Things Viewers Didn’t Know About The Lord of the Rings
There are few franchises that leave their mark on the history of cinema the way Sir Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings has. Critics and audiences alike fell in love with the trilogy as well as the brilliant cast of actors. The special effects were incredible for the time it was filmed, and they still hold up today. It’s a truly timeless collection of films that can be enjoyed by anyone of any age. But don’t be mistaken, the nearly flawless final product didn’t come without its obstacles. From severe injuries to four-month-long shoots in the pouring rain, the behind-the-scenes anecdotes from the set are endless.
Keep scrolling to read some of the surprising secrets behind the filming of Lord of the Rings.
He Was A Major Fan
All the cast members of the trilogy were dedicated to giving an excellent performance, but none were as close to the source material as Sir Christopher Lee. He had the incredible honor of being the only one on set who had met J.R.R. Tolkien! But that wasn’t the only reason Lee was incredibly qualified for the job.
He was a huge fan of the source material, and we don’t mean he read it once or twice. The legendary actor read the over 1,000-page book every year until his passing in 2015. If you think you’re a bigger fan than he was, think again!
But They Were Deceived
There are several props and costumes from the set that any fan would give their left arm to have. But there’s no doubt that the most coveted object has to be the One Ring. There’s a reason why so many replicas are made for purchase! However, there can only be one original, but which lucky cast member got to take it home?
If you had asked Elijah Wood he would tell you he was chosen to take home the one and only rings, but he’d be mistaken. Andy Serkis also had one of the rings used in the film, and he too thought he was the only one who had it! Looks like Sir Peter Jackson pulled a little deception of his own.
A Happy Accident
We all know Ian McKellen is actually a man of average height, however the forced perspective in the films make him look like he’s towering over the rest of the cast. Forced perspective and shrunken props were used to make the 6-foot tall actor appear to be huge, and there’s one moment in Fellowship of the Ring that really sells the illusion.
When we first see Gandalf enter Frodo’s Hobbit hole, he hits his head on a ceiling beam. But did you know that moment wasn’t in the script? Ian McKellen accidentally banged his head, yet continued to act through it like the professional he is.
Major Wipeout
Fans and casual viewers are aware that the trilogy was filmed in New Zealand, but you might’ve not known that the cast took full advantage of the country’s incredible beaches. The members of the Fellowship weren’t just dedicated to helping Frodo with his mission, they were also avid surfers in their downtime! However, this posed a problem when Viggo Mortensen wiped out and emerged with a giant bruise on the side of his face.
The makeup team was unable to adequately cover it up, so Sir Peter Jackson had no choice but to shoot the actor from only one side. Re-watch the scene where they find the tomb in the Mines of Moria, we only ever see one side of Aragorn’s face!
A Fear Of Flying
It’s no secret that most of the scenes had to be filmed in remote parts of New Zealand’s beautiful landscape. To keep on schedule, the cast and crew traveled via helicopter from one location to another. However, one particular cast member had a terrible fear of flying and wanted to avoid getting up in the air at all costs.
Sean Bean opted to climb a snowy mountain for two hours rather than being carried up by helicopter! If that wasn’t difficult enough, he did it in full costume! We suppose that fear can push a man to do difficult and arduous things.
He Gifted Her A Horse
Arwen and Aragorn share an intense romantic relationship over the course of the trilogy, while the same can’t be said for the actors, they did have a special connection once filming wrapped. Well, a connection with one of the elve’s horses anyway. In Fellowship of the Ring, we see the beautiful Princess of Rivendell riding her horse to save Frodo after he’s been stabbed by the Nazgûl.
Liv Tyler obviously couldn’t do all the equestrian scenes by herself, she had a riding double named Jane Abbott. Viggo Mortensen, being the kind soul that he is, purchased the horse after filming wrapped and gave it to her as a gift! What a sweet gesture.
The Best of the Best
The members of the Fellowship each have their weapon of choice. Gimli has his ax, Legolas has his bow, and Aragorn fights the old-fashioned way with a sword. We see go through a number of intense battles throughout the trilogy, and that wasn’t merely choreographed fighting you saw on screen. He trained with veteran sword master Bob Anderson.
