When we ran into Billy Connolly last night at the premiere of Won’t Back Down, we wondered: Doesn’t he need to be back in New Zealand soon to continue his role as Dain Ironfoot in Peter Jackson’s newly three-part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit? “Oh yes!†he confirmed. “I have to go back for that. I haven’t done [the battle scenes] yet. I have to get battle-ready! I ride into war on a wild pig!†So, how many times has Connolly read The Hobbit? “I’ve never read The Hobbit. Never.†What about Lord of the Rings? “Never read Lord of the Rings,†replied the 69-year-old Scottish actor. “I could never read Tolkien. I always found him unreadable … I didn’t read [the books], and I normally don’t like people who have! The people who love it, they’re kind of scary. They talk all this gobbledygook and they think of it as the Holy Grail.â€
How, then, does Connolly plan to deal with Tolkien fans who will lob at him obscure questions about The Hobbit for the rest of his life?
“Usually I just make stuff up because I don’t know what I’m talking about,†Connolly admitted. “But invariably, there seems to be a sector of the press that is consumed by The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and it’s indicative of that notion, that it’s the Grail. So whatever I say is rubbish, but then I become answerable for it! People get all upset, they get terribly upset about anything that has to do with it, as if it were real! It’s a story! Just relax! It’ll go away and you’ll be just fine. Don’t panic.â€
“I mean, the scripts are brilliant, very good,†Connolly continued, “but I always disagree with people who think the movie should be like the book. A movie’s a movie, and the book’s a book.†And this movie’s going to be great, Connolly promised. “Martin Freeman is absolutely brilliant. That was one of the first things I saw. And I’m going to get into trouble again if I say this, but we’re filming faster [at 48 frames per second] than we normally would, with special equipment, and in 3D … Our 3D just makes it glow. It looks like a cartoon, but the people are real. And it’s shiny. And it’s real.†We thanked him for his time, and he laughed: “Make sure you make it clear you cornered me and forced me to talk so I don’t get in trouble!â€