The Movie that Changed Our Lives (Elijah Wood/LOTR FanFic)

Set Injuries and Exhaustion

I was glad that today I didn't have to film in the morning. I could relax and watch the others act before lunch, take a quick power nap, or memorize my lines. I needed the break, for I had been filming all day every day for the past two weeks. I now understood why Elijah was always tired whenever I used to call or visit him on set.

Elijah was exhausted too; you could easily tell when he took power naps every chance he got. Usually, he would wake up from the other Hobbits watching him sleep and poking him awake. He would get annoyed and grumble for a split second, then hurry along with us to do the next scene that involved him. I don't even know how he had so much energy to do this all the time. I guess this was the life of a typical actor, where sleeping was to be done after filming was complete. I knew that when this ended, I wouldn't get out of bed for a straight week, even if Elijah would try to get me out. Heck, he'd be in bed too, an we'd both be talking on the phone with each other all day. Nothing on Earth would convince us to move a single inch.

I finally decided to go watch a scene that involved in the non-Hobbit part of the Fellowship, when they were riding through the fields or something dramatic. Orlando and Gimili's double sat up on a horse, ready to shoot. I sat in one of the vacant chairs and pulled my blanket tighter around me, intently watching them all gallop around the bare land while being followed and led by cameramen. The only other person there that wasn't involved in the scene was Sean, who was munching on an apple while watching. Grinning at me with chunks of apple in his mouth, Sean commented on how exciting this was. "It sure beats listening to Elijah's music," he laughed, turning back to Viggo following Orlando and Gimili's double. I chuckled at the thought of Elijah blasting Daft Punk in his trailer and Ian's annoyed face, turning my head to see them ride by, engrossed in the scene they were in.

That's when it happened. It had occurred so fast that I barely got a chance to see it. Orlando ended up on the ground, Gimili's double on top of him. Jackson shouted cut and people rushed to Orlando, who was shakily standing up while holding his waist, his face grimacing in pain. Sean stopped chewing and we both worriedly watched Orlando join us behind the camera, surrounded by people checking up on him. We found out that his ribs were hurting, as if they were broken or something. I soothingly touched his shoulder in concern as he heavily breathed and squinted at us in the sunlight. "You okay?"

He slowly nodded. "Okay, let's just move on to another scene," Jackson suggested, and Orlando stood where he was, his wig pulled back into a ponytail. The set doctors ordered him to lift his shirt and examined his injury a bit more. "Why don't you and Sean go back, Kat?" Peter asked, "we got this." I bit my lip, knowing that I should have stayed to help and that it was best to give them space. Sean finally tugged me away, and back to Elijah's blasting trailer we went.

Later on that evening, Orlando told us over dinner that his ribs were cracked. "The first set injury," he grinned a little too proudly. I had no idea that having an injury was such a celebratory thing. To me, it was nothing to be excited about.

"Oh, are you fine?" You could tell that Billy and the others were worried for him.

This was a serious matter, but Orlando was taking it more lightly than he should have. "It hurts an awful lot," he answered, "but I'll survive." And seeing how he directly went right back to work the next day, he was indeed okay. He kept on mentioning his ribs though, how it was still giving him pains. In fact, his rib talk carried on throughout the whole week, and it was starting to get old. Dominic would say how it didn't matter anymore, but Orlando wouldn't listen, too involved with his smug attitude on his injury.

Orlando's injury was the first, but it definitely wasn't the last. On a day where I decided to take a nap during my film break, I missed Viggo breaking two of his toes. None of the other off-duty actors, except for Dominic and Billy, were there to watch it; however, the story of his brave acting carried on throughout the set. Jackson was impressed by Viggo's efforts to incorporate his pain into the scene, and carried on a message to us, to use our pain as strength while acting. I thought most of the actors already knew to do that, but I guess some of them didn't. It seemed common sense to me, for it could always mean good material that could actually be used in the movie or play.

