The Making of…

Chapter 35

Blood, Sweat and Tears… And Rain… And Mud…

After a few days of filming in the studio, we were suddenly on the move again. Our newest location was the set for Helm’s Deep, which was in Dry Creek Quarry in Wellington – it sounded like something out of a movie, and I almost half-expected to stumble across a gang of cattle-rustlers while we were there! But we only found cameramen. The full-sized model of Helm’s Deep was fantastic; it was as if you were actually in a real fortress!

We were also working with Bernard Hill and Miranda Otto now, who were playing Théoden and Eówyn, and Craig Parker was back as Haldir. They were the newest additions to our ‘cast family’, but we had also been split from Billy and Dom, and Elijah and Sean, who were away doing their own scenes at different locations. Sean Bean was still hanging around the studio, as Peter said there were a few shots he wanted him to do with David Wenham – who was playing Faramir.

Our trailers had been moved to the quarry too, as we would be staying on this set for a rumoured 3 months, and the majority of that time was going to be spent doing night shots. This was by far going to be the biggest challenge we’d had to face so far.

We were expected to arrive on set at 8pm in full makeup, filming would begin as soon as it was dark, and would pretty much carry on until the sun rose. Over the course of those sleepless nights, we’d be expected to swordfight, perform stunts, act and manage to stay awake. Some nights it would rain, some nights the crew would have the rain machine on, some nights it would be dry. One guarantee was, it would be cold, strenuous, and emotionally trying. To recover from theses nights, I slept most of the day away, to the point where I was convinced that I was becoming nocturnal – it didn’t stop me from being exhausted all night though. Probably the only thing that kept me going was Viggo. In fact, he was probably what kept everyone going. Every night he was needed he would show up, and put his heart and soul into his performance, without a single complaint. And every morning, as the sun was beginning to rise, we would both walk back to our trailers dripping with rain and sweat, with dented swords, bloody hands and knuckles and massive bruises forming all over our bodies, and he would still smile.

He was inspirational to say the least, and he kept me smiling.

One night, we were in the middle of filming a particularly vicious fight scene, when I saw Viggo get accidentally smashed in the face by the hilt of somebody’s sword.

“Vig!” I cried as I saw him holding his face. A few people crowded around him as he bent down and picked up something. I rushed to his side as he stood up again. “Viggo are you ok?” I asked.

“Uh, yeah.” He muttered, turning to me.

“Oh my God.” I gasped, my hand flying to my mouth as I saw his broken front tooth. He held up the tiny white shard for me to see as Peter dashed over.

“Does anyone have any superglue?” Viggo asked.

“Superglue?” I cried in alarm, “You are not sticking that on with superglue!”

“Why not?” He asked, “I’ll stick it on and then we can finish the scene. I can get it properly sorted tomorrow.”

“You’d probably die of glue poisoning or something!” I protested.

“She’s right Vig.” Peter cut in, “We’ll get you to a dentist now, and you still might be able to get back tonight and finish the scene.”

“Alright,” He sighed, not wanting to argue against to both of us. “Do you know if any dentists will be open at this time?”

“There are emergency ones.” Pete explained as he started pulling Viggo towards the car park. “Ki, can you stay here and finish your shots?”

“Yeah…” I mumbled anxiously as Viggo turned back and fired me a smile – flashing his damaged tooth.

“Don’t worry, I’m fine.” He assured me as he was dragged off.

“Ok, see you later!” I called as I walked back to where I had last been standing on the set.

For the rest of the night I tried to put Viggo out of my head so I could focus on the scene, but I was still immensely relieved when he returned three hours later with his newly mended tooth.

“Hey,” He grinned, flashing me a brilliant smile, “How’s it going?”

“Erm, good.” I replied, “How was the dentist?”

“Surreal.” He smiled, “I’ve never lain in a dentist’s chair with a sword strapped to my side before.”

“Well I’m sure it was a first for the dentist too.” I muttered, grabbing his wrist and dragging him back onto the set. “Come on Gappy, you’ve got work to catch up on!”

“I’m not Gappy anymore…” He protested weakly as I laughed.

Several weeks of night filming passed slowly, but we knew that if we pressed on, we’d make it to the end, and it would all be worth it. Even if we had to spend a night sitting in a muddy puddle, and you knew there was a chance that your shot wouldn’t even make it into the final cut, we still kept going.

Probably the worst night for me, was during one of the scenes where Viggo and I were on top of the wall, fighting the Stunties who were dressed as Uruk-Hai. It was around 3am, the time when exhaustion hit everyone like a brick wall. There was one shot we were doing where I had to block a heavy blow, and have a gouge taken out of my shoulder – so the special effects guys had set up a fake blood-pack under my clothes. In the middle of the scene, I was fighting at Viggo’s side, and then I broke away, moving into the position where I would be attacked. I saw the stuntman loom up before me, and I counted the seconds in my head, remembering the routine as he swung his heavy metal blade at me. I lifted my sword to block it, with both hands on the hilt, and the two blades collided with a loud clang. The force of the blow nearly knocked me to the ground and I tensed – which was probably my mistake. I felt a shooting pain in my left wrist, and I breathed in sharply.

