The Big Picture
- Christopher Lee was infuriated by a change made to a pivotal scene in
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
that he felt fundamentally changed the text. - Lee had a personal investment in the films, as he considered Tolkien’s novels to be among the most important in literature and even personally wrote a letter to Peter Jackson begging to be cast.
- Despite initially being disappointed about not being cast as Gandalf, Lee eventually settled into his role as Saruman and delivered a standout performance, adding authority and menace to his scenes.
Of all the great actors who had a role in Peter Jackson’s epic adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, few have had a career quite like Sir Christopher Lee. In addition to giving a terrifying performance as the wicked wizard Saruman the White in the films, Lee essentially has a monopoly on playing iconic bad guys. Lee has appeared as the Star Wars prequel trilogy’s Count Dooku, the James Bond villain Scaramanga in The Man With the Golden Gun, the insane Lord Summerisle in the horror classic The Wicker Man, and iconic monsters such as Dracula, Frankenstein’s creature, and the Mummy in Hammer’s horror films. While Saruman might be the most wicked of them all, Lee was just as furious in real life about a change that Jackson made to a pivotal scene to the concluding film in the series, 2003’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Gandalf and Aragorn lead the World of Men against Sauron’s army to draw his gaze from Frodo and Sam as they approach Mount Doom with the One Ring.
- Release Date
- December 17, 2003
- Runtime
- 201 minutes
What ‘Lord of the Rings’ Moment Angered Christopher Lee?
Due to the epic running time of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, many pivotal sequences had to be cut from the theatrical editions in order to fit within a reasonable running time; a majority of these scenes were restored for the extended editions of the films. This is why, unlike most director’s cuts, which do nothing more than add in deleted scenes, the extended editions of The Lord of the Rings films are considered to be the “definitive” versions. As a result, moments as important as Saruman’s death in Return of the King had to be cut from the theatrical version in order to accommodate the film’s running time. Even with these changes, the theatrical version of Return of the King that was released in theaters is well over three hours long.
Fans who had seen The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers were left with knowledge of the character’s fate; Saruman’s Tower of Isengard had been mercilessly attacked by the Ents at the end of the film, as Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd) had finally convinced the noble Treebeard (John Rhys Davies) to lead an attack on the Orcs. While readers of the novel knew that the manipulative Wizard is killed by his once loyal ally, Wormtongue (Brad Dourif), fans who weren’t familiar with the source material were left in the dark as to what became of the character.
Lord of the Rings Turned Into a Horror Movie With This Deleted Scene
Turns out Sauron is scarier than just being a flaming eye.
This was a change that Lee felt fundamentally changed the text, and felt personally insulted that Jackson would remove it. As an avid fan of the novels, Lee said that “the scene is one of the most important scenes in the whole trilogy, because it’s Saruman, the great mortal enemy, the most evil of them all, against the Fellowship.” He said that when the film was first screened to him “nobody understood it,” and that questions about Saruman’s absence received “millions of hits on the internet, not just from Tolkien fans and film fans, but from everybody who had seen the first two.”
Lee was so infuriated after seeing the first cut of the film that he boycotted the premiere of Return of the King. However, Jackson revealed that the two eventually made up, and he even convinced Lee to reprise his role as Saruman in his adaptation of Tolkien’s The Hobbit, even though the character was not in the original source material. Jackson revealed that before asking Lee to attend the premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, he inquired, “‘Am I still in the movie?!,'” to which Jackson could finally say yes.
Why Christopher Lee Loved ‘The Lord of the Rings’
Lee had a personal investment in ensuring that the sanctity of the original text was kept intact. Lee was the only member of the entire Lord of the Rings cast who actually met Tolkien, and considered the great author’s novels to be among the most important in the history of literature. Lee revealed that being in The Lord of the Rings film adaptation was so important to him that he personally wrote a letter to Jackson, begging him to cast him in the film. Despite his extensive resume, which includes over 200 appearances in movies and television shows, Lee sent Jackson a photo he had taken of himself dressed as a wizard.
However, the initial meeting between Jackson and Lee did not go quite as planned. Lee had taken the meeting because he had the impression that he was going to be cast as Gandalf, a role that eventually went to Sir Ian McKellen. Jackson said that “Chris wasn’t hearing a bar of it, and eventually commanded us to turn on the video camera so he could audition for Gandalf,” but he eventually settled for playing a different character. Jackson added that Lee grew just as invested in playing the trilogy’s main villain as he had been about playing Gandalf, and that “he would always feel the need to say, ‘You must understand, Peter, he’s really not an evil man.'”
Despite his menacing presence in the films, Jackson’s account of the time he spent with Lee on set was very cordial. Even though McKellen had been cast in the role that Lee had assumed he would receive, he said that the two wizards were quite friendly to each other; “Chris said, ‘I’m perfectly happy to be in an Ian McKellen film,’ to which McKellen ” immediately turned to Chris, and with great affection he replied, ‘but not as thrilled as I am to be in a Christopher Lee movie!'”
It’s great to see that despite the initial confusion, Lee was satisfied with his work on the trilogy. Lee’s performance in the films is a real standout, as he captures the demented sense of knowledge that Saruman feels he has inherited from the evil Dark Lord Sauron. Even seeing Lee within The Hobbit trilogy was a treat; while the films themselves leave much to be desired, Lee added an authority and menace to his scenes that made them feel more pivotal to the narrative.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy is available to stream on Max in the U.S.
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