Richard
Armitage stands at the eye of the storm in New Line Cinema's
tornado-disaster thriller, “Into the Storm.” The British actor
who gained international attention as “The Hobbit Trilogy”’s
Dwarven warrior Thorin Oakenshield, literally flew to Michigan
directly from the Trilogy’s set in Wellington, New Zealand to shoot
the twister film. “Yes, I came straight from The Hobbit movies to
do this—the flight was my break,” Armitage laughs.
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| Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. |
“It’s
difficult to prepare for a film like this,” Armitage says. “Even
after studying the script and doing your work, you walk on set and
run into an unpredictable set of circumstances. The tornadoes in this
film are extreme and the way they are creating the effects is extreme
too. Just trying to stay on your feet and keep your eyes open isn’t
easy. But I like that! I like walking into a scene thinking it’s
going to be one thing and then seeing how it gets turned on its head.
It becomes a bit of an endurance test, which is great.”
Armitage
stars as Gary Morris, a vice principal and father of two teenage
boys, who over the course of the story’s roughly eight-hour span
has to fight to get his high school graduating class to safety and
also find his son, who is trapped in the storm. “He’s an
ordinary man caught in extraordinary circumstances,” the actor
describes, “someone who isn’t really a hero, but who has to step
into the boots of a hero in the moment. I like to think that Gary is
behaving in a way that he is not necessarily conscious of. It will
probably take him some time to realize how close to death he has
come.”
When
asked if he thinks he’d react that way in the same situation, his
answer is thoughtful. “I hope I would, but the truth is that you
never know. Most guys think they would, but it’s a different thing
to actually be in that situation. Would you run in or run away?”
On
the morning of what would become the most terrifying day of their
lives, many of the younger citizens of Silverton were anticipating
one of the best: their high school graduation. A seminal moment in
everyone’s life, it’s generally marked by memories one hopes will
last a lifetime. Such recollections are usually expected to be good
ones, but that’s not what the kids, teachers and parents of
Silverton will have.
As
vice principal of Silverton High School, Gary is largely responsible
for making sure everything goes smoothly at the ceremony. However,
even before he leaves his house that morning, the weather report
gives him pause.
Armitage
notes, “On any given day, Gary has a lot on his plate. He’s a
vice principal, an upstanding member of the community, prominent in
the school and somebody that the kids look to for support, someone
they rely on. And he’s the father of two teenage boys, Donnie and
Trey, whose mother died, so he has to be both mom and dad to them.”
“Richard
is a very charismatic actor,” director Steven Quale states. “He
has a quiet but commanding presence, and he brought a lot of inner
strength to the character who, because he’s not the top dog at
work, has had to learn to be very diplomatic. He’s a caring
father, too, and he’s trying to apply that diplomacy to his home
situation. Of course it doesn’t necessarily always work as well
with your own kids.”
Armitage,
who originated the part of Thorin Oakenshield in Peter Jackson’s
“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” most recently reprised his
role in the second part of the Trilogy, “The Hobbit: The Desolation
of Smaug,” and will appear in the final film, “The Hobbit: The
Battle of the Five Armies,” due out in December.
His
first film in the U.S. was the 2011 hit “Captain America: The First
Avenger,” directed by Joe Johnston and starring Chris Evans in the
title role. Armitage played the super hero’s nemesis, Heinz
Kruger, in the film.
Into the Storm”
is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment
Company.
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