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We have to imagine that, at this point in his career, Viggo Mortensen is extremely happy he joined the cast of The Lord of the Rings (we're pretty grateful for the fact as well, actually). But because not even the Rightful King of Gondor can see into the future, there was a time when the not-yet-Aragorn wasn't completely sold on the movies. In fact, he hadn't even read the trilogy that it was based on.

Mortensen was speaking at the Glasgow Film Festival 2024 in October of last year when he was asked about his decision to join Peter Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring cats.

"I just finished a job," Mortensen recalls, "A fairly long job, I had been away from home a lot. And I was offered the part in Lord of the Rings, which I had not read. I had read The Hobbit, but had not read the the Lord of the Rings."

As you know if you've read the J.R.R. Tolkien books Mortensen's talking about, the two are quite different in terms of mood, and certainly characters, even though they both take place in the same mythic realm of Middle Earth that Tolkien invented.

"They had been already working for weeks," Mortensen continued, speaking about the cast of the film, "They'd been rehearsing for months [...] I said, 'I'm not familiar with it I don't want to let the [cast] down by not being prepared. You should find someone who's really right for it. And then I hung up.'"

Fortunately for both the Free Peoples of Middle Earth and the history of cinema, Mortensen's son Henry had read the Lord of the Rings, and told his dad in no uncertain terms that he should take the part. 

"[Henry] and his friends knew the story," Moretensen said, "Or one of his friends had read it, and they talked about it. He said, 'Which part are you talking about?' I said, 'Strider; it's a guy who lives in the woods. I don't know, he's a hunter or something.' He goes, 'That's the guy! He's the king! [...] He's the guy who will be, trust me. You should do it.'"

Despite Mortensen telling his son that "it'll be a long time away" from home, the young man still insisted that his father don the cloak of a Ranger and, eventually, the Crown of Minas Tirith. But it wasn't all pining for young Henry. Because of the role he insisted his dad take in the making of the Lord of the Rings triilogy, he got to have his own.

"He did come to visit a lot," Mortensen concluded, "And he played several parts, as any kids of the actors, the director, and crew members did. There are lots of kids that are now adults who were in that movie and replayed all kinds of parts."

Maybe that was Henry's plan all along.

Whether you're Shirefolk, Elven, Dwarven, or something else, there's a good reason to love Lord of the Rings. We do! With that in mind, we have a dragon's horde of goodies for you from a Lord of the Rings reading guide, a Lord of the Rings watch guide, details on the upcoming animated film Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim, a full the Lord of the Rings reunion panel you can watch, how the OG Hobbit actors stay in touch every day on a groupchat, and the true message of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, according to Gimli himself - John Rhys-Davies.