Actors really hurt themselves in these scenes

April 21, 2023 Fiona Smith

The Lord of the Rings remains a cinematic milestone to this day. Part of the reason why the film trilogy is so adored by fans is because it feels so real. For the actors, however, this sometimes had bloody consequences.

The Lord of the Rings: A Wounded Trilogy

Things are heating up in The Lord of the Rings. After all, the trilogy has plenty of epic battles and gripping action to offer. However, Middle-earth is not only dangerous for Orcs and Gondor soldiers. The actors have not always escaped unscathed either.

In some cases, these injuries can even be seen on film. The most famous example of this is the scene where Aragorn dies Helm of an Uruk-hai kicks. The ensuing scream is not only from the grief over the supposed death of Merry and Pippin. In fact, actor Viggo Mortensen broke two toes at that moment.

Sam had to bleed for his role in The Fellowship of the Ring

Sean Astin also suffered a bloody injury in his role as Samwise Gamgee. In the companions, the faithful friend was supposed to follow Frodo, who is just leaving in his boat. However, Austin stepped on a piece glass in the water, leaving a deep wound. Frodo actor Elijah Wood could only comment on the events with “That’s a lot of blood”.

Things got dangerous for Aragorn in The Two Towers

There were even more injuries during the filming of the three feature length films, albeit a bit went off more lightly. Thus in one scene Orlando Bloom fell off his horse and the double for Gimli fell on him. He broke a rib as a result, but was able to continue a day later.

It got serious again for Mortensen when he once again put his passion for his role before his own safety. In The Two Towers, the future king was supposed to be floating on his back through a river. However, the fast current pulled him under water and the heavy Costume prevented showing up. Luckily he was able to free himself in time. In the video linked below you can watch the scene at minute 5:42.

A similar near-wound also occurred in the fight between Aragorn and Uruk Captain Lurtz. There the Uruk-hai hurls his knife at the hero, who then throws it heroically parried. Actually he should have missed Aragorn though. Due to the make-up, however, the actor misjudged his litter. Mortensen’s quick reflexes prevented a serious injury here and made for a cool scene.