You know how it is sometimes, you have a stressful time at work and you get home and just decide the best thing to do is meticulously edit eight hours worth of Lord of the Rings movies down into a more palatable two hour version. Well, that’s not a solution for everyone, but it is for the actor Topher Grace.
Turns out, after playing the radical Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke in the Spike Lee movie BlacKkKlansman, Grace was feeling pretty down and needed something to help him feel better about the world. That’s where the fantasy movie trilogy of The Hobbit films come in.
In an interview with IndieWire, Grace revealed that he was so stressed out and miserable after playing the white supremacist, he decided to unleash his creative juices and put his editing skills to good use.
“I was so depressed. I was probably a terrible husband at the time. It was so disturbing to go home and turn on the news to see how [Duke’s] ideology was affecting us at the moment,” Grace explained.
Grace, who found his big break in the comedy series That ’70s Show, had previously learned to use editing software to cut the Star Wars prequel movies down into one 85 minute film. Ultimately, he felt that The Hobbit movies deserved the same treatment.
“I think that maybe The Hobbit should’ve been one movie, and many people would agree. Money drives a lot of those franchises. It’s better when the art leads,” Grace said. I mean, he’s not wrong is he? He added: “All these franchises started from a real, genuine, artistic place. Then they made a lot of money. They say success has many fathers.”
The epic adventure movie saga which told the story of Bilbo Baggins ran just under eight hours before Grace got his hands on it and reduced it to a tighter two hour cut. Asked about the curious way of relieving stress, Grace said: “I don’t know what other guys do. Go fishing? For me, this is just a great way to relax. There’s something really zen about it.”
Each to their own. If you don’t fancy locking yourself away to edit a trilogy of films, you could check out our list of the best family movies instead. Or, take a look at our list of the best Lord of the Rings characters.