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Thorins_apprentice
Rohan
Aug 23 2014, 5:49am
Post #1 of 25
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Whic actor/s in the lotr trilogy and the hobbit would have suited a different character better.?
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We are more connected than ever before, more able to spread our ideas and beliefs, our anger and fears. As we exercise the right to advocate our views, and as we animate our supporters, we must all assume responsibility for our words and actions before they enter a vast echo chamber and reach those both serious and delirious, connected and unhinged.
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Bracegirdle
Valinor
Aug 25 2014, 1:16pm
Post #2 of 25
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Never cared for Ian Holm as Bilbo in LOTR
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anyone else?
Some say "Why"? - I say "Why not?"
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Ataahua
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Aug 26 2014, 12:08am
Post #3 of 25
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I kid. 
Celebrimbor: "Pretty rings..."
Dwarves: "Pretty rings..."
Men: "Pretty rings..."
Sauron: "Mine's better."
"Ah, how ironic, the addictive qualities of Sauron’s master weapon led to its own destruction. Which just goes to show, kids - if you want two small and noble souls to succeed on a mission of dire importance... send an evil-minded beggar with them too." - Gandalf's Diaries, final par, by Ufthak.
Ataahua's stories
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Starling
Half-elven
Aug 26 2014, 6:39am
Post #4 of 25
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is the one I have trouble with. I find him a bit hammy.
Ian Holm - no strong feelings either way. I don't think it would have bothered me if Bilbo had been played by someone else in LOTR.
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DaughterofLaketown
Gondor
Aug 26 2014, 3:18pm
Post #5 of 25
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I don't like Eomer that much. He never was a favorite character of mine in the books either.
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"And so they stood on the walls of the city of Gondor, and a great wind rose and blew, and their hair, raven and golden, streamed out mingling in the air."
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burgahobbit
Rohan
Aug 26 2014, 7:59pm
Post #6 of 25
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Ian Holm is the best as Bilbo! And Concerning Hobbits is one of my favorite scenes in the trilogy because of it!
"I've found it is the small things, everyday deeds of ordinary folk, that keeps the darkness at bay. Simple acts of kindness and love. Why Bilbo Baggins? Perhaps it is because I’m afraid, and he gives me courage.” - Gandalf the Grey.
"Do not be afraid Mithrandir, if ever you should need my help, I will come." - Lady Galadriel.
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Lothiriel
The Shire
Aug 26 2014, 8:01pm
Post #7 of 25
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I really loved Eomer in the two towers and the return of the king.
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I think the actor did a great job.
However, I really don't like Celeborn: he looks to human...
"Ils ne savaient pas que c'était impossible, alors ils l'ont fait." Mark Twain
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DaughterofLaketown
Gondor
Aug 26 2014, 11:56pm
Post #8 of 25
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I don't mean to hate on David, But he just doesn't match what I think Faramir looked like.
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His voice like sweet Carmel though? Perfection! 
"And so they stood on the walls of the city of Gondor, and a great wind rose and blew, and their hair, raven and golden, streamed out mingling in the air."
(This post was edited by DaughterofLaketown on Aug 26 2014, 11:57pm)
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Lothiriel
The Shire
Aug 27 2014, 5:01am
Post #9 of 25
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"Ils ne savaient pas que c'était impossible, alors ils l'ont fait." Mark Twain
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Name
Rohan
Aug 28 2014, 6:48pm
Post #10 of 25
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Never cared for Andy Serkis as Gollum
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Just wasn't convincing enough for me.
*everyone begins to realize it's a joke*
How many Tolkien fans does it take to change a light bulb?
"Change? Oh my god, what do you mean change?! Never, never, never......"
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sauget.diblosio
Tol Eressea
Aug 29 2014, 3:05pm
Post #11 of 25
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The only problem i have with any of the acting in LotR
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is Elijah Wood's dodgy accent in some of the early scenes. It's not terrible, but it's noticeable. At least to me. There was a thread about this a few months ago, and when i brought this up, some agreed, and some thought it was fine. Otherwise, i thought that all the actors are quite well suited to their roles, and there's not one that i would wish were different.
