John Rhys-Davies : Indiana Jones & Lord Of The Rings

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Interview with John Rhys-Davies by David Woodward
Star of cinema classics including Indiana Jones and Lord Of The Rings

David Woodward talks with John Rhys-Davies, one of the stars featured in INDIANA JONES – THE COMPLETE ADVENTURES.  This is the ultimate adventure collection of all four iconic films on Blu-ray with seven hours of bonus features, including nearly an hour of previously unreleased behind-the-scenes footage.

Mr Rhys-Davies, how are you?

Not too bad, mate.

I’ve got a few questions I’d like to pop your way, but firstly I’d like to say it’s a pleasure talking to you.  I’ve enjoyed a lot of your work over the years.

That’s very kind of you.  I’ve been very lucky, haven’t I really?

You’ve appeared in three of the biggest movie franchises of all time - Indiana Jones, James Bond and Lord of the Rings... and Anaconda. Were you attracted to the continuing saga-type format of these franchises or did you see it as an opportunity to further develop the roles you played in them?

Well, you can.  Obviously with Lord of the Rings, you’ve got to be stuck in all three anyway – do one and see it all the way through. With Raiders – well, the character is sort of geographically pretty set, isn’t he? 

A good writer can move him anywhere, but obviously they decided he’s really an Egyptian character and so if the action is going to take place there, they’re going to think about that.

So if there was ever another one, you may not get a nod?

Well, if there was ever another one, it’s down to the writers – whether the writer wants to do that or not.

If the opportunity arose, I would certainly sling my hook to the back of the wagon and get towed along by it.  I think, yes.

Going back a little bit, in the 1980s you appeared in two James Clavell TV mini-series – Shogun and (my personal favourite) Noble House with Pierce Brosnan - I thought he was really good.

Yes, Pierce was marvellous, wasn’t he?

Those shows had a big-screen feel about them actually.  I know you've also done a lot of other episodic TV work but, with the mini-series concept, was that a conscious decision you made or did it have a particular appeal?

You credit my career with having far more forethought and freedom that actors ever do. The truth of the matter is that it’s the job of your agent or manager to field and initiate opportunities. 

Your job is to say “why not - never done that before - yeah alright, or I’ve done that character fifteen times and I still haven’t got it right, I’ll have another go.”

Does the geographic location come into it?  You obviously did Lord of the Rings in New Zealand and you did another one more recently a couple of years ago.

The Legend of the Seeker.

The Ferryman too.

Yes, I did that in New Zealand.

Does the fact that you get to travel to New Zealand and places like that, is that an attraction as well?

Well obviously, I love Australia.  I get on hugely well with Australians because we Welsh tend to get on pretty well with Australians anyway.  But I’ve never worked in Australia.  New Zealand however is a different kettle of fish. They accept me there as well. I married a New Zealand citizen and I have a New Zealand-born daughter.

She was born during one of the shoots?

No, I met her mother.... I did a fan convention in Wellington after the shows were all done and to promote it I went on TV1 in New Zealand. She was hosting the show Good Morning. I lured her out to dinner a few nights later. She tells me that was nearly eight years ago and now we have a six year old daughter.

So I’ve been away working for the last five months and they’ve been in New Zealand because my mother-in-law is ill and they want to spend as much time with her as they can. So we met up here in Sydney and tomorrow night, we’re all going to the Cirque du Soleil. We’re very excited about that. They’re extraordinary.

I’m a big fan of the time you spent on Sliders in the mid-1990s.  I know it wasn't perhaps your most favourite time....

What's interesting is that normally actors can let things go but I'm still mad with Sliders because we had, potentially, a Star Trek franchise. We could have gone anywhere in space and we could have gone anywhere in time. There could have been spin-offs of this damn show! It could have been the best show on television. And, with the exception of Mr Torme who was the initiator of it, we didn’t seem to have a writer with any sense of originality whatsoever. 

We did every rip-off you could imagine. We did the Tremors episode. We did the Night of the Living Dead episode. We did the Eloi and the Morlocks stuff. We did a little bit of I, Robot. They even used the masks from the film The Island of Doctor Moreau. 

When I went in and saw them looking at the newly released DVD of Species and saying we can take a little bit of that, I used to lose my temper because I’m used to dealing with real writers who can come up with original ideas.

There was a change of personnel at the studios, even location I think.  Didn’t you move from Canada to California?

Once a sci-fi show gets down to doing a para-military thing against the aliens, even though it’s all over, there’s no brains left in the show.

Just back to Indiana Jones for a second, with the remastered versions in cinemas and the crystal clear version on Blu Ray, what do you think it'd be like seeing yourself in those newly restored versions where everything is so cleaned up and captured in time?

I remember sitting with an old actor who’d once done Scaramouche (Stewart Grainger). As we were watching Scaramouche, a tear was falling down his face. I think probably because he was looking back at himself when he was young and now he was an old man.

But you go to sci-fi conventions, and I suppose people (despite your current situation) still visualise you as those characters in that timeframe.

That’s right, yes.  And it’s marvellous. The fans are so generous and so kind. And of course they keep you alive as well. By meeting your fans, you actually understand who your audience is. It makes the decisions you make about the next character sometimes a little bit easier.

And you are still working obviously.  You’ve got quite a few movies coming out...

Well, I hope so, yes. The last number of years were a bit difficult. I was married for a very long time to my first wife who developed Alzheimers many years ago and she became completely bed-ridden. As the end was coming, I had to retreat further and further back to the Isle of Man where I had a house and where she was. I wanted to be with her at the end you know.

I’m glad you’ve got over the trauma of that period of your life and that you’re back working heavily...

I think I’m meant to be doing two or three before Christmas actually which will be a bit busy when it happens.

I presume you’ve been doing a few interviews today?

Yes, a few but none more congenial than with you.

I’ve certainly enjoyed my conversation with you.  We hope that you do continue working and that you have an opportunity to come back to Australia to work in the future.  May be you should put your hand up and a producer out there might grab it....

Never knowingly undersold I am.

INDIANA JONES - THE COMPLETE ADVENTURES IS OUT NOW ON BLU RAY