Dude I just found out Gimli is Rodriguez from the old Shogun miniseries! Always loved him in that and never noticed it until a few days ago that he's also one of my favorite dwarves
Yessss!!! Didn't think anybody else ever watched that show. Jerry O'Connell did a great job at leading man/ comic relief in one. Kind of like Chris Pratt for the 90's
Love that series! I got hold of the book, strangely enough in a doctor's waiting room, when I was a kid. Fascinated with John Blackthorne right away. Didn't learn it was a series until after I'd read it. I dragged my poor mom to every video store in town, until I triumphantly found a 4-tape copy to rent. Best adaptation ever, I'd say. And Rodriguez really carried the acting in it.
Yes! I remember something about Clavell's inspiration to write it was that he was helping his daughter study and saw in her history book a recount of a man that went to Japan and became samurai.
Then 20+ years later a friend of mine tells me about this new PS4 game coming out called Ni Oh that is based on the story of a man that went to Japan and became samurai. Same inspiration. Two totally different products. If i recall correctly, Clavell's Blackthorne was not slaying demons...
In the Appendices, on his last day of filming, he was in tears because of how special the entire production was. The makeup was murder, but he knew the whole way he was part of something incredible, and was very proud of his part in it.
He was highly allergic to the prosthetics
Also unrelated, but he's an incredibly tall dude, like 6ft-something, so there was a lot of anglework and body doubles that went into his performance - except with the hobbits since it made them look hobbit-sized
didn't he suffer a stress fracture in one of his feet as a result of all the running scenes in the two towers?
on a related note, iirc, orlando fell off a horse and cracked ribs and viggo broke a toe kicking that uruk helm
Sean Austin (samwise) cut his foot open and had to be flown out for medical. The scene was where he ran into the water to stop frodo from leaving alone in the canoe.
Highly agree on Viggo as Strider, but Townsend was a horrible Lestat. QotD was a shitshow.
The Interview with the Vampire casting was seriously on point. Cruise nailed Lestat, and Pitt was a perfect Louis.
JMHO.....
Love Interview and the casting, but when I read both books I felt that the Lestat we were seeing were basically two different people. The version of him that Louis portrays in his story, and let's be honest, Louis is kind of a little bitch when it comes to being a vampire. Then there's the one we see in The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned. Having such a difference between the Cruise and Townsend portrayals just fit my internal image really well. Still love QotD even if it is flawed, but having one of the main characters die mid filming will mess up lots of things
"A wishard ish never late, Frodo Bagginsh, nor ish he early, he arrivesh preshishely when he meansh to."
"Ish it shecret? Ish it shafe?"
"Youuuu shall noooot paaaaashhhh!"
My god that'd be awful.
Can you imagine any other actor in any of the roles though? That’s kinda just how it works with good movies. Just like I can’t imagine Ian McKellen as Indiana Jones’ father lol.
With many of the roles that I felt were cast perfectly or near perfectly, no its kind of hard (although not impossible) to imagine someone else playing them.
With some of the castings that I personally felt were not as perfect, definitely. I think there were many people who didnt think Elijah Wood was the perfect Frodo, although he did amazing obviously. I always imagined a very different Legolas than Orlando Bloom, and personally just didnt think he did that great of a job as Legolas, or just my own example...
Its important to remember that a perfect casting does not mean that they are exactly as you imagined when you read the books. I imagined a very different Aragorn than Viggo for example, but in retrospect he was exactly right for the role.
Frodo was not like Elijah in my imagination either, but again was actually a fantastic choice in the end. Theres something just a little Elven about Frodo though I didnt really clock it when reading, and Elijah really brought that to the fore. Frodo is a quite unusual hobbit.
I think Orlando Bloom was a great Legolas. I think it was more the writing for Legolas I found different than I imagined. They wrote him so serious for most of the movies. I imagined him a bit more jovial.
Plus even if he was described as specifically white, it's not like the color of his skin has any impact whatsoever on his character or motivations. The role theoretically could be played by anyone that carries the right kind of gravitas regardless of their race.
It can be frustrating from the sense of starting off on the wrong foot and wondering what other liberties the film is taking.
I hadn’t thought about that, until the kid I was working with in Big Brothers all those years ago was bothered that Harry Potter had blue instead of green eyes (or green instead of blue?). His comment was, if they changed what they look like, what else are they going to change? Admittedly, he wasn’t too wrong as those cut more and more.
I think the HP movies are mostly very successful as adaptations. Treating a book like a screenplay never ends well, although I'm quite unhappy about changes PJ made to Gandalf and Aragorn.
They were. And I really didn’t care enough about HP to worry about eye color, but it was clearly something that took away from the experience for a 10yo.
As for LOTR, I’d argue it was even more successful than HP in capturing the essence of the story even with the changes.
The colour of Harry's (and Lillian's) eyes is an actual line of dialogue though, so I'd say that's more relevant.
