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.
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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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