Entertainment
10 Best Facts About Making the Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Every movie has stories and fun facts about their makings, but none has a community as devoted and engaged as The Lord of the Rings. Fans of Peter Jackson‘s film trilogy often go to incredible lengths to learn new things about them and tell everyone about it, resulting in some of those facts and trivia often becoming fandom jokes and memes, or even going viral.
Considering how all three installments were filmed back-to-back over several years, there is no shortage of great behind-the-scenes factoids about The Lord of the Rings trilogy, from the most inconsequential ones to actual injuries and even life-or-death situations. Here’s a list of the most incredible of such facts for next time you’re watching the movies and want to flex some Middle-earth knowledge — I mean, who wouldn’t, right?
10
Ian McKellen Bumps His Head on the Ceiling in Bag End
‘The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring’
Starting off small, when Gandalf (Ian McKellen) first visits Bilbo (Ian Holm) in Bag End in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the wizard bumps his head on the chandelier and the ceiling. According to legend, that bump was unscripted, and McKellen really knocked his head on the wood by accident, as the Bad End set was made to proportion for Hobbit characters, and he was bigger than everything around him.
There is some controversy about this, however. Peter Jackson confirmed it as an accident in The Fellowship of the Ring DVD extras, saying that McKellen hit his head and stayed in character. Later, McKellen claimed he actually planned the bump before shooting, believing it would add an element of fun to the scene. Regardless of who you believe, that bump must’ve hurt.
9
Hugo Weaving Dubs Isildur’s Only Line in the Trilogy
‘The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring’
Played by Harry Sinclair, Isildur has only one line in the trilogy: “No.” That’s in a flashback scene, when Elrond (Hugo Weaving) is telling him to destroy the One Ring and “cast it into the fire.” Unfortunately, Peter Jackson didn’t like how Sinclair’s own voice sounded, and had Weaving dub over it later. So, in that scene, Weaving is voicing two characters: himself as Elrond and Isildur.
Funnily enough, Jackson cast Sinclair as Isildur because Sinclair was the most “corrupt-looking” person he knew, but later claimed Sinclair’s voice didn’t sound “corrupt enough” for that scene. Indeed, Sinclair’s voice isn’t as deep as Weaving’s and anyone barely even notices, so, in the end, it was for the best.
8
A Background Elf Became an Actual Character Thanks to the Fans
‘The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring’
During the Council of Elrond scene in The Fellowship of the Ring, there’s an unnamed Elf played by Bret McKenzie sitting beside Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen). When Frodo (Elijah Wood) stands up to say he will take the One Ring to Mordor, everyone stares at him, including this Elf, who’s at the far right of the frame. Thanks to his good looks, he quickly became a meme among the fans, and even got his own name: Figwit.
Everything about Figwit is funny and unexpected because of his behind-the-scenes story. His name is the acronym for “Frodo is great… Who is THAT?”, the reaction of the fan who first spotted him. She even made him a website, and the buzz grew enough to draw Peter Jackson’s own attention, who then called McKenzie back for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and then for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, only, this time, with actual lines.
7
Viggo Mortensen Deflects a Real Knife Filming a Fight Scene
‘The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring’
At the end of The Fellowship of the Ring, Aragorn fights the Uruk-hai Lurtz (Lawrence Makoare). When he stabs the monster to no effect, Lurtz simply grabs the dagger and throws it back at Aragorn, who deflects it with his sword just in time. That was a real throw, and Viggo Mortensen really deflected it himself. Aragorn later finds it within himself to defeat Lurtz, despite the monster’s overwhelming strength and resistance.
Legend has it that the stuntman playing Lurtz at that moment couldn’t see properly and threw the knife at full force, with Mortensen deflecting it out of sheer reflex. In the DVD commentary, Peter Jackson praised Mortensen, who “did it first take.” Years later, however, other accounts surfaced, claiming that the moment was actually rehearsed. Be that as it may, it was a real knife and a real throw, making Mortensen a real badass.
6
Viggo Mortensen Broke His Toe by Kicking an Orc’s Head
‘The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers’
This one has been shared so much, it’s arguably among the most famous behind-the-scenes facts ever. In The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Aragorn, Legolas (Orlando Bloom), and Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) track Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd) to an Orc camp at the border of Fangorn Forest. Frustrated, Aragorn kicks an Orc’s decapitated head and lets out a scream. That scream was real, as Viggo Mortensen actually broke two toes kicking the prop.
