Viggo Mortensen Reveals a ‘Lord of the Rings’ Aragorn Flashback That’s Never Been Released

Zack Sharf
·2 min read
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Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy has gone through theatrical cuts, extended editions, and a new 4K remastering, and still there are scenes that have yet to see the light of day. In an interview with NME to promote his directorial debut “Falling,” star Viggo Mortensen revealed the existence of an Arwen-Aragorn flashback scene that was shot and later discarded by Jackson. Mortensen said that not even he saw the edited version of the scene.

“There was a scene that we shot as a sort of memory flashback,” Mortensen said. “It was from the courtship days when he first met Arwen – and we shot it just before we were taking a break so I was clean-shaven and prettied up. They’d tried to make me look as young as possible. I had different hair and I was dressed like an elf.”

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“It was a scene from the book where they’re walking in this flowery meadow,” the actor continued. “It was a beautiful sequence but obviously it wasn’t needed for the movie. I’ve never seen it but I enjoyed shooting that scene. It’d be nice to see it actually, it’s not in the extended editions either.”

Speaking of Arwen and Aragorn, Mortensen made headlines in 2018 after revealing he had purchased the horses used by these characters after the filming of “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. In a sad update, the actor said only Arwen’s horse is still alive all these years later.

“There were actually three horses that I bought, they were up for sale once the movies were done,” Mortensen said. “There were the two I’d ridden – a chestnut and then the big bay that Aragorn rides – but I also bought the white horse that Arwen rides in ‘The Fellowship Of The Ring’ when she’s being chased through the forest by the Black Riders.”

“The person who did that spectacular bit of riding was a stuntwoman who I ended up becoming friends with,” the actor added. “I knew how much she liked that horse, so I bought it for her. That one is still around, but the other two have passed away. They were of a certain age already when we shooting and that’s 20 years ago now.”

Head over to NME to read more from Mortensen’s most recent interview.

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