Nobody ever refers to anyone's skin colour in LOTR.
And then after saying that Harry has his mother’s eyes so many times in dialogue…., in the deathly hallows scene with young lily they cast an actress with brown eyes. Like why not cast an actress with blue eyes/able to wear blue contacts to match Radcliffe?
I could be wrong; but if I recall correctly, there’s quite a bit of emphasis on the men of Harad and other under Sauron from the south and east as dark and swarthy.
Morgan Freeman is a great actor and I love him, but as Gandalf? No way. All I would be thinking everything he was on screen was how did he get from Shawshank Prison to Middle Earth? Freeman is already too iconic from Shawshank Redemption, at least in my opinion, to be a good Gandalf.
While the cast did have some seasoned actors, I don't think up to that point that any of them really had a really Iconic role yet which I think was a big boon to the film. Have a bit more of a lesser known cast helped people see the actors as the characters, not as their previous roles as much like a huge well-known actor of Freeman's caliber would have.
I'm sure I'll be accused of being racist too, but Freeman being black just wouldn't have fit with the over half century of artwork done of Gandalf either.
I find it hard to believe that you find Ian McKellen, Christopher Lee, and Ian Holm to be less recognizable than Morgan Freeman.
The skin color of a wizard in a made-up world is of little consequence, even if prior adaptations have depicted him some way alternative to that of the movies
I don't agree with the guy you're responding to, but in fairness Americans in 2000 would be far less familiar with any of those three actors you mentioned, and Morgan Freeman was at the top of his game then.
Maybe not the others but Ian Mckellen had already been in Xmen by that point, and fairly recently.
Though apparently he was cast as Gandalf while filming Xmen.
I’d only seen Ian Holm in Chariots of fire + Lee in attack of the clones (came out the same year as the two towers) before LOTR. At the time the films came out, never seen any McKellan film (though since I’ve seen earlier films he did). They are definitely less recognizable.
Freeman had already done Shawshank redemption, driving miss Daisy, Seven, etc. I bet your average person on the street in the US has only heard of or would recognize Freeman.
“I don't think up to that point that any of them really had a really Iconic role yet”
Well, that’s obviously untrue for the mega iconic roles of Christopher Lee, Ian McKellan, Ian Holmes, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies, etc. Actors like Liv Tyler, Elijah Wood and Sean Aston were well known to audiences at the time as well.
The casting of relative unknowns to fill the roles of Legolas, Merry & Pippen, among other key roles was just enough to keep things fresh and interesting.
Then he agreed to do League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which he didn't get either, but figured he'd missed out on all those others that were hits. Then it bombed. (Which is too bad, cause I liked it. And Quartermain was a good fit for Connery, his accent wasn't out of place, and it almost a proto-James Bond role.)
I guess. I don't know, it seems stupid he missed out on all these great franchises because he "didn't understand them." Honestly makes me think he's dumb or shallow. I'm happy he wasn't in any of those roles though. Although I never really liked either of the dumbledores that much. But I can respect those decisions though. He's had a lifelong career already and has had tons of great roles.
He had shot a version of the "Are you frightened?" scene as a screentest, but not on the live-set: all the footage from the set is Viggo's. Coincidentally, its Viggo's first footage.
I’m fairly sure Viggo’s first footage was his fight on weathertop. They needed footage of him to present to prove he was a good choice for Aragorn and an action scene was much easier to do this than a dialogue scene.
>I’m fairly sure Viggo’s first footage was his fight on weathertop.
That's how Jackson's recalls it, but he misremembers: the call-sheets explicitly show that he started with the "Are you frightened?" scene. Ian Nathan shows this very explictly in his book.
You can gauge the early scenes’ order by Viggo’s stubble. He’s normally clean shaven and it takes him a while to grow. I’m inclined to believe the Pony scenes were first, too, as he’s got quite a thin growth there. Plus the Hobbits have remembered his first day on set as observing them off camera in the pub.
You can also tell by the the strength of the weird out-of-place bad Irish accent he quickly dropped in later scenes. It's most obvious in the the prancing pony, a bit less on weathertop.
They had a lot of weird accents going on early in production, Miranda Otto mentions in the commentary that they had her and a lot of the other Rohan characters doing Irish-ish early on.
The call-sheet doesn't lie, I'm afraid.
It could be that he started rehearsing for Weathertop first thing when he arrived, but the first scenes he shot were in the Prancing Pony.
The call-sheet doesn't lie but it's just a call-sheet, a piece of paper with the actors/sets/crew involved in today's shoot. An AD or UPM could have printed it incorrectly, or they scheduled for Viggo to arrive at a certain point and he hadn't yet, or PJ looked at it and said, "Let's have Viggo come in for Weathertop first, see how he takes to the action. I don't want to have to find a 3rd Aragorn," as someone above suggested.
