Some people have the greatest holidays! This is one Ringer fan’s experience last year, and he just wrote to tell us about it:
“The reason I write you is that I was at the location when they filmed LotR. My character was a fighting human at the battlefield. I was just down there for about 5 days, but it was the greatest time of my life.
It wasn´t actually something planned from our side that we (me and my friend) were about to take place in the film. We were on holiday, backpacker tourists in New Zealand, when we heard about the rumor that the Lord of the Rings film was being filmed just some miles from our hotel.
We also heard that they were looking for volunteer actors (male actors between 1.7-1.9 meters tall, who were looking for adventures), so we decided to apply. We were approved and about three days later the filming began!
I am a huge fan of The Lord of the Rings and I have read the book several times so this was really something great. We had a great time and also learned alot about acting.
One thing that amazed me about New Zealand was the rich variety in the nature and climate. All from beautiful mountains in the south to the greenland and the tropical forest in the north. All suited perfectly for The Lord of the Rings scenery.
The costumes that we wore were hard leather armour and helmets. We also had heavy 4 feet swords, and shields. In the beginning it wasn´t really easy to maneuver in the heavy clothes but you got used to it. You learned a lot about maneuvering swords and take place in a fighting with swords and shields.
So after a lot of retakes, bruises, laughs, and sword fighting it was all done, and it was really the highlight of our journey…
I didn´t actually meet Christopher Lee, but I heard the rumors that he was really great! All the people that had met him said that he was really friendly and that he helped a lot of the new beginner actors.”
Thanks to the Ringer who sent us that!
