“The lads of Rohan grew weary. All their arrows have been spent, and each shaft was shot; their swords have been notched, and their shields have been riven.”
– J.R.R. Tolkien, “The Lord of the Rings”
With the variety of battle scenes, stunts, and basic cavorting round within the New Zealand countryside, accidents and accidents have been inevitable in the course of the making of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. Maybe essentially the most well-known instance is Viggo Mortensen breaking two of his toes when Aragorn kicks an orc helmet to precise his grief, considering that Merry and Pippin have been killed (the take, full with Mortensen’s scream of agony, made it into the film).
One other legendary Mortensen damage occurred in the course of the preventing at Helm’s Deep, when he was by chance smashed within the mouth by a protruding fin of Uruk-hai armor, breaking off a big chunk of his entrance tooth. Mortensen merely picked up the tooth and requested if anybody had any superglue so they may stick it again on and proceed filming. He was whisked away for emergency dentistry as an alternative, however went straight again to the set as quickly as his tooth was presentable once more.
Requested in regards to the incident in an interview for “Cameras in Center-earth,” Mortensen appears nearly embarrassed by the fuss over one foolish little tooth. “That was like enterprise as standard for everybody concerned,” he insists. “And it is solely as a result of it is an actor that it is even talked about.”
He isn’t incorrect. A damaged tooth was removed from the worst damage incurred at Helm’s Deep, the place cuts, bruises, and sprains have been a nightly incidence. The set might have been made from plywood and polystyrene, however the weapons and armor have been made from steel and will do a whole lot of harm, even with the perimeters blunted. In behind-the-scenes footage, stunt performer Sala Baker is proven introducing himself by the unit’s cellular medical car. “Hello, I am Sala, I am a stuntie, and the explanation we’re right here at present is due to…” He drops his head ahead with a flourish to indicate the steel staples holding his scalp collectively, the results of being whacked on the highest of the pinnacle with a sword. “This!”
Everybody went all-out within the battle scenes. Uruk-hai performer Kane Bixley informed NME that “the preventing was nearly actual,” and particularly recollects a second when “some man ran as much as me and knocked me down in the course of the Helm’s Deep battle, and saved hitting me with a spear whereas shouting, ‘That is gotta damage!'” The battering ram utilized by the Uruk-hai to interrupt down the gate was additionally actual: a piece of utility pole constituted of strong wooden. One of many Uruk-hai performers who wielded it, Clinton Ulyatt, informed Pink Carpet Information: “I keep in mind going residence that day, operating a shower, falling into it and waking up about six hours later with no water round me,”
Viggo Mortensen was decided to do as a lot of his personal stunts as attainable, and was additionally devoted to hitting as arduous as he may in fight. “As a stuntie, you need to battle Viggo, as a result of you recognize he’ll give it as a lot as you’ll, and he’ll take it as nicely,” says Augie Davis within the “Warriors of the Third Age” featurette. “While you’re in a battle with him, you’re feeling such as you’re in an actual scrap.” A photograph taken by make-up artist José Péréz within the aftermath of the battle reveals Mortensen’s palms lined with bloody divots, chunks taken out of them by glancing blows with swords and armor.
Mortensen wasn’t the one key forged member left scarred by the Battle of Helm’s Deep. Brett Beattie, the stunt double for John Rhys Davies (and the Gimli you may see on display screen just about any time that Davies’ face is not clearly seen), informed Polygon that he suffered two blown knees in the course of the making of the trilogy. When he went for his third reconstructive knee surgical procedure in 2021, the surgeon requested him how the accidents had occurred and Beattie replied, “Properly, I used to be battling Uruk-hai at Helm’s Deep.”
And it wasn’t solely their enemies that the soldiers of Helm’s Deep needed to fear about: Théoden actor Bernard Hill suffered some pleasant hearth. “I acquired hit by my very own assistant,” he recaps in footage filmed after the incident. “Gamling [Bruce Hopkins] whacked me on the ear along with his sword. Anyone fell on his arm and his sword went ‘crack!'”
New Line CinemaMaybe essentially the most harmless casualty of Helm’s Deep was poor Orlando Bloom, whose damage was an oblique results of the battle. Over the course of the grueling four-month shoot, Viggo Mortensen grew to become a type of honorary member of the stunt group and developed a singular manner of bonding along with his stuntie buddies (notably after they’d been doing pictures on the bar). It went like this: Viggo would clasp the particular person’s face, look deep into their eyes, say one thing candy to them … after which head-butt them as arduous as attainable.
“We would be within the bar having a drink and he’d be like WHACK,” Lani Jackson recollects, with a wince of remembered ache.
“It does appear foolish now, on reflection,” Mortensen later admitted. “A bunch of grown males going round head-butting one another anyplace they encountered one another.” However on the time, he was eager to unfold the love. On the premiere of “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” which came about whereas pick-ups and reshoots for the sequels have been nonetheless ongoing, Mortensen managed to persuade Sala Baker that it might be an excellent thought to head-butt an unsuspecting Bloom. In an interview for the “Lord of the Rings: Prolonged Version” Appendices, Baker recollects:
“Viggo goes, ‘Do it. Do it. Do it.’ And I used to be like, ‘Hey, Orlando, bro — I really like you, dude.’ WHAM! And I acquired in hassle as a result of the subsequent day make-up was like, ‘Why does Legolas have an enormous crimson dot on his brow?'”
Bloom solely remembers a burst of white mild and questioning if he had gone completely blind. “Now, each time I see [Sala],” he says, with a haunted expression. “I see the white mild.”
