{"id":2050570,"date":"2025-09-26T01:09:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T01:09:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2050570"},"modified":"2025-09-26T01:09:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T01:09:05","slug":"lord-of-the-rings-stars-share-stories-from-set-how-much-fans-mean-to-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/lord-of-the-rings-stars-share-stories-from-set-how-much-fans-mean-to-them\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Lord of the Rings\u2019 stars share stories from set, how much fans mean to them"},"content":{"rendered":"

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During the \u201cLord of the Rings\u201d panel at this year\u2019s FanX convention<\/a> in Salt Lake City, stars of the movies shared favorite moments from set, their favorite characters from the franchise and how much they value moments with fans.<\/p>\n

The panel on Thursday featured three of the franchise\u2019s cast members: John Rhys-Davies, Miranda Otto and Lawrence Makoare. Over the course of the 45-minute panel in the Grand Ballroom of the Salt Palace Convention Center, the three actors answered dozens of questions about the movies, being on set and their lives.<\/p>\n

The actors\u2019 panel was one of many taking place at FanX this year, with a variety of movie and TV stars, authors and artists appearing at the pop culture convention over the course of this weekend.<\/p>\n

One question the \u201cLord of the Rings\u201d stars were asked was about fan moments that have impacted their lives. Otto, who played \u00c9owyn in the films, said she didn\u2019t have a specific moment but that she loves seeing how much people love the movies and how much they mean to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get so many, in particular, women who come up to me and talk about \u00c9owyn and how much they related to the character as a kid, and what sort of strength the character gave them, and that\u2019s a really good thing to have been a part of,\u201d the actress said.<\/p>\n

Rhys-Davies, who played Gimli the dwarf, shared that when he attended his first fan convention before filming \u201cLord of the Rings,\u201d he thought the whole thing was weird.<\/p>\n

\"FanX<\/span><\/div>\n

Courtnee Carrigan, Meg Teeples and Sabrina Bredthauer react to actors Lawrence Makoare, Miranda Otto and John Rhys-Davies speaking on the “Lord of the Rings” panel at FanX at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I thought, \u2018500 people dressed up as Captain Kirk, can\u2019t they get a life?\u2019\u201d he said. He continued that later \u201cit dawned on me actually they did have a life, and some of their lives were very rich and marvelous.\u201d<\/p>\n

He shared that earlier in the day, he had met a fan who, for decades, has taken care of her adult daughter with severe disabilities, and Rhys-Davies highlighted how brave she is and how incredible and strong other fans he has met are.<\/p>\n

\u201cI meet heroes here,\u201d Rhys-Davies said.<\/p>\n

Rhys-Davies was also a part of FanX last year, <\/a>and did a panel alongside fellow \u201cLord of the Rings\u201d stars Elijah Wood, Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd.<\/p>\n

Makoare, who played a number of characters in the franchise, including Lurtz the Uruk-Hai and the Witch-King of Angmar, shared that early in the day, they had been visiting with kids with cancer at a local hospital.<\/p>\n

He talked about how amazing it was to interact with the kids and to see Rhys-Davies interact with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s doing all those little things,\u201d Makoare said, when talking about fan moments that have impacted him.<\/p>\n

A large part of the movies were shot in different scenic locations across New Zealand, and this was something the three panelists mentioned multiple times.<\/p>\n

When speaking about memorable moments on set, Otto highlighted the first time she arrived at the Edoras set.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think my favorite memory is waking up in the car, driving to work and seeing Edoras for the first time,\u201d Otto said. \u201cIt was astonishing.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also shared about a time when she had to film a scene at dawn, and the night before, a bunch of the cast and crew camped out in the mountains on location ahead of the film shoot. Otto added that there were amazing stories shared during that night from cast members and some of the producers.<\/p>\n

Rhys-Davies had a similar story, where he stayed out on location one night between shoots with Viggo Mortensen, the actor who played Aragorn. He said they didn\u2019t have any food out there, but Mortensen had his fishing rod with him, so he found a stream and was able to catch two trout, which they cooked over the fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just one of those glorious, unique evenings in your life, and I remember it with affection, with awe and respect,\u201d Rhys-Davies said.<\/p>\n

\"FanX<\/span><\/div>\n

Miranda Otto, who played \u00c9owyn, speaks on the “Lord of the Rings” panel at FanX at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News<\/p>\n

\"FanX<\/span><\/div>\n

Rachel Cox, Mark Woodring, Shannon Woodring and other members of the audience applaud and hold up phone flashlights after actors Lawrence Makoare, Miranda Otto and John Rhys-Davies spoke on the “Lord of the Rings” panel at FanX at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News<\/p>\n

\"FanX<\/span><\/div>\n

Hunter Keating asks actors Lawrence Makoare, Miranda Otto and John Rhys-Davies a question during the “Lord of the Rings” panel at FanX at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News<\/p>\n

\"FanX<\/span><\/div>\n

Artemis Bredthauer, 7, listens to actors speak on the “Lord of the Rings” panel at FanX at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News<\/p>\n

\"FanX<\/span><\/div>\n

Sabrina Bredthauer, Ronin Bredthauer, 4, and Apollo Bredthauer, 9, listen as actors Lawrence Makoare, Miranda Otto and John Rhys-Davies answer Sabrina\u2019s question during the “Lord of the Rings” panel at FanX at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News<\/p>\n

\"FanX<\/span><\/div>\n

Actor Lawrence Makoare speaks on the “Lord of the Rings” panel at FanX at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. Makoare is known for multiple roles, including Uruk-hai leader Lurtz and the Witch-king of Angmar. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News<\/p>\n

\"FanX<\/span><\/div>\n

Actors Lawrence Makoare, Miranda Otto and John Rhys-Davies take a bow after speaking on the “Lord of the Rings” panel at FanX at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News<\/p>\n

\"FanX<\/span><\/div>\n

John Rhys-Davies, known for his role of Gimli the dwarf, speaks on the “Lord of the Rings” panel at FanX at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News<\/p>\n

The three actors talked about the difficulties of some of the costumes they had, and Rhys-Davies highlighted how heavy his armor for Gimli was.<\/p>\n

Otto talked about the difference between fighting in a dress and fighting in armor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was fighting in a dress, it was much easier than fighting in all the helmets, and chain mail and other stuff,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Makoare shared that his makeup would take over 11 hours to put on and would take 4\u00bd hours to take off.<\/p>\n

They were also asked who their favorite characters in the franchise are. Otto said Samwise Gamgee, Rhys-Davies said Frodo Baggins and Makoare said Aragorn.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the \u201cLord of the Rings\u201d panel at this year\u2019s FanX convention in Salt Lake City, stars of the movies shared favorite moments from set, their favorite characters from the franchise and how much they value moments with fans. The panel on Thursday featured three of the franchise\u2019s cast members: John Rhys-Davies, Miranda Otto and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2050571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[339680,380631,380632,380630,380629,348389,380628,346362,349731],"class_list":["post-2050570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-deseret-news","tag-fanx","tag-john-rhys-davies","tag-kristin-murphy","tag-lawrence-makoare","tag-lord-of-the-rings","tag-miranda-otto","tag-salt-lake-city","tag-salt-palace-convention-center"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/\u2018Lord-of-the-Rings-stars-share-stories-from-set-how.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2050570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2050570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2050570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2050571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2050570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2050570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2050570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}