I AM BROKE I HAVE NO MONEY AND NO MEANS TO SEND IT

let’s not forget what elijah wood describes as ‘spontaneous violent love,’ aka the game btw all the maori stunt doubles of greeting each other with a head butt that all the white bros in the cast picked up on, viggo especially, and how viggo dared sala baker, aka sauron himself/multiple orcs and other warriors and like the biggest dude on set, to headbutt orlando bloom, and sala whacked him so hard he saw ‘a white light’ and had a red circle on his forehead for like, days that pissed off the entire makeup crew

let’s not forget that when filming sam and rosie’s wedding kiss viggo was on set and thought the mood needed to be improved so he went and woke up billy boyd and dragged him on set too, to be some ‘off-camera encouragement’ and then in the last take he grabbed billy and full on tongue-kissed him as billy has ‘never been kissed by man nor woman’ and he ‘saw stars’. billy boyd has kissed at least 5 male lord of the rings castmembers. source: dom monaghan, who was definitely one of them. 

let’s not forget that cate blanchett loved her elf ears so much that she had them bronzed, and also that she took the role primarily because she’d just done heaven in which her head is shaved so she ‘thought the elf ears would go well with [her] particularly bald head’

let’s not forget that almost all the stunt doubles, foot soldiers of every army, orcs, and other combat-trained fighters were cast with locals, including a huge portion of maori folks (men yes but women! the majority of orcs were actually women, lani jackson was arwen’s stunt double along with like 6 other characters from orcs to warriors of men) and so they all literally fought alongside viggo and bernard hill, the guy who played theoden, with the two of them them sort of naturally taking on the roles of moral-boosting leaders, and they all loved them so much that they presented bernard and viggo with a surprise maori haka at the end of filming (a haka is a vocal war dance of many pacific island cultures that’s also performed to honor great achievements and distinguished leaders) and goddamnit i still cry watching that footage because like, wow, companionship

Viggo would go out camping a lot and eventually most of the cast decided to join in. In the morning they’d get up early to watch the sunrise. Merry’s actor noted that Viggo had a thing for one of the Rohan riders and was surprised to find out they were actually a girl (”Keep on trucking, Viggo”). He took a lot photos of anything that was going on and managed to fill up his entire trailer from the sides to the ceiling. What’s the cutest thing ever is that he actually bonded with his horse that he would ride in the movie because he wanted to make their connection appear more genuine.

Viggo was called in last minute, and he only took the Aragon role because his son loved Lord of the Rings. He got so in character as Aragon he once walked around in full costume and carried his sword when going out to eat. One time his tooth got chipped by an extra’s sword and instead of asking to go straight to a dentist he asked for glue so they could keep on shooting. Peter and the others managed to convince him to go to the dentist and they continued shooting the next day.

The Witch King’s mace/morning star was redone so many times because Peter Jackson kept saying that it was “too small”. He even tried to swing it around and it ended up getting caught in his jacket, nearly pulling him to the ground. But he said it was still too small. The designers hated him a bit for that, and they were too embarrassed to be seen carrying it around set that they had to hide it under their jackets. It got so big that the Witch King’s actor called it “Damned Heavy” because it was “damned heavy”.

Gimli’s actor was actually allergic to the prosthetic around his face, and his eyes got so swollen he could hardly see, especially when it was a fighting scene. However, when he did fight all asked was who was coming at him, the stunt doubles would tell him and he just said to “come at me”. He kicked their asses, which frightened them a bit.

And something you must never forget: Gollum Juice. Andy Serkis (Gollum’s actor) would drink that concoction just to be able to maintain his Gollum voice.

One of the reasons (arguably the primary reason) that Flint Michigan has had decades of poor-quality water is because of automobile manufacturing utilizing lead in their production and gasoline and then dumping it into the river.

I tracked down a copy of this invaluable classic and somehow got my hands on a near pristine copy secondhand from the 4th printing. It’s lost the dustjacket, alas, but that means I got it for like £5 and not the £4200 a first edition printing in fine condition goes for.

(Who’s the author? *looks at smudge on spine* uhhhh Mkkhill Montanann)

It looks right at home in my bookcase 🥰

Under the cut: a look inside at what the book holds: