A second chance
Foreword: in Spring 2010 any actor in the Kiwi community is applying to audition for any role in the Hobbit. Pin-up boy Dean O’Gorman tries as well, and he reads for Bilbo. As soon as he finishes, he has no illusions whatsoever: “There’s no way I’m gonna be Bilbo”. He forgets about it and thinks about other projects, but he notices with a hint of disappointment that all his friends seem to have gotten a (minor) role in this film. And he guesses that probably PJ didn’t like him at all.
But sometimes you are given a second chance…
It’s Easter Weekend 2011, 40 days after the beginning of principal photography, and Dean is relaxing at home, watching Game of Thrones. Suddenly his phone rings: it’s his agent, telling him that PJ wants him to audition for a role in the Hobbit. Dean thinks it’s for an Orc or something like that but it’s for a role with (relatively) many lines: the Dwarf Fili.
A few days later, Dean is flown to Wellington and has to do a long and complex audition with Aidan Turner. And the fact that he was also required to cry in a highly emotional scene always sends shivers down my spine.
Because that was the end of their journey and they were looking for an actor who could live up to those terrible final moments..
And he could.