You might not know him by name, but he coached actors like Errol Flynn, Sean Connery, and Antonio Banderas for their roles that involved sword fighting. He had a long career in Hollywood training many actors, yet he called Viggo Mortensen “the best swordsman I’ve ever trained.” Now THAT is high praise!
Going All The Way For The Role
We can go on for days about what an amazing and handsome actor Viggo Mortenson is, but the man is more than just acting talent and good looks. When it came to taking on the role of Aragorn, the actor didn’t want any shortcuts. Most actors will be given a rubber sword or a lightweight aluminum sword for fight scenes, but not Mortenson. He absolutely insisted on using the real deal.
And that’s not all, he also wanted to do all his own stunts! Despite the danger this might’ve posed, Mortenson was determined to go through with his decision. We hope this will give you a greater appreciation for his performance the next time you watch the trilogy!
The Right Place At The Right Time
Any aspiring actor will tell you that show business is one of the toughest industries to break into. Even some of the best-known names in Hollywood had to struggle and fight their way to achieve stardom. Many aspiring actors spend years, even decades, trying to get featured in a major motion picture. Knowing this, it’s unbelievable that Orlando Bloom landed the role of Legolas before he even finished drama school!
Not only did he manage to secure a major movie role, but it was in one of the greatest film trilogies of all time. We should all hope to be as lucky as Bloom!
Even Elves Make Mistakes
The Lord of the Rings had a number of on-set injuries, while nothing was fatal a few are particularly noteworthy. Hardcore fans of the trilogy will always point out the moment Viggo Mortenson broke his toe while kicking a helmet in The Two Towers, but many viewers are unaware of a mishap that happened in Fellowship of the Ring.
When Arwen saves Frodo from the Nazgul, she valiantly raises her sword and proclaims, “If you want him, come and claim him!”. After making this bold statement, Liv Tyler accidentally stabbed herself in the thigh with her sword. The injury must not have been too egregious as it’s featured in the film’s blooper reel.
An Official Title
It’s no secret that countries benefit greatly when a popular movie is filmed in their borders. When a film becomes a major success, fans will flock to the locations to see where their favorite scenes took place. This tourism is highly beneficial to a nation’s economy, and New Zealand was no exception to this rule. The island got a boost of $200 million to their economy from fans of the trilogy, and they maximized that opportunity to the fullest.
The government actually has a position called Minister for Lord of the Rings! That person’s job is to take full advantage of any economic opportunities that come from fan tourism.
A Trained Archer And Complainer
Actors can typically utilize stunt actors to perform more complicated stunts for them. But as we all know, the actors in this trilogy took their jobs very seriously. Viggo Mortenson did his own stunts and became an expert swordsman, and Orlando Bloom did the same! He didn’t wield an iron sword, but he did become adept at archery for the role.
While his nimble and precise movements are beyond impressive, he didn’t come out of the role completely unscathed. The actor broke a rib, but not during any of the fight scenes. The incident occurred when he fell off a horse! Reportedly, his castmates made fun of how much he complained about the injury!
“I Survived Helm’s Deep”
The battle of Helm’s Deep is widely regarded as one of the greatest battle scenes in the trilogy and movie history. Even a non-fan of Lord of the Rings has to appreciate its epic scale, and believe us when we say it was far from easy to accomplish. Filming the sequences for this battle took four months, which was far longer than they had planned. The process was so intense that all participants were given commemorative t-shirts!
All the shirts had “I Survived Helm’s Deep” printed on the front, different cast members had titles on the back that indicated whether they were part of the “Uruk-Hai Battalion” or the “Elf Regiment”.
The Uruk-hai and Uruk-low
The Uruk-hai are some of the most distinct-looking fantasy characters to ever hit the big screen. One of the major praises people have for the Lord of the Rings trilogy is their use of practical effects when creating these half-Orc half-goblin creatures. The actors brought in to play them had to be on the tall side, but eventually they ran out of 6-foot-tall men in the area.
They had to settle for casting extras who were under 6 feet tall. They got a special nickname, too! They were nicknamed the “Uruk-low”. This was obviously an affectionate title, though we have to wonder if any of them took it personally!
Licorice Mouthwash
Anyone familiar with the fantasy genre should know what an Orc is. J.R.R. Tolkien describes them as a corrupted race of elves and brutish and ugly. Tons of work went into transforming actors into these monstrous creatures, and the practical effects didn’t stop with masks and makeup. You probably noticed that Orc blood is black, which meant the insides of their mouth had to be black, too!
