The Making of…

Chapter 16

Elves Everywhere!

On our first morning on the new set, I reluctantly rolled out of bed, and for a moment, forgot that I was no longer in my hotel room.

“Oh yeah…” I mumbled sleepily to myself as I tousled my hair and staggered into the tiny bathroom. After I’d showered and changed, I quickly dried my hair and left my trailer, hopping carefully down the steps in the slight darkness. Even though we got to get up a little later - because we were already on set - the sun still hadn’t risen. I yawned and went to find our makeup bus. I found it quickly and climbed the steps before opening the door and finding Viggo already there.

“Good morning.” He smiled as I slumped down in the chair beside him.

“Mrrph…” I mumbled, yawning as Lou pounced on me with her makeup brushes. I glanced over at Viggo’s mirror and noticed that he’d affixed a few photos to it – I blushed when I spotted several of me, but said nothing as I popped in my contact lenses and succumbed to the wrath of the makeup department.

Some time later, I was dozily standing in the car park in full costume (complete with my new elvish cloak), waiting for Viggo to finish changing so we could go find the set. He jogged up to me and we walked in a comfortable silence to the edge of the forest that lay just over a grassy field. Amongst the trees I could see floodlights and cameras being set up. As we approached the set, we spotted Peter talking to a group of guys all in full elven costumes. They looked almost like Orlando’s doubles!

“So, when did the Bloom fan club show up?” I joked to Viggo as we walked up to them.

“Good morning!” Pete smiled cheerfully, “These guys are playing the Lothlórien elves.” He said as he waved towards the small group. “This is Craig Parker, he’s playing Haldir.” A guy in a blonde wig stepped forward – well to be fair, they were all wearing blond wigs – and shook hands with Viggo and myself.

“Hey,” He smiled, “Nice to meet you.” We were then introduced to the extras that were playing the other elves, before Peter began to talk us through what we would be doing today.

The scenes were simple, a few shots of us running into the forest, and the scene where the Fellowship is found by Haldir. I had pretty much no lines in these scenes, as Rana’s supposed to be burying he grief over Gandalf’s death, so I got to spend the entire day moping. It shouldn’t have taken long to get through the scenes, but around mid-afternoon it started raining. I was sheltering in one of the marquee-tents that had been set up as makeshift canteens along with the rest of the Fellowship. Peter kept assuring us that the rain would soon pass over, and sure enough, as I was halfway through my lunch, it began to ease off, before stopping altogether. I stood and stretched as people began moving outside again.

“Come on guys; let’s get these scenes finished before it starts up again!” Peter called. As I stepped outside I got a waft of that fantastic summer-rain smell, which instantly perked me up a little.

We finished the scenes for the day without any other mishaps, apart from the heavy downpour that started the second we had packed the cameras away.

“Nobody told me it was monsoon season!” I muttered as Viggo and I jogged to our bus. My hair was plastered to my head before we even reached the door.

“Oh Ki, what have you done to your hair?” Lou cried out in dismay as I slumped down in my chair. “It’ll take ages to get your extensions out!”

“Sorry Lou…” I sighed apologetically, as Kevin also fretted over Viggo’s hair… Drama queens…

I dashed back to my trailer once Lou released me and changed into a comfy green hoodie and jeans. As I listened to the drumming of the rain on the roof, I was reminded of my childhood caravan holidays. Continuous rain and three-day-long games of Monopoly. I smiled at the fond memory and slumped down on my sofa, before locating my well-worn copy of ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’. I leafed through the familiar pages, becoming lost in the story that I was now a part of, until I heard an urgent knock on the door. I stood and opened it to find Viggo standing in my doorway in the rain.

“Hey.” He smiled as I ushered him in.

“Oh God Vig, you’re soaked!” I cried as he shook his hair.

“Sorry,” He grinned, “I’m not interrupting you or anything, am I?”

“No, I was just reading. What’s up?”

“I was wondering if you wanted to read through some lines?” He asked, holding up his battered copy of the script.

“Sure.” I smiled, finding mine amongst all the loose notes and papers that consisted of the re-writes and edits that Pete insisted on throwing at us every morning. I spotted the pages that made up the first kissing scene Viggo and I had done, and I couldn’t hold back my slight blush at the memory. I dropped down onto the sofa and Viggo sat beside me as we flipped through the pages.

We spent most of the evening reading through the rest of the Fellowship of the Ring, and had just reached the start of The Two Towers, when Billy called me.

“Hey Ki!” He greeted me cheerfully, “Dom and I are ordering pizzas, do you want anything?”

“Yeah, that would be great actually!” I grinned, remembering that I had to go shopping to stock up on food for the trailer. Viggo and I ordered and Billy promised to deliver it to my trailer when it arrived. We read on and were right in the middle of comically re-enacting a battle scene when Billy walked in.

“What are you two doing?” He asked.

“Killing Orcs.” I replied simply, wielding my invisible sword and slashing at thin air.

“Right… Whatever.” He shrugged, handing me the pizzas as I paused the battle long enough to pay him.

“Thanks Billy!” I grinned as he left. Viggo reached for his pizza and I ‘stabbed’ him.

“Hey, I’m not an Orc!” He cried, clutching his ‘wound’ dramatically as I laughed.

