Merlin: a new 13-part drama series on 91Èȱ¬ One
John Hurt plays the Great Dragon
At this stage in his long and illustrious career, it's rare that John Hurt gets a chance to break new acting ground. But his performance as the voice of the Great Dragon in Merlin took him into uncharted territory, not once, but twice.
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Surprisingly, despite having worked in more than 100 movies and countless television series, this is Hurt's first foray into drama based on the Arthurian legend.
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"I hadn't thought about it but, no, I have never done anything Arthurian before," he says.
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"In this country you can't help but be drenched in it. It is very much the mythology of these islands," he says.
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"Like all societies we create our myths, but this is probably the strongest myth of all. Like all great myths it involves everything from villainy to heroism, mystery to magic."
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It is the visual magic at the heart of Merlin that provided Hurt with the other new acting experience.
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The CGI-generated dragon that designers at special effects house The Mill (the Oscar-winning team behind the Gladiator and Doctor Who)
created has been built around Hurt's own, distinctive features.
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To achieve this he had to be fitted with special, high-tech camera equipment.
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"It's a process I've never done before," he says.
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"I'm basically covered in little beads, rather like I have smallpox. They then attach a strange thing that looks like the cone of Concorde to my head. It's basically a crash helmet with a camera attached which follows me around," he explains.
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"Whatever I do gets picked up by these beads and they use that to evolve the dragon from the contours of my face. It's very clever."
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Hurt has approached the character of the dragon as seriously as if he would any stage or screen role.
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"You do have to treat something like this seriously but not solemnly," he says.
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"I didn't have to go into dragon psychology. And it was huge fun."
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The dragon has a strong role to play in Merlin's story.
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"He has been imprisoned by Uther Pendragon and will be so for as long as magic is banned," he says.
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"He is a servant of the old magic, as is Merlin. They are kin in a way."
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"He's quite playful with Merlin on occasions but he is quite grave with him on others," he explains.
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"He has got a bit of a temper."
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Hurt recorded his performance as the dragon shortly before he was about to head off to America to film. He could easily have passed on the opportunity but was drawn by the quality of the production and its scripts.
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"I've done a lot of vocal work which I enjoy enormously," says Hurt, who is perhaps best known for his voice work in Watership Down.
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"I always apply the same criteria: if I think something stands a chance of working at the level it has ambitions to work at then I will do it. I thought these were rather nice scripts for this type of television," he says.
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