The Making of…
Chapter 47
Run, Run, Run…
Over the course of filming, we were expected to run a lot. Probably the most running that any cast members had to do on camera, involved the chase scene from The Two Towers, meaning it involved Orlando, John, Brett, Viggo and myself. John could count himself lucky that he was too tall for the main running shots and was only needed for his close ups, meanwhile we had no easy way out.
Viggo, Orlando and Brett would be running together, but I was pretty much legging it on my own, as Rana had started pursuing the Uruks before the ‘Three Hunters’. Although, they weren’t so much ‘hunters’ as ‘limpers’, all three of them were injured in some way – Viggo had his broken toes, Orlando had his rib, and recently Brett had popped his kneecap… Ouch. I almost felt bad for being perfectly healthy.
On most of the days that we were filming our wide-shots, I’d be made to run first, and then the others would follow. Right now I was standing at the top of a grassy hill with the three Walking Wounded. We were basically living off a sugar rush so we would have the energy to run the long distances, so Orlando was hiding a bag of sweets in his costume. I wondered if the people watching the film would have any idea that Legolas was secretly hoarding sweets (maybe he just got tired of the Lembas bread)…
The camera crew who were in the helicopter were communicating with us via radios, and we’d hidden ours in a nearby bush so the camera wouldn’t see it.
“Here comes the helicopter.” Viggo murmured, lightly touching my shoulder to get my attention. A few seconds later, the radio buzzed.
“Bzzt- Ok Kira – Bzzt –Go.” Was all I managed to pick up.
“See you in a bit.” I grinned, turning and sprinting down the hill. The terrain was pretty rough, so I had to watch out for rocks and things. I jumped over a small ditch and nearly lost my footing – I hoped that my stumble wouldn’t appear in the film. I kept my legs moving, waiting for my signal to stop. Someone in the helicopter waved at me and I slowed to a jog, then a walk, and then I flopped backwards onto the grass. I lay on my back as I waited for the others to appear, and only sat up as I heard their numerous footfalls. “Hey.” I smiled as they slowed down; Viggo and Brett instantly started limping and Orlando clutched his torso as soon as the camera was no longer on them. I smiled sympathetically as they gingerly sat down and waited for the helicopter to land. Viggo and Orlando sat on either side of me and I pulled them into a double-hug. “You guys ok?”
“Yeah.” Viggo nodded.
“No.” Orlando whimpered and I rolled my eyes.
“Eat your sweeties dear.” I smirked as he stuck out his bottom lip. There was no way I could take a pouty-Legolas seriously. I slipped my arm away from his shoulders and shifted closer to Viggo, nestling my face between his shoulder and neck as his arm wound around my waist. I could feel his pulse against my cheek – it was thrumming rapidly after the run, and his breathing was a little more irregular, the same as mine was.
The helicopter picked us up and we were flown to our next location. This process repeated for a few days. Dropped off – run – picked up, dropped off – run – picked up, until it was decided that we needed to do a few shots in front of a sunrise. Peter didn’t want to do it in front of the blue-screen in the studio, so we were debating over what time we would need to wake up at to get to the location.
“Well, if the helicopter ride takes us half and hour… And sunrise is at roughly 5am…” I counted off the hours on my fingers as we sat in Peter’s office, the early evening sun casting long shadows across the messy desk we were sitting around, “We’d need to set off before half four, and if we take an hour or so in makeup we’d need to be waking up at around 3am.” I groaned at the thought of the early hour and slumped back in my chair.
