There's nothing more important than casting when bringing a script to life. Ultimately, a fantastic script can die in the hands of a poorly cast actor. It's not necessarily about an actor being 'bad', it's more about whether or not they were right for the specific role. In the case of Elijah Wood and Sir Ian McKellen, most would say they were perfectly cast as Frodo and Gandalf, respectively. Director Peter Jackson had a ferociously challenging task of finding the right people to play J.R.R. Tolkien's characters in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy... Here's how he did it...
The Unique Importance Of Casting The Lord Of The Rings
During an interview with the now-disgraced Charlie Rose, right after the release of The Fellowship of the Ring, Peter Jackson spoke about just how vital the casting was for his three movies. Of course, Peter's Lord of the Rings movies were all shot at the same time, something that was basically unheard of in Hollywood.
"Casting for The Lord of the Rings was vital. It was vital on several levels. It was vital, one, because it's one of the most beloved books of all time. And everybody who reads that book has a mental image of these people in their minds. As we do too. We're fans of the book," Peter Jackson explained to Charlie Rose. "So, we were determined to get the casting right. We had to cast people that felt like they had stepped out of the pages of the book."
Peter also explained that he had no desire to cast big Hollywood stars, despite rumors of a giant rock star being cast in the movies as well as the legendary Sir Sean Connery.
"We didn't want to cast big stars, because that is distracting. I mean, I think if you're taking characters from a famous book and bringing them to life, you don't want a huge superstar face. Because the book and the star don't kind of gell. We wanted wonderful actors who are like chameleons who could just bring the characters from the book to life, first and foremost."
But the casting was also so important to Peter Jackson as he had to be sure that the actors he was working with could fly down to New Zealand and live with for 15 months straight. Eventually, they'd have to spend an extra three months for pick-ups, rehearsals, and shooting bits for the extended editions of the three movies. That's a big ask. Most of these actors were coming from Hollywood and England.
"We were asking all of our actors to leave their homes, their families, or bring their families with them, come down to this strange country that had never been to for 18 months."
Ultimately, the decision to take on this project was a 'lifestyle decision for the actors. It wasn't like taking a job for 3 months, it was more than a year that was required of them. And this ended up building certain energy and comradery between the cast members and the crew that really made the movie feel special and authentic.
"That spirit is the spirit of putting your heart and soul into something. I think that showed on the screen," Peter explained.
Casting Frodo And Gandalf
During the Charlie Rose interview, Peter was asked about what went into casting two of the most important roles in The Lord of the Rings films, Frodo Baggins and Gandalf. Specifically, casting Frodo was 'the most important' piece of casting in Peter's mind.
"If you cast a Frodo, for instance, that sort of irritated you, you know you always see movies where somebody annoys you, bugs you," Peter explained. "[If we did that] we were spoiling three movies."
Frodo was also so hard to cast because he was the 'everyman character'. Readers of the book channeled their imagination through the character of Frodo who was on 'The Hero's Journey' through this unknown world of Middle Earth.
"Frodo is the audience in the film. And those sort of characters are fiendishly difficult for actors to play," Peter said.
This is also why finding the right actor to play him was so challenging. Initially, Peter and his team wanted Frodo to be played by an English actor, but nobody they'd auditioned had the quality they were looking for. They ended up seeing 200 people and only two of them were 'okay' for Frodo. Eventually, their casting director presented them with a taped audition from an American actor named Elijah Wood.
"I had heard Elijah's name but I had never seen a film he'd done," Peter said.
However, Peter's partner, Fran Walsh, had seen one of Elijah's movies and urged Peter to watch the audition tape.
"[Elijah] really wanted to get this role so he had hired a dialect coach to teach him the accent. He'd gone to the local costume [store] and got this sort of cheesy Hobbit costume on. He'd gone up into the trees somewhere up behind his house with a friend and he just videotaped his own audition."
Ultimately, this audition was what convinced Peter, Fran, and their team to cast him as Frodo. "Elijah cast himself." While Elijah may have been somewhat underpaid, there's no doubt his role in The Lord of the Rings set him up for life.
As for Sir Ian McKellan, he was Peter's choice from day one.
"Now Ian was quite different to Elijah. Ian was a name we had right from the very beginning," Peter Jackson said of casting Gandalf.
While other big names were tossed around, such as Sir Anthony Hopkins, none of them were for the role of Gandalf. That was all Sir Ian due to his Shakespearean background, which was ideal for Tolkien dialogue, and the fact that he was a respected actor but not an A-lister at the time.
"He's a chameleon, Ian. That's what I love about Ian, " Peter said affectionately.
Without any doubt, Peter Jackson ended picking the perfect two actors to bring these beloved characters to life.