Top Five Casting Decisions: The Lord of the Rings

One more Lord of the Rings movies post for good measure.  The acting is one of the many things that make this trilogy for me, with pretty much every actor bringing it hardcore.  In a franchise filled with a lot of spot-on casting, these are my favorites.

Sir Ian McKellen as Gandalf

This one’s a no-brainer.  McKellen is Gandalf, plain and simple.  He handles the wizard’s mischievous twinkle and powerful gravitas in equal measure.  His genuine appreciation for hobbits is absolutely lovely, and even when he’s just delivering exposition, he can bring it like nobody’s business.

Andy Serkis as Gollum

The start of a beautiful friendship, one might say, between Andy Serkis and motion-capture performance.  In essence, the CGI becomes incredibly high-tech makeup that merely makes Serkis look like Gollum, while it’s his creeping physicality, his otherworldly voice, and his unhinged quality that really imbue the character with life.  At the time, it was a technological milestone, but it’s also just a damn good piece of acting.

Sean Astin as Samwise Gamgee

For my money, Sam is the absolute heart of the trilogy, and Astin’s open, honest performance is note-perfect.  He’s very affecting as this hobbit who doesn’t quite recognize how brave he is as he gladly goes to the ends of the world to keep his friend safe.  As Sam, Astin brings humor, action, and emotion as needed, with tremendous warmth throughout.

Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn

I feel like it’s maybe a little harder to pinpoint exactly what it is here, but Mortensen perfectly captures Aragorn for me.  It’s a fairly subtle performance that finds the balance between Aragorn’s reluctance to be the leader others want him to be and his natural tendency toward heroism.  I especially love the easy, offhand way he slips into Elvish when he’s talking to elves; it’s a little thing that adds a lot to his character and his background, and Mortensen plays it just right.

Cate Blanchett as Galadriel

It took me a while to decide on my fifth, because there are just so many spot-on performances here.  In the end, though, I had to give it up for the Lady Galadriel herself.  Blanchett’s appearances in the franchise are brief, but she makes the most of every moment, and when she has her big scene with Frodo in The Fellowship of the Ring, she knocks it out of the park.  It would take some doing at this point to convince me that she’s not an elf.