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Fichtenbrenner
Bree
Sep 8 2014, 5:45pm
Post #12 of 25
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... was actually too old to play Pippin.
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Otaku-sempai
Immortal
Sep 8 2014, 6:15pm
Post #13 of 25
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Pippin was supposed to be the youngest of the four hobbits and I believe that Billy Boyd is actually the oldest of the actors playing Frodo and hobbit companions. However, Boyd did a marvelous job of capturing Pippin's immaturity.
'There are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world.' - Gandalf the Grey, The Fellowship of the Ring
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Radagast-Aiwendil
Gondor
Sep 11 2014, 1:33pm
Post #14 of 25
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Tolkien would disagree with you..
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As you may already know, Tolkien in his lifetime had been very keen on the idea of Lee playing the role of Gandalf, but of course he couldn't do that because of his age. However, while I personally thought he was perfect for Saruman I can understand why you might feel that way about his performance, particularly if you've seen lots of his work with villains. He does tend to play himself a great deal (which is fine given that he's made a career out of it), but after seeing him a few times you generally know what to expect. His voice, in my opinion, is what makes him so excellent as Saruman.
Of course, I'm not at all trying to force my opinion-no one actor can please everyone's perception of how a character should be (there are probably those out there who didn't approve of McKellen's performance, inconceivable though that is to me).
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."-Gandalf
(This post was edited by Radagast-Aiwendil on Sep 11 2014, 1:34pm)
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Radagast-Aiwendil
Gondor
Sep 12 2014, 8:03am
Post #16 of 25
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I can't remember the exact source but it is a fairly well-known fact
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Lee had wanted to play Gandalf for years, and was the only member of the film cast to have met J.R.R. Tolkien in person. Tolkien assumedly expressed his approval of Lee as an actor, and said to him that if ever a film was made Lee would be ideal for the role of Gandalf. That is the part that he originally auditioned for, but ultimately lost out on it, possibly because of his age (or perhaps he'd have seemed too evil!) Regardless of what people think of Lee's performance he knew what he was doing and never needed to be told how to play Saruman, knowing the books as well as he does.
My absolute favourite fact about Lee (which you may well know) is that when filming the scene in which he is stabbed by Grima, Peter initially gave him a description of the noise he should make when stabbed, but Lee cut him off, reminding Peter that he had been in the War and knew what the sound was like from first-hand experience!
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."-Gandalf
(This post was edited by Radagast-Aiwendil on Sep 12 2014, 8:04am)
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squire
Half-elven
Sep 13 2014, 12:27pm
Post #17 of 25
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I think it's a classic urban legend.
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I've just been trying to track down a verifiable source for Tolkien stating that he would like, or approve of, the casting of Christopher Lee as Gandalf. What I think I've found is that two different stories told by Christopher Lee have merged into one that is, we might say, a bit more mythical.
Here is an edited transcript from the interview from 2001 where Lee tells his story about his early interest as an actor in playing a role The Lord of the RIngs, and about his encounter with Tolkien:
Q. How did you get cast?
Christopher Lee: I got a call from my agent saying that Peter Jackson was directing Lord Of The Rings. "Would you go and see him and talk to him? Would you do a reading? And would you mind if they videotaped you during the meeting?" In the case of this great epic, I was perfectly happy to go, to be seen and photographed, and to read. I went along and saw him in a very small room in the back of a church in London.
John Rhys-Davies: What about this business of you getting down on your knees and begging?
Lee: That's not on film. That... ah...came later. He showed me, as he showed you, all these wonderful photographs of locations in New Zealand, and some of the characters John (Howe) designed. I thought, "This is going to be something unique in my life as an actor, something I always dreamed about." (I'd thought this would become a film one day, and that maybe I would be in it. So occasionally dreams do come true! Not very often.)
Q: First you wanted to be Frodo?
Lee: No...Bilbo perhaps.
Q: Many people said you wanted to play Gandalf, years ago.