‘Ignore it. Finish the scene.’ My head told me as I felt the Stuntie puncture the blood pack on my shoulder. It wasn’t hard to act like I was in pain as my wrist throbbed and black spots appeared in my vision. ‘Just keep going. Finish the scene.’ I repeated to myself as my breathing became ragged and I ‘stabbed’ the stuntman, finishing our routine. Suddenly, Viggo grabbed my injured wrist so he could drag me across the wall to finish the scene. Blinding white pain shot up my arm and it took all of my control to stop myself from crying out. I forced myself not to flinch away from him as he pulled me out of shot. The pain kept getting worse.

“Cut!” I heard Peter shout, but it was far away, muffled. Viggo let my wrist slip out of his grasp as I gasped quietly, tightly shutting my eyes in a vain attempt to block out the pain.

“Kira?” Viggo’s voice broke through my painful haze as I carefully held my wrist. I felt his hands on my shoulders as he called me. “Kira? Ki what’s wrong? Kira?” He sounded frantic and panicked as I felt my stomach twist and churn in reaction to the pain. “Pete! Kira’s hurt!” Viggo yelled as I swayed on my feet.

‘Don’t fall over.’ I repeated to myself, biting down on my lower lip until I could taste the metallic tang of my own blood.

“Kira!” Viggo called me again, his voice breaking past the sound of my loud heartbeat. I cracked my eyes open to look at him, but the image was blurry, and black spots swam across my field of vision, distorting his face.

“Viggo,” I murmured as the world span and I could see darkness creeping into the corners of my vision. ‘Oh God, don’t pass out!’ I yelled inwardly as I began to feel like the ground had been pulled out from under me. My knees bucked and the sensation of falling took over. ‘Too late…’ I told myself. Suddenly, I wasn’t falling anymore. I could feel arms around me - Viggo’s, stopping me from falling. I was floating now. Was he lifting me? A throb of pain from my wrist cut off my thoughts with a startling suddenness. And then everything went black.

*

“I think she’s coming around.”

“Is she alright?”

“I think so.”

“What happened?”

“She sprained her wrist.”

“Was that enough to make her pass out?”

“Probably a combination of pain and exhaustion.”

I was confused by the strange voices that surrounded me, we they all taking about me? I picked out one or two that I knew, Viggo and Peter. I realised I was lying on my back, and the pain in my wrist had been reduced to a dull throbbing… That was good.

“What’s going on?”

I was pretty sure that voice belonged to Orlando.

“Just stay back for a minute, give her some space.” Another strange voice said.

“Look, she’s waking up.” Viggo’s unmistakeable voice broke through the jumble of other sounds, “Kira?”

“What?” I muttered, causing a few people to laugh, and I felt someone squeeze my right hand.

“Ki open your eyes.” He murmured and my eyelids fluttered open, though I quickly shut them again. Everything was still spinning. I felt like I was going to be sick… But I hadn’t eaten anything in ages, so I probably wouldn’t. “Ki?” Viggo asked, his concern clear. “What’s wrong?”

“Nauseous.” I mumbled, managing to force a single word past my lips.

“She’ll be ok in a moment.” Someone said.

“Easy for you to say…” I grumbled, resulting in more laughter from the people around me. I opened my eyes again, staring up at the dark sky above me. The world had stopped spinning.

“Kira?” I turned and saw Viggo crouching at my side, clutching my uninjured hand. I smiled weakly as someone got me to sit up.

“How do you feel?” A man in a fluorescent orange coat asked me.

“Just peachy, thanks.” I smiled weakly as I looked down at my swollen wrist. It had been tightly wrapped in a bandage and secured with a safety pin.

“Do you feel dizzy?”

“Not anymore.”

“Are you in pain?”

“Only my wrist.” I answered.

“Pain on a scale of one to ten?”

“Uh… Six.” I answered, “Compared to earlier.”

“Good.” He smiled, pressing an ice pack to my wrist.

“You ok?” Viggo asked me and I nodded.

“Yeah,” I smiled at him, and then looked up at Peter, “Do you want me to do the scene again?” He laughed and shook his head.

“No, it was a brilliant take.” He assured me, “And I don’t think you’ll be filming anything for a few days.”

“Huh? But I’m fine!” I protested.

“Ki, you passed out from exhaustion.” Viggo said, “You need to rest up.”

“For how long?” I asked, glancing from Viggo to Peter.

“Give it two days; we’ll see how you feel then.” Pete smiled, “We can manage without you for that long.”

*

I spent my first day off curled up in bed with a stack of DVD’s. My wrist hurt considerably less, and I was feeling better after a fifteen hour long sleep! Viggo appeared in the early evening and sat with me for a while, before he had to go and get his makeup and costume on. I felt guilty, knowing that everyone would be working all night whilst I was either sleeping or watching a movie. I sat watching old reruns of ‘Friends’ on my laptop whilst snuggled under my duvet with a tub of Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream – the perfect combination for when you’re feeling down. My phone buzzed somewhere and I had to dig through my bed before I found it. There was a message from Viggo.

‘Hey. How’re you feeling?’

I rolled my eyes; he’d been fretting non-stop ever since I’d passed out yesterday.

‘I’m doing great! I’m in bed with 2 guys, what could be better? x’

I replied and smirked.

‘What?!’ He replied instantly and I giggled a little.

‘Ben & Jerry! ;)’ I explained, licking my ice cream spoon whilst I waited for his reply.

‘Oh. Don’t scare me like that! I’ve got to go; Pete needs me for a scene.’

‘Aw, jealous? Ok, have fun! x’ I replied, flopping back onto my pillow and turning off my laptop. I was too sleepy to stay up watching anything anyway.