously tries to take up less space when he moves, while it is typical for a male posture to fill as much space as possible. And I find that endearing.
But if there is something feminine about his walk, that would explain me looking at the way he moves and finding a kinship, because *I* move in a notably masculine way despite being female-bodied, and I imagine I can perceive in him the same (attempt to ignore the) awareness of people’s judging appraisal that I’m used to.
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The “awkwardness” certainly endears his RL persona to me. For some of the characters, it slightly distracts me. I emphasise “slightly” – this is certainly not a characteristic that withdraws from his acting abilities. It is merely a little detail, almost too small to notice.
I tell you which scene actually brought the whole thing to the fore for me – it’s SB, episode 1 when Layla and Porter have arrived at the army base and Porter offers his help to the extraction team. He gets sent off rather dismissively – he turns around and stalks off. (I wish I could insert the video, but I cannot find it…) I found his walk in that almost “stumbly”, bumpy. But who knows – maybe that’s deliberate?
Are his hips wider than average? I hadn’t noticed. I still think he sways his behind to the sides rather than back and forwards.
Oh, and I would like to refute that I am judging him for what I mislabelled “feminine” – I should not have said that, it will be misinterpreted now.
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I would guess it was a deliberate acting choice in that scene — a sort of dejected kicked-dog moment. At that point he’s still struggling to reclaim his damaged sense of competence and manhood and that rebuff puts him back a few steps.
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Yes, I too think that walk was deliberate. He was rejected,dismissed as unimportant, in front of his fellow soldiers. I think RA wanted to show through his body language (walk) that JP was hurt and embarrassed by Layla.
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Are we talking about the same scene here? Maybe that’s why I can’t seem to agree with you guys? I am talking about the moment after the leader of the extraction team says to Porter “We are having a private conversation here”, indicating that he does not want Porter’s input in the planning of the extraction. JP turns around and walks off, not really dejectedly, but more like in a huff, or annoyed, pretty erect, showing defiance even, and he then talks to a few US soldiers in his path, asking for the motor pool. Which scene did you mean?
Maybe that scene is a suggestion for Serv to add to her collection of clips up there?
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Yes, that *is* the scene I’m talking about. He’s just been put in his place, not even at the bottom but completely outside the team, by people he’d been trying to address as comrades in arms. I get the very definite sense there that he’s hurt and trying to cover the bruise to his ego by showing bitchface.
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Ah good. I agree on the intended message of that scene. I guess, the point I am trying to make is that I did not find his walk in that scene 100 percent successful in expressing the sentiments/interpretation you have mentioned, possibly because his own private walk interferes with the acted walk.
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Fair enough.
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Walks and movement are something I think a lot about, too. 😉
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I have always thought (and still think) that a lot of times, if one of his characterizations is struggling a bit, it’s the walk where it falls apart first. This is a bit odd — by all accounts he must have been an excellent dancer, and yet there are clearly moments where he’s just plain ungraceful. This was true in the vid of him dancing with friends from the early 1990s (which appeared and then disappeared) as well.
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Phew – I am glad me and i.f. are not the only ones who are mildly critical here. Not to get me wrong – it’s a detail. But it seems to be at odds with him a) having been trained as a dancer and b) being a performer who is used to being watched. Don’t know. Maybe I am overthinking this.
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Maybe I’m underthinking it because I’m too distracted by the fact that I just love watching him move. 😉
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I can certainly agree on the latter half of your comment 😉
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He walks in beauty ,,,,, Well, he walks in hotness at least. I noticed a similarity in his “uptight” posture between Lucas and Thornton. They seem to hold their shoulders and neck with a lot of tension, except when Lucas staggers during his spy exchange. I always liked that because he gives us an idea of the hardship he has been through without saying a word, just body language. He does seem to craft his walks to his characters, which the average one-time viewer would never notice. Too bad we don’t have his RL walk to compare to his characters’ walks, maybe captured at a red carpet or some other event. Of course, being on display for those is probably not “normal” either. Thank you Serv, for taking us on such invigorating strolls with RA. I think I shall take another turn around the park, the company is so pleasant and the weather fine.
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There are a few seconds of footage of RA walking, in RL, into an interview with Marilyn Dennis in Toronto.
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Thanks, Lynne. I will take a look.
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mulubinba (referred to above) was also always very concerned about Armitage’s head / shoulder position and tension.
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He captured John Standring brilliantly, sort of simian. Walking with Geraldine, his feet pointed out ( which allows for the rolling hips and which I think is his natural way of walking) – – while his stumbling gait as emerging Lucas was sort of pigeon-toed and John Porter and Track placed feet directly in front. He uses his gait and posture to help define the character and what he’s feeling. It is true, he seems to swing his hips in his natural walk. and still appear stiff.
Something to consider is that, just as his legs are long, so, too, are his arms, and it’s worth going back over these to examine how he swings his arms,keeps them bent ( or restricts them) as he walks.
Which brings me to Guy – you can find a few fan vids to get a quick look – Guy, to me, is often ungainly ( he’s usually walking fast, clomping around the castle,and with big boots), and in some scenes not related to walking, but when he’s fighting or running, he’s struck me as klutzy. Thorin despite his low center of gravity and what we’re supposed to believe are short legs, is actually very graceful . I wonder whether Guy’s movement was also intentional to highlight his incompetence, or has Richard Armitage gotten better at some of this? Porter moves beautifully.
Sorry for hijacking, but this is something I’ve been interested in – and I think it’s partly because of how he changes it up and partly, I see some of what Guylty sees – not necessarily femininity – but maybe not that masculine either.
