What happens to the Hobbit actors now?

Cafe Society
1

What kind of careers can Elijah Wood, Sean Astin and the rest of the Hobbits from LOTR look forward to? They’re all major stars now, but it’s hard to see any of them as leading men. They’re all small guys (around 5’6") and that seldom cuts it. The perception of their small size will be exagerated by the memory of the movie as well. There’s also the matter of type casting that plagues sci-fi actors.

I’m sure Oralndo Bloom and Viggo Mortensen will be box office studs after this, but I have doubts about the others.

So is Eijah Wood doomed to be Frodo for the rest of his life?

2

Elijah Wood and Sean Astin were child actors. They’re already beating the odds by having acting careers as adults.

Robert Conrad was a shrimpy little dude who still managed to have a career as a leading man.

Me, I’m gonna wait and see what they do…

3

Tell that to Stallone & Tom Cruise.

4

Tom Cruise, Michael J. Fox, Danny Devito, Dustin Hoffman, Ian Holm…all small actors who have had solid careers as leading men. You don’t know what you’re talking about.

5

Matt Damon, too, is on the shrimpy side.

6

I know Orlando Bloom is in Pirates of the Caribbean with Johnny Depp.

7

Well, given that Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan have 32 IMDB references between them, and that’s 32 more than I have, I’m guessing they’re pretty solid. Dominic has been in an extremely successful PI series (“Hetty Wainthropp Investigates”) (honest). I’m guessing we’re going to see a lot more of them in supporting roles for a while, and once people realize they’re cute at real size, too, they’ll get some leading roles, although Dominic does have a distressing tendency to look like a feral rat when he’s excited…

8

First they get their thighbones surgically reattached, then they stop the hormone injections, so the hair on their feet goes back to normal.

After that, a month in the red light district in Amsterdam.

Sua

9

Elijah Wood was the star of Deep Impact as a teenage boy who discovers the asteroid or reasonable facsimile that hits Earth. It was eclipsed as a disaster movie by Armageddon, which came out at about the same time, but was quite well-made; Wood did a pretty fair job of character acting in it.

It happens I’ve never seen Sean Astin in a movie before FOTR, but my understanding is that he’s been a well-respected and competent actor since childhood, growing into young adult and adult roles.

McKellen, of course, is the leading candidate for any role he cares to accept, perhaps, the title role in Sojourner Truth, after his last few blockbuster films.

I’m curious about Bean and Rhys-Davies – I knew nothing about them before the Tolkien movies came out. Are they well known among movie buffs?

10

Make that “any role he cares to accept, except, perhaps, …”

Proofread it, Poly!! :o

11

Sean Bean is famous in the UK for his TV work rather than film roles ( though he was the villain in Goldeneye). Rhys-Davies has made his career mainly out of low-budget, straight-to-video nonsense.

12

Doesn’t ANYONE remember a little movie called “Raiders of the Lost Ark”? Rhys-Davies has been a supporting actor in plenty of movies and TV shows, and will continue to have a solid career as a supporting actor.

13

(Hmm, looks like other people beat me to it while the hamsters were gnawing on my post. But here goes anyway…)

John Rhys-Davies has been playing Gimli-style hearty-heavy roles for ages. The roles that made his reputation were Vasco in the TV miniseries of Shogun and Sallah in Raiders of the Lost Ark. He’s been playing similar roles in movies, TV shows, cartoons, and video games ever since.

Sean Bean is perhaps best known for playing Sharpe in the BBC’s Sharpe’s Rifles TV shows. However, he’s also been in a bunch of Hollywood movies such as Patriot Games, Ronin, and, most notably, Goldeneye.

Sean Astin got quite a lot of praise for his role in Rudy ten years ago, and that role revolved around the fact that he’s short. :slight_smile:

14

Polycarp:

I’m surprised to read your words re: Rhys-Davies, as the man has had a solid genre career going all the way back to the first Indiana Jones movie. He was in two of the three Indiana Jones movies as Indy’s Mediterranean sidekick.

His other best-known role was as Professor Arturo on the science fiction TV series Sliders.

Between those two roles and LotR, Rhys-Davies was a triple threat when he was a guest at last year’s DragonCon.

