Let’s just say it: there were a lot of extras in The Lord of the Rings. (Oddly, there probably weren’t that many in the above screen cap.) The army of Rohan was almost entirely populated by extras casting calls for anyone who could bring their own horse, meaning that quite a few of those Rohirrim men were ladies in false beards. And thanks to standard setting DVD extras covering every aspect of cast, crew, and production, a lot of LotR fans managed to absorb just how fun it was to be on set, and fantasize about how easy it would be to get the job.
So it comes as absolutely no surprise today that an extras casting call for The Hobbit got so out of hand that the police had to be called.
The call was for men under 5’5″ and women under 5’1″, big men with “character faces” over 5’9″, men with large biceps, women with “character faces” and women with long hair. Hm. I’m 5’3″ and could pretend to be a man? But while my hair is getting to the point where I’m thinking about a trim, I don’t think any independent observers would classify it as “long.”
But there were quite a few people in New Zealand this week who felt they fit the bill. 3,000 of them, actually, where the casting company was expecting a mere 1,200. Apparently only about 800 people made it to auditions, before the organizers called everything off early. Don’t worry, it wasn’t because things got rowdy:
It was reportedly the location of the hall near a main highway that led to concern for the safety of the gathering crowds.
Senior Sergeant Braybrook said that the manner in which people were queuing, together with some parking the other side of the highway and then crossing it to get to the venue, contributed to the early closure.
Folks: don’t cross highways on foot to get to be in The Hobbit. If you die, not only will you not get to be in the movie, you’ll also never get to see it in the first place.
(via Digital Spy.)
