Not only did he read the books once every year.since they came out, he had met J.R.R. Tolkien, which he's the only one in the cast and crew to do so.

I could listen to Christopher Lee talk about anything for hours on end. Also, he was a badass soldier during WW II.

@@ghostinthemachine8243 According to Peter Jackson and some of the other actors, he liked to talk about his life experiences, which he could spend a long time telling about and you get a taste of that in the behind the scenes of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey during the filming of Saurman's scenes during the White Council meeting, Lee told the stories of the corkscrew flip stunt in The Man of the Golden Gun (which Lee played the title character), going to Macau and told the classic boomerang joke.

Ian Holm was very familiar with it as well

I’m really surprised that Lee was able to keep himself from commenting on how much of his own stuff Jackson wrote into the movies. Jackson said that Tolkien’s characters were “too good” so he changed their personalities and even their character. Saruman was a really bad guy. By the time of the war of the ring Saruman really did hate everyone….even nasty old Worm Tongue.

He wanted to play gandalf but peter jackson thought he excelled at saruman👍

​@@kryoboy3.0he knew he would be a great Gandalf, but he couldn't see anyone else as saruman

My favorite scene is Saruman and Gandalf walking together

@@apples-fj8eu I agree with Peter Jackson. Christopher Lee has been playing villains his whole life in film, he excelled in that quality. That seething anger and jealousy and hubris that Saruman has, Christopher Lee is the only one who could masterfully pull that off. On the other hand, I can't imagine anyone else being able to capture the warmth, wisdom and utter humanity of Gandalf that Ian McKellen could. The casting for those two was absolute perfection.

Which Sir Ian? There are two.

@@markmauk8231oh, McKellen I mean.

@@markmauk8231 so they all three had knighthoods already in 2001

@@visionist7 But only two are named Ian.

​@visionist7 Actually, Sir Christopher Lee wasn't knighted until 2009, unlike Ian McKellen and Holm who was already knighted at this point.

​@@thefonzkiss How ironic to put this aggressive and unnecessary statement in such an awkward and incompetent way.

@@thefonzkiss says the putrid pompous punk !

​@@thefonzkiss why can't someone mistake himself about a name?

I don't understand the negative comments on this post. It ain't that serious, yo

Not really

true, the whole cast was perfect.

“You have elite cinema veterans, awesome actors in their prime and then you have Elijah Wood” lol

Yes...im glad the original actor casted for Aragorn was fired. He was a total clown

It's quite amazing what can be achieved when people understand the source material that they're being asked to portray.

What’s remarkable is Lee was a massive Tolkien fan and had read the books many times over many years while McKellen had read the Hobbit but never read the trilogy until after he was cast!

I know. It's all I have.

@@FilmAppreciationSociety Sigh. Lee is too great for this world, it rejects him. Like how they cut his death scene from the theatrical release. Why didn't they cut out Sam as well? Shorten the movie an hour. Makes as much sense to me.

And Frodo as well as it so happens. This isn’t Ian Holm’s first time in this franchise, having portrayed Frodo in the BBC Radio Drama.

To be fair, Morfrydd Clark said she did and was already a huge fan of the books and films. The train wreck though I blame on the writers and directors than on her. She could have played a younger and yet still wise Galadriel but the showrunners were too intent on having a "girlboss" lead the show.

He kept the spirit of the books intact but yeah, there were things he changed that dumbed things down and lost it's nuance. Things like Saruman blindly following Sauron instead of him betraying Sauron because he always intended to find the ring and rule, or having Gimili be the comic relief, or having Denethor be a crazy man instead of a once wise and noble man who is broken because of Sauron's hold on him, or having the ghost army defeat the forces of Minas Morgul instead of Prince Imrahil's forces to name a few. Just a lot of dumb changes.

You can’t put a book directly onto a movie screen. If you turn a book into a movie you have to change some things. The scouring of the shire, for example. It's a great part of the book but would have completely ruined the pacing of the movie.

Yeah, no idea where to find the full interview.

Like 👍 and yet unlike 😩

Could it be a DVD special feature?

@@nagantm441I’ve watched all the theatrical and extended edition bonus content and don’t recall this. Though that was a number of years ago. I shall have to dig them out again and check