If anyone has ever tried to watch or rewatch The Lord of the Rings trilogy with a super fan, they know that it's impossible to get through it all without that fan mentioning at least a dozen behind-the-scenes facts or information. By now, a lot of these facts are common knowledge due to the highly popular "Making Of" documentaries, and all 'true fans' should know them.
The entirety of the trilogy was filmed over the course of almost two years right in beautiful New Zealand. During this time, the actors and crew had to live and work in New Zealand. Of course, working on a passion project closely with other people for a long time will form a friendship and bond stronger even than the bond between the members of The Fellowship in the film. But the actors that were part of The Fellowship formed such a close bond that they even got a matching tattoo together (except for John Rhys-Davies). What did the cast do on their weekends when they weren't filming?
Well, as revealed on Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan's podcast The Friendship Onion, some of the cast members would start their mornings off by surfing at the beach, going to music stores, and picking out a new CD to listen to on their sometimes 2-4 hour drives to set locations, or ending the day having a few drinks and catching up on much-needed rest. While out drinking at a karaoke bar one night, co-writer Philippa Boyens discovered Billy Boyd's ability to sing very well, which is how his character Pippin's song was introduced into the third film.
The chemistry between the actors on and off set was perfectly in sync and perfectly cast. But the iconic character Aragorn played by the talented Viggo Mortensen might have looked different if Peter Jackson decided not to switch actors at the last minute. Actor Stuart Townsend was initially cast as Aragorn, but only a couple of days into filming Peter realized the actor was too young-looking and brought in Viggo. Switching actors was such a great choice, and Viggo even insisted on doing his own stunts. During the filming of The Two Towers, there was a scene where Viggo had to kick a steel helmet so that it would fly past the camera.
This is a very emotional moment, and Viggo's performance needed to convey the sense of loss and frustration Aragorn was feeling. Peter Jackson had Viggo Mortensen redo the scene several times to get the correct emotional response from the actor, and on the last take (which is the shot that ends up being in the film) Viggo let out an extremely emotional and believable cry that Peter thought he really nailed. Unknown to the other cast and crew, Viggo had broken his toe on the last take but continued the scene, channeling his pain into a great performance.
Speaking of injuries, there were several other injuries that the cast members received throughout the filming. At one point, actors Orlando Bloom, Viggo Mortensen, and John Rhys-Davies's double had a cracked rib, broken toe, and injured knee yet push through the pain to get the shot of them running across the land in order to retrieve Merry and Pippin. There is a lot of special effects makeup that was done for The Lord of the Rings trilogy. One of the effects was the hobbit feet, which took some times four hours to apply. Although they are rarely seen in the film, the hobbit actors still had to wear them.
In The Fellowship of the Ring, there is a scene where Sam runs out into a lake in order to catch up with Frodo. But the actor Sean Astin stepped on a shard in the water that pierced his foot and required him to have to go to the hospital immediately. But as Elijah woods said in The Friendship Onion podcast, by the time The Hobbit trilogy was filmed, the process of having hobbit feet was as simple as slipping on a sock or shoe. Principal photography for The Lord of the Rings trilogy took place all the way back in 1999 till 2001. A lot of the effects that are seen in movies today were not possible or thought of yet back then.
In fact, many of the set designs seen in the film are actually full scale miniatures. And all of the orcs were in full prosthetic makeup and costume, all with custom made armor and weapons. In fact, one of the many, many jobs for the huge project that was The Lord of the Rings was to link together millions of rings in order to make chainmail for costuming. The small crew did nothing but put together piece after piece of metal for several months. There was also a woman whose one and only job was to sit in a field and watch the airport. Anytime a plane took off, she informed those on location so they could stop filming.
Filming on location means filming in that location's weather, and there were days that is was raining too much or snowing too hard to continue filming. The horse known as Bill seen in The Fellowship of the Ring was actually a costume worn by two women on stilts. There was a little person double every hobbit that would wear a prosthetic mask to make them look like the actor they played, used for wide or perspective shots. When Gandalf hits his head on the beam in the first Lord of the Rings movie, this was actually just the actor being clumsy and wasn't scripted. Several of the orcs and horse riders were actually played by women, as most of the people in New Zealand who owned horses were women.
Viggo was almost hit by a dagger thrown by the actor playing a Uruk-hai, who accidentally threw the dagger at Viggo instead of past him like he was supposed to. Luckily, Viggo deflected the dagger with his sword (unscripted). Actor Sean Bean was lowering his head for the "one does not simply" scene because he was reading the script that was written on his leg. Though the other cast members would take helicopter rides to reach destinations atop mountains, Sean was scared of planes and instead got to set by climbing the mountains of New Zealand in full Boromir costume. And the scene on The Bridge of Khazad Dum was improvised, as in the original script it merely said something along the lines of "and The Fellowship made their way to the bridge."