Peter Jackson’s fantasy adventure film, Lord of the Rings was a famously great achievement of cinema.
Filmed in New Zealand, the trilogy was shot simultaneously over a two-year period, with $281 million in budget, a stacked cast, and enough crewmembers to form an army.
The trilogy was shot simultaneously over a period of two years in New Zealand, with a budget of $281 million, a large cast, and enough crew members to form an army.
In a new article from ForeverGeek, recounting the incident, reported:
“Due to the extensive filming schedule of Peter Jackson’s original The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, there was plenty of downtime for the cast to enjoy themselves in beautiful New Zealand landscapes.
“Some of the cast even took up surfing for the very first time on the picturesque coastline; however, this activity would turn sour for the veteran filmmaker when lead actor Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) suffered a nasty facial injury.
“Whilst out surfing one day with The Lord of the Rings co-stars Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan, Mortensen was in an accident after being struck in the face by his surfboard, suffering a black eye and some heavy swelling on the right side of his face.”
This is correct; Mortensen was surfing with two comic relief hobbits, Merry and Pippin.
And during the Mines of Moriah scene, Jackson was forced to adjust his filming so that the black eye would not appear.
Jackson said, “He arrived on a Monday morning with a puffy face,”. “We had to film his left profile, which explains why some shots seem weird. I had no choice but to shoot otherwise.”
As for whether or not Mortensen was good at surfing, despite the injury, he told EW:
“Let’s just say I’m not as good as the hobbits.”