Yesterday was very busy for the Richard Armitage community with the appearance of cast members from The Hobbit at the San Diego Comic-Con. Were you surprised he kept the beard?
Richard Armitage – Entertainment Weekly interview
For your convenience, I have some interviews with just the Richard Armitage bits below with their transcripts and closed-captioning. While others may have posted these already, I have captured, edited, and boosted the sound in addition to captioning and transcribing them. We are a team and your corrections and additions are most graciously welcome! 
Here is a very short clip from Entertainment Weekly with the just the introduction and the Richard Armitage segment:
Transcript:
Host: Hi this is Anthony Breznican with EW.COM. We are here at Comic-Con with the gang from The Hobbit, our recent cover boys. Thank you very much for being here with Richard Armitage, Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Phillipa Boyens, co-writer producer, of course Mr. Peter Jackson, the ringleader of this circus and Andy Serkis, an actual “Serkis.”
Host: Tell us about Thorin Oakenshield. Who is he? What do we need to know? What are his vitals?
Richard Armitage: He’s the exiled dwarf king from Erebor and he’s taking his people really back on a journey to reclaim the gold and effectively the homeland.
Here is an interview of Richard Armitage done by “Quickbeam” on TheOneRing.Net:
Transcript:
Quickbeam: Hello there, Richard. How’re you doing, sir?
Richard Armitage: How are you?
Quickbeam: Good to see you.
Richard Armitage: Good to see you, too.
Quickbeam: You spent some time with our friend Larry Curtis.
Richard Armitage: I did.
Quickbeam: When he was visiting. It was a little while ago.
Richard Armitage: Yes.
Quickbeam: Actually I was there myself 3 or 4 weeks ago and you were very very busy.
Richard Armitage: Was I? Oh no, I did say hi to you.
Quickbeam: Well you were very “in mode.”
Richard Armitage: Was I in crazy mode?
Quickbeam: Actually you were in “Robert DeNiro mode.” You were very focused. It was fantastic. And I had a nice talk with Mana, your double. He’s an old friend of mine.
Richard Armitage: I so love that with my stunt double.
Quickbeam: Isn’t he great?
Richard Armitage: I watched footage and thought it was me. And it’s nice when you don’t recognize yourself. That’s when you know your stunt double is amazing.
Quickbeam: He’s a tall drink of water, that guy.
Richard Armitage: Yeah, I want to take his number. I want to work with him every time.
Quickbeam: He’s very very cool. I’ve heard from listening to the conversations you had that you read the books when you were very young.
Richard Armitage: Yeah.
Quickbeam: Which fills my heart with joy. And the fans as well would like to know you have an organic connection to the story. We’re really looking forward to seeing the films and it makes all the difference that you know the story.
Richard Armitage: Well I think that when you grow up with characters like this, they change as you get older, they evolve. Going back, I’m 40 years old and they were read to me when I was 7. And it feels different. These characters feel different. And then actually putting the costume on and trying to make that character live and breathe and walk and talk. It’s like you’re given this responsibility to every other person who’s read them, who’s just reading the books for the first time or who has read it when they were 7. That’s the responsibility and you have to own that for everyone. And I’ve tried to take that on, but I’ve only got my own imagination to work with. It’s served me well in the past so I think it will do again.
Quickbeam: I believe it will. From what I’ve witnessed, it’s served you quite well. I was very impressed with everything the team was doing on the set. But let me ask you something about the staying power of myth. Why do these stories have such a holding power on us?
Richard Armitage: That was one of Tolkien’s great achievements. He didn’t really create myths, he created legends. And that’s what his full intention was, to create something that felt like it was of this earth, not somewhere else in the same way C.S. Lewis did. If you read any of the early histories of the evolution series it comes through, you realize that you’re looking for something much deeper, much more English actually.
Quickbeam: Yes.
Richard Armitage: He wants to create a universe that you think may have existed. He created a religion of languages.
Quickbeam: Seventeen original languages Tolkien invented. Which is crazy.
Richard Armitage: And I think his passion for language and the way he used Nordic mythology is why the books feel so real and sustain over a long period of time. And will do. I would be very surprised if any of these stories get remade again. But I think Tolkien will be visualized on film. Maybe Silmarillion or something like that. I mean that would be a great honor to see that come to life.
Quickbeam: It would.
Richard Armitage: And it would be a tragedy if it didn’t.
Quickbeam: Indeed. Well, Richard, thank you for your time.
Richard Armitage: Nice to talk to you.
Quickbeam: Congratulations on all your good work.
Richard Armitage: Thank you.
Quickbeam: Cheers. Well-done. Ladies and gentlemen, that was Richard Armitage. Thorin Oakenshield himself right here on TheOneRing.Net. You guys got to talk to him before anybody else. And look at that. A few yards away from us is Sir Ian McKellen.
Thanks in advance for any help on the transcriptions! 
See you soon.
