LotR1-FotR-Seq02

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by radagastly

Actually, I believe one of them said in the commentaries that they were aware of each other's work, but had never had the opportunity to work together before "Lord of the Rings."

Yes! I caught that late last night - decided to watch the cast commentary track before getting into bed. It's actually quite unusual for two British actors of that calibre not to have worked together for that long so I was surprised.

Another reason that Ian Holm was excellent as Bilbo is that he captured that nervousness which I see as part of Bilbo's personality. At the beginning of The Hobbit, he is one of those 'terribly polite Englishmen', not exactly a stereotype, but a familiar kind of figure. He does not wish to offend the dwarves by refusing them his cakes but he gives his treats away all the same, not wishing to appear rude. Bilbo still has this quality, with a bit more confidence, at the begining of LotR and I found Ian Holm captured this really well.

Did anyone else think there may be something significant in the fact that while Bilbo blew a smoke ring, Gandalf blew a smoke ship and sailed it through the ring?