Lee: Oh, well...years ago, when the books came out! [mid-1950s - squire] And, I was too young to play Gandalf. I was! When the books came out, somebody said to me, "Did you read these books, and do you think they will be made into a film?" I said it'd be a wonderful thing, but I doubt it. And he said, "What would you like to play?" And, of course I said Gandalf, nothing strange about that. Who wouldn't? But now, I'm far too old to play Gandalf. And when I saw what Ian did, apart from his performance, and seeing what he had to do physically, I was extremely thankful! I was even looking at you (Ian) running through the mines yesterday (in the footage.)
Ian McKellen: Well, I'm not sure that was me.
Q: What do you remember of meeting Tolkien?
Lee: Very little. I was up in Oxford meeting some friends, and we were in the Randolph Hotel. Someone said, "What are you doing here, this is all rather correct and proper; lets go to a pub." This was forty-five + years ago. [c. 1955 - squire] We were sitting there talking and drinking beer, and someone said, "Oh, look who walked in." It was Professor Tolkien, and I nearly fell off my chair. I didn't even know he was alive. He was a benign looking man, smoking a pipe, walking in, an English countryman with earth under his feet. And he was a genius, a man of incredible intellectual knowledge. He knew somebody in our group. He (the man in the group) said "Oh Professor, Professor..." And he came over. And each one of us, well I knelt of course, each one of us said "how do you do?" And I just said "Ho.. How.. How..." I just couldn't believe it. But I'll never forget it.
...
McKellen: I think Tolkien has been looking down, or up, on this project. He was always there. The books were always there, just off the set in every single scene. Last minute checks...did we get it right, is that what he wanted, is that what he intended? The devotion to that man, I think, was equal to that of Peter Jackson. It was always there, it never was out.[bolds by squire]
Notice that in this interview Lee says two different things: 1) When he first read the book, he envisioned himself playing Gandalf, but knew he was too young for the role. He was in his early 30s at that point. 2) When he met Tolkien, it was in those same years, so he would have appeared too young to be Gandalf had Tolkien taken notice of him. But as the funny story makes clear, Lee was star-struck at meeting the professor, and could barely even articulate a polite 'how do you do.' There is no mention of any conversation about playing Gandalf, and why would there be between the professor and a little-known actor in his early 30s?
But the interview is on the DVD. In the fan community, the romance of the story seems to have morphed into a very romantic legend within a short time. Courtesy of Google and the inquiry "did tolkien want christopher lee to play gandalf", one can find innumerable internet posts along these lines:
I thought it was so cool when I heard on the extended DVD that Christopher Lee had actually met Tolkien--he actually asked permission to play Gandalf, which Tolkien agreed to (funny how these things work out...)
Liraz Kalanit 13/Feb/2003 at 07:09 AM
Chris Lee was the only LOTR actor to meet Tolkien in person. Chris Lee told Tolkien if they ever made a movie based on the books he wanted to play Gandalf. Boromir88 06-18-2004, 11:03 PM
Both of these posts date from a few years after the interview was released, during the first rush of fan excitment over the LotR films. Both writers have watched the interview, and clearly they have confused the two stories that Lee told. Lee wanted to play Gandalf. Lee met Tolkien. That's it. Tolkien never expressed a wish or approval regarding Lee's casting in a movie of LotR. But by now, over a decade later, the story has become "everyone knows this is true" part of the LotR films' mythology. But I don't think it is true - more's the pity, from the point of view of those who are conflicted about what Tolkien's reaction to the New Line films would have been.
squire online:
RR Discussions: The Valaquenta, A Shortcut to Mushrooms, and Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit
Lights! Action! Discuss on the Movie board!: 'A Journey in the Dark'. and 'Designing The Two Towers'.
Footeramas: The 3rd & 4th TORn Reading Room LotR Discussion and NOW the 1st BotR Discussion too! and "Tolkien would have LOVED it!"
squiretalk introduces the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: A Reader's Diary
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moreorless
Gondor
Sep 17 2014, 4:01pm
Post #18 of 25
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I think it matched the films though...
