[Ithrilyann]

Ещё Ли рассказывает про Трандуила.

"He's thought and killed a lot; he's taken life a lot and survived a lot of battles and he's sad, he's hurt because in a buddhist way he's not immune to the suffering, and it changes who he is.

"He's not a happy elf, not a nice elf."

He's also the sworn enemy of dwarf leader Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) whose wee gang he takes captive during the part of the Hobbit story covered by The Desolation of Smaug.

"The first scene that I shot was with Richard - and talk about being thrown right in at the deep end. It's a pivotal scene for both of the characters and it's the first scene that I shot, the confrontation between the king of the elves and the king of the dwarfs and they do not see eye-to-eye.

"That's one of the interesting things about The Hobbit - the conflict between the elves and the dwarfs - and we really worked hard to make that conflict specific.

"When Thorin comes through again and i catch him trying to disturb a sleeping dragon I'm determined to stop him ... [Thranduil] doesn't want to be his friend, he just wants people to kneel in front of him."

Отсюда
Исчерпывающе, на мой взгляд.
И показывает, что слова о коленях в том интервью - не какой-то прикол, а продуманная позиция создателей образа.