# Original Cast for LOTR: Who was supposed to play Frodo? Gandalf? Aragorn? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 8, 2005, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-cast-for-lotr-who-was-supposed-to-play-frodo-gandalf-aragorn/316162 "2005-08-08T19:26:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Pazu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pazu/32/15522_2.png) [@Pazu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pazu)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-cast-for-lotr-who-was-supposed-to-play-frodo-gandalf-aragorn/316162/41 "2005-08-09T19:18:47Z")
> [@carlb](#): > > Liv Tyler? Meh. Count me in the (apparent) minority of heterosexual men, but I just don’t think she’s all that attractive, and I don’t think she gave Arwen any life. I’m not sure who could have done better, but I just wasn’t impressed. I think Maggie Cheung would have made a terrific Arwen. I also heard an anecdote about Bruce Willis wanting very much to be in the trilogy, even if he was only “Gondorian soldier #3” or something, but PJ et al. thought he would be too recognizable. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-cast-for-lotr-who-was-supposed-to-play-frodo-gandalf-aragorn/316162/42 "2005-08-09T19:20:45Z")
> [@Phlosphr](#): > > To my knowledge it is not. I checked with a friend. He has not bought it but he also heard it is on the Extended version of the ROTK. ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-cast-for-lotr-who-was-supposed-to-play-frodo-gandalf-aragorn/316162/43 "2005-08-09T19:26:06Z")
> [@jrfranchi](#): > > I checked with a friend. He has not bought it but he also heard it is on the Extended version of the ROTK. The only easter eggs I know of on ROTK:EE is the “German Interview” and the MTV Awards skit. I seriously doubt there’s anything else. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-cast-for-lotr-who-was-supposed-to-play-frodo-gandalf-aragorn/316162/44 "2005-08-09T19:28:38Z")
I vaguely recall that a clip of the Frodo audition video is included in one of the cast behind-the-scenes things. The audition video is definitely not included in its entirety. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-cast-for-lotr-who-was-supposed-to-play-frodo-gandalf-aragorn/316162/45 "2005-08-09T19:44:23Z")
Okay, Sorry for the mis-information. I don’t own the DVDs, I was passing along what I had heard. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-cast-for-lotr-who-was-supposed-to-play-frodo-gandalf-aragorn/316162/46 "2005-08-09T23:24:18Z")
> [@Inigo Montoya](#): > > I always thought that pirate dude bore a disturbing resemblance to the belching, carrot munching soggy-man-in-the-rain in Bree in FOTR. Could just be me though. No, it’s the same bloke! And he’s in the Two Towers as well, chucking a spear from the ramparts of Helm’s Deep. ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-cast-for-lotr-who-was-supposed-to-play-frodo-gandalf-aragorn/316162/47 "2005-08-10T00:28:42Z")
> [@well he's back](#): > > … > I think another actress was originally cast as Eowyn, but pregnancy interfered. So we got Miranda. (yay)…) According to IMDB this was [Allison Doody](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0233145/) . She is probably most famous as the Nazi agent in _Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade_. In that movie she had slept with Sean Connery. So that means we came close to having a Theoden and Eowyn who…EWWWWW! ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-cast-for-lotr-who-was-supposed-to-play-frodo-gandalf-aragorn/316162/48 "2005-08-10T00:40:25Z")
Oh, and I was going to say one part I wasn’t happy with was Ian Holm as Bilbo. I have liked him in plenty of other stuff but he just didn’t work in these movies for me. I don’t have any suggestions as to who would have done better. I also agree to some extent with the people who weren’t happy with Elrond. To me though it seems more like a conscious decision between actor and director about how the role would be played. This also seems to be the case with Galadriel as played by Cate Blanchett. Both these major Elf characters were played too coldly for my taste, althoug Galadriel fares better in the Extended Edition DVDs. Elrond and Galadriel come across as downright mean in a couple of places. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-cast-for-lotr-who-was-supposed-to-play-frodo-gandalf-aragorn/316162/49 "2005-08-10T00:51:07Z")
I liked the coldness of the elf portrayals of Blanchett and Weaving. I’m glad they weren’t just hippies with magic powers. YMMV of course, and I admit I thought of a few “Agent Elrond” jokes during the movie. Looking at some of the possible casting listed above, I feel this movie was blessed. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-cast-for-lotr-who-was-supposed-to-play-frodo-gandalf-aragorn/316162/50 "2005-08-10T00:52:09Z")
good one, ne texan. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-cast-for-lotr-who-was-supposed-to-play-frodo-gandalf-aragorn/316162/51 "2005-08-10T12:41:12Z")
**Larry Borgia** - I agree with you - I thought the elves were played just right. Each species had their own characteristics, and the elves were definitely somewhat aloof. Understandably when you live so long, you wouldn’t jump into attachments with folks who would die just as you were getting to know them. Also, as Tolkien wrote them (although I’m no scholar like **Qadgop** ) they seemed…dispassionate might be the best term. It might seem mean at first glance, but it’s really just weighing odds and determining, with mathmatical correctness, what they best course of action is _for them_. Not necessarily for Mankind. StG ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-cast-for-lotr-who-was-supposed-to-play-frodo-gandalf-aragorn/316162/52 "2005-08-10T14:29:44Z")
I’d heard about Stuart Townsend’s abortive casting as Aragorn, and think PJ was absolutely right to dump him and bring in Viggo. I, too, thought Celeborn was a nonentity (as written and as played), and could’ve been better cast. The Gimli-as-comic-relief shtick was a bit overplayed, but the casting of this movie was excellent all the way around, I thought. Liv Tyler’s beauty is of the Elvish sort, I think, but oddly intermittent. Some scenes she was drop-dead gorgeous (riding hell-for-leather with Frodo to the ford, and the “This is a dream”/“Then it is a good dream!” idyll). Other times… not so much (confronting Elrond about her yet-to-be-born son; showing up unexpectedly for Aragorn/Elessar’s coronation). ---
