Karl Urban
Karl Urban
Karl-Heinz Urbanis a New Zealand actor. He is best known for playing Julius Caesar and Cupid in Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Éomer in the second and third installments of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy in Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond, and Judge Dredd in Dredd. He won acclaim for his performances in New Zealand films The Price of Milk and Out of the Blue...
NationalityNew Zealander
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth7 June 1972
CityWellington, New Zealand
It's wonderful that people who watch and follow the shows take time to come see us, and I really do appreciate it. I'm quite blown away.
It's such a small industry here you inevitably end up working with the same people over and over again. There are only so many actors to go around, which is good for us.
Now I'm this far up the ladder and I've got so much farther to go with what I want to achieve with it.
I never envisioned when I was reading that comic as a 17-year-old that I would have the opportunity to actually play the character.
I've always wanted to do a Western.
One of the crazy things about our job is that we get taught these insane skills that we could never use in real life.
Sometimes it's nice to know that what you've done has been appreciated.
I would think, as an actor, it's just much more fun to be the bad guy.
If I can find something that I haven't done before, then that is an immediate...it peaks my interest.
Moon Bloodgood is so dedicated, and I was impressed with her dedication. She was put into some grueling situations - cold, freezing, thrown into mud puddles, cold mountains and she didn't complain once. A lot of actresses would have said, 'Ok, that's a half-hour reset for my hair and make-up' and she didn't; she stuck with it.
My philosophy is whatever you do, you've got to invest in yourself. If you don't, there are a lot of people out there who will get the job because they're more prepared than you.
That's always an interesting concept when you try to make your dream into a reality and you come up against the facts of exactly what it is you're attempting to do.
I did a little theatre work after that and the following year I got another part in a television series. Then it was almost to the end of the year before I got more work. That was coming to terms with the reality of the vocation I had chosen.
It was always something I knew I was capable of and from an early age my mother was involved in the film industry. She used to work at a production company. So I was exposed to a renaissance period of films in New Zealand back in the early 80's.