Artnewspress : Talent agency job ad lists long skinny limbs, acne scars, facial lines, missing bones and large eyes as desirable features
Have an overbite, ears that stick out, small eyes, or a “bulbous or interesting” nose? Hollywood has finally come calling.
A New Zealand talent agency is looking for actors to appear in the big-budget Lord of the Rings television adaptation, due to resume filming in the country shortly, and is seeking urgent applications from people they have euphemistically deemed “funky looking” in an unusual job advertisement.
The Facebook post by a casting agency in New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, lists facial burns, “long skinny” limbs, acne scars, deep cheekbones, facial lines, missing bones, large eyes, and skinny faces as desirable qualities.
It does not mention a particular role, and an earlier image has been removed that featured a range of police mugshots to illustrate the look the agency is seeking.
The booker who wrote the post said she was not allowed to confirm to the Guardian that she was selecting applicants for the Lord of the Rings television series, which is due for release next year on Amazon Prime. But an earlier version of the Facebook post described her as “lead booker submitting talent for Amazon’s Lord of the Rings” and included the hashtag #lordoftheringsonprime. The mention of Lord of the Rings was later edited out of the post.
Pre-production on the television series – for which a second season has already been commissioned – was disrupted in March due to the Covid-19 crisis, the New Zealand Herald reported. It is set to resume next month in Auckland, according to the newspaper.
The agency, BGT, has been providing extras for the Lord of the Rings franchise since Peter Jackson’s movies were filmed in New Zealand in the early 2000s.
It is not the first time that adapting Tolkien’s fantasy novels for the screen has required a search for unusual-looking actors. An advertisement in October for the television series called for applicants who were particularly tall (over 1.95m), short (below 1.5m), androgynous or hairy.
And while work as an film extra can be boring and poorly paid, there are always Tolkien super-fans eager to do it. In 2012, a casting call for the The Hobbit films outside Wellington was shut down and police were called after 3,000 unusual-looking hopefuls thronged to audition.
Only those who have the right to work in New Zealand and live in Auckland should apply for the latest roles, the agency said.
In response to the post , a number of people jokingly tagged their friends in the comments – most of whom did not fit the bill.
