Hunter played Bombur, one of the 13 dwarves in The Hobbit trilogy. He's currently in Canberra filming another film, the sci fi adventure Blue World Order. And he's agreed to sit down and do a Q&A session about The Hobbit at a free film screening with the ANU Film Group on Monday.

The New Zealand-born actor looks back on the epic, four-year shoot for The Hobbit movies with fondness. "We had 13 dwarves plus Ian McKellen and Martin Freeman, who were the core, and very good characters who came in and out like Lee Pace, Orlando [Bloom] and those guys," he says. "That core group of guys, we really got very close, we had a big trailer park and we all had our trailers, it was a big production and we had it all laid out. It was a bit like being at school - those guys are friends for life."

And he has a mature, accepting view of the Lord of The Rings legions of unabashedly geeky fans. "It's a bit of a responsibility playing a character from such an iconic story that people loved before you had anything to do with it," he says. "When it comes to the fans, you have to understand that it's not really you as much as it's the character and the story that they love and you're part of it."

Hunter says he loves all the fans. "When people come up and they're so excited to see you or hear you talk about what you do, it's only a good thing," he says. He's been invited to film and fantasy conventions around the world, meeting excited fans eager to hear about life on the Hobbit set. "They want to find out stories and things and I'm only too happy to recall it because it was such a wonderful time of my life."

Bombur might have had fewer lines than the other members of the dwarf group, but Hunter says it was a deliberate choice which allowed him to do more physical gags. "I had a choice that they would write me a few extra lines or I'd be a more physical character," he says. "So I got quite a lot of iconic scenes that probably wouldn't have happened if I hadn't gone the other way." And while diehard fans might have been disappointed that Bombur and the other dwarves didn't get as much screen time as Thorin, Fili, and Kili, Hunter points out, quite reasonably, that "it's pretty hard to have 13 principal characters" in a film and director Peter Jackson did try to focus on the characters in the first film in the trilogy, An Unexpected Journey.

It took hours of makeup, costume and prosthetics to transform Hunter into Bombur - the largest dwarf in the group, and the one who enjoyed food the most. So he doesn't have to worry too much about being recognised on the streets. "One of the benefits of my prosthetics is that I'm not instantly recognisable as that character. That was certainly the biggest movie role I've done," he says. "But in Blue World Order, the character of Madcap is a bigger role and it's like a lead supporting role, it gives me a lot more room to do something with the character."

He met the director of Blue World Order, Che Baker, on the set of The Hobbit. In the film, currently shooting in Canberra this month, Hunter's character Madcap is a scientist who leads the resistance against a self-appointed world government which has infected the adult population with a virus. "We've spent the last couple of days running across Canberra so you just have to be prepared for that," he says. "I find running without a [dwarf] fat suit and prosthetics a lot easier than running with them." Hunter has visited the capital before to see friends but hasn't filmed here before. "It's very exciting, I think it's a good boost to the area and it's just so accessible down here too," he says. "I've filmed plenty of times in Sydney and you've got to go through all sorts of hoops. There are so many nice locations... I don't imagine it will be the last time [I film in Canberra]."

The ANU Film Group will host a screening of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies followed by a Q&A with Stephen Hunter and Che Baker on Monday, February 9, at 7.30pm. Free. Doors open at 7pm. Coombs Theatre, corner of Fellows and Garran roads, Acton.