A new interview with RA is in TV.com. He says some of the same things but it’s not identical to the Sky magazine interview nor the Premiere interview. But even if it were, I’d probably review it more than once. LOL! It’s a wonderful interview.
What I’m trying to figure out is if Heather spent only 10 minutes with RA or this is supposed to take 10 minutes to read. If it’s the former, wow! that’s a lot in 10 minutes. If it’s the latter, then they have some slower readers in their audience. LOL! Okay, I know it’s just a catchy title, but words should mean something.
10 Minutes with Strike Back’s Richard Armitage
by Heather Hughes TV.com Staff Writer 04/28/10 06:03 AMBritish actor Richard Armitage has been propelled into the public consciousness in recent years thanks to major roles in BBC dramas Spooks and Robin Hood. Six years ago, though, he was better known as John Thornton in period adaption North and South. That was his first lead part in a TV show and now he’s hoping to emulate his success by starring in another book adaptation–this time fronting Chris Ryan’s multi-million bestseller Strike Back. Despite being busy on the set of Spooks’ ninth season Armitage took some time out to talk TV.com about his new show and what’s to come…
TV.com: I’ve just watched the first two episodes of Strike Back and it’s incredibly intense. What was that like to film?
Richard Armitage: Oh, brilliant. Yeah, it was fast, exciting, and exhausting. But I think we knew that it had balls, if you know what I mean.You had specialist military training for it didn’t you? What was that like?
That was one of the best aspects of it, I think, because you can get your head into that. I trained with a military guy here in the UK and then one in South Africa, and then we had three SAS advisors that were there the whole time. I think that when you feel you’ve got the real deal giving you advice it stops feeling like you’re playing at it and it feels like you’re doing it very seriously. When you believe that an SAS guy could sit and watch it, and that it wouldn’t be too farfetched, then that does help you to get into character.And it was written by Chris Ryan who’s a former SAS soldier, which must’ve helped with the authenticity?
Yeah, absolutely.The show’s based on his a bestseller. Did you, or any of the rest of the cast, feel under extra pressure because of its popularity?
Well, I really like taking stuff from literature because I feel that when people read a book they have a kind of response to it. I have a visual mind, so when I read a book I get an instant picture in my head and it’s very clear. I think that bringing that into reality is much easier than creating something out of nothing. Because it was Chris Ryan’s novel and, like you say, he was the military man I felt like [my character] John was semi autobiographical. I was really going through the book looking for every detail that I possibly could. The pressure to get it right is a brilliant pressure and I think everyone thrived on that.You’ve starred in a couple of adaptations now. Is there one that you haven’t appeared in that you’d like to? Pride and Prejudice perhaps?
I wish! No, I’d like to do Crime and Punishment. I know it’s been done fairly recently but I love that kind of Russian, dreary, poverty-stricken grief.Read the rest here.
Wallpaper courtesy of Sky1
RAFrenzy 