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the arms are interesting and also definitely part of the characterization. It’s interesting to watch Harry Kennedy’s arms in particular, I’ve thought.
It was interesting to watch Porter run in SB 1.3 particularly — Armitage said in the publicity blitz that he was a gangly bloke and I’ve always thought he looked gangly as Porter in particular, as if he was sometimes struggling to get his center of gravity low enough to do that soldier creep / run thing.
I’d wanted to talk about this question of his walk for a long time, so I’m glad I’ve finally made a start with the clips, anyhow …
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So much can be conveyed with posture,walking and bearing in general. I thought he moved better as Porter than as Lucas. I’m always trying to figure what’s going on with those long walks he take in N & S- the night of M’s injury & after she refuses him-.There’s something – maybe it’s the knees – I’ll have to wait for you on all of this.
And I’m not sure what his natural posture is either – I suspect a little hunched in keeping with his self-consciousness over his height.
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Harry is always folding them away- behind his back, in his pockets. And he moves slowly and casually-
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Well, I wouldn’t say No if he walked into my life 🙂
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Nor would I 🙂 – whether feminine or masculine, hands in pockets or not …
Nice to have a focus on his walking styles! Thanks!
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yeah, walk my way, Mr. Armitage …
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I love everything about this post. I love how John Standring simultaneously moves like a big lug, a potential bull-in-a-china shop, and also hunches as if to make himself smaller. Whereas Porter, at least when he’s confident, takes up as much space as he needs. And of course there’s contrasting Standring’s walk with his hands, which are so gentle and almost delicate in their movements.
I agree with Perry, as well – Harry Kennedy’s walk seems the most like his own (as much as I can judge from the bits on youtube). Which does make sense, as he said that Harry was the most like him.
Lucas seems to walk with relatively short steps, compared to the length of his legs. When he’s walking fast, it’s almost like he’s being hauled in on a winch. A legacy of being kept in a small cell?
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Lucas is always trying not to be noticed, I think, but not in the sense that Standring is — Standring doesn’t want to be seen but his desire not to be seen actually draws attention to him. Lucas wants to blend in.
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Love this post. I’ve watched them all twice. Thanks Servetus!
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🙂 🙂
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Interesting. I don’t find the walk ambiguous at all in most cases. I discount the walk in Spooks when he is released since anyone after being in prison that long and tortured isn’t going to be walking well at all. I think he is embarassed and uncomfortable with the speedos scene and it shows but most of the ladies love it. Even without Guy here I have to agree that many times his walk there was ungainly I think due to the clothing and boots and you could easily see it . I’d say Harry was his most natural and like himself. Have to study scenes more.
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And what a hardship it will be to do that. 😉
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I think the natural “feet out” walking stance has a two-fold genesis–being a dancer and overcoming childhood pigeon-toes.
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What Northern gal said.
He is just beautiful sum of…no, still can’t say it out loud 😉
I simply love him!
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This is just what I needed! Thanks for posting about this topic. I loved all of the examples you posted as well. Now maybe I can stop thinking about how he walks….no, wait a minute, that is just not going to happen!
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you were the one who pushed me the final step toward starting this, so thanks to you!
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I’m honored you thought it was blog worthy. To you, and all other RA bloggers, thanks for the time you put into showcasing him. It is a treat for all of us….especially the newcomers like me!
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Wonder if the fact he has wide hips and large thighs has anything to do with his awkwardness. He does seem to be built a bit awkward in those areas. Interesting to see the different walks for the different characters.
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as in so many things (clothing choices) I do think the hips distinguish him.
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There is a candid photo of him on the set of Captain America which I found amazing his back is to the camera and he is on the dockside and he is standing with his feet in the dancers ‘turned out stance’ with his knees and legs straight it’s a difficult pose but he appears quite relaxed and at ease.
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although in all those pics his posture is poor — hunched over a bit.
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I never noticed anything off about the way his characters walk, but in RL I thought he looked a bit awkward. I am thinking about the UK promo for The Hobbit DVD release in particular. Video on RichardArmitageNet.com of him walking into the BBC studio. He just looks very awkward to me. Stiff. I think there are others. It just surprised me when I saw that.
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[…] from here. This is “just” series 1 at this point because the files I have are a different frame […]
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Ministry of Richard Armitage Walks, Guy of Gisborne (Robin Hood, series 1) | Me + Richard Armitage said this on October 18, 2013 at 3:32 am |
I thought in Robin Hood that he look awkward in some fight scenes and felt that it was his size especially going up against Robin who was smaller. Large men can have that issue and he was wearing all that gear too. In a series you don’t get the time you get used to it all. He mentioned how in movies like The Hobbit there is more time to train and adjust.
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I agree he looked awkward in the fight scenes in Robin Hood, but I put that down to sub-par choreographers/ combat instructors. We’ve seen how graceful he can be in action given the proper training and blocking.
The fight people on Robin Hood were simply no good, and it’s not just his fights that make me say it. Also I’m about 90% convinced they *wanted* him to look clumsy and laughable as a bad guy. Witness his miraculous fighting ability level-up the minute he becomes a “good guy.” (I think that’s even a thing on TV Tropes, not that I would be so cruel as to link it.)
The fight scenes on that show are just cringeworthy, and I’d be saying that even if I didn’t have a background in stage combat.
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yeah, he was supposed to look vaguely incompetent — as he said in an interview about who’d win a fight between Lucas and Guy. Marian beat Guy up most of the time.
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