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The Two Towers premiere Los Angeles Sunday, December 15th |
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It could not have been more poorly set up from a fan’s perspective. After the crowd had been moved to the other side of the block, we were then re-located again completely off the side of the theatre and across the street. And by street I mean Sunset Blvd. with its furious traffic and stoplights.
Right off the curb before our barricades flowed a three-foot wide moat which raced across the length of the block courtesy of some sort of roadcrew work. This disastrous recipe only needed rain to be complete.
As luck would have it, Los Angeles, which has been precipitation-less for good while had rain in the forecast this very weekend. Fortunately, this bullet was narrowly dodged as it is thundering and showering now as I write this- the day after. The Arclight Cinerama Dome theatre is less than ideal a place to hold a premiere tp start with, given the fact that there’s little space to hold people other than just a sidewalk, which understandably is dominated by the red carpet and press. The Dome looms directly next to Sunset. On top of this, you might think New Line and the Arclight staff would have given more thought about what to do with the eventual crowd that would congregate. It seemed as if the organizers didn’t expect any fans to show up at this premiere? Much trouble could've been spared for both parties with just a little planning. From our vantage point across the street, photographs of the arrivals were only reasonable if you had a telephoto lens due to the distance, and even then you had the lovely possibility of a passing bus appearing in your photo of this The Two Towers premiere. The idea of any star crossing traffic on the street and greeting the throng of people in front of a river lane is by all reasonable estimation, implausible. |
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John Rhys-Davies took implausibility by its neck and smacked it about when he did just that—crossed the street and greeted the fans here to see him. You may have already read many reports praising the personable and gracious manner in which he treats his fans. This was no exception in Los Angeles. He worked through the entire
length of the block. John was an eloquent, impressive man who never lost his composure, thanking and saying hi to the fans, throwing in a “you guys are sick!” jab here and there along the way. He was declining to sign autographs –very understandable, considering the conditions- except for obliging few who begged really well: running the gamut
from a rude professional autograph seeker who started complaining, to a girl who some described by shouts as “the first person here today!!”
More limos arrive, followed by more shouting: Billy Boyd appears, proudly demonstrating his Scottish heritage dressed in a kilt. Miranda Otto arrives, but vanishes quite easily behind the press with her petite stature. More people follow, their faces peeking between reporters and camera people from time to time: Bernard Hill, Andy Serkis, Brad Dourif, Dominic Monaghan, Elijah Wood, Karl Urban, Howard Shore, and surprisingly, Viggo Mortensen. In the midst of all this, the already incredible wave of girly shouts rose to an even more ear piercing fever pitch. Girls were running, shrieking, shouting, and in even some cases, crying. Clearly something was happening, and that something was Orlando Bloom crossing the street. I found this to be incredible as the person most likely to incite a riot was heading straight into the eye of the storm. He signed feverishly, moving very quickly but had a friendly smile the whole time. Before he reached me I saw him hop onto a narrow edge of a curb, over the water, sharpie in mouth, autographs flying. After he passed my brother who got my book signed, I held out my Legolas drawing which I had worked on for this event, and he stopped for a short while to look at it and chat, which pleased me greatly because he was basically signing on everyone’s posters, books with great speed and running through. “Whoa look at that! Did you draw this?” to which of course I said yes, while fumbling for my camera. I hadn’t gotten very far on the drawing with really only the head, and the shoulders filled in. Orlando saved me the trouble of adding in much more by signing nice and big in the middle after complimenting me some more on it. Awesome. He worked further to the end of the crowd and then made a traffic-stopping return to the theatre. |
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Not long after that, the stars made their way into the theatre after dealing with the press, and the crowd began to disperse. I looked on for a few more minutes with my brother, and saw Viggo Mortensen come running out. He too, crossed the street and made a quick run through while filming the gathered crowd with his camera. Miranda Otto came out as well, and swiftly proceeded to her limo. I assumed
the same thing would happen when John Rhys-Davies and Liv Tyler came out. As we were leaving, I saw that they were both greeting fans on the other side of the street.
To my good fortune the crowd slightly parted in front of me, and I took the opportunity to go up to JRD. I handed him my drawing of Gimli, and he really seemed to enjoy it. Again, asking me if I had done like everyone does. He was very very complimentary and left me a very very kind note. This was a really great moment, since he was one of the people I wanted to meet most. He showed the drawing to Liv, who was standing right next to him and working the good size crowd on hand as well. I shuffled through my bag so I could have Liv sign my Arwen painting. She really took a liking to it as she told me it was beautiful, but I’m wondering what she must’ve of thought of the weird uncolored bits as it was unfinished. At any rate she was really kind and had a gentle way about her, and I’m now an even bigger fan of hers. I still don’t know how I managed to meet them both under these frantic conditions, but I’m glad I did. I've always wished I had a tape recorder at events like this because they said quite alot to me but I simply cannot recall exactly what through the chaos. We drove off to get a bite to eat, and returned to see the actors head to the after-party next to the theatre, but it got to be really awful since there were no barricades, and the people who couldn’t say no to the screaming crowd got mobbed. The sight of the human donut that descended around Viggo Mortensen was frightening. Also with no restraints, overzealous fans got into disputes with the security, and with other fans. A general unfriendly vibe was manifesting itself by the time we left. |
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| John, Orlando, and Liv made this a great night, my thanks goes out to them! |
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> Read other reports < Back to The Art of Charlie Song |
  
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