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Which was your support, in the process of becoming the
character ?
Liv
Tyler : My foundation was the book, of course. Tolkien wrote a lot about elves. There are very detailed descriptions, but they are those perfect beings, which makes them hard to play.
They are immortal; my character is over 3000 years old. How do you play a character that is more than 3000 years
old ? It was very hard to comprehend, particularly with me being this young; it didn't make sense to me.
But I came to realize that it's something that is just part of them, all the wisdom, the power, and the knowledge about the world around
them.
Which was harder for you to achieve, the visual aspect or the way Arwen
speaks ?
LT
: Everything had its difficulty. I used to get stomachaches each time I had to do my scenes. Like singers when they perform, it all comes from inside. I always felt like that. Always very focused.
How did you come to learn the elvish
language ?
LT
: We had a
languages teacher, a mysterious figure that translated the elves' lines. The writers decided what needed to be said,
sent him a fax with the dialogs and he would send a fax in return in elvish.
Were you surprised by the look of your
character
?
LT
: That's one of the things about being an actor, we're always changing. It always makes me sad when I'm asked to do a movie with my hair long and dark and wearing normal clothes. It's so exciting when you can do something different.
Was there any a moment of greater physical danger for you, or were the stunt people always called in for those
scenes ?
LT
: We were all in those sort of situations. Obviously, the boys had much more complicated things to do. The battle scenes were very dangerous.
Stunt people were a very small group of persons that had to act the same scenes for different characters. They were the ones getting a bit hurt, obviously, but they worked with an enormous passion.
The same thing happened with all the actors. Viggo Mortensen had his knuckles always swollen and, for two years, he had to keep his fingernails always long.
What was your relationship with the Lord
Of The Rings phenomenon before being asked to join the movie ?
LT
: I didn't know the books, I had barely heard about The Lord
Of The Rings. I felt really excited, without even understanding why they had asked
me. I quickly began my research, reading everything I could. I read the script first,
then had an in-depth conversation with Peter Jackson and only then did I started on the
books. One of the difficulties about my character is the fact that she's only briefly mentioned. But Peter Jackson advised me to read the appendices. I was so touched by the chapter about Arwen and Aragorn that I even
cried. I thought it to be one of the most beautiful love stories. I knew we would be developing the character based on that story line and that there we'd
find her essence.
The movie has some scenes with Arwen that aren't in the book, like the one with Frodo.
LT
: That scene is in the book, but with a different character, another elf, one
who isn't in the movie. It's an important scene, in the follow-up of what's happening, which is taking Frodo to Rivendell. It was a very clever solution from Peter Jackson to show Arwen's other
side. Elves are so many things. They aren't just quiet beings, intelligent and perfect. They are also able
to accomplish many other things, physically. And there's also the way in which other creatures in Middle-Earth see the elves, by their strength and wisdom. So, they trust Arwen to take Frodo to be
healed. When you see the movie you realize that that was a very clever option.
It gives an all-new level of depth to the character that isn't even in the books.
Wasn't it hard to shoot your scenes without
having the slightest idea of what would be the film's final look
?
LT
: It was difficult because, for example, the horse-chasing scene was the first and the last one I shot. You can imagine a scene shot one year apart. It's a bizarre
concept. The wide shots were done in a studio, without the riders or anything else, just Peter, screaming for me to look at a pink golf ball, and me jumping up and down beside the camera. I had to use my imagination, and Peter is amazing in describing everything. Of course that I had an idea, but only when I saw the movie did I realized how it truly was. I had very high expectations about it, but the movie surpassed them all.
Peter Jackson seems to have a sort of obsession for details.
LT
: It's not so much an obsession, but more of enthusiasm, love and appreciation.
All who were part of this movie, especially those in charge of the artist elements, of sets and costumes, of armors, were teams of thousands of people, and they all loved what they were doing. They placed all of their love in what they were doing and took whatever time was needed to do it. That was why the working schedules were always so confusing.
The fact that it was such a long shooting, was another form of pressure for you or, quite the contraire, did it leave you very at
ease ?
LT
: We all needed to be very flexible. It wasn't like an ordinary movie, where you had a starting day and a wrapping day. Sometimes it was very complicated. I wasn't in New Zealand the all time, I came and went. But I was deeply honored to be a part of this project and just for the fact of having been hired to spend two years doing a
movie. But sometimes, I would come home and do nothing but wait for the phone to ring. It could be a week or it could be two months. I never knew when they would call me again. It depended mostly
on the sets; they were so elaborate and spectacular. They took a long time to be built. It also depended
on the weather. There were so many factors to take in account. We all needed to be very flexible, I've learned a lot from this experience.
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