If there's any movie series that has a mountain of supplemental features to peruse, it's The Lord of the Rings. The Extended Editions Blu-ray trilogy collection comes loaded with a slew of bonus features including interviews, behind-the-scenes documentaries, and explanations of how the films' intensive visual effects were pulled off.
The early aughts LOTR trilogy was a massive cinematic undertaking, and the complexity of its production was nothing short of staggering. This means that every aspect of its assembly is rife with fun and intriguing facts. Since December 19th marks the 20th-anniversary of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring's release, now's a good time to cover some of the many production details (from the Blu-ray boxset's special features) that casual fans still don't know.
A Bump On The Head
The DVD commentary for The Fellowship of the Ring was a treasure trove of facts both the interesting and charming variety. On the latter side is a funny gaffe that occurred while filming a scene inside of Bilbo's house.
McKellen's Gandalf is bent over, walking through the tiny house. As he's about to hit the foyer, his head bonks into a beam, and Gandalf winces. It plays like a scripted scene, setting up one of the Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
Billy Boyd's Real Scream
On the funny side of LOTR bonus feature revelations is actor Billy Boyd's real scream. It occurred while shooting Fellowship of the Ring's early party scene, where Merry and Pippin (Boyd) set off a massive dragon firework that ends up scaring half of the party's attendees.
Ironically, it ended up scaring Pippin himself. Boyd didn't know the firework was actually going to blow up, figuring the sound would be a post-production addition. His reaction to the jarring boom is real, and Jackson kept it in the final cut.
John Rhys-Davies Is The Tallest Of The Fellowship In Real Life
Acting is about becoming someone else, but John Rhys-Davies took it to a new level by portraying Gimli, son of Glóin.
A dwarf in Tolkien's books is going to be anywhere between four and five feet. Rhys-Davies is 6 feet 1 inch. In other words, he's the tallest of the 9 actors to portray a member of the Fellowship. This actually came in handy, considering the Hobbits would also be digitally altered, and Hobbits are a bit shorter than Dwarfs.
Casting For Gandalf & Frodo
Elijah Wood's Frodo and Ian McKellen's Gandalf are the two characters with the most screentime in Fellowship. This makes it interesting to imagine how casting could have originally gone.
There was a time when Jake Gyllenhaal could have played the heroic Hobbit while a 007 actor, the late Sean Connery, could have played the mentoring wizard. Gyllenhaal is a terrific actor and Connery was a legend, but it's for the best that the casting department ended up where they did.
Buying The Horse
If recasting with all-female actors, the filmmakers would still need to find some tough-as-nails stunt doubles.
This includes riding doubles, who are particularly important in fantasy pieces like The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Unfortunately, these hard-working stuntpeople are not paid anything close to the actors they're doubling. Aragorn actor Viggo Mortensen took a stride to make up for this, as it were. Specifically, he bought Liv Tyler's riding double the horse with which she'd become acquainted.
The 16th Time's The Charm For 2nd Breakfast
One of the trilogy's more lighthearted scenes is also one of its most iconic. It takes place about midway through Fellowship of the Ring when Pippin begins to complain about the lack of a "second breakfast." Pippin is then tossed an apple from someone off-screen.
Pippin actor Billy Boyd stated in one of the boxset's cast interviews that the apple was tossed by none other than Viggo Mortensen. It also took them 16 takes to get it right, with Boyd getting smacked on the head by the apple more often than not. The actor joked that Mortensen seemed to be having a fun time, which isn't difficult to imagine.
Boromir Doesn't Fly
Responsible for one of movies' greatest betrayals, Boromir was a character who made a major impression with a limited appearance. He and his actor, Sean Bean, are also responsible for one of LOTR's more interesting behind-the-scenes factoids.
During one of the Extended Edition's bonus feature interviews, Bean stated that he was too scared of heights to board a helicopter easily. This includes the filming of a later scene, which took place in a remote location. Bean rejected the helicopter and instead hiked two hours to film his scenes.
Almost Something Far Worse Than Orcs
Just as important as anything else in a film's production is its sound design and sound mixing. The technical team behind The Lord of the Rings trilogy had many creatures to bring to life, and this includes how they sound.
To capture the sounds of screaming Orcs within the Mines of Moria, the crew sampled the hollering of nocturnal possums. This is different from the opossum, a creature far more terrifying than the Orc or Mordor's other monsters.
Barefoot Hazards
At the end of the movie, Samwise Gamgee runs into a river to stop Frodo from journeying to Mordor solo. It's a touching scene that was also responsible for an off-screen injury.
Gamgee actor Sean Astin, barefoot as a Hobbit, stepped on a piece of broken glass when he entered the water. There's a soundbite on the Extended Edition's bonus features about how it was so bad Astin had to be airlifted to the closest hospital.
Balrog-Sized Acting Ability
One of the best things a Lord of the Rings villain did was at first devastating. The Balrog's whip flying up and wrapping itself around Gandalf's ankle immediately makes the Fellowship seem like it's at serious risk.
Making the significant impact of the scene even more impressive is the fact that the actor wasn't looking at anything outside of a little ball in front of a green screen. McKellen rightfully received an Academy Award for Best ing Actor nomination.
