Thursday 2 August 2012

A birthday countdown in pictures (#2)

Welcome to day 2 of our countdown to 22 August, when we will be celebrating Richard Armitage's 41st birthday: the day that is affectionately known as Armitage Day.

Today's picture is from Richard's first real Hollywood adventure: Captain America, The First Avenger. Thank you www.richardarmitagenet.com for the picture!


Heinz Kruger (Richard Armitage) tries to get away from Captain America in his one-man submarine
In this film, Richard played the tiny role of Heinz Kruger, the Nazi agent who infiltrated the military base where skinny Steve Rogers had just been transformed into the super soldier who would become known as Captain America.

Richard had this to say about Kruger:


"It’s great to play a bad guy. But I really tried not to see him as a bad guy. I wanted him to be human and I wanted him to be the kind of spy who had a moral conscience. So he’s not just a tool, he’s actually…he really believes he’s fighting for the fatherland. I think it’s very easy to say that most people that operated in this period didn’t really know what was going on right at the center. And that’s probably true. But I think everyone has to have a real moral compass and really desire to do the right thing for their own country. And I wanted him to be more like that than somebody who just believed he was bad."


I like this particular picture because I feel it really makes Richard look like a cartoon character. I actually had to look carefully to make sure that it was a real picture and not a drawing or a technically enhanced image of Heinz Kruger.

Richard puts a lot of effort in developing the back stories and personalities of his characters and I was amazed to hear that he did the same thing for Heinz Kruger, who IS essentially a cartoon character, but Richard made him so much more than a one-dimensional bad guy. And again, he turned to literature for character research material.

That will be the subject of a future post: The literature that Richard uses for his character development. Coming soon!

See you tomorrow!


What's a birthday without a birthday present? But what do you get the man who's living his dream?
This year, consider donating to one of Richard's selected charities (Shelter, The Salvation Army, Childline and Barnardo's) - visit his
Just Giving page. Thank you!

6 comments:

  1. I hadn't seen this still (or if I have I didn't pay attention) but I get what you mean about doing a double take with it. It's really stylized-looking...is that a word? I like both of your choices so far and can't wait to see what you show us next!

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    1. I understand what you mean, so that must be a word! :-)
      Thanks for your comment...

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  2. It's just amazing what that man can do with his face! Great post! I hadn't seen that pic yet either.

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    1. I kind of ignored Captain America after I had seen the film because RA's role was so small. But this picture was a nice surprise.
      Thanks for your comment!

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  3. I love your description of RA's face looking like a cartoon character. I hadn't really studied this particular screenshot or scene but I thought the same thing during the taxi ride.

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    1. Yes, the pictures from the taxi ride had the same effect on me... but I had to pick one to post and it thought the effect was most obvious in this one
      Thanks for your comment!

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