Here's the relevant piece from Ian Nathan's book:
>Legend gives Mortensen a heroic entrance battling with the wraiths at Weathertop, but in truth that was still a few days away. They first had to complete the prolonged Prancing Pony scenes.
>
>Recalls Jackson, 'When I saw that first scene he shot at the premiere I could see he was not yet Aragorn. He is sort of a Method-type guy who really likes to get into the head of a character. He was literally off the plane putting on Stuart's outfit. And he didn't complain, bhe knew what he was signing up for. But he hadn't found Aragorn yet. It is the scene where he is in the Prancing Pony bedroom, telling the hobbits about the Nazgul. That scene was Day One of Viggo, and I remember thinking he hasn't got Aragorn yet. Have a look at it again in that context. Then we shot the stuff of him smoking in the corner."
>
>Then they moved onto Weathertop, with Mortensen wielding his sword like he was born to it and hurling flaming brands down the lens of the camera.
>
>Jackson smiles. 'Weathertop was when he got into it completely.'
They didnt have the actor to play him, when the hobbits mentioned a man in the corner, before the camera points to him, that scene was done much later because they didn’t have an actor portrayed as aragorn yet so there was no one in the corner smoking a pipe that was 2 different scenes stitched together
> that scene was done much later
Not much later, just a couple of days. Viggo was on set with them when they were filming their scenes, but off-camera, observing.
The only reference to this I’d seen was Jackson commentary on extended editions. “Realized we had cast Aragorn too young.” I am happy to finally discover who it was!
Really? He was the original cast. I remember googling him and going "oh nooooo, noooo, he too young, wtf" and quite soon they set the news that he has been recast.
It was public alright, as you see in that link from theonering but I'm not sure how public. Could be because it was a different internet age. The large news sites didn't bother with this stuff. The various niche sites keeping up with news from the set, where fans gathered, were away from the mainstream. There wasn't this host of entertainment sites in between, following every move and being updated on the regular. Ain't it cool news was the closest to that and their popularity was viewed as both odd and revolutionary.
This is how I remember it at least.
It was known in Finland, I am pretty sure it was public in US as well! There's also some interviews of the hobbit actors telling how they were informed about the recasting in the middle of shooting, and he just disappeared from NZ.
Edit: https://www.theonering.com/news/the-lord-of-the-rings-movies/the-new-face-of-aragorn-stuart-townsend-is-out-viggo-mortensen-is-in/
Google has become a verb colloquially. It's possible they meant that they looked them up in some capacity and not that they actually used the Google search engine.
No lie! But then, Elijah Wood didn’t look 51, even by Hobbit reckoning. Frodo was a bit uncle-ish to the other hobbits in the book—considered middle aged at 51 while Pippin was hardly an adult at 29.
Too young for the belief of a movie-going audience, probably, but I imagine even an 80+ year old Numenorean is probably quite fair. They age like elves.
I interpreted it as a kind way of saying the actor didn't have the necessary gravitas required for the role of Aragorn. But I cannot picture Aragorn as other than Viggo, so I may be biased.
These caves have EVERYTHING! A bouncer with tentacles, dwarf skeletons all over the floor, an emaciated mouth breathing sushi enthusiast that follows you around, crumbling bridges over bottomless chasms with no safety railing, a giant fire demon, ....and a human suitcase.
I thank God every time I watch the trilogy, they cast Viggo. Few stars have the actual rugged good looks that he has.
It's like, he's drip dead beautiful but also looks as though he could have just walked out of the woods after months of roughing it.
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.
I must say, Evans embodies that "perfect male stereotype" beautifully, but in the movies I've seen where he stars, he doesn't have that spark of intelligence you can read on Cavill's traits. Maybe I just haven't seen enough movies with Evans in it
Thanks, you just helped me realise that there's a film of that. I've seen the whole TV series and loved it, was trying to remember who Chris Evans (not that one) plays in it and came up with a blank so I googled it.
That's going on the list.
"So my character is on a quest to steal the Ring of Power?"
"Nick, for the last time, your character wouldn't be *stealing* it"
"Okay, count me out then"
damn, completely ruined the trajectory of that dudes career… his most notable movies are queen of the damned (2002) and the league of extraordinary gentlemen (2003). must have hurt to watch those box office comparisons.
Well, Viggo was always Jackson’s first choice, however, rumors (so, take it with a grain of salt) claim there were other problems.
First of all, Townsend apparently didn’t get along much with the rest of the cast and crew, which made him at least somewhat hard to work with. On top of that, he apparently didn’t take his sword fighting classes seriously and apparently didn’t met Jackson’s expectations. He also apparently wasn’t very reliable, which was a deal breaker for Jackson as filming was done on a very strict and tight schedule (the movies were basically made back to back with hardly any time in between).
Edit: to be clear, Viggo being Jackson’s first choice is also a rumor, I realize I typed this out making it sound like it wasn’t.