To pull off this effect, actors playing Orcs had to rinse their mouths out with a licorice-based mouthwash to get that distinct black color. Given that licorice is an extremely polarizing flavor, we bet plenty of them weren’t pleased with it!
Just A Broken Toe
In the second installment of the trilogy, Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas come across the remains of a battle, coming to the conclusion that the hobbits are long gone and their arduous journey was fruitless. In a moment of anguish, Aragorn kicks an iron helmet and screams out in pain for the fate of the Hobbits. Sir Peter Jackson was greatly impressed by this display of genuine emotion…but it wasn’t acting at all!
Viggo Mortenson actually broke his toe at that very moment, that was a cry of physical pain! The veteran actor says that he continued to act through the injury because the stunt crew had been through much worse and continued to push through.
He’s Having Precious Withdrawals
Gollum is one of the most psychologically interesting characters in fiction. His backstory is one of the most interesting elements of the trilogy, once we see it play out via flashback in Return of the King we begin to understand his erratic behavior better. Gollum only cares to be reunited with his Precious, and Andy Serkis perfectly captured that feeling of desperation.
He took inspiration from the withdrawal and cravings of heroin addicts to accurately portray Gollum’s desperation. We’re not sure that’s what J.R.R. Tolkien had in mind when he wrote the character, but it definitely seems like a fitting real-world comparison.
He Calls It Gollum Juice
One of the great feats of Andy Serkis’ performance as Gollum was his ability to give the character a distinct voice. Nowadays you might expect a studio to manipulate an ordinary human voice, but Serkis’ voice acting was 100% authentic. As you can probably imagine, having to speak in that voice for long hours is a huge strain on the vocal cords. So Serkis came up with a solution he called “Gollum Juice”.
While the title sounds less than appealing, it’s actually just a mixture of honey, lemon, and ginger, not unlike what you might drink if you have a cold. Next time your throat feels sore you can make yourself a cup of Gollum Juice!
Playing Pranks On Set
John Rhys-Davies had a lot of prosthetics in order to achieve the appearance of a dwarf, but the effects team had to make him a prosthetic finger for a totally different reason. The Welsh actor lost the tip of his left middle finger during a farming accident in his youth, so a special cast had to be made for the film. Rhys-Davies took full advantage of it to play a prank on Sir Peter Jackson!
He filled the prosthetic with fake blood, approached the director and said, “Boss, I had an accident.” As you can probably imagine, Jackson had a hard time holding it together after watching the actor pull the tip of his finger off!
Which Accent Was The Fake?
Many of the actors were born and raised in Great Britain, however, there’s one famous American actor who had to put on an English accent for the role. Brad Dourif is best known for voicing Chucky in the horror series Child’s Play, but in this trilogy, he takes on the role of Grima Wormtongue, a deceptive advisor to the king. Throughout his performance he puts on an English accent, but as a method actor, he kept it even when the cameras weren’t rolling.
He was so convincing that his fellow castmates believed that his American accent was the fake one! Now that’s what we call a convincing imitation.
Who’s That Wizard?
You might’ve thought that Gandalf was gone for good in Fellowship of the Rings if you hadn’t read the books when watching the original trilogy. But those who were familiar with the source material knew that he was always going to come back. However, if you were left in the dark during your first viewing you may not have immediately recognized the white wizard who appeared in the Fangorn Forest.
Turns out he was intentionally meant to be ambiguous, he was created by combining the features of both Sir Christopher Lee as Saruman and Sir Ian McKellen as Gandalf. Their voices were blended just to throw viewers off even more!
Cast It Into The Fire!
Any film that takes place in a world of fantasy is going to require some level of prosthetics and makeup. While most of the main cast have worn some sort of prosthetic, none were as heavy or burdensome as the mask worn by John Rhys-Davies. We already admired the transformation done by the makeup department, but we have to salute the actor’s willingness to go through all that!
Apparently the makeup gave him terrible rashes, so much so that he probably built up a good deal of resentment against the fake face. Once filming ended he was given the green light to throw the Gimli mask into a fire, and he did just that!
