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February 13, 2003

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
      SAG's Ensemble category was designed for epics like this. The story, or rather stories, is the thing here, so no one performance dominates the canvas. Director Peter Jackson already had his eclectic Fellowship of the Ring in place: faithful Sam (Sean Astin), burdened Frodo (Elijah Wood), bold Merry (Dominic Monaghan), and sincere Pippin (Billy Boyd), as well as their guardians, heroic Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), grumpy Gimli (John Rys-Davies), magical Legolas (Orlando Bloom), and wise Gandalf (Ian McKellen). And then there was the weak-minded Boromir (Sean Bean), but his character's journey ended with the Fellowship of the Ring.

    In Part Two of the adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkein's classic, the challenge was to fill in the secondary characters who propel the plot into the final battle between good and evil. Jackson and his casters' multinational choices are again bold and yet remarkably faithful to the book. There are a pair of Aussies: Miranda Otto as Aragorn's other love interest, the sword-fighting Eowyn, and David Wenham as Boromir's slightly more restrained brother Faramir. Otto appropriately has one of those faces we feel we've seen before (though from her credits we're not sure where)--a perfect look to catch Strider's eye. Wenham has an uncanny resemblance to screen brother Bean and pulls off the same humorless determination. From England comes Bernard Hill as the comatose, then defiant, King Theoden. Hill has been on the fringes of the RSC-trained club of actors since his role as Gratus in I, Claudius. It's great to see him in something splashier. And lest we Americans feel left out, Brad Dourif makes perfectly slimy counselor Wormtongue. Dourif debuted as the doomed Billy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, but his strange, wide-eyed appearance has led him into a lot of sci-fi material, a nice springboard to this creepy character.

    Of course the most important addition to Part Two's cast was Andy Serkis (and animators) as Gollum. This halfling, deformed by the power of the ring--and years of living in a cave with nothing but fish--was the most challenging character to realize in the trilogy. Serkis, Jackson, and the Ring team rose to the occasion. Serkis' monologue, in which he struggles with his evil Gollum and his good Smeagol sides, is priceless.
If SAG voters don't give the prize to (again) the biggest and best ensemble on-screen this year they'll only have one more chance to get it right.
--Scott Proudfit

from backstage