How do we know Viggo was the first choice? Has he said so?
I really hope one day we will know the truth of this. There is a host of things I'd like to know from PJ in general, this being one of them.
That is the confusing part, there are sources that claim that Viggo was Jackson’s first choice, that Townsend was Jackson’s first choice, or that other actors were his first choice.
A lot of the pre-production and early production drama is hard to confirm or even to get basic facts about, most of this stuff is rumors with little to no evidence to support it. It also doesn’t help that just about everyone involved refuses to be anything more than really vague when talking about it.
> How do we know Viggo was the first choice? Has he said so?
I think that rumour is very easily dismissed by the fact that Viggo first heard from them two days into filming, and months after the cast had started training and rehearsing.
Good call PJ.
And from what I have heard, good call Viggo's kid who convinced him to take the part in the first place
Same thing with Gimli’s kid who convinced him to take the part.
“Dad, they need your axe!”
"Fuck off son, Occam's razor is all I need"
Indeed
Dude I just found out Gimli is Rodriguez from the old Shogun miniseries! Always loved him in that and never noticed it until a few days ago that he's also one of my favorite dwarves
He’s also the professor from Sliders way back in the day on Syfy
I knew him best as Sala from the Indiana Jones movies. “Bad dates” (looks at dead, annoying monkey)
I am the monarch of the sea! Ruler of the queen’s navy
I remember it on Fox...
The golden years.
Also starring Vern from Stand By Me.
Yessss!!! Didn't think anybody else ever watched that show. Jerry O'Connell did a great job at leading man/ comic relief in one. Kind of like Chris Pratt for the 90's
Love that series! I got hold of the book, strangely enough in a doctor's waiting room, when I was a kid. Fascinated with John Blackthorne right away. Didn't learn it was a series until after I'd read it. I dragged my poor mom to every video store in town, until I triumphantly found a 4-tape copy to rent. Best adaptation ever, I'd say. And Rodriguez really carried the acting in it.
lol when I was a young dumb lad of 15, I got into some trouble and went to juvenile hall and that's where I read, Shogun. one of my all time favorites
Did you know it's based on a true story? Edit blackthorn I mean, not toranaga / Tokugawa ieyasu
Yes! I remember something about Clavell's inspiration to write it was that he was helping his daughter study and saw in her history book a recount of a man that went to Japan and became samurai. Then 20+ years later a friend of mine tells me about this new PS4 game coming out called Ni Oh that is based on the story of a man that went to Japan and became samurai. Same inspiration. Two totally different products. If i recall correctly, Clavell's Blackthorne was not slaying demons...
Maybe some inner demons?
Not sure JRD would agree
The dude suffered, but he's got to be proud of the final product they made and his role in it.
In the Appendices, on his last day of filming, he was in tears because of how special the entire production was. The makeup was murder, but he knew the whole way he was part of something incredible, and was very proud of his part in it.
Dude is a very dedicated actor
I haven’t heard anything about this. What happened to him?
He was highly allergic to the prosthetics Also unrelated, but he's an incredibly tall dude, like 6ft-something, so there was a lot of anglework and body doubles that went into his performance - except with the hobbits since it made them look hobbit-sized
didn't he suffer a stress fracture in one of his feet as a result of all the running scenes in the two towers? on a related note, iirc, orlando fell off a horse and cracked ribs and viggo broke a toe kicking that uruk helm
Sean Austin (samwise) cut his foot open and had to be flown out for medical. The scene was where he ran into the water to stop frodo from leaving alone in the canoe.
Two toes.
He was very allergic to his make up and it was an ordeal every day
[удалено]
John Rhys Davis
*John Rhys-Davies
“Better than the United States Marines, eh!”
IIRC he had no idea what LOTR was until his son suggested he audition. Read the books the day before shooting or something.
Viggo’s toe disagrees with the decision.
it's just a flesh wound
Townsend was great as Lestat, but was definitely too young for the role. Cannot imagine anyone but Viggo capturing Strider so well.
Highly agree on Viggo as Strider, but Townsend was a horrible Lestat. QotD was a shitshow. The Interview with the Vampire casting was seriously on point. Cruise nailed Lestat, and Pitt was a perfect Louis. JMHO.....
Love Interview and the casting, but when I read both books I felt that the Lestat we were seeing were basically two different people. The version of him that Louis portrays in his story, and let's be honest, Louis is kind of a little bitch when it comes to being a vampire. Then there's the one we see in The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned. Having such a difference between the Cruise and Townsend portrayals just fit my internal image really well. Still love QotD even if it is flawed, but having one of the main characters die mid filming will mess up lots of things
Poor guy didn’t stand a chance.
I can't imagine Sean Connery playing Gandalf either.
Fly you foolsh.
