When director Peter Jackson changed his vision for Azog in "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," he brought in Manu Bennett to recreate the villainous Orc using motion-capture technology. They had to work quickly, as the movie was set to premiere in three short months.
"I think on the day of the premiere, the film arrived five minutes later than it was meant to because they were still working on it at Park Road [Post Production]," Bennett told Headlines & Global News.
Jackson digitally removed the original Azog, a man wearing prosthetics to portray the seven-foot Orc, and laid Bennett's performance on top of the film. Like most motion-capture performances, the 45-year-old actor filmed his scenes alone on a soundstage accompanied only by Jackson and a team of graphic designers tracking his every move on their computer monitors.
"There's nothing there," Bennett said about shooting in a space big enough to house a basketball court. "Peter Jackson is yelling at me from one side of the room that there's a giant tree in front of me and Gandalf and all the dwarves are there. Now they're lighting pine cones and throwing them at me."
Dressed in a green body stocking with dots placed all over, Bennett needed to imagine the world he inhabited to bring the character to life. Only his director shouting cues could give him context for what the scene entailed.
"I've got to illuminate all of this. I'm in this world. I'm in front of the giant pine tree and Gandalf," he said. "And then Peter Jackson yells out, 'And Richard Armitage... or Thorin is eyeballing you.' Eyeballing me? OK, I have to stare into space and imagine Richard Armitage is eyeballing me."
Bennett knew he needed to imagine the scene progressing, but he really had a "bunch of guys on computers in front" of him "wondering what [he] was doing in [his] performance."
The "Spartacus" alum disagrees with the notion that motion-capture performances don't deserve award recognition (referencing Andy Serkis' role as Gollum) because not as much work goes into them. He argues that they require much more work.
"You're extended into another dimension of character portrayal," Bennett said. "I put on the Deathstroke out [in "Arrow"] and I know I'm Deathstroke. There's my gun. There's my swords. There's my military armor. Boom! Here I am."
The experience of portraying a seven-foot Orc in a tight green stock proved a little more humiliating for Bennett.
"I walk out as a seven-foot Orc called Azog, I'm in a tight body suit with little balls all over me and a bike helmet with a Go-Pro camera staring at my face and I've got dots all over my face. But I've got to inhabit the space of this character. So it's harder. I look foolish but I have to eliminate that and go, 'Now I'm a seven-foot Orc.'"
Given his last-minute addition to the project, Bennett feels privileged he got to portray Azog in "The Hobbit" trilogy.
"Being from New Zealand and being chosen by Peter Jackson to play Azog, which is a pivotal bad guy, he really honored me to get a role like that and make a break as a New Zealand actor. I owe that guy a lot," he said.
Although tears were shed when production came down on the movie, Bennett said overall it was a huge celebration.
"I think the whole world has been affected by six movies that have brought the J.R.R. Tolkien world to life. It's a huge thing. It's been of the biggest successes in terms of Hollywood and filmmaking," he said.
The third and final film of "The Hobbit" trilogy, "The Battle of the Five Armies" is playing now in theaters.