That wasn’t the only injury on set, though. Bloom and Brett Beattie, Gimli’s scale stunt, had a cracked rib and a dislocated rib, respectively, after falling from a horse. All three actors were injured when filming the epic running scenes, with Peter Jackson calling them “real troopers” in the DVD extras. They’d power through the shoot and then go back to limping and groaning as soon as Jackson yelled “cut.”
5
The Massive Uruk-Hai Chant Was Recorded Live at a Stadium
‘The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers’
When Saruman (Christopher Lee) riles up his Uruk-hai army to send them to battle at Helm’s Deep, the response is loud, as the thousands-strong force chants back to him in Black Speech. In reality, that chant was recorded live at a cricket stadium with Peter Jackson himself directing the crowd. The sounds were then adjusted in the studio to properly fit into the scene, as they didn’t want to use a single chant and simply multiply it.
The whole thing was recorded during halftime of a New Zealand-England match in Wellington in February 2002. The home team was winning by halftime, so, when Jackson showed up to direct the crowd, they were already in pretty good spirits, and he didn’t have much trouble. He got them to chant, stomp their feet, and beat their chests, and all those sounds were used.
4
The Riders of Rohan Are Mostly Played by Women
‘The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers’
Éowyn (Miranda Otto) is among the best characters in the trilogy, but she isn’t the only woman fighting for Rohan — at least not behind the scenes. Whenever the Riders of Rohan appear, there are more women than men among them. That’s because production required many expert riders who could bring their own horses, and most of them were women. “There are some very good woman riders in New Zealand, and it’d be silly not to take advantage of them,” said Viggo Mortensen.
During filming, each of these women had to wear fake beards and messy long hair matching J.R.R. Tolkien‘s description of the Riders. You simply cannot tell that most of the Rohirrim are women, and the horse-charging scenes in The Two Towers and The Return of the King are so iconic, it actually elevates Éowyn’s own story when you learn about it.
3
Aragorn Trained in Sword Fighting With Darth Vader
All trilogy
By the end of production, Viggo Mortensen had become a competent swordsman, given all his work as Aragorn. That’s all because Mortensen trained for the role with Bob Anderson, a British Olympic fencer and sword master in many Hollywood productions, including playing Darth Vader in the fighting scenes of the original Star Wars. So, you could say that, in a way, Aragorn actually trained with Darth Vader.
Their training quickly paid off. Mortensen was cast after filming had already begun, and his very first scene was the fight against the Nazgûl at the Weathertop in The Fellowship of the Ring. While Anderson didn’t do the fighting choreography, his training did allow Mortensen to translate it into actual combat movements, making it feel much more realistic.
2
The Last Movie Wrapped Filming After Winning the Oscar
‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’
On February 29, 2004, The Return of the King made its legendary clean sweep of the Oscars, winning all 11 of the categories it was nominated for. Days later, Peter Jackson was back filming more footage for the extended edition, comprising skull and tunnel shots for the Paths of the Dead sequence, as he still wasn’t satisfied. In the DVD commentary, he joked about it, saying: “It’s nice to win an Oscar before you’ve even finished the film.”
The third movie wasn’t the only one to be properly finished like that, however. Principal photography for the whole trilogy took place between October 1999 and December 2000, but Jackson went back to shoot more footage for each film after its release. Boromir’s (Sean Bean) flashback scenes in The Two Towers, for example, were shot after production had wrapped on that movie’s theatrical version. A true labor of love.
1
Peter Jackson Has Cameos in All Three Movies
All trilogy
One of the most treasured traditions in The Lord of the Rings is to spot director Peter Jackson’s cameos in the films. He shows up as background characters or minor ones in every movie of the franchise. In The Fellowship of the Ring, he plays Albert Dreary, a carrot-munching individual in Bree. In The Two Towers, he plays a soldier of Rohan who throws a spear at the Uruk-hai in the battle of Helm’s Deep. Finally, in The Return of the King, he plays a Corsair of the Umbar who gets shot by Legolas as a warning.
It’s such a fun tradition, Jackson repeated the dose in The Hobbit, where he plays a Dwarf fleeing Erebor in An Unexpected Journey, Albert Dreary Sr. munching a carrot in Bree in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, and appears as Bilbo’s (Martin Freeman) father, Bungo Baggins, on a portrait in Bag End in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Here’s hoping he’ll even have a cameo in The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, too.
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