A Natural Singer
One of the many touching and emotional moments in Return Of The King takes place when Pippin sings a solemn song while the soldiers of Minas Tirith are being slaughtered by Orcs. The juxtaposition of Billy Boyd’s beautiful singing along with the meaningless battle (and Denethor’s repulsive eating) creates a powerful scene. But did you know that the song wasn’t in the original script? It was added in after co-writer Philippa Boyens found out that Boyd had a great singing voice!
This revelation took place when she went out with some of the cast to a night of karaoke. The lyrics of the song came from the original book, but Billy Boyd came up with the melody on his own.
Killing Every Stuntman
Even those unfamiliar with the trilogy know that the films are chock full of action, battle scenes, and bloodshed. In each film we’re treated to incredibly c choreographed fights and large-scale attacks, in no small part due to the intense work of the leading cast and extras. Viggo Mortensen is in the center of much of the action sequences that take place in the film, and with all the reshoots you can imagine he’s acted out those fight scenes dozens of times.
Mortensen believes that he “killed” every stuntman on set a minimum of 50 times throughout the production of the trilogy. Sounds exhausting to us!
The Army Of The Unbelievable
While there are always going to be deviations when turning a book into a film franchise, fans of Lord of the Rings believe that the trilogy is a pretty faithful adaptation to Tolkien’s work. Of course, you’re not going to please everyone, but Sir Peter Jackson did a good job making most of the fans happy. In fact, he even included a scene he didn’t like just because it was in the book!
The director felt like the Army of the Dead wasn’t particularly believable (in a world of elves and magical jewelry no less). Nevertheless, he kept it in the film because he knew that fans would be looking forward to seeing it.
They Are No Men
You had the opportunity of a lifetime if you lived in New Zealand while the storming of Minas Tirith was being filmed. Production put out an open casting call for anyone who could ride a horse to perform as an extra in the epic scene. While we know that Eowyn was the only female character in the battle, she wasn’t the only one riding horseback.
Many of the New Zealanders who responded to the open call were women! They were dressed as men for the sake of the script, but they still proved that ladies can ride into battle just as well as men.
An Unlikely Coupling
Actors usually get to stand off to the side and watch a scene, even if they’re not participating in it. In Fellowship of the Ring we get to watch the pure-hearted Samwise Gamgee get married, and two of his castmates were off-camera to help with his performance. Viggo Mortenson and Billy Boyd were pretending to be guests while out of view of the camera.
When Sam’s happy bride threw her bouquet, Mortenson grabbed Boyd and gave him a passionate kiss! How’s that for a dramatic moment? Though this smooch obviously didn’t make it into the film, it was captured and included in the DVD extras for the extended edition of the movie.
Sauron’s Fall
One of the most memorable moments in the trilogy happens in the final film. Everything the trilogy was leading up to culminates in The Ring being destroyed and Sauron’s Tower collapsing. However, they took special care when deciding exactly how the tower would meet its demise. Return of the King was released in 2003, two years after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
Production didn’t want the destruction to resemble the traumatic terror attack. As a result, the tower is destroyed from the ground up and sound effects of broken glass were used, this way it would not appear to be an explosion.
A Very Young Nepotism Baby
There are a few benefits to having a famous parent in show business. For one, you’ll probably have dozens of opportunities available to you. You’ll also get to brag about how your parent was involved in a great work of cinema and watch them take part in incredible adventures. But another one of the benefits is making a cameo in the greatest fantasy trilogy of all time.
A few scenes after Sam gets married we get to see the two children he had with Rosie Cotton. The little girl you see Sean Astin holding was actually his real-life daughter, Ali Astin! Her character’s official name is Elanor Gamgee.
For Extended Edition Viewers Only
Those who have only seen the theatrical version of the films missed out on watching Sauroman’s ultimate demise. The scene of his death is quite brutal, he’s stabbed in the back by Grima Wormtongue and falls out of his tower onto a spike. It’s a fitting end for such an evil character, and Sir Christopher Lee was able to give Sir Peter Jackson some pointers during filming!
Sir Peter Jackson was gently corrected after telling the actor how to react to being stabbed in the back. Lee had served in the British Special Forces during World War II and was actually familiar with how it actually sounded! Who knew he’d use that gruesome experience in a film years later?