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His voice like sweet Carmel though? Perfection!
Its true the book gave the impression of Faramir as more obviously "noble" where as Wenham was a bit of "grizzled" but then again your looking at a very different character journey in the films.
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Loresilme
Valinor
Sep 17 2014, 5:23pm
Post #19 of 25
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I felt a little the opposite way
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I thought he looked and acted the part well, but I felt his voice sounded as if he was stuffed up with a head cold. I liked the way he spoke - I liked his accent a lot - but I kept hearing a quality in the voice itself that sounded to me like he had a head cold. I haven't seen him in other films or TV so I don't know if that is how he always sounds.
Other than that, I liked him in the role.
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sauget.diblosio
Tol Eressea
Sep 17 2014, 7:06pm
Post #20 of 25
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I made it almost all the way through
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300 before i realized where i recognized the narrator's voice from. I think David Wenham has a most excellent and distinctive voice, and i love his take on Faramir. He brings a kind of sadness to the character while remaining brave, with just the right amount of doubt in search of the truth (unlike book Faramir i suppose, but oh well, i prefer movie Faramir a bit).
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sauget.diblosio
Tol Eressea
Sep 17 2014, 7:14pm
Post #21 of 25
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I remember being surprised at Billy Boyd being the oldest,
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as he seemed to me the youngest of the four in the films. Still does, even though i know better. And he's still my favorite of the four hobbits, brilliant as the other three are.
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Loresilme
Valinor
Sep 17 2014, 8:37pm
Post #22 of 25
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were perfect together! I still cannot watch this scene without crying.
Merry: I knew you’d find me.
Pippin: Yes.
Merry: Are you going to leave me?
Pippin: No, Merry. I’m going to look after you.
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lotr08
Registered User
Sep 27 2014, 9:33pm
Post #23 of 25
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First I have to say that considering that joke of an 'actor' Keanu Reeves was considered by the studios for the role & Nick Cage (ack!!) was also offered the role, In the end, we really lucked out with Viggo Mortenson. I think Viggo is pretty good as Strider/Ranger but was'nt right as Aragorn the King. I see Viggo better cast as Halbarad, (if that character was in the movie as he should have been)
After seeing Eric Bana as Hector (in TROY), I think he really would have been perfect as Aragorn. He has the looks of tough, resourcerful, 'earthy' vibe needed to play the Ranger and also has the all important natural leader charisma to pull off Aragorn as the King. I think he 'cleans up' better than Mortenson so he is more believable portraying the leader. The range of emotion & tension he displayed portraying Hector was a good match for Aragorn's story. Leading the doomed Trojans against the overwhelming force that was Achilles & the Greeks, the weight of his responsibilities as the first son. When I see that movie, my head is screaming: this guy would have been an awesome Aragorn!
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Magradhaid
The Shire
Sep 27 2014, 11:26pm
Post #24 of 25
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I agree that we dodged a bullet with Aragorn's casting. Though Mortensen doesn't quite meet my imagination of how book-Aragorn looks, I don't mind the casting; it's how his character was written that I wish had been more faithful. The same goes for other characters; the only solid "miscasting" I think happened was with Frodo.
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lotr08
Registered User
Sep 29 2014, 8:36pm
Post #25 of 25
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actually, I thought Jackson thoroughly nailed the Frodo/hobbits thread of LOTR. Elijah Wood was for me, as good as I could have hoped for. Whom did you have in mind?
I totally agree the whole Aragorn thread of the story falls short. Aragorn is more than just a bad ass Ranger. He is leader, co- strategist (w/ Gandalf) and the fulfillment of the prophecy that is the hope of Man on middle earth. So many big moments for Aragorn were left out. First encounter with the Rohirrim, Helms Deep, lead up to Black Gate, Palantir of Orthanc, Halbarad.. Really mishandled was the Siege of Minas Tirith. After all that fighting & dying, the army of the dead shows up & sweeps the whole battlefield like a giant green water hose. Well then what was the point of the whole drawn out battle? And after that, it seems like the next day they are at the Black gate.
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