The Mark and Craig Show...

[fajrdrako]

I've been wanting to talk about the Gathering of the Fellowship, the Tolkien convention in Toronto, but time has been short, and there are always other things to do.

One highlight was what we called the Mark and Craig show.

Two of the guests of honour at the con were Mark Ferguson, who plays Gil-Galad the Elven King in "The Fellowship of the Ring", and Craig Parker, who plays Haldir, a Lothlorien Elf in the first two movies.

Many of us are big fans of Haldir, including myself. It is a little difficult to explain Haldir's snotty charm to those who don't see it; but it doesn't matter. Haldir is proud and heroic and shiny.

At first I didn't recognize Craig Parker, as he looks so unlike Haldir. He isn't tall. He doesn't have long, fair, shiny elven-hair. He has moppy brown hair and he's very mobile and expressive.

He's terrific.

For their first session, Mark and Craig answered questions from the audience. Someone asked who is responsible for the death of Haldir. At first he blamed Aragorn for singling him out - he was fine till Aragorn shouted his name - and then he confessed the truth: it was his fault. The food the caterers brought was so good that he pushed some hobbit out of the way to get to the pork chops first, and then discovered he had shoved aside Peter Jackson, who then wrote die, die, die in red crayon over the script of Haldir at Helm's Deep.

Craig Parker explained that he isn't as tall as Haldir, and they started out filming his scenes from "Fellowship" with him on stryrofoam blocks. He kept falling over.

They asked him to speak Elvish, and he did.

Someone asked if they had stories about other members of the cast while filming. Mark and Craig looked at each other significantly. "We have stories," Craig explained. "We can't tell them without being sued."

"We could tell about.... Oh. No."

"And the time when - "

"Uh-uh."

"Or what about - oh, no, not since Pirates of the Caribbean, came out."

They turned to the audience. "Sorry. We don't want to be sued. There was a lot of hobbit misbehaviour." Shaking their heads sadly.