6 Unusual Demands Made By Lord Of The Rings Actors

WhatCulture

Who were the divas in The Lord Of The Rings, and what exactly was on their list of demands.

Transcript

00:00Listen, I'm not one to judge. If somebody can bring me a cup of tea while I'm sitting there

00:03waiting to go on and film, I'm going to ask for that cup of tea. Of course, I'm going to ask for

00:07it nicely because, you know, I'd like to be hired again. With that in mind, I'm Sean Ferrick for

00:12WhatCulture, and here are six unusual demands made by Lord of the Rings actors. Number six.

00:19The cast insisted that John Rhys-Davies' stunt double got a tattoo. Brett Beattie was the stunt

00:24double who did most of the heavy lifting for the role of Gimli, while camera trickery was mainly

00:29responsible for catching all of the main Fellowship cast together on screen. Both Gimli

00:33and the Hobbits were portrayed by doubles for wider shots. However, Beattie did considerably

00:38more than many of the other actors. John Rhys-Davies, the tallest of the cast in real life,

00:43has frequently joked that a lot of the time Gimli is on screen, it isn't him, but Beattie in the

00:48part. There were a number of reasons, but also a health one. Rhys-Davies was allergic to the

00:53prosthetics used to create the dwarf, so tried to avoid wearing them for as much time as possible.

00:58When it came for the Fellowship cast to commemorate the work they had done together

01:01with a tattoo, Beattie was approached in Rhys-Davies' stead. This was fully supported

01:06by the actor, who agreed that Beattie had done so much of the work that he deserved recognition.

01:10Therefore, he is the only stunt double from the cast to hold the elvish script of nine tattooed

01:17on his body. This, sadly, would be the biggest form of recognition that he would receive for

01:21many years, as the studio only billed him as stunt double in the credits. Number five. Andy

01:27Serkis wanted to be Gollum on set, not just provide the voice. Now, this one might not seem

01:34like such a strange demand at all. Nowadays, don't all films that require mocap imagery encourage the

01:40performers to act on set, interacting with the other performers in a scene? Well, that was not

01:44quite the done thing when Andy Serkis arrived in New Zealand to play the dual role of Smeagol

01:48and Gollum. While motion capture technology wasn't invented for the Lord of the Rings,

01:52one could argue that it was perfected during the production period. Serkis devoted hours and hours

01:58of life to playing the villainous character on set, as he felt that standing to the side and

02:04shouting his lines for the other performers to react wouldn't capture the spirit of the scenes.

02:08So, he asked to be physically part of the action, donning his mocap suit and running around like a

02:13controlled lunatic. This served not only to allow Serkis the best chance of delivery and provide

02:18the CGI team with an easier reference point, but also allowed actors like Sean Austin and Elijah

02:23Wood to delve deeper into each scene, as opposed to having Gollum's lines fed to them via a bullhorn.

02:284. Viggo Mortensen Consistently Asked for Rewrites

02:33Coming to the production later than most, Viggo Mortensen had been convinced to take on the role

02:37by his son, who was an enormous fan of the books. When he arrived in New Zealand, he became part of

02:43the collaborative process by which much of the film's scenes were devised once filming had begun.

02:48According to Sean Austin's autobiography of making the films, Mortensen became something

02:52of a pain in the backside to Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. He apparently

02:57lived with the books, reading them over and over again, trying his best to understand the part of

03:02Aragorn. This led to his constant suggestions that tweaks could be made to the script to improve the

03:07character. While script revisions happened on many projects, this stemmed from the actor effectively

03:12going over the heads of the scriptwriters. Basically, he was using Tolkien's own works as a

03:17way to supersede them. Having said that, according to Austin, this was often well-received by Jackson

03:22who would often, though not always, take Mortensen's suggestions on board.

03:263. Sean Bean Refused Point Blank to Get Into the Helicopter

03:31Sean Bean had a fear of flying, particularly when it came to helicopters. This became a bit of an

03:35issue when it came to location shooting for The Fellowship of the Ring, as many of the scenes

03:39involved high-rise shots in the mountains. Whether it was the snowy pass of Caradhras,

03:44or the heights of Amon Hen, Boromir was needed, but Bean wasn't thrilled. He made a somewhat

03:50strange request to be allowed to hike the distance each day. This was no mean feat,

03:54as filming locations were remote enough for the rest of the cast to be airlifted to the set.

03:59However, Bean simply refused to get to the chopper, so the producers were left with very

04:03few options but to allow it. The rest of the cast remembered fondly in interviews their sight of

04:08Bean in full costume, shield thrown over his shoulder, climbing up the mountain each day,

04:14huffing it up the hills as they passed him overhead in the helicopters. Perhaps,

04:18thanks to the physical nature of this daily hike, it was for the best that Boromir's role

04:22in the trilogy effectively came to a close amid a shower of arrows at the hands of the

04:27Uruk-hai in The Fellowship of the Ring. 2. Viggo Mortensen Did Not Want a Gelded Horse

04:33In an interview in 2006, Miranda Otto, who played Eowyn in the films, recounted her experiences

04:38with her horse. When asked if she had bought her horse to bring home with her, she answered that

04:42no, she hadn't. She then went on to reveal that she only received that horse because Viggo Mortensen

04:47didn't want him. Otto's steed was a gelding, which is to say that he had been neutered.

04:51Mortensen demanded a stallion for his scenes, as he felt it was more appropriate for Aragorn

04:56to ride one. This meant that this horse passed to Otto. She credited the horse as a beautiful

05:01soul who was a dream to work with, except for one little problem. When Otto had first met the

05:06horse, he was a smaller, more easily manageable creature. They were separated for some time,

05:10during which his new owner treated him very well. According to Otto, when he returned to the set,

05:16he had been so well fed that he was nearly twice the size. However, despite that, she still found

05:22him to be a tame animal, and all of this because Viggo Mortensen had no interest in riding a

05:26gelding. Number one. Christopher Lee demanded a rewrite of his murder. Veteran actor and former

05:33soldier Christopher Lee played the evil wizard Saruman in the trilogy. Much has been said about

05:38his removal from the theatrical release of The Return of the King, though thankfully his scenes

05:43were restored for the extended editions. This included a crucial scene, his murder. With the

05:48excising of the Scouring of the Shire chapter from the book, Saruman was to be stabbed in the back by

05:53Wormtongue, a top orthanc. Filming commenced, but Lee quickly demanded a change to the script.

05:58In the written version, Saruman would cry out in pain when Wormtongue plunged the knife into his

06:03back. Lee asked Peter Jackson if the director actually knew what sound a man made when being

06:09stabbed from behind. Slightly apprehensively, Jackson said that he didn't. Lee confirmed that he,

06:16in fact, did know. As Lee said, when the knife penetrated the lung, all the air would be forced

06:22out, so there could be no cry, merely a gasp. Jackson, thoroughly spooked, allowed the change

06:27in the script, and the scene exists as Lee intended in the complete version of The Return of the King.

06:32Now that's everything for our list today, folks. If you have anything you would love to add,

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