15

I’m surprised you’ve not seen Rudy, or at least made passing reference to it. Everyone I know whom I show a picture of Sean Astin either refers to him as “Rudy” or “that guy from Encino Man.” “Sam Gamgee” seems to fall short of their list.

~Ferry

16

Wish I could cite, but I recall reading that Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan are collaborating on writing a comedy sometime this year.

17

What about “That kid from the Goonies.” That’s what I hear most people refer to Sean Astin as.

18

Geez, it’s not like these guys are unknowns. Orlando Bloom is the only member of the cast without significant experience; everyone else is an accomplished Hollywood veteran with multiple credits and extensive work experience in Hollywood:

ELIJAH WOOD has been one of the hardest working actors in show business, appearing in movies nonstop since 1989 or so. He has, by my count, two dozen film credits and at least half a dozen starring roles aside from Frofo.

SEAN ASTIN has been in Hollywood productions since, what, 1983? He has been in one movie after another, including starring turns in “Rudy,” “The Goonies,” and “LOTR,” plus supporting roles in 35-40 films, including some really good movies like “Bulworth,” and “Courage Under Fire.”

DOMINIC MONAGHAN, as already said, is an accomplished TV star.

BILLY BOYD is the least accomplished actor outside Bloom, but he’s been in stage forever and already has a big role in the next Russell Crowe epic.

IAN MCKELLEN is, of course, an Oscar-nominated actor of immense talent and fame.

VIGGO MORTENSON has had a number of big roles in one major productions after another; “Witness,” “28 Days,” “Psycho,” “A Walk On the Moon,” “G.I. Jane,” “A Perfect Murder,” and many others. Over 30 film credits.

JOHN RHYS-DAVIES had his own series, “Sliders,” which sucked but it was very popular, and has been in more movies than most people have watched. He was, of course, in “Raiders of the lost Ark.” “Asps. Very dangerous… you go first!”

LIV TYLER is of course one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood, so she’ll never lack for acting jobs; she’s also a pretty good actress, and has been in many films. In fact, since 1995 or so she’s been one of the hardest working actresses in the business. Somehow managed to be Steven Tyler’s daughter without coming out all mangled and stuff.

CHRISTOPHER LEE has been in more movies than anyone alive, IIRC.

CATE BLANCHETT is a Hollywood veteran with many leading roles and an Oscar nomination.

HUGO WEAVING was, of course, Agent Smith in “The Matrix,” so if you question his acting chops, he’ll go all kung-fu on your ass.

Even the lesser roles are all staffed by experienced professionals: Miranda Otto’s a very accomplished actress, Sean Bean has been in many films and TV series, Brad Dourif has scores of movies on his resume, Bernard Hill’s been in a zillion movies, Andy Serkis has been in 15 movies in the last 5 years, David Wenham has been working very hard in many films, and Ian Holm is a very successful actor with several leading roles.

When you think about it, really, Jackson went to some trouble to get generally very experienced and skilled actors. He cast only one novice in the whole cast, that being Orlando Bloom; even small roles like Bilbo are filled with top-notch professionals. Contrast that with Star Wars, where all three principles were pretty much unknown. It would have been easy to plop cheap newbies into these roles, but he got mostly veterans. These people have been working steady for years; why would that stop now?

As to the height issue:

Elijah Wood: 5’7"
Sean Astin: 5’5"
Dominic Monaghan: 5’6"
Billy Boyd: 5’7"

Sylvester Stallone: 5’8"
Dustin Hoffman: 5’5"
Michael J. Fox: 5’4"
Billy Crystal: 5’8"
Tom Cruise: 5’7"
Kevin Pollak: 5’6"
Mike Myers: 5’7"
Al Pacino: 5’6"
Robert De Niro: 5’9"
Robin Williams: 5’8"

Matt Damon is 5’11" or so: I think he looks short because he’s stockier than most actors and Ben Affleck is REALLY tall.

Mel Gibson looks really short to me, but claims to be 5’11".

But anyway, it doesn’t look like you need height to be a star.

19

Well, I knew he’d done a number of vampire roles, but perhaps you meant “…than anyone else alive”? :slight_smile:

20

What! That’s the kid who played Hetty’s legman? I sure didn’t make that connection, & I didn’t get the impression that he was that short on the TV series. I just assumed Patricia Routledge was a rather tall woman.