A wardrobe problem and another with the camera forced the actors in charge of giving life to the hobbits to go through one of the most difficult moments of ‘The Return of the King’
The Lord of the rings It has, throughout its trilogy, complex scenes and sequences. Some of them are because of the action, others because of the practical and digital effects used. However, there is one of The return of the King which was one of the most difficult of the saga directed by Peter Jackson. It may seem strange to you, but it is about the moment when The hobbits say goodbye to Frodo in Gray Havens. Yes, there is no action and it is a very emotional moment, but it was complex because an entire day of recordings had to be repeated twice.
“A lot of people have told me that that must have been the last thing we shot. Us saying goodbye,” Billy Boyd recalls in a behind-the-scenes video from the film. The actor gave life to Pippin on the big screen. “It wasn’t. It was right in the middle of principal photography and we had to think, ‘What did we go through?'” “I was a little uncomfortable, waiting to hit that emotional tone”acknowledged Sean Astin, who got into the skin of Sam.
Astin, Boyd and their companions Elijah Wood, in charge of playing Frodo, and Dominc Monaghan, who gave life to Merry; They spent the whole day filming the scene.
As Boyd recalled:
We were crying all day. It gives you a headache and it is very difficult to reach that emotional tone. When the day was over, even though it was a good day, I thought, ‘Oh, thank God it’s over.
THE WRONG VEST AND A BLUR
Warner Bros. Image from ‘The Lord of the Rings’
The problems, however, had only just begun. When Jackson and his team reviewed footage from the first day, they discovered that Astin, after the dinner break, had forgotten to put on the correct vest for the scene.
“We had to shoot again,” said the actor. “It was one of those moments when you feel like you’ve captured magic and you don’t know if you could do it again.”Jackson said. “We were devastated. We were deflated,” Monaghan added.
The second day there were also problems. After reshooting the scene, Jackson discovered that everything was out of focus. When the director told the actors what happened, they thought he was joking. “I told them, ‘We’re going to have to shoot again. I was out of focus.’ I could see this horrible moment on their faces where they thought I was joking.. It was one of those situations where I wish I was joking,” Jackson recalled.
Fortunately, the third time was the charm. As Monaghan concluded: “That’s the irony. That’s the journey. That’s how we earn the medals”.
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