Viggo walked with a slight limp for the next week or so, yet his spirits were kept up-until they had to film their running scene. Add in the fact that Gimili's double's knee was hurting a bit, and you have one horrible group of wounded actors. Jackson had insisted on waiting for them to feel better, to wait for the right time to do it, since he needed to film their faces and stuff. They refused, saying that they wanted to stretch out their hurt limbs. Jackson sighed and away they went. The whole morning was spent filming them running around, Orlando pausing to perch up on rocks and the looks of real tiredness and soreness plastered on their hot and sweaty faces. It was quite interesting to hear about it, especially since I was too lazy on that morning to get out of bed. It made me feel so bad, that I was in my trailer alone while the disabled actors trudged through the open fields with the will to overlook their wounds and carry on. When I told Elijah this he told me not to worry, for I was just starting to feel the effects of exhaustion. "You're fine, Kat," he sweetly smiled at me, tousling his Hobbit hair. And in an instant, my problem was diminished, and I continued to silently chew on my celery stick.

One day when Sean had to jump onto a boat for a scene, his foot pierced through something super sharp, for when Jackson said cut, Sean seemed to be in even worse pain than Orlando had been in. His limp was more severe, and his groans were more loud and persistent within each passing second. Elijah and I immediately bolted as close as we could get to him to see how he was, and started firing away questions. A shard of glass had apparently gone through his prosthetic foot and into his real foot, blood flowing off the bottom and down onto the rock his foot was rested upon. Elijah, being a total boy, was fascinated and interested in Sean's ordeal, and tried his best to get closer looks at his foot. Me, disgusted by the blood and by Elijah's response to Sean's injuries, grabbed Elijah's arm to pull him away. He was preventing the others from really checking out Sean's foot and taking out the glass. It ended up being so bad that a helicopter was sent over to take him to the hospital, and Elijah immediately wanted to join them.

I flicked Elijah's forehead and he gasped. "What?!" Shaking my head at him in disappointment, I pulled my thick curls back and raised an eyebrow at him. I was really beginning to lose patience with that man, I really was. Well, really, I was starting to feel that way about all the men. They were all driving me crazy, and Mandy was no help to solve it. When Orlando began to complain again about his ribs, I snapped at him to hush up. When Dominic sneezed, I yelled at him to take some allergy medication. When Sean would make a joking comment about my red cheeks, I would coldly tell him to pay more attention to his red foot. I guess I was feeling the development of annoyance and tension that usually rode high at some point during filming.

That tension was very predominant when we were filming a scene with Andy. As Gollum pulled Elijah, Sean, and me back during the scene, he accidently ripped Sean's wig clean off. We sort of continued on with the scene, until it looked too unusual to go on. At that point, none of us were in the mood to film anything, and wanted nothing more than to spend a day where we could sleep until at least eight in the morning and relax during the day. We still went on with the motivation of ending filming and enjoying the time with each other, but had some small bits of doubt in our minds. Andy thought that Sean was pissed off, for Sean stormed off the stage to get his wig fixed on, and apologized until he was almost blue in the face. He just felt so guilty that it wouldn't leave his mouth, even though Elijah was telling him not to get too wired up about it. It turns out that Sean wasn't too mad about it, he claims that it barely hurt despite the fact that it was firmly glued around his whole head, and just hurried off so that we could finish filming the scene as soon as possible. Andy felt so stupid after that, and it was laughed and forgotten about. It never ceased to amaze me how boys just let go of things so easily, but girls held a grudge that could last for years on end.

Elijah persisted for me not to tense in all of this drama. "You need to chill, Kat," he replied to me, "just breathe in the New Zealand sunrise and forget about it all." I tried it a bunch of times, and it did not work. Mandy attempted to make it a little better by having a girl's night, eating popcorn and watching something on the tiny TV in my trailer. I ended up falling asleep during the first five minutes, and Mandy had sighed in defeat and left me to enjoy the slumber I had desired for the past week and a half. The sun rose the next day, and my same, boring routine went on with no regard of my upset mood. I definitely needed a change, and I needed it fast.

SO I POSTED A BEHIND OF THE SCENES VIDEO, TALKING ABOUT A COUPLE OF THE INJURIES THAT I MENTIONED IN THIS CHAPTER.....HOPE ALL OF YOU GUYS ENJOY IT, ESPECIALLY THE ORLANDO AND LEGOLAS FANS ;)