Benedict Cumberbatch and Evangeline Lilly talked about appearing in the upcoming Hobbit sequel The Desolation of Smaug during a recent press conference in Los Angeles.
Cumberbatch spoke about the challenge of playing a motion captured character and never actually physically appearing on screen, reports the Toronto Sun. He noted that despite having to interact with his partner in crime from Sherlock Martin Freeman on screen as Smaug, Cumberbatch never actually was in the same room while performing.
The British actor said that it was interesting to act out a character he had little concept of in reality. "It's absolutely abstract." He noted he did have some fun with it, "But I'd squeeze my legs together and use my hands as claws and throw back my neck. It was a really fun way to work."
Cumberbatch admits he thought about asking Andy Serkis for help, since he's pretty much the "Don" of motion-capture, "but then I realized he's only done biped mammals, so I don't think he'd have been much help at all."
During the conference, Lilly also talked about her character, Tauriel, who is not a character from J.R.R. Tolkien's book, according to Newsday. "She's a complete fabrication," the former Lost actress says of her elf character.
Lilly noted that despite being a Tolkien fan, she believed that director Peter Jackson could add a character into the story without taking anything away from the story that Tolkien put together. "I trusted that if anyone could depart from the book ... it was Peter Jackson."
During the conference she was teased by Jackson, the Sun notes, as he noted he was used to being around her in costume and he was beginning to forget what she looked like without her elf ears.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is out in theaters next week.
image: Amazon