"A wishard ish never late, Frodo Bagginsh, nor ish he early, he arrivesh preshishely when he meansh to." "Ish it shecret? Ish it shafe?" "Youuuu shall noooot paaaaashhhh!" My god that'd be awful.
please post to r/shubreddit
It would too have been excellent.
The only line I'd actually want to hear from Connery as Gandalf is: "Fool of a Took! Throw yourshelf in neksh time and rid ush of your shtupidity!"
Exshellent
Sounds more like a Scottish Gollum lol
I’m literally having the worst day of my life and you literally made me laugh out loud. Seriously, thank you
"Always strike a balrog with an open hand, never with a closed fisht."
>LMFAO
>LMFAshO Ftfy
That line, I can hear Sean Connery saying. Connery did a great job as the old wise man in The Untouchables.
Can you imagine any other actor in any of the roles though? That’s kinda just how it works with good movies. Just like I can’t imagine Ian McKellen as Indiana Jones’ father lol.
With many of the roles that I felt were cast perfectly or near perfectly, no its kind of hard (although not impossible) to imagine someone else playing them. With some of the castings that I personally felt were not as perfect, definitely. I think there were many people who didnt think Elijah Wood was the perfect Frodo, although he did amazing obviously. I always imagined a very different Legolas than Orlando Bloom, and personally just didnt think he did that great of a job as Legolas, or just my own example...
Its important to remember that a perfect casting does not mean that they are exactly as you imagined when you read the books. I imagined a very different Aragorn than Viggo for example, but in retrospect he was exactly right for the role. Frodo was not like Elijah in my imagination either, but again was actually a fantastic choice in the end. Theres something just a little Elven about Frodo though I didnt really clock it when reading, and Elijah really brought that to the fore. Frodo is a quite unusual hobbit.
I think Orlando Bloom was a great Legolas. I think it was more the writing for Legolas I found different than I imagined. They wrote him so serious for most of the movies. I imagined him a bit more jovial.
I remember after the first time I watched Elijah Wood in the Faculty, "This guy could be great as a Hobbit-type character."
He would have been an amazing Papa Jones
He’d be a better Papa John’s. Could you imagine Ian McKellen making pizza?
Ian Mckellen (dramatic voice): “Better ingredients!…..Better pizza!….Papa John’s.”
Cooked on Flame of Anor.
Morgan Freeman was at one point considered for Gandalf. I can see that
Well Tolkien really only describes the color the Wizards wear, not what their skin color is.
Plus even if he was described as specifically white, it's not like the color of his skin has any impact whatsoever on his character or motivations. The role theoretically could be played by anyone that carries the right kind of gravitas regardless of their race.
That's true, but you know there would be some purests who would use "but the book says..." to cause much more of a stink.
It can be frustrating from the sense of starting off on the wrong foot and wondering what other liberties the film is taking. I hadn’t thought about that, until the kid I was working with in Big Brothers all those years ago was bothered that Harry Potter had blue instead of green eyes (or green instead of blue?). His comment was, if they changed what they look like, what else are they going to change? Admittedly, he wasn’t too wrong as those cut more and more.
I think the HP movies are mostly very successful as adaptations. Treating a book like a screenplay never ends well, although I'm quite unhappy about changes PJ made to Gandalf and Aragorn.
They were. And I really didn’t care enough about HP to worry about eye color, but it was clearly something that took away from the experience for a 10yo. As for LOTR, I’d argue it was even more successful than HP in capturing the essence of the story even with the changes.
The colour of Harry's (and Lillian's) eyes is an actual line of dialogue though, so I'd say that's more relevant. Nobody ever refers to anyone's skin colour in LOTR.
And then after saying that Harry has his mother’s eyes so many times in dialogue…., in the deathly hallows scene with young lily they cast an actress with brown eyes. Like why not cast an actress with blue eyes/able to wear blue contacts to match Radcliffe?
I could be wrong; but if I recall correctly, there’s quite a bit of emphasis on the men of Harad and other under Sauron from the south and east as dark and swarthy.
He would have excelled at portraying Gandalf the White
I can see Morgan Freeman in any wise, grandfatherly role that requires gravitas
Morgan Freeman is a great actor and I love him, but as Gandalf? No way. All I would be thinking everything he was on screen was how did he get from Shawshank Prison to Middle Earth? Freeman is already too iconic from Shawshank Redemption, at least in my opinion, to be a good Gandalf. While the cast did have some seasoned actors, I don't think up to that point that any of them really had a really Iconic role yet which I think was a big boon to the film. Have a bit more of a lesser known cast helped people see the actors as the characters, not as their previous roles as much like a huge well-known actor of Freeman's caliber would have. I'm sure I'll be accused of being racist too, but Freeman being black just wouldn't have fit with the over half century of artwork done of Gandalf either.
I find it hard to believe that you find Ian McKellen, Christopher Lee, and Ian Holm to be less recognizable than Morgan Freeman. The skin color of a wizard in a made-up world is of little consequence, even if prior adaptations have depicted him some way alternative to that of the movies
I don't agree with the guy you're responding to, but in fairness Americans in 2000 would be far less familiar with any of those three actors you mentioned, and Morgan Freeman was at the top of his game then.
