The Behind-The-Scenes Lord Of The Rings Battle Thats Fans Never Saw

"The Lord of the Rings" isn't known for behind-the-camera drama. Most of the stories about the making of the iconic movies, which were filmed simultaneously in the late '90s, are fun and heart-warming. However, in a recent interview with Empire magazine, director Peter Jackson revealed that there was one point of tension, and it involved a Dwarf and a king. Gimli actor John Rhys-Davies and Théoden actor Bernard Hill (who passed away at 79 years old in 2024) apparently had some off-camera differences. The topic of the tension? Politics. According to Jackson, the two weren't afraid to air their political differences. Here's what he said:

"Bernard was an old, working-class, bloody union guy. I think he was pretty wound up at times. But it was alright. I mean, they didn't get many scenes together."

He's right. Gimli and Théoden occasionally cross over, primarily in "The Two Towers." But while they're often in the same general area and share a battlefield or two, they don't tend to cross paths throughout the two films ("The Two Towers" and "The Return of the King" — Théoden isn't in "The Fellowship of the Ring.")

Despite the airing of the political grievances of Dwarves and Men, by all other accounts, the majority of the experience of filming "The Lord of the Rings" was a good one. A quarter of a century after "The Fellowship of the Ring" premiered, the memory for everyone involved appears to still be a fond one.

Over the years, plenty of accounts have emerged to reinforce that fact, too. There have been stories like the one of Orlando Bloom (and his mohawk) surfing with Hobbits. Several members of the cast famously got tattoos together to remember their shared experience, too — although, Empire's recent slew of 25th anniversary interviews clarified that both Liv Tyler (who plays Arwen) and Cate Blanchett (who plays Galadriel) never even considered the proposition. 

Those interviews also revealed that the on-set, memory-making shenanigans were stoked by one actor more than all the rest: Aragorn, son of Arathorn, i.e., Viggo Mortensen. In the anniversary interviews, when the Hobbit cast was asked who was the biggest troublemaker, Frodo actor Elijah Wood simply said, "It was probably Viggo [Mortensen] in many cases." Merry actor Dominic Monaghan added, "Yeah, Viggo did mess around."

As far as John Rhys-Davies and Bernard Hill are concerned, it's funny that those two characters, out of everyone involved, were butting heads. The comments around Hill make sense on the surface. He always portrayed very serious and intense characters on screen, whether captaining the sinking Titanic in the mid-Atlantic or leading a charge for death and glory in Middle-earth.

Whenever I've seen Rhys-Davies in interviews, he's much more relaxed and fun. He laughs and jokes. But he's certainly an intense and passionate person. Besides, I wonder if the workload of playing two roles (he also voices the Ent leader Treebeard) was putting him under pressure.

The other factor that I would wager had him perpetually on edge was the makeup conundrum. Rhys-Davies is famous for having an allergic reaction to his Dwarf makeup — you know, the makeup he had to have plastered all over his face every day. The experience was so bad that, when the "Lord of the Rings" star was asked if he would return as Gimli, he had one condition:

"Oh god, could I dare to put on that make-up again and lose my skin? Maybe with CGI. [...] Times have moved on and technology has moved on, if I don't have to spend eight hours a day for three years of my life in a make-up chair, I might indeed do it."

No wonder the guy was getting into political debates backstage. His face was on fire for three straight years.