6 Unusual Demands Made By Lord Of The Rings Actors
Who were the divas in The Lord Of The Rings, and what exactly was on their list of demands.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 I'm not one to judge. If somebody can bring me a cup of tea while I'm sitting there
00:03 waiting to go on and film, I'm going to ask for that cup of tea. Of course I'm going
00:06 to ask for it nicely, because, you know, I'd like to be hired again.
00:10 With that in mind, I'm Sean Ferrick for WhatCulture, and here are 6 unusual demands
00:16 made by Lord of the Rings actors.
00:18 Number 6. The cast insisted that John Rhys-Davies' stunt double got a tattoo.
00:23 Brett Beattie was the stunt double who did most of the heavy lifting for the role of
00:26 Gimli. While camera trickery was mainly responsible for catching all of the main Fellowship cast
00:31 together on screen, both Gimli and the Hobbits were portrayed by doubles for wider shots.
00:36 However, Beattie did considerably more than many of the other actors. John Rhys-Davies,
00:41 the tallest of the cast in real life, has frequently joked that a lot of the time Gimli
00:45 is on screen, it isn't him, but Beattie, in the part.
00:48 There were a number of reasons, but also a health one. Rhys-Davies was allergic to the
00:52 prosthetics used to create the dwarf, so tried to avoid wearing them for as much time as
00:57 possible. When it came for the Fellowship cast to commemorate the work they had done
01:01 together with a tattoo, Beattie was approached in Rhys-Davies' stead. This was fully supported
01:06 by the actor, who agreed that Beattie had done so much of the work that he deserved
01:09 recognition. Therefore, he is the only stunt double from the cast to have held the elvish
01:14 script of nine tattooed on his body. This, sadly, would be the biggest form of recognition
01:20 that he would receive for many years, as the studio only billed him as "stunt double"
01:24 in the credits.
01:25 Number 5. Andy Serkis wanted to be Gollum on set, not just provide the voice. Now, this
01:32 one might not seem like such a strange demand at all. Nowadays, don't all films that require
01:37 mocap imagery encourage the performers to act on set, interacting with the other performers
01:42 in a scene? Well, that was not quite the done thing when Andy Serkis arrived in New Zealand
01:47 to play the dual role of Smeagol and Gollum. While motion capture technology wasn't invented
01:51 for The Lord of the Rings, one could argue that it was perfected during the production
01:55 period. Serkis devoted hours and hours of life to playing the villainous character on
02:00 set as he felt that standing to the side and shouting his lines for the other performers
02:05 to react wouldn't capture the spirit of the scenes. So, he asked to be physically part
02:10 of the action, donning his mocap suit and running around like a controlled lunatic.
02:14 This served not only to allow Serkis the best chance at delivery and provide the CGI team
02:19 with an easier reference point, but also allowed actors like Sean Austin and Elijah Wood to
02:23 delve deeper into each scene, as opposed to having Gollum's lines fed to them via a bullhorn.
02:28 Number 4. Viggo Mortensen consistently asked for rewrites. Coming to the production later
02:34 than most, Viggo Mortensen had been convinced to take on the role by his son, who was an
02:39 enormous fan of the books. When he arrived in New Zealand, he became part of the collaborative
02:43 process by which much of the film's scenes were devised once filming had begun. According
02:48 to Sean Austin's autobiography of making the films, Mortensen became something of a pain
02:52 in the backside to Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. He apparently lived with
02:57 the books, reading them over and over again, trying his best to understand the part of
03:01 Aragorn. This led to his constant suggestions that tweaks could be made to the script to
03:06 improve the character. While script revisions happened on many projects, this stemmed from
03:11 the actor effectively going over the heads of the scriptwriters. Basically, he was using
03:15 Tolkien's own works as a way to supersede them. Having said that, according to Austin,
03:21 this was often well received by Jackson, who would often, though not always, take Mortensen's
03:25 suggestions on board.
