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!

I'm cheating! 30 in 3...

This is the 30 day Richard Armitage Challenge created by http://recycledvinyl.tumblr.com/.
Thanks to Delia for sharing the challenge on Facebook.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to post one answer per day, so I’m cheating and providing my answers to all questions in 3 parts. Of course, that should not stop you from coming back to my blog every day to read one answer at a time J

The images below were kindly supplied by http://www.richardarmitagenet.com/

The film clips were taken from Youtube.

The first ten questions and answers are below. Here we go!

1. The first role I saw him in.

I first saw Richard Armitage as John Thornton in the BBC’s adaptation of Elisabeth Gaskell’s North & South. A beautiful story, beautifully portrayed. For some reason, Richard caught my attention.

Richard as John Thornton in North & South

2. The role which made me fall for him.

After North & South, I started looking at other things he had done.
This one sealed the deal for me. Sparkhouse is seen as a modern Wuthering Heights, although I think there are too many differences between the stories for that comparison to make sense. The book features prominently in the series and that basically creates the link between the two, but putting Sparkhouse on the same level as Wuthering Heights would be giving it too much credit.

What Richard did with John Standring is remarkable. For that reason only, I would recommend it.

Richard as John Standring in Sparkhouse

3. My favourite character.

That’s a difficult one.  Lucas North (Spooks) is definitely a favourite, but I also love watching Guy of Gisborne (Robin Hood) and John Porter (Chris Ryan’s Strike Back) but I can’t really say I prefer on character over another. At this particular moment in time, I have to say my favourite is probably Robert Lovelace as voiced by Richard in the BBC Radio play Clarissa, the History of a Young Lady.

Richard as Sir Guy of Gisborne in Robin Hood, as Lucas North in Spooks and as John Porter in Chris Ryan's Strike Back

4. My least favourite character.

The Captain doesn’t do anything for me… I don't like the show, don't like the character.

Richard as Captain Ian Macalwain in Ultimate Force

5. My favourite photoshoot.

2011 Project Magazine photo and video shoot. I especially love this one…

6. My favourite interview.

Definitely one of my favourites is this interview for Series 9 of Spooks.
Richard looks great as Lucas North with the black hair, the sideburns and the 5 o’clock shadow. He speaks so passionately about his work in series 9 in which he was faced with the great challenge of making a very difficult and even contradictory storyline look believable.
And, what can I say: I can't resist a man who speaks with his hands…

7. A scene of his which made me laugh.

The proposal scene in The Vicar of Dibley, The Handsome Stranger. It had me literally crying with laughter!!

8. A scene of his which made me cry.

It takes an extremely gripping story to make me cry, so that very rarely happens, but this scene is very powerful. The proposal and rejection scene in North & South. I 've included the extended version that never made it into the final film, but it touches my heart every time I watch it...There must be a hopeless romantic inside me somewhere!

The fact that this is unedited footage without music, makes it even more powerful...

9. My favourite character pics.

Oh, there are so many favourites!! Today, I would say it's these:

Richard as John Porter in the promo pictures for Chris Ryan's Strike Back

10. My favourite body part(s).

His hands, no doubt.
But I also have to add his back. He used to be a dancer and that shows in his posture, as you can clearly see in this picture from Captain America.

Richard as evil Heinz Kruger in Captain America

Come back soon for question 11 to 20!