**Author:** ![NE\_Texan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e99b99/32.png) [@NE\_Texan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NE_Texan)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-cast-for-lotr-who-was-supposed-to-play-frodo-gandalf-aragorn/316162/53 "2005-08-10T20:24:00Z")
> [@rocking chair](#): > > good one, ne texan. 😉 Thanks. Actually, I wonder if Dick Clark isn’t how a multi-milennia old _Sauron_ must have looked to trick the Numenoreans. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-cast-for-lotr-who-was-supposed-to-play-frodo-gandalf-aragorn/316162/54 "2005-08-10T21:07:59Z")
> [@jrfranchi](#): > > If you wanted to expand the female presence, spend more time on Eowyn were it belonged. A Shield Maiden and Tragic and very a good casting. There was a lot more to her story that could have been told. Yeah, but then the WTF? Moment when Aragorn went with Arwen would be even more WTF? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-cast-for-lotr-who-was-supposed-to-play-frodo-gandalf-aragorn/316162/55 "2005-08-10T21:15:57Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Yeah, but then the WTF? Moment when Aragorn went with Arwen would be even more WTF? Hey I said I was a nut job that wanted 100% accuracy; I didn’t say it would improve the film in its abbreviated form. 🙂 I would have added more of the real background information about Arwen & Aragorn. I would definitely have included more of the Eowyn & Faramir at the house of healing. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2005, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-cast-for-lotr-who-was-supposed-to-play-frodo-gandalf-aragorn/316162/56 "2005-08-11T09:06:00Z")
> [@jrfranchi](#): > > Hey I said I was a nut job that wanted 100% accuracy; I didn’t say it would improve the film in its abbreviated form. 🙂 > I would have added more of the real background information about Arwen & Aragorn. > I would definitely have included more of the Eowyn & Faramir at the house of healing. I agree that there was much that would have been fun to add (e.g. Scouring of the Shire). Alas, as Jackson remarks, there simply wasn’t time to fit it all in (and there are also things that work in books but not on film.) Just be grateful the backers gave him three films, not two (as was going to happen at one point). ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2005, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-cast-for-lotr-who-was-supposed-to-play-frodo-gandalf-aragorn/316162/57 "2005-08-11T12:29:48Z")
> [@glee](#): > > I agree that there was much that would have been fun to add (e.g. Scouring of the Shire). Alas, as Jackson remarks, there simply wasn’t time to fit it all in (and there are also things that work in books but not on film.) > Just be grateful the backers gave him three films, not two (as was going to happen at one point). I don’t know whether or not this is apocraphyl, but didn’t PJ get a note back from some film exec saying, “Do we really need four hobbits?”. Hmm… -Joe ---
**Author:** ![phungi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phungi/32/395_2.png) [@phungi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phungi)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2005, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-cast-for-lotr-who-was-supposed-to-play-frodo-gandalf-aragorn/316162/58 "2005-08-11T12:43:35Z")
I never liked Sean Astin as Samwise. When they were on the side of the volcano in Mordor, I was waiting for the camera to cut to Jon Favreau (who played Rudy’s friend) screaming “who’s the wild man now!” ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2005, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-cast-for-lotr-who-was-supposed-to-play-frodo-gandalf-aragorn/316162/59 "2005-08-11T13:41:56Z")
> [@well he's back](#): > > Sean Connery has stated recently that he was offered Gandalf but didn’t understand the script, book, or story. So wouldn’t commit that long a period of time to a project he didn’t understand - a shorter period, yes, but not a year and a half. (again, thank the lord). I could see Connery in the Jerry Bruckheimer / Michael Bay version “Loshers alwash whine about carrying the Ring…winnersh go home and fuck the prom queen!!” Other actors considered: Frodo: Ewen McGreggor Sam: Ben Affleck Merry: Scott Caan Pippen: Seth Green Aragorn: Will Smith (meh…why not) Legolas: Owen Wilson Gimli: Tom Sizemore Baromir: Still Sean Bean Eowyn: Kate Beckinsale Arwen: Still Liv Tyler Elrond: Alec Baldwin Gollum: Steve Buscemi Theoden: Billy Bob Thortan ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2005, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-cast-for-lotr-who-was-supposed-to-play-frodo-gandalf-aragorn/316162/60 "2005-08-11T13:41:58Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > I don’t know whether or not this is apocraphyl, but didn’t PJ get a note back from some film exec saying, “Do we really need four hobbits?”. > > Hmm… > > -Joe My understanding was that it was something a studio executive said to Tolkein back in the 1960’s when there was talk of a possible movie deal. Apocryphal, but there it is. Heterosexual male and for my money the lady with the most _oomph_ in the movie was Rosie. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-cast-for-lotr-who-was-supposed-to-play-frodo-gandalf-aragorn/316162.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-cast-for-lotr-who-was-supposed-to-play-frodo-gandalf-aragorn/316162.md?page=4)