03:26 Number 3. Sean Bean refused point blank to get into the helicopter. Sean Bean had a fear
03:31 of flying, particularly when it came to helicopters. This became a bit of an issue when it came
03:35 to location shooting for The Fellowship of the Ring, as many of the scenes involved high-rise
03:40 shots in the mountains. Whether it was the snowy pass of Caradhras or the heights of
03:44 Amon Hen, Boromir was needed, but Bean wasn't thrilled. He made somewhat strange requests
03:51 to be allowed to hike the distance each day. This was no mean feat, as filming locations
03:55 were remote enough for the rest of the cast to be airlifted to the set. However, Bean
04:00 simply refused to get to the chopper, so the producers were left with very few options
04:04 but to allow it. The rest of the cast remembered fondly in interviews their sight of Bean in
04:08 full costume, shield thrown over his shoulder, climbing up the mountain each day, huffing
04:14 it up the hills as they passed him overhead in the helicopters. Perhaps, thanks to the
04:18 physical nature of this daily hike, it was for the best that Boromir's role in the trilogy
04:23 effectively came to a close amid a shower of arrows at the hands of the Orochi in The
04:27 Fellowship of the Ring.
04:29 Number 2. Viggo Mortensen did not want a gelded horse. In an interview in 2006, Miranda Otto,
04:35 who played Eowyn in the films, recounted her experiences with her horse. When asked if
04:39 she had bought her horse to bring home with her, she answered that she hadn't. She then
04:43 went on to reveal that she only received that horse because Viggo Mortensen didn't want
04:48 him. Otto's steed was a gelding, which is to say that he had been neutered. Mortensen
04:52 demanded a stallion for his scenes, as he felt it was more appropriate for Aragorn to
04:56 ride one. This meant that this horse passed to Otto. She credited the horse as a beautiful
05:01 soul who was a dream to work with, except for one little problem. When Otto had first
05:06 met the horse, he was a smaller, more easily manageable creature. They were separated for
05:10 some time, during which his new owner treated him very well. According to Otto, when he
05:15 returned to the set, he had been so well fed that he was nearly twice the size. However,
05:20 despite that, she still found him to be a tame animal. And all of this because Viggo
05:24 Mortensen had no interest in riding a gelding.
05:27 Number 1. Christopher Lee demanded a rewrite of his murder. Veteran actor and former soldier
05:34 Christopher Lee played the evil wizard Saruman in the trilogy. Much has been said about his
05:38 removal from the theatrical release of The Return of the King, though thankfully his
05:42 scenes were restored for the extended editions. This included a crucial scene, his murder.
05:47 With the excising of the Scouring of the Shire chapter from the book, Saruman was to be stabbed
05:52 in the back by Wormtongue, a top Orthanc. Filming commenced, but Lee quickly demanded
05:57 a change to the script. In the written version, Saruman would cry out in pain when Wormtongue
06:01 plunged the knife into his back.
06:04 Lee asked Peter Jackson if the director actually knew what sound a man made when being stabbed
06:09 from behind. Slightly apprehensively, Jackson said that he didn't. Lee confirmed that
06:15 he, in fact, did know. As Lee said, when the knife penetrated the lung, all the air would
06:21 be forced out, so there could be no cry, merely a gasp. Jackson, thoroughly spooked, allowed
06:27 the change in the script, and the scene exists, as Lee intended, in the complete version of
06:31 The Return of the King.
06:32 That's everything for our list today, folks. If you have anything you would love to add,
06:35 please drop it into the comments below. Please don't forget to like, share and subscribe,
06:39 and remember that you can catch us over on Twitter @whatculture. You can catch myself
06:43 @seanferric on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. You look after yourselves now until I'm talking
06:49 to you again. You be kind to yourself, you stay safe, you stay well, and I'll talk to
06:54 you soon. Thanks very much.
06:56 [Music]
07:06 Hello there, everybody. Trek Cultures' Adam Cleary here. Just to hold my hands up really
07:11 quickly and say I have tried. I've tried my best to replicate, duplicate, just outright
07:17 clone our god editor, Chris Thompson, here, and I have failed. It's been absolutely disastrous.
07:24 And a front to God, somebody called one of the efforts. So, do you know what? I give
07:29 up. We're just going to have to hire a new video editor here at Trek Culture. If you've
07:34 been sitting at home watching this glorious channel thinking, "Pfft, I could do that."
07:39 Well, then prove it, sunshine. There is an email address on the screen right now. If
07:43 you're interested in becoming part of the team, we want to see your showreels, we want
07:46 to see your CVs, we want to hear what you can bring to this channel. And if you're good
07:51 enough and we like you, maybe we'll get in touch and you too could be editing out the
07:57 numerous mistakes I make in every single video. So, yes, email address on screen now, CV,
08:03 showreels, etc. Join us here on Trek Culture to boldly, um, something, I don't know, fix
08:12 it in the edit. Goodbye.
08:13 [Music]