The Original Aragorn Would Have Completely Changed The Lord Of The Rings

the lord of the rings was a huge gamble for new line cinema in 2001. they bet literally hundreds of millions of dollars to adapt not one but three books into a trilogy of movies that would be filmed simultaneously if these films didn't work they would ruin the careers of everyone involved and yet the film almost came out dramatically different because of a very different actor being cast as the now beloved character aragorn but before we get too deep please subscribe to the nostalgic channel in order to keep up with all of our videos the lord of the rings written by j.r.r tolkien was originally published in 1955. the trilogy of books originally intended to be a single volume is one of the highest selling novel series in history tolkien's book series was originally set up at miramax with grand wash and peter jackson's adaptations however due to behind the scenes frictions and disney putting a cap on what miramax could spin per picture jackson and walsh took the project to every other studio in hollywood looking for someone to fund the epic production only one person said yes bob shay at new line cinema in an unprecedented move he said he would fund three films all filmed simultaneously this caused jackson and walsh to have to prepare the films and cast the large ensemble of characters quickly but very deliberately after the parts of frodo and gandalf arguably the most essential casting to get correct was that of strider aka aragorn aka the once and future king of gondor unlike in the novels where he's much more of a heroic archetype aragorn in the films is a man in emotional hiding he's someone who over the course of the three films has an arc he grows into his ability to accept the crown of the realm of gondor the man originally cast as the part was stuart townsend townsend gained widespread acclaim for his turn in the film about adam this put him on the map with the us studios and before he knew it he was a star in the making jackson wanted him for the role of aragorn because of his intensity brooding good looks and youthful energy he wanted him to balance out gandalf's older more shakespearean tone however newlands cinema executives were concerned that townsend appeared too young for the role that he would not be able to convincingly portray a man grappling with the burden of becoming king however jackson and walsh were convinced that townsend was the best actor for the role they wanted actors who were committed to their parts who truly inhabited the characters as opposed to big movie stars the fact that the shooting of the three films back to back would take 18 months meant that the decisions held a lot of weight the back and forth between jackson and newline went so far as the studio insisting that townsend do a full screen test before officially being given the part the screen test was never publicly released however it's been said that townsend was flown to new zealand fitted for a costume and filmed an entire scene as the prancing pony the only evidence that this ever happened is this photo unfortunately things began to quickly turn sour as the rest of the cast and crew arrived rehearsal started and tensions rose it became clear that townsend didn't fit in well with the rest of the cast it didn't seem like he wanted to be there his attitude worsened with every day that filming grew closer he did not want to rehearse he did not want to learn how to ride horses and did not want to learn any fight choreography reputable sources have repeatedly said that his constant refrain during all of this was you'll get it on the day this even led to sir ian mckellen pulling him aside and asking him do you even want to be here this conflict between townsend and the production eventually reached a breaking point on the second day of filming while shooting the scene of the hobbits under the tree cowering in fear from the ring race jackson turned to his producer and said the fateful words that would alter stuart townsend's life forever i don't think i can work with stuart by this point the train had left the station it was too late to switch actors and yet they had to jackson felt there was no other way forward newline execs went into a tailspin they frantically made calls reaching out to agents and managers checking actor availability ultimately three actors were the final contenders jason patrick russell crowe and viggo mortensen jason patrick was deemed not a big enough star by the studio russell crowe passed on the opportunity because he had just done gladiator and didn't want to be typecast in fantasy or period epics so it all came down to viggo mortensen mortensen was an outdoorsman knew how to ride horses and was a trained swordsman he was also familiar with the folklore that the lord of the rings was pulled from he was offered the part and literally days later was on a plane to new zealand lacking any time to prepare he was thrown into the deep end he was given chunks of the script to read but was not allowed to see the whole part due to secrecy surrounding the shoot this made preparing for the role more difficult he was also not given any time with the other actors his first day in new zealand was literally the first day of shooting unlike the other actors who had been around for six weeks of rehearsals and fight training in fact when sam and frodo were sitting on the table at the prancing pony and sam says that fellows from nothing but staring you since we arrived there was no aragorn in the movie they literally didn't know who was going to play the part sam and frodo were playing to an empty corner of the room however it would be later in the same location that mortensen would embody strider for the first time the scene in the prancing pony where he talks to frodo in the side room was the first scene shot with his character peter jackson has even said that he doesn't think viggo got the character down right he said he was obviously still discovering him thankfully mortensen was a quick study when they shot the fight with the ring rates at weathertop everything clicked into place jackson said he could see it happening in real time martinson was embracing the animalistic nature of aragorn and fully embodying the character the now iconic shot of aragorn swinging the torch into the camera lens was completely improvised by mortensen that was the moment that he truly became the king of gondor to the director and the crew when the film was released it became a global phenomenon as we all know townsend he went on to quickly star in both the anne rice adaptation clean of the damned in 2002 and league of extraordinary gentlemen in 2003. after those high-profile flameouts his career has never quite been the same despite marrying charlize theron and appearing in the criminally underrated tv show 13 stuart townsend's name has been one that's more or less been lost to obscurity the lesson here is when your big shot comes meet it head on townsend appears to have been crippled by ego nerves and a combination of overconfidence and self-doubt he got cast in arguably the biggest film franchise of all time and if he had just been humble and put in the work and really tried to become a member of the team he'd have a significantly different career however it's hard to know those things when you're in the moment when you're consumed by pressures and the tension of traveling halfway across the world there are many stories like townsend hugh jackman wasn't originally cast as wolverine the part went to dew grey scott who was injured while filming mission impossible 2 and well the rest is history he said he wanted me things move so quickly in the film business that everything is always in a constant state of flux there are so many ways that things can go some are actively malicious and some are just happenstance but the fact that so many now iconic performances came from last minute substitutions is almost incomprehensible the most unfortunate part of this whole story for stuart townsend is that everything seems to have ended the correct way let's face it stuart townsend doesn't look old or grizzled enough to be aragorn this was a concern from the start by new line executives and they actually had a significant point in the books aragorn is 87 years old yes the people of middle earth age slower and have longer lifespans but are you really going to tell me that you buy stuart townsend over the weathered and worldly vigo mortensen for froda no of course not mortensen's gravitas and regality was key to making the three film saga actually work and that's all we have this week what do you think would stuart townsend have been a good aragorn could any other actor other than viggo mortensen have played him to perfection let us know in the comments below and as always please subscribe to the nerds dog channel in order to stay up to date with everything happening with the nerd stage channel

Channel: Nerdstalgic

Views: 4,179,806

Keywords: Lord of the Rings, Lord of the Rings Aragorn, Lord of the Rings Movies, Lord of the Rings Series, Lord of the Rings Aragorn Fired, Nerdstalgic, Nerdstalgic Why They Fired, Lord of the Rings Peter Jackson, Lord of the Rings Stuart Townsend, Lord of the Rings Middle Earth, Lord of the Rings Amazon, Lord of the Rings Books, Star Wars, Star Wars Saga, Harry Potter, Harry Potter Movies, Harry Potter Books, Why They Fired, New Rockstars, Corridor Crew, Screen Crush, IGN, Nerdist

Id: pB5bq-HOwBE

Length: 8min 1sec (481 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 18 2022