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| ABOUT ELVES... |
| by Chris Zeller |
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| Orophin, Haldir and Rúmil - Lothlórien's most wanted |
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| "Figwit" (Bret McKenzie) |
| "Orophin" (Jason Secto) |
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| Got Elf? Will travel! |
| A friend of mine insists she has a population of Elves in her garden. The small, winged variety, and she refuses to call them "Pixies" or "Fairies". Do they look anything like the Elves in the LOTR movies? No. If they did, I'd be the first one to set up an Elf-trap in her garden, believe me. Now, before you hit your head on the keyboard and groan: my friend is in good company. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the man who gave us Sherlock Holmes, believed in Elves, fairies and their various relatives as well. Have I ever seen an Elf? No. I haven't seen the spammer who fills my mailbox with "increase your size" mails, either, but he or she exists. Given the choice, I'd go for the Elves, thank you very much. The uglier the times, the more we long for beauty. And we live in ugly times - not a day passes when you don't sit in wordless horror at human idiocy. War, terror, hunger, disasters, death, illness, ignorance, fanatics - no horror movie could ever get the rating any news program deserves. Our jobs are at risk, nature is dying, families break apart - in other words, our lives become darker and colder by the minute, so we turn towards light and warmth. And you wonder why Elves are so popular? When you trawl the internet, you will find that Elves who did not make it into the movies also have a great number of fans. Elrond's sons, for example, Elladan and Elrohir. Or Glorfindel, the legendary Balrog-slayer, mostly in some kind of connection with Erestor, chief advisor to Elrond. Ecthelion. The Silmarillion Elves. The list is endless. And the movies have only increased the interest. The Lord of the Rings trilogy made stars: Orlando Bloom (Legolas) has seen his career skyrocketing, Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) has become a household name, and an amazing number of people know what Haldir's brothers look like. Wait a minute - Haldir's brothers? Indeed - the impact of these movies has been such that even the so-called "extras" have found their fellowship, first on the internet, then also at conventions. The website "The Argonath", for example, has set itself the target of cataloguing all characters, no matter what species, and finding the people who performed them on screen - their works should be appreciated somewhere. This phenomenon is a first, never before witnessed for any other movie. The most famous "extra" of them all is certainly "Figwit" (Bret McKenzie), who was seen sitting in the background during the "Council of Elrond" scene. It only took one webmistress with wit and original thinking, and "random Elf No.17" had a name: "Frodo Is Great - Who Is That?!?" - a (small) star was born. In "Return of the King", Figgie was finally allowed to speak, you can see him trying to persuade Arwen not to return to Rivendell. And he even has a signed collector's card to his name, which goes to show that it's the audience which makes the stars. The fans are resourceful, and hardly an Elf has "escaped" detection so far. The two Elves standing behind Haldir when the Fellowship arrives in Lothlórien, as per the decipher cards his brothers Orophin and Rúmil, were located, and while Kiwi artist Jason Secto ("Orophin") seems to restrict his internet activities on the "Official Orophin" website, Jørn Benzon ("Rúmil") obviously feels comfortable with the attention, interacts with his fans on his forum, has recently been invited to various conventions from Germany to the USA, and was very warmly welcomed there. Why this interest? Appreciation is one reason, sure. The curiosity to hear "what it was like" to work on LOTR another. And then there is the undeniable fact that most of the beautiful Elves on screen are really handsome guys in real-life, too - you can't blame a girl for dreaming, can you? The fandoms for the extras are smaller, more familiar, the "stars" are approachable - and I know of more than one person who is simply tired of the close-to-hysterical Legolas- or Frodo-admiration all over the planet. A small protest against "mainstream", maybe? Needless to say, the great "Elf hunt" has not only friends. Not everybody sees the point in creating websites and fan listings for characters who were only on screen for the fraction of a moment, and judging from some comments on message boards there are fans who do go over the top. But this is the case in any fandom, for any given celebrity. You will find the odd "OHMYGDO!? I wuv u! u r soo hoooot d00d!!!!!111!!!!" fangrrrl everywhere - even on a message board dedicated to Arnold Schwarzenegger. And as far as the male critics are concerned, I can't help but wonder if maybe, just maybe, a wee bit of envy is involved. However, there are also "extras" who are not happy with the attention. An extra who was one of the Elven archers in Helm's Deep on "Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers" and recently found out that some fans were looking for him told us that he feels uncomfortable about it. "I don't want to see my face on the internet, I don't want people to get nosy about my private life. If I was an actor, this would probably be part of the job and I'd had to put up with it, but I'm only an extra! I have seen things on the internet which are definitely scary, and I don't want to be part of it." So he's not flattered at all? "Of course it's also flattering - but trust me, without a wig and pointed ears, I'm just a bum, and none of the 'fans' would look at me twice. Working on Lord of the Rings has been the most important experience of my life, only topped by witnessing the birth of my daughter. This is reward enough for me - I don't need a website." The "Lord of the Rings" trilogy is a milestone in movie making. None of us sitting in the audience can really know how much work, love and dedication, not to mention money, has been put into the realisation of this project. But one thing should be obvious to everybody: this movie wouldn't have been possible without the thousands of people in front of and behind the camera who have literally spent a part of their life on the set, and working on this project has changed their lives. So to answer the question "why would anybody set up a website for an extra?": because they deserve it. And if somebody knows who the two extras were who played the lovely Elven smiths reforging the sword for Aragorn in "Return of the King": let us know. Have fans. Will travel. |
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