Best (and Worst) Jobs on the Set of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Me on set with Peter Jackson and Viggo Mortensen.
(And yes, I do realize this is The Two Towers—leave us alone, precious!)
When I first watched The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (extended-edition, of course), I was transported to a magical place that I could not—and did not want to—leave. That’s why in elementary school, I leapt at the opportunity to play Gollum in our school’s adaptation of The Hobbit. Or why, in middle school, I owned a wooden sword and went as a hobbit for Halloween (except we all know that that the cloak was meant for year-round use). Or the fact that I was given a book of the languages of Middle Earth, and then wrote at least six back-to-back diary-pages in ancient runes (before giving up on the journal, as was custom with any language I tried to use).
I could not get enough of these movies. Eventually, I discovered that the extended-edition DVDs came with not just one, but two appendices per movie. That meant six DVDs devoted entirely to how these movies were made. I was overcome.
Now, if I could time-travel to 1999*, there are a lot of things I would do. You can bet I would tell my eight-year-old self to hold on to my beanie babies (keep them secret, keep them safe). Most importantly, I would get myself hired to work on the set of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring** with the following jobs:
An Illustrator in the Art Department - I loved watching the part of the appendices that showed the artists at work. They got to design all sorts of small details: dwarvish architectural patterns, how creepy the uruk-hai should look, the detail on elvish weaponry, and so on. They also just looked like they had a lot of fun together.
Be a Goblin or an Orc (extra or speaking role) - This is a no-brainer to me. It would be so fun to just screech and growl and jerk your head around and be gross on camera. You don’t even have to have any lines. You could just like, froth at the mouth and lick your lips and you’d have made your mark. I remember so many goofy goblins and orcs from those dang movies. Hats off to all.
Gardener for Hobbiton - A full year before they started filming, the crew had to start building up Hobbiton. Not just the homes and buildings, but the plant life. It was someone’s job to plant happy flowers and bushes and trees. You know how the Shire seems like the best place to be on Middle Earth? That’s because it is, all thanks to the people hauling wheelbarrows and flower pots.
Weta Workshop - From what I can tell, the people working for this special effects and prop company had the most fun. They built all (or most) of the armor, the weapons, the masks, the hobbit feet…so much stuff. They even built robot suits to use when they wanted to make extra giant humans so the proportions would be right next to the actors playing the hobbits. So cool.
On the flip side of things, there are actually jobs I would not want in the making of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (but let’s be honest, I would totally take them if they were offered to me):
Chain Mail Technician - Don’t get me wrong, I love menial tasks as much as the next Gamgee or Gardner. But to connect at least 5 million rings—10 kilometers in length—over the course of two full years is….too much.
Hobbit-Foot Gluer - Hobbit feet are cool as hell. I would love to have hairy-topped, thick-soled footses to wander about in, never worrying about where I went (although fun fact, Sean Astin stepped on glass in his hobbit foot on the banks of the Anduin when he was running out to stop Frodo). However, I would not enjoy being the people that have to glue, paint, and touch-up hobbit feet to a grown man’s feet for like…hours every time they had a shoot. As much as I love Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, and all of their doubles…that’s too much up-close-and-personal time.
Weta Workshop - I know this one is in the “yes” category, but man… they had to build a lot of stuff. This includes 48,000 pieces of armor, 10,000 arrows, 10,000 orc heads, 1,800 pairs of hobbit feet…and so on. They really put the work in workshop, if you know what I mean.
All in all, I am grateful to the cast and crew of these films (there were around 300 people in the art department, and 3,000 people on the crew). If I can’t time travel, I can at least appreciate the work that was done by watching the appendices over and over again, until I am wrapped up in them like Shelob’s web.
*If I couldn’t actually time-travel, and I just had to do 1999 over again, I would have hauled my eight-year-old ass over to New Zealand so I could get hired as an adorable hobbit child or like, a child goblin? I blame my parents for not having this foresight.
**I would be happy to work on any of the LOTR movies. I’m just slowly making my way through the appendices, and I don’t want to act like I’m aware of all the jobs available for every film—who knows, maybe there is a sweet Gollum double job I could snag.