The Lord of the Rings trilogy was a masterpiece of cinema; for Tolkien fans and film lovers the Peter Jackson movies are cinematic treasures, but they don’t just hold a special place in the hearts of viewers alone. For the cast and crew, the making of the movies was an extraordinary experience, and a handful of the principal characters got matching tattoos to commemorate. However, one actor in particular declined, with another lesser-known individual stepping up to take his place.
According to Variety, despite the epic nature of the project, the whole trilogy was filmed in one go, from Oct. 11, 1999, through to Dec. 22, 2000, taking 438 days in total. In addition, there were pick-up shots that were done in 2001 and 2002.
Though the cast wasn’t always on set at the same time, the intensity of what they went through bonded them, and they decided to commemorate that bond with a tattoo of the Sindarin (Elvish) word for nine, to represent the nine members of the Fellowship: Frodo, Samwise, Merry, Pippin, Legolas, Aragorn, Boromir, Gandalf, and Gimli.
All but one of the actors got the tattoo, with John Rhys-Davies, who played Gimli, instead passing on the task to someone equally as worthy. When asked why he didn’t get the tattoo Rhys-Davies joked, “You really think I want to have my lovely skin broken by a dirty needle? Good God. No,” according to ComicBook.com.
What many people don’t know is that a lot of what they see of Gimli on-screen is actually Brett Beattie, Rhys-Davies’ stunt double and unsung hero of the films.
How John Rhys-Davies avoided getting the Lord of the Rings tattoo
How did Rhys-Davies get transformed into a dwarf?
Due to the fact that Rhys-Davies is actually 6 ft 1 in, a lot taller than a dwarf should be, and also had skin issues when it came to the vast amount of facial prosthetics required, they used Beattie as his stunt double and size double. With a black belt in martial arts and experience with horse riding, as well as standing at 4 ft 10″, Beattie was a great fit for the role, even if he was a little green in terms of acting.
In an interview with Polygon, Beattie discusses how instead of using CGI to make Gimli look short, he was used instead.
“I am aware that a lot of the people, even hardcore Lord of the Rings fans, assume that a lot of the shots are some tricky sort of camera angle or some CGI shrinking John Rhys-Davies down. I don’t want to burst anyone’s bubbles, but I can only think of a couple of shots where CGI was used to shrink Rhys-Davies down.”
The interview confirmed that Beattie spent 2,300 hours, or 189 days, as Gimli, which almost earned him the credit as Gimli’s stunt, size, and photo double, but was sadly told that due to “movie politics” he would be credited only as a stunt double.
How did this preparation affect him?
Though he didn’t wish to cause an issue, he was crushed by this given how much time he had put into the character. This isn’t even mentioning the physical toll it took on him as he blew both his knees filming the Battle of Helm’s Deep.
Of the incident, Beattie says, “The surgeon was asking me how I got those injuries, and I was like, ‘Well, I was battling Uruk-hai at Helm’s Deep.’”
Was Rhys-Davies asked to get the tattoo?
Despite this and other near misses, including an axe to the face, avoiding horse hooves, nearly sinking the canoe, and dealing with the nightmare that is prosthetics, many still don’t recognize him for his contribution to the character and films. The other principal cast members, however, wanted to include him in their commemorative act and invited him to join them in getting the tattoo:
“I remember Elijah Wood actually approached me first and invited me. And to tell you the truth, my biggest concern at the time was John Rhys-Davies. I knew that this wasn’t supposed to be for me to be asked to get this tattoo. So I said I had to think about it.”
The next day he was approached by Orlando Bloom (Legolas) and Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn), who again encouraged him to join them, and he agreed. So the Fellowship, sans Rhys-Davies and Sean Bean (who was back in London and got his tattoo done separately), headed to a tattoo parlor in Wellington and got inked.
Nowadays Beattie doesn’t show off his tattoo very often, but is proud of the work he put into the film saying, “I knew I’d done something harder than I’d ever done in my life, and I knew I’d never work that hard again.” He still takes the odd stunt job but focuses on his native tree farm in Canterbury.