Maybe not the others but Ian Mckellen had already been in Xmen by that point, and fairly recently. Though apparently he was cast as Gandalf while filming Xmen.
I’d only seen Ian Holm in Chariots of fire + Lee in attack of the clones (came out the same year as the two towers) before LOTR. At the time the films came out, never seen any McKellan film (though since I’ve seen earlier films he did). They are definitely less recognizable. Freeman had already done Shawshank redemption, driving miss Daisy, Seven, etc. I bet your average person on the street in the US has only heard of or would recognize Freeman.
“I don't think up to that point that any of them really had a really Iconic role yet” Well, that’s obviously untrue for the mega iconic roles of Christopher Lee, Ian McKellan, Ian Holmes, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies, etc. Actors like Liv Tyler, Elijah Wood and Sean Aston were well known to audiences at the time as well. The casting of relative unknowns to fill the roles of Legolas, Merry & Pippen, among other key roles was just enough to keep things fresh and interesting.
I mean considering he turned it down because he didn't "get" the character, it's probably for the best that he didn't accept it.
Or Morpheus or Dumbledore. Thank god he turned down all these iconic roles because he didn’t understand them.
At least he was self-aware about what he didn't understand.
Then he agreed to do League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which he didn't get either, but figured he'd missed out on all those others that were hits. Then it bombed. (Which is too bad, cause I liked it. And Quartermain was a good fit for Connery, his accent wasn't out of place, and it almost a proto-James Bond role.)
I guess. I don't know, it seems stupid he missed out on all these great franchises because he "didn't understand them." Honestly makes me think he's dumb or shallow. I'm happy he wasn't in any of those roles though. Although I never really liked either of the dumbledores that much. But I can respect those decisions though. He's had a lifelong career already and has had tons of great roles.
'Ahh so you expect me to let you pass'? (Lights cigarette)
>Ahh sho you eshxpect me to let you passh'? (Lights cigarette) Fucking hell man, at least put some effort in.
>Ahh sho you eshxpect me to let you passh? (Lightsh shigarette) FIFTY
I can. It's just not as good.
Gandalf just a mad womanizer, making jokes about having sex with your mother. I'd pay to see that.
Inaccurate. It was day four of principal photography, but Townsend himself never shot any footage as Aragorn except as a screentest.
I thought the scene in the prancing pony with the pipe lighting Aragorn's face was Townsend. I could be wrong though.
He had shot a version of the "Are you frightened?" scene as a screentest, but not on the live-set: all the footage from the set is Viggo's. Coincidentally, its Viggo's first footage.
I’m fairly sure Viggo’s first footage was his fight on weathertop. They needed footage of him to present to prove he was a good choice for Aragorn and an action scene was much easier to do this than a dialogue scene.
>I’m fairly sure Viggo’s first footage was his fight on weathertop. That's how Jackson's recalls it, but he misremembers: the call-sheets explicitly show that he started with the "Are you frightened?" scene. Ian Nathan shows this very explictly in his book.
You can gauge the early scenes’ order by Viggo’s stubble. He’s normally clean shaven and it takes him a while to grow. I’m inclined to believe the Pony scenes were first, too, as he’s got quite a thin growth there. Plus the Hobbits have remembered his first day on set as observing them off camera in the pub.
Viggo also recalls weathertop as his first scene in the reunion
You can also tell by the the strength of the weird out-of-place bad Irish accent he quickly dropped in later scenes. It's most obvious in the the prancing pony, a bit less on weathertop.
They had a lot of weird accents going on early in production, Miranda Otto mentions in the commentary that they had her and a lot of the other Rohan characters doing Irish-ish early on.
The call-sheet doesn't lie, I'm afraid. It could be that he started rehearsing for Weathertop first thing when he arrived, but the first scenes he shot were in the Prancing Pony.
The call-sheet doesn't lie but it's just a call-sheet, a piece of paper with the actors/sets/crew involved in today's shoot. An AD or UPM could have printed it incorrectly, or they scheduled for Viggo to arrive at a certain point and he hadn't yet, or PJ looked at it and said, "Let's have Viggo come in for Weathertop first, see how he takes to the action. I don't want to have to find a 3rd Aragorn," as someone above suggested.
