‘It felt like coming home’: John Rhys-Davies on attending SLC’s FanX

SALT LAKE CITY ( ABC4 ) — Among FanX’s celebrity guests this year is the prolific actor, John Rhys-Davies, best known for his roles as Gimli in “Lord of the Rings” and Sallah in “Indiana Jones.” ABC4 met with him at the convention, where he was also a guest last year, to learn more about why he loves Utah and some of his favorite roles throughout his career.

Q: You’ve been at FanX a couple of times now. What is it about this fan experience and specifically Utah that you love so much?

Rhys-Davies: “The warmth and the generosity of the people. I’m always made so welcome here that often I’m just thinking — when I flew in on Monday, I was just thinking, gosh, it felt like coming home. I’ve been here so often. I did something with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir a few years ago. I love the choir. I love the great giant of music in our generation, in our world, really. I have so many friends here and the music is glorious. But this particular show actually comes from the top. Dan Farr [the founder of FanX] likes people. He likes his actors, and of course, we all love the public and shows like this are far more than just collecting money. They’re about people meeting people and making friends. That I really love.”

Q: Are there any favorite questions that you’ve been asked lately through this round of conventions?

Rhys-Davies: “It used to be that the favorite convention question was from teenage girls. ‘Tell me, John, did you and Oli [Orlando] hang out a lot together, and to which I would end up having to reply. Ladies and gentlemen, or particularly ladies, I do not have Orlando Bloom’s personal phone number, but out of sheer malice. If I had it, I would give it to you,” he said with a chuckle.

Q: What was it like on set with Orlando Bloom? Did you guys discuss your chemistry between each other or did it just happen all on set?

Rhys-Davies: “Between actors, it should happen. If it’s in the script, then your job is to enable it and to make it happen. We serve the script. We serve the writer, the director, the people who are putting money into the show, and of course, ultimately the audience. Sometimes you cannot please everybody. But our first duty is to the story, to the script that we’ve agreed to do. He was such a gifted young actor and you would put out something and he would put out something. He would respond to that. But it was very clearly in the script, the aggression and the hostility right at the beginning, to the friendship and indeed lifelong and deep friendship right at the end.”

Q: I wanted to ask you kind of a nerdy question about “Sliders.” I grew up watching that, watching the re-runs. I heard a rumor that back in the 2010’s there was going to be a potential reboot. How do you think a new “Sliders” would fare in the multiverse world that we’re in right now?

Rhys-Davies: “There are a lot of difficulties to getting the show going again. There’s one the question of ownership. Now we think we know who owns it. But to convince them that it’s worth rebooting, this show will take some time. I think our first thing is to get our sliders together and perhaps do a few fan conventions together. That indeed itself has taken time. But we are now seriously talking and we might just announce that we’re doing one or two or three fan conventions.

He continued: “And if that, then what people do not understand is that the young teenagers and the young 20-year-olds who were watching ‘Sliders’ when we were doing it are now 20 or 30 years older. We have a different type of audience. I think if we could satisfy that audience to begin with and then gradually add the younger people to it as the older ones of us will die off, then they could have a franchise that could go on for a few years. But we have to demonstrate that and we have to persuade people. And indeed it might not be possible. So one would then have to look at the legal implications if the people who were in ‘Sliders’ went off and did a different show together and that involved alternative universes, that might be more legally than broadcasters would want to accept. But we could look at it that way as well.”

Q: For me personally, another great show that you were part of was “Shogun.” The new series is out. It’s been hitting a ton of awards circuits. Well, have you seen it yet? What was your experience like working in Japan?

Rhys-Davies: “Well, I haven’t seen the new series. I know it’s wonderful. I haven’t seen it yet. I’m told it’s pretty much told from the Japanese side. But working on “Shogun” was one of the great experiences of my life, working in Japan for five months on end. Richard Chamberlain taught me more about professional responsibility than any time that I’ve ever worked since. I owe him that. I love the man to death. I don’t think that this new show supersedes the original “Shogun.” I suspect they probably are very complimentary. I’m so glad for the show, and I’m so glad they’ve done so well.”

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