10 Amazing Things Viggo Mortensen Did On The Set Of Lord Of The Rings

Viggo Mortensen was absolutely perfect for the role of Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings, and he proved it every day on set. He took method acting to the next level and lived Aragorn's life practically every day.

Today, The Lord of the Rings is one of the most beloved film franchises of all time and the stories from its set are legendary. There have been incidents and crises galore and many of them have involved Mortensen and his dedication to staying in character. It's amazing that one man could have so many crazy things happen while making a film trilogy.

10 Mortensen stopped by police for carrying a sword

To really get into Aragorn's mindset, Mortensen took to carrying his sword everywhere he went. On one occasion he even slept with it, just as Aragorn might have done. Needless to say, the common folk had no idea what to think of a man who carried around a great sword, and at one point the police even intervened.

Mortensen told Wired in 2012:

“It is true that I was once asked by local law enforcement not to walk around town brandishing my sword. One afternoon I was spotted in a Wellington warehouse district, leaving one of our stunt rehearsals, darting around with my sword while rehearsing imaginary fights in my mind. It seems that my walking down the street swinging my sword, thrusting and parrying in encounters with invisible orc and uruk-hai adversaries has caused some concern in the community.”

Not all actors are so determined to stay in character that they involve the police!

9 Mortensen cooked and ate run-over animals

The characters in The Lord of the Rings never had the chance to stop at the local McDonald's; they had to hunt and cook their own meat. So Viggo Mortensen decided to do the same. After all, he was quite the outdoorsman. That was another thing that made him the perfect person to play Aragorn.

One night, when Mortensen accidentally hit a rabbit with his car, he decided not to waste the opportunity. He immediately lit a fire and roasted the animal that had been hit.Aragorn might have done the same thing if he had lived in a world with cars.

8 Mortensen almost drowned

There have been many accidents on the The Lord of the Rings set, and some of them involved water. Sean Austin cut his foot on a piece of glass while filming the scene where Sam chases Frodo's boat, and had to be airlifted to hospital. But another accident was even more serious.

Viggo Mortensen nearly drowned while filming the scene where Aragorn goes into the water during The Two Towers. A current dragged him under the water and he thought he was done for, but he managed to get out. As if that wasn't enough, he had a similar accident, almost drowning, during the filming Thirteen Lives in 2021.

Mortensen loves horses as much as Aragorn. The main horse he worked with on the The Lord of the Rings set was called Eurayus, and Mortensen loved it. He told IGN in 2004:

He came into the movie similar to how I came into the movie. You know, he didn't have a lot of preparation and he was just thrown in and had to swim, basically. And it was tough on him and it took a while for us to get in sync and for him to feel comfortable on set.

Mortensen loved it so much, in fact, that he bought it —and then bought another horse named Kenny to keep him company. The two horses lived lives of luxury with Mortensen, but sadly a horse’s lifespan isn’t as long as a human’s, and both are now dead.

Mortensen also bought a horse for someone else. He saw Arwen's double bond with her white horse, so he bought it for her; it's still alive.

6 Mortensen wore and repaired Aragorn's costume for maximum authenticity.

Aragorn's Ranger costume in the Lord of the Rings films is an absolute marvel, and a big part of that is due to Viggo Mortensen's dedication. He himself chose to repair the costume every time it got ruined, instead of leaving these things to the costume department. The costume designers had no problem with this.

“It was an unusual request,” said costume designer Ngila Dickson. Sunday Telegraph for their paperback edition in 2003. He continued:

…But it was important to Viggo, and therefore important to us. Who knows, perhaps it was because he washed and repaired Aragorn's clothes himself that he had come to live there so perfectly.

5 Mortensen came dangerously close to blowing himself up

The amount of danger the actors were exposed to during filming The Lord of the Rings It's downright wild. The scene outside the Black Gates of Mordor, where Aragorn delivers a dramatic speech to the assembled army, was actually filmed just outside a New Zealand military site littered with unexploded bombs.

This would not have been a problem if Mortensen had not gotten carried away while giving his speech and had not entered the no-go zone where the bomb was detonated. Director Peter Jackson watched in horror as everything happened. Fortunately, all went well and Mortensen lived to fight another day.

4 Mortensen got a black eye while surfing

In addition to everything else he does, Mortensen is an avid surfer, but unfortunately, that actually turned out to be a detriment to the film on one occasion. Mortensen went surfing one day with Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd, who of course played Merry and Pippin, and things went south. Mortensen suffered a black eye when his surfboard hit him in the face.

Surprisingly, director Peter Jackson wasn't upset. After all, what's a black eye to a fierce warrior like Aragorn? Jackson, however, shot the cave troll sequence with the injured side of Mortensen's face always turned away from the camera, so the black eye wouldn't show. The audience won't be able to notice it, but it was very much there.

3 Mortensen broke a tooth on set

Mortensen was apparently constantly taking beatings The Lord of the Rings set. One scene in particular, however, was so full of action and so many flying swords that it would have been surprising if there had been no casualties. This was the Battle of Helm's Deep, beautifully brought to life in the second film of the trilogy, The Two Towers.

During all the chaos, Mortensen was struck in the face with a sword. Peter Jackson recalled the incident while speaking to Christian Answers in 2002. Jackson said:

One of the things that happened to Viggo in that battle scene is there was a moment where one of the Orc swords hit him in the face. It hit him in the mouth. And his front tooth broke off at the root. He literally broke in half and fell to the ground!

But Mortensen was the one who reacted to the injury most like Aragorn. Instead of freaking out, he asked for some super glue so he could reattach the tooth and continue fighting! However, Peter Jackson couldn't allow this, and Mortensen was taken in for dental surgery.

2 Mortensen was stabbed directly in the head with a knife

Mortensen must have a guardian angel watching over him because he has cheated death a ridiculous number of times. The Lord of the Rings set. Another occasion is said to have occurred during the filming of the Battle of Amon Hen, which required a great deal of dangerous acrobatics and swordplay. TThings were very difficult for Lawrence Makoare, the actor of Lurtz, because he had to do everything that was asked of him, while barely being able to see through the makeup.

Unfortunately, there was a small incident. At one point, Makoare was supposed to throw a real dagger at Mortensen and missed. But since he could barely see, he accidentally threw the dagger right at Mortensen's head. Fortunately, Mortensen managed to push him away. Thanks to his quick reflexes, disaster was averted.

1 Mortensen broke his toes kicking a helmet

The most famous anecdote about the The Lord of the Rings the trilogy revolves around a scene in The Two Towers. Mortensen was acting out Aragorn's grief for Merry and Pippin, who were presumed dead. Mortensen kicked an orc helmet in anger. Unfortunately, he broke two toes while kicking the helmet, but he stayed in character!

Mortensen let out a cry of pain when he broke his toes, and that cry is in the final cut of the film as Aragorn's cry of pain. It adds emotion to the scene and makes an already great film even better.