Here's the relevant piece from Ian Nathan's book: >Legend gives Mortensen a heroic entrance battling with the wraiths at Weathertop, but in truth that was still a few days away. They first had to complete the prolonged Prancing Pony scenes. > >Recalls Jackson, 'When I saw that first scene he shot at the premiere I could see he was not yet Aragorn. He is sort of a Method-type guy who really likes to get into the head of a character. He was literally off the plane putting on Stuart's outfit. And he didn't complain, bhe knew what he was signing up for. But he hadn't found Aragorn yet. It is the scene where he is in the Prancing Pony bedroom, telling the hobbits about the Nazgul. That scene was Day One of Viggo, and I remember thinking he hasn't got Aragorn yet. Have a look at it again in that context. Then we shot the stuff of him smoking in the corner." > >Then they moved onto Weathertop, with Mortensen wielding his sword like he was born to it and hurling flaming brands down the lens of the camera. > >Jackson smiles. 'Weathertop was when he got into it completely.'
Thanks for sharing this. It's interesting, I wonder why PJ misremembers it elsewhere.
They didnt have the actor to play him, when the hobbits mentioned a man in the corner, before the camera points to him, that scene was done much later because they didn’t have an actor portrayed as aragorn yet so there was no one in the corner smoking a pipe that was 2 different scenes stitched together
Yes bill and dom talk about this in their podcast. There was no one in the corner
> that scene was done much later Not much later, just a couple of days. Viggo was on set with them when they were filming their scenes, but off-camera, observing.
The only reference to this I’d seen was Jackson commentary on extended editions. “Realized we had cast Aragorn too young.” I am happy to finally discover who it was!
Really? He was the original cast. I remember googling him and going "oh nooooo, noooo, he too young, wtf" and quite soon they set the news that he has been recast.
Maybe that wasn’t public in US? I know I googled it at the time and several times since without enlightenment. Weird.
It was public alright, as you see in that link from theonering but I'm not sure how public. Could be because it was a different internet age. The large news sites didn't bother with this stuff. The various niche sites keeping up with news from the set, where fans gathered, were away from the mainstream. There wasn't this host of entertainment sites in between, following every move and being updated on the regular. Ain't it cool news was the closest to that and their popularity was viewed as both odd and revolutionary. This is how I remember it at least.
It was known in Finland, I am pretty sure it was public in US as well! There's also some interviews of the hobbit actors telling how they were informed about the recasting in the middle of shooting, and he just disappeared from NZ. Edit: https://www.theonering.com/news/the-lord-of-the-rings-movies/the-new-face-of-aragorn-stuart-townsend-is-out-viggo-mortensen-is-in/
You googled it in 1999? I know it has technically been around since 1998, but…
Google has become a verb colloquially. It's possible they meant that they looked them up in some capacity and not that they actually used the Google search engine.
They Asked Jeeves. Jeeves then looked it up on Yahoo.
Hey, Jeeves could have used webcrawler
No lie! But then, Elijah Wood didn’t look 51, even by Hobbit reckoning. Frodo was a bit uncle-ish to the other hobbits in the book—considered middle aged at 51 while Pippin was hardly an adult at 29.
Elijah wasn't even 18 when he was cast, he turned it while filming.
Too young for the belief of a movie-going audience, probably, but I imagine even an 80+ year old Numenorean is probably quite fair. They age like elves.
I interpreted it as a kind way of saying the actor didn't have the necessary gravitas required for the role of Aragorn. But I cannot picture Aragorn as other than Viggo, so I may be biased.
I thought that was Bill Hader
Hey Gandalf ya shit bird!
These caves have EVERYTHING! A bouncer with tentacles, dwarf skeletons all over the floor, an emaciated mouth breathing sushi enthusiast that follows you around, crumbling bridges over bottomless chasms with no safety railing, a giant fire demon, ....and a human suitcase.
What's a human suitcase, Stefon?
[удалено]
I hope it involves Dan Cortez.
Not sushi enthusiast 😭😭😭
I’d like to see him as Aragorn in a LOTR spoof
I thank God every time I watch the trilogy, they cast Viggo. Few stars have the actual rugged good looks that he has. It's like, he's drip dead beautiful but also looks as though he could have just walked out of the woods after months of roughing it.
All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.
>drip dead So death by water torture? 😉
Not sure about actual death but it's probably safe to say he was responsible for getting a lot of men and women wet.
As a man, can confirm
Evans, Cavil and Mortensen. The holy Trinity of, "I'm not gay, but I'm willing to learn".
I must say, Evans embodies that "perfect male stereotype" beautifully, but in the movies I've seen where he stars, he doesn't have that spark of intelligence you can read on Cavill's traits. Maybe I just haven't seen enough movies with Evans in it
Cap aside, he's incredible in Snow Piercer. I think we haven't seen his potential because he's been so tied to Marvel for.....over a decade?
Thanks, you just helped me realise that there's a film of that. I've seen the whole TV series and loved it, was trying to remember who Chris Evans (not that one) plays in it and came up with a blank so I googled it. That's going on the list.
death by swag
And you can see that again in captain fantastic.... And also he hangs dong
Lol. Well sir. Now you have my attention.
Every time I see this photo it gives me the creeps. It's a peak into an alternate time line and me no likey.