We finished our food, and ended up watching a film on my laptop – as the trailer didn’t have a TV – I could feel myself gradually falling asleep, as my head flopped down onto Viggo’s shoulder. He shifted his arm a little, so I was more comfortable, and wrapped it around my shoulders. I stifled a yawn as I nestled against his warm body. I wasn’t going to left myself fall asleep with him again… I was just…. Resting my eyes.

*

I was woken in the morning by the sound of my alarm. I slammed the snooze button and sat up, finding myself still dressed in my clothes from the previous night. I looked around in confusion, before my eyes rested on a note by my bedside. I picked it up and read it.

‘Sweet dreams Sleeping Beauty,

See you in the morning.

Vig

x’

I smiled at the sweet note, folding it carefully and setting it on my bedside table as I hauled myself out from under the duvet.

Viggo smiled at me as I hurried into the bus some time later.

“Good morning Sleeping Beauty.” He grinned at his new nickname for me as I sat down.

“I’m so sorry I fell asleep again!” I apologised, “I just can’t seem to stay awake… It must be these early mornings!”

“Don’t worry about it.” He smiled, causing me to blush slightly.

Today, and for the next few days that we were working in the forest, we would be doing some of the fighting scenes for Amon Hen. I was pretty exited, as this would be my first fight scene! We had to go a little deeper into the forest to film these scenes, where a few ruins had been set up. We found Bob, our swordplay trainer and we ran through the short battle Viggo and I had practiced a few weeks ago. I was covering this part of our stunt training pretty easily – for some reason, it felt right to have a sword in my hand! All the stunt guys were walking around in full Uruk-Hai costume, which was really weird, considering that you had no idea who was underneath all the masks, makeup and armour! We were only filming a few shots, as most of the scene would take place in two other locations, but even though they were short shots, it took us a few days to finish them, as some of the fights we got into were pretty complicated. I was always paranoid that I would hurt one of the stuntmen, even though we had been trained to barely touch them with our swords – although John didn’t seem to understand this idea, he would just ram anyone who got in his way with his axe! Any time I gave one an accidental scrape, I would be endlessly apologising once the cameras had stopped rolling, and more than once I had to be assured that these guys were trained to take a little damage!

The next scenes we were moving on to involved a new location. I could barely contain my excitement, as we would be working with Cate Blanchett! She was an amazing actress, I couldn’t wait to see her portraying Galadriel! We were going to a place called Fernside, in Featherston, were we would be filming the scenes where the Fellowship leave Lothlórien.

I arrived on the first day on the new set and found myself standing by a small, beautiful lake. Beside me was a six metre high, fake tree stump that had been set up, and I noticed a breathtaking bridge arching gracefully over the lake. At the water’s edge, another tree-like structure had been built, with its roots stretching into the water, forming a perfect berthing site for the three Elvish-style boats that bobbed there.

“Wow…” I breathed, taking in the scene. I could really picture this as Lothlórien.

“It’s really something, isn’t it?” Peter smiled, appearing beside me.

“It’s… Perfect.” I grinned, gesturing to the lake. On the other side of it I could see a few of the technicians messing with a fog-machine.

“I thought you’d like it.” He said, turning away, “Oh, here comes Cate.” I turned with him and gasped as I saw the blonde woman walking towards us, clothed in a beautiful white elvish dress. Peter quickly introduced us and she shook my hand with a warm smile.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She said softly.

“Same.” I smiled, “You look amazing.”

“Thanks, I’ve always wanted pointy ears!” She laughed.

“I’ll have to try some on someday; I’m a human, so I don’t have an excuse to wear them!” I laughed along with her as Peter got us ready for the scene.

We were doing the gift-giving scene, meaning Viggo and I had to speak some Elvish, so Peter had called in a language coach to help us with pronunciation. I already knew a little Elvish (because I was such a Tolkien nerd!) but I was happy to learn more about it. We also got to meet Marton Csokas, who was playing Celeborn.

Peter was eager to get every single detail of this scene right, so when it came to us being presented with our cloaks – which Dom wasn’t pleased about, as he appeared to be allergic to whatever fabric his was made out of – we had to redo it several times, each time Pete seeing some detail he had missed. This pleased Dom even less. We took a break for lunch and he hurriedly pulled off the cloak, whilst having a sneezing fit. I handed him a tissue, but he practically blew it away before it even got near his nose!

“Poor Dom…” I sighed, sitting down in my chair and picking up my copy of ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’– which I’d taken to bringing to the set – and flicked through it until I found the Lothlórien chapters.

I was so preoccupied with reading, that I didn’t notice that Pete was standing behind me and reading over my shoulder, until he stopped me turning a page.

“Jeez Pete, you almost gave me a heart attack there!” I gasped, clutching my chest dramatically as he lifted the book from my hands. He didn’t say anything; he seemed to be in his thinking zone. You never, everdisturb Peter Jackson when he’s thinking! Eventually, after several more takes, he seemed to be happy with the scene, after analysing tiny details – such as Aragorn adjusting Rana’s pendant so it hung outside his cloak- because he saw this as a really important scene, and fans of the book would be looking out for things like that. After he was convinced he’d gotten it right, we called it a day.

“Right guys, see you back here tomorrow, we’re starting filming in the boats!” Pete announced as we made our way back to our trailers. At last we got to put our ‘training’ into practice!