Monday, January 12
I must post this. Although it is bad and good news.
Left to their own devices, the actors began to tell stories about the different gags which occurred on set, which the audience eagerly ate up. Sean began by explaining that at some point during the shoot the actors received gift packages from Gillette, which prompted the filming of a small “commercial” as a Gillette spokesman, which ran something like this: “Hi, my name is Sean Astin, and I play Sam wise Gamgee in Lord of the Rings. Hobbits don’t grow facial hair, but actors do! When I’m on Mt. Doom and I need a real close hobbit shave, I pull out my special, safety-tested Gillette razor….” This brought peals of laughter.
Not to be outdone, Bernard Hill told a story about a gag that occurred while he and Viggo were shooting Viggo’s “Christ-like” entrance at Helm’s Deep after being “saved, fed, watered and given injections by his horse” (at this point, the actors riffed on Viggo’s entrance for awhile, imitating him pushing the doors aside and shaking the sweat out of his hair, with many flourishes and exaggeration). Apparently right before they were filming this scene, Bernard and Viggo had been discussing the merchandizing which would be accompanying LotR, and how tiny, miniature, plastic models of themselves would soon be available in toy stores all over the world. As the cameras began to roll, and Bernard delivered Theoden’s lines about Saruman’s impending army, Bernard asked: “How many?” and Viggo answered: “Thousands and thousands, milord. They will scam you, m’lord. They will cast your head in plastic, you will be on the shelves of every child under the age of 12, you will be underfoot, on the carpet, stuck with gum, etc.” To which Bernard (still in character and trying to save the scene) asked again: “How many?” And Viggo answered: “I already told you, m’lord.” At this point, a cell phone rang on set, and Bernard said (still in character): “somebody answer the phone”, and at that point, the entire scene dissolved and Viggo ended up on the floor laughing.
Since the other actors seemed reluctant to share more of their gag stories (despite Bernard’s urging), Bernard decided to talk about another orchestrated gag, which occurred to him while Peter was explaining that the Uruk-Hai trying to break into Helm’s Deep were just like a visit from someone you don’t want. This reminded Bernard of Jehovah’s Witnesses who come proselytizing on your doorstep (“no offense meant to anyone here who is a Jehovah’s Witness”), so he and Andrew Lesnie (the DOP for the films) put together a shot of approximately 30 soldiers of Rohan answering the banging of the Helm’s Deep door with shouts of: “Who is it?” and “It’s the Jehovah’s Witnesses, don’t let them get in!” followed by all 30 of them shouting “GO AWAY!”
Sean Astin offered up one more story, talking about how he found it hard to find his place caught between such large personalities as Peter Jackson and Sir Ian McKellan, and about how, during FotR, his character was purposely kept somewhat distant from the audience (perhaps to keep Sam’s strength and nobility a secret for the later movies?), so much so that after awhile, he was practically begging for a close-up. So during the shooting of the eavesdropping scene in bag end, he kept trying to slip his face into the shot, at the edge of the screen, and when Ian grabbed him and pulled him through the window to ask him what he was doing, he said: “I just wanted a bit of a close-up, sir”, at which point Ian pushed him aside and said “No, no”, vying in front of the camera with him until Sean fell off the table (but according to Elijah, Ian helped Sean back up and even gave him a little kiss).
And then, BAM, suddenly Peter Jackson is back on screen again, and quickly realizes that the actors are telling blooper stories. The audience begins to call out things like: make a bloopers tape! We’ll pay good money for it, and Peter did say that he imagined a bloopers tape would be made at some point and released on DVD (again, to wild cheering), but not for several years yet, he cautioned.
To end the evening, Peter told one last story about a gag that was played on Viggo Mortenson during filming at Dunharrow. Peter gave Hugo Weaving a pair of Matrix-style glasses, and as Viggo entered the king’s tent to meet with Elrond, Hugo Weaving stood up, removed his cloak, revealed his glasses, and said: “Your Dunedain disguise cannot fool me, Mr. Anderson.” Peter called this the “ultimate geek moment.”
Wah. OMG. Great. But sorta sucky that there won't be a bloopers tape for ages. Mrgh. I will have fallen out of love by then. Damn the bastard, damn him! Do you know how many and how much people would sell for that tape or DVD? He could even make them into a trilogy and make them $100 each and PPL would still buy them. Well at least I definitely would.I just have to see that!!!!!!!! And dammit, i've only got one. And that's the Bernard Hill one mentioned above. Funny tho.
~ M.M.W ~