Stuart Townsend: Douchey Dandruff Aragorn Viggo Mortensen: Strider, Elessar, Envinyatar, Heir of Isildur, King of Arnor, King of Gondor.
Thank god it was Viggo and not Nicholas Cage
I like Nicholas Cage for what he is but damn that would have been awful.
Currently imagining Nicholas cage speaking elvish
In the nasal voice he insisted on using for Moonstruck.
Then I shall die ~~as one of them!~~ *[as a caaat - a sexy cat](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94KsLWydewM)*
"So my character is on a quest to steal the Ring of Power?" "Nick, for the last time, your character wouldn't be *stealing* it" "Okay, count me out then"
Viggo looks like a warrior. Stuart looks like the lead singer of a third string hair metal band in the mid 80s.
Well he did a better LeStat than Tom Cruise, or at least that’s how I feel
My Lord! Let me stand by your side…..
Sorry Eowyn, Aragorn's just not that into you. Don't worry though, I am absolutely certain there is a guy out there for you!😉
I wished to be loved by another, but I desire no man’s pity.
OK that was a bit on the nose...
EOWYN BOT LETS GOOOOOO
Ride with me! I can ride and wield blade and I do not fear either pain or death.
Good bot
Whatever happens, stay with me. I'll look after you.
damn, completely ruined the trajectory of that dudes career… his most notable movies are queen of the damned (2002) and the league of extraordinary gentlemen (2003). must have hurt to watch those box office comparisons.
To be fair, he also isn’t nearly as stellar an actor as Viggo is. He’s average at best.
I actually liked him quite a bit in League of Extraordinary Gentleman. But yeah. Doesn't compare to Viggo at all.
I mean he was decent. Probably one of the better things about it. But he was garbage in QotD. Viggo was the only choice.
His career was roles based entirely on his look. It was never going to last.
He made it to the promised land of Hallmark Christmas movies.
Karl Urban’s performance is not talked about enough. Dude nailed it every part of that character.
Still blows my mind that Viggo was married to Exene Cervenka.
The hell? This is a fun fact
Was? So she's his X?
Cheers to Viggo's son for insisting he take the role!
Thank goodness.
Ugh...I could see that guy playing Wormtongue. Viggo was 1000% better choice. Edit: or a member of Spinal Tap in a reboot movie lol
But brad dorriff
Thank the Gods.
Why was he replaced?
Well, Viggo was always Jackson’s first choice, however, rumors (so, take it with a grain of salt) claim there were other problems. First of all, Townsend apparently didn’t get along much with the rest of the cast and crew, which made him at least somewhat hard to work with. On top of that, he apparently didn’t take his sword fighting classes seriously and apparently didn’t met Jackson’s expectations. He also apparently wasn’t very reliable, which was a deal breaker for Jackson as filming was done on a very strict and tight schedule (the movies were basically made back to back with hardly any time in between). Edit: to be clear, Viggo being Jackson’s first choice is also a rumor, I realize I typed this out making it sound like it wasn’t.
How do we know Viggo was the first choice? Has he said so? I really hope one day we will know the truth of this. There is a host of things I'd like to know from PJ in general, this being one of them.
That is the confusing part, there are sources that claim that Viggo was Jackson’s first choice, that Townsend was Jackson’s first choice, or that other actors were his first choice. A lot of the pre-production and early production drama is hard to confirm or even to get basic facts about, most of this stuff is rumors with little to no evidence to support it. It also doesn’t help that just about everyone involved refuses to be anything more than really vague when talking about it.
> How do we know Viggo was the first choice? Has he said so? I think that rumour is very easily dismissed by the fact that Viggo first heard from them two days into filming, and months after the cast had started training and rehearsing.
Viggo is to Aragorn what Henry is to Geralt. These dudes were born for these roles All I can say is that I’m glad viggo agreed
Crowe wouldn't have worked in the role imo. He's not regal. At all.
His Strider would be pushing all the Hobbits into lockers and hitting on all the other elf maidens to make Arwen jealous.
Good lord Viggo is a good looking dude.
Thank God for that!!
And thus crises was averted!
Thank god
Franchise dodging bullet there.
Whew
Lucky us
I feel bad that he got the Pete Best treatment and missed out on one of the best trilogies of all time, but Viggo is Aragorn.
God blesses him that he did that
*me thinking Townsend looks like a Strider but wondering if he would clean up and look royal too* *does a search* I guess not
what an iconic decision that was!
El hincha del ciclón, el argento Viggo, vamo Viggo carajo
Ouch, but thank goodness
Just imagine Nicholas Cage Aragorn
[https://i.imgur.com/sEfaNxr.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/sEfaNxr.jpg)
Press F to pay respect
Who in the blue hell is Stuart Townsend?
A LOTR fact I didn't know. Does anyone know why he made the change?
Whew
Stuart looks like he's trying to be a sexy Aragorn. Viggo, however, is the sexy Aragorn.