The Making of…

Chapter 5

Scary Stuntmen

After some mild confusion caused by Peter’s hastily scribbled directions and an out-of-date map, Viggo and I finally found ourselves pulling up outside a large collection of buildings and a large sign that said ‘Army Barracks'.

“Well, here we are.” He smiled, stepping out of the car and fetching his sword from the back seat. I hopped out after him and opened the back door, collecting my sheathed sword and tucking my boots under my arm. We walked up to one of the single-storey buildings that looked a lot like a gym and found a small group of men standing outside, some of them smoking, others chatting.

“You guys here for the weapons training?” One of the tall, muscular men asked, breaking off from his conversation.

“Uh yeah…” I replied a little nervously, suddenly feeling very small.

“Just head inside, Bob is waiting for you with the others.” He grunted, jamming his thumb over his shoulder towards the door. I cast an anxious glance towards Viggo before pushing it open and walking into the cool, air-conditioned gym.

There were blue mats littering the ground, and at one side of the room, a group of about eleven stuntmen and women were standing, all holding crude, Orc-like blades.

“Hi guys!”

I turned to see a man with thinning white hair that looked to be in his late fifties approach us.

“Hey, I’m Bob Anderson. I’m going to be choreographing your fights and training you.” He smiled, shaking my hand with a firm, calloused grip.

“Hi, I’m Kira.” I replied, he then shook Viggo’s hand.

“I’m Viggo.” He smiled as Bob stood back and looked us up and down.

“Right, change into your boots, and we’ll get started.” He said, clapping his hands together and walking towards the stunt people. I shrugged at Viggo as we walked over to a bench and changed into our boots. I pulled off the hoodie I’d been wearing so I was just in my sweatpants and t-shirt, and my boots, I then belted the sheath of my sword to my waist after seeing Viggo do the same, and followed him to the side of the hall opposite the stunt guys.

“Draw your swords.” Bob called out and I grasped the hilt, sweeping it out of the sheath in one easy movement. It surprised me how real the sword felt, now that I was holding it. Out of the corner of my eye I could see that Viggo had done the same, and then I glanced at the group of people standing opposite us. They were literally trembling with anticipation, grasping their weapons. Most of them were huge, muscular guys. I’d done a little self defence before, but I didn’t really stand a chance with them unless I had some training. Suddenly, Bob said ‘Go.’ And they came running towards us, yelling and growling!

‘What am I supposed to do?’ I thought to myself in a panic as they got closer and I tightened my grip on my sword. I sensed Viggo tense up beside me, were we supposed to fight back? I had a strong urge to leg it in the opposite direction, but I stood firm, if a little terrified, as they were now a few feet away from us.

Suddenly, Bob clapped his hands once, and they stopped, just inches away from us.

“Right, let’s get down to business then.” He smiled as the stunt guys backed off in fits of laughter.

“What was that?” I whispered to Viggo through clenched teeth.

“I think he was trying to show us what the next few hours are going to be like.” He replied with a nervous smile. “I was seriously considering legging it though!”

I laughed as I realised that we had been thinking the same thing, as Bob approached us.

“Ok, first we’re just going to teach you the basics, and then we’ll sort out things like signature moves, and then we can move on to figuring out a fight scene or two.” Bob grinned; obviously pleased with the fright he had given us.

Over the next few hours, Viggo and I were coached by Bob and the various stuntmen and women through separate fights. It was handy that we would be fighting the same people when it came to filming the scene, only we would both be in costume. Eventually, we seemed to have mastered the basics, and Bob asked Viggo and I to go stand in the centre of the room.

“Right, we’re going to be working on a combined fight scene now, I think this one is going to be used for the Amon Hen scene.” He began. “Basically, we’re going to have you two fighting side by side, and it meant to work ‘harmoniously’ – as Peter described it to me!” He added with a wink. “Let’s get to work!”

Viggo and I were positioned in the centre of a ring of ‘Orcs’ back to back, and Bob coached us from a distance as we were ‘attacked’. I was blocking a blow that one of the stuntmen threw at me, when I heard Bob yell to Viggo. Before I knew it, he had grabbed my wrist and spun me around so I was now by his side.

“Wow…” I gasped breathlessly as I ‘stabbed’ a stuntwoman who convincingly died at my feet.

“Watch your back!” Bob called and I automatically ducked and turned to ‘cut off’ the legs of my attacker. I stood to find another one advancing upon me.

“Pause!” Bob shouted above the battle cries. “Kira, do you think you could flip him over your shoulder?” He asked, pointing to the stuntman – Jake - that had been about to attack me.

“Erm…” I mumbled, stopping to catch my breath. “I suppose so; I haven’t done anything like that in years though…”

“You’ll be fine.” Bob smiled, “Just duck and he’ll fall onto your back, and then you just stand up and make it look like you’re throwing him. Jake will do most of the work.”

“Yeah, I’ll give it a go.” I grinned.

“Alright, as soon as Jake hits the ground, Viggo, you turn and stab him.” Bob instructed.

“Sure.” Viggo smiled, as I bit my lip nervously.

“Right, go!” Bob shouted. Jake ran at me full-speed and I ducked, ramming my shoulders into his legs as he toppled onto my back and I stood up quickly, flipping him onto the floor, where he landed on his back and Viggo ‘stabbed’ him in the chest.

“I can’t believe I pulled that off!” I laughed as Jake scrambled to his feet.

“Great work guys, all we have to do is work out Viggo’s ‘Weathertop’ fight scene.” Bob said, walking over to us. “And then we can call it a day.”

“Alright.” I nodded, still grinning my head off as I went and sat down on the bench where we had left our stuff earlier. I took a water bottle out of my bag and drank thirstily whilst Bob was talking Viggo through the scene where he would fight the Nasgûl. I sat down and watched whilst the taller stuntmen who would be the Black Riders all pretended to be surrounding an injured Frodo, all wielding blades that were different from the Orc ones. Viggo jumped in from the side and I watched as Bob coached him through the battle. He had been given what was supposed to be a flaming torch to wield alongside his sword, but in reality it was just a piece of rubber piping, apparently he would be given something more real on set. I watched in amazement as he fought them off single-handed, it seemed so real.

“That’s great Viggo; try to remember that for a few days, so we don’t have to rehearse it too much on set.” Bob smiled as the stuntmen and women moved off to what I assumed was a changing room. “Well done you two, you’ve worked hard.”

“Thanks.” I smiled, pulling off my now slightly sweaty boots (lovely) and slipping on a pair of flip-flops that I’d brought.

“I’ll be around set most of the time if you need any help, see you guys later!” Bob smiled, waving as he walked off to the changing rooms.

“Shall we then?” Viggo asked, sheathing his sword at his side and shouldering his bag.

“Are you just gonna wear your sword?” I asked, about to unbuckle my own.

“Yeah, why not?” He asked, I shrugged and re-adjusted my sheathed sword at my side.

“Alright then!” I grinned, swinging my bag onto my back and following him out the door into the still-bright sunshine. “This is so different from all the cold weather back home…” I mumbled as we walked to the car.

“Yeah.” Viggo agreed, “It’s going to be weird, not having a cold Christmas.”

I nodded in agreement and threw my bag into the back seat, before unbuckling my sheath and laying it down carefully whilst Viggo did the same.

As we were driving away from the army barracks, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I checked the message, seeing it was from Peter.

‘Hey, make sure you’re on set early tomorrow for your first scene with Viggo! P.J.”