In The Lord Of The Rings, the Fellowship of the One Ring brought together the cream of the crop of Middle-earth for a most important mission. You have, of course, the four pure-hearted Hobbits, led by Frodo Baggins, with backup from a wizard (Gandalf), an Elf (Legolas), and a Dwarf (Gimli). And then you have the two men: Boromir and Aragorn. Neither boasted fantastical abilities; just a pair of battle-hardy mortals, swift with a sword and ready to lay their lives on the line to help get our heroes to Mount Doom. For actors Viggo Mortensen and Sean Bean, it was similarly the adventure of a lifetime.
In Empire’s epic 25th anniversary reunion issue, we brought Mortensen and Bean back together for the first time in years, looking back together on their roles in Peter Jackson’s epic fantasy trilogy. You can read the full interview in the magazine, on newsstands from Thursday January 15 – and here’s a sneak peek, in which they discuss climbing mountains in full costume, and why Boromir’s death scene hits so hard.
Didn’t you have a few issues with helicopters during the shoot, Sean?
Sean Bean: Yeah, I was very scared of flying at the time.
Viggo Mortensen: And there were a lot of helicopters on that show. We did this great scene for Sean, where he’s tempted by the ring and we’re up on high mountains in the snow.
Bean: That was on a kind of glacier, wasn’t it? It was really, really high up.
"It was such an adventure, you know? In every sense of the word."
Mortensen: Yeah, so we went by helicopter and it was a 40-minute ride and there were a lot of downdrafts and stuff. The helicopter dropped several times and you were white-knuckling it. You were horrified. You said to me, “I really don’t like this. I had to take some pills to just even take the plane from England to New Zealand. I won’t be doing it again.” And I thought to myself, “Well, there’s a lot of places where we’re gonna have to do this.” But he didn’t do it again! The next morning, we had a scene up on a mountain outside Queenstown, and he said, “I’ll get up at two in the morning, I don’t care, and I’ll walk up the mountain.” Which is what he did!
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Bean: I was in full costume and I set off before everyone else, but I got there about the same time as everybody else.
Mortensen: But you were pretty tired…
Bean: It was such an adventure, you know? In every sense of the word. The script itself was, and the film was, but also our shenanigans and our adventures as people were… It was so unusual. I’ve never known anything like it.
Obviously, a key moment between the two of you was Boromir’s death scene. What do you recall about filming that?
Mortensen: There was this whole thing about how they were gonna do all these Orc arrows that Sean was gonna get riddled with. They were trying to do all these complicated things, kinda old-school but with wires, and Sean finally said, “Just stick it in and I’ll pretend it just hit me and I’ll do one after the other.” Didn’t you do it that way?
Bean: I did. I said, “Let me just try something: when you say, ‘Action,’ I’ll just go like that (recoils as if he’s been hit by an arrow).” And they went, “Wow, that’s amazing!” (Laughs)
Mortensen: That scene, I have to say, no offence to anybody else or any other part of the trilogy, but that’s maybe my favourite scene. It’s such a beautiful scene. And there are no effects, there are no imaginary monsters. It’s just two people who have a connection in terms of their ethnicity — you know, Gondor and all that — but they’ve been at odds. They’ve been kinda butting heads until then. And then there’s just such a strong connection.
Bean: Yeah, it was a great scene together.