Throughout the numerous behind-the-scenes featurettes released for The Lord of the Rings trilogy, it’s clear the movies were a passion project for all involved. Every aspect of them was made through love for J.R.R. Tolkien’s work, with one of the best examples being the actor for Saruman: Christopher Lee. His great portrayal not only came from his acting skill, but from his lifetime of reading The Lord of the Rings long before the movies came about.
Before his unfortunate passing in 2015, Christopher Lee would frequently talk about his love for Middle-earth. He’s said that he would read the books every year before even landing the role of Saruman, and continued that trend all the way into his ’90s. During a behind-the-scenes interview, Lee even mentioned how he had met Tolkien in the 1950s. He was sitting in an Oxford pub, and when he saw Tolkien casually walk in, Lee “nearly fell off chair!”
In an Entertainment Weekly interview with director Peter Jackson, it was revealed that Christopher Lee desperately wanted the part of Gandalf. Due to his extensive Tolkien knowledge, Peter Jackson gave Lee a role in the film soon after meeting him, but then said, “I realized in horror that he’d come to talk to us about playing Gandalf!” Unfortunately for him, the casting crew already had their hearts set on Ian McKellen for the role, but that didn’t stop Lee from trying to get it for himself.
Eventually accepting that he was set to play the villain, Lee took the role with the goal of portraying Saruman as accurately as possible. Peter Jackson described Lee’s dedication to the character, saying, “Whenever we discussed Saruman’s scenes with Chris, he would always feel the need to say, ‘You must understand, Peter – he’s really not an evil man.'” While Saruman undoubtedly has evil inside him, it goes to show that Lee really didn’t want the character to be a one-dimensional villain.
One of the most popular behind-the-scenes clips involves Lee discussing the death of Saruman. Peter Jackson says he explained “what sort of sound he should make when he got stabbed.” But with Lee having served in the British secret service during World War 2, he replied, “Have you any idea of what kind of noise happens when somebody’s stabbed in the back? Because I do.” Of course Jackson thought it best not to question things too much further, and let Lee do what he thought worked best.
Unfortunately, as with many scenes, Saruman’s death didn’t make it into the theatrical cut of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. During an interview with Lee at Dublin University, he expressed his disappointment of the lack of Saruman in the entire third film, saying “I couldn’t believe what I saw, because I wasn’t in it.”
It’s understandable that an actor would be annoyed about not making it into a movie, but Lee’s disappointment came from the unfaithfulness to the books. He describes the scene as “one of the most important in the whole trilogy… The final confrontation between the Fellowship and their greatest enemy, and he wasn’t in the film.” While he seemed hurt by the theatrical release, Lee tells everyone to watch the extended edition, which includes his death.
While it’s upsetting that Christopher Lee is gone, he certainly left his mark on cinema. The Lord of the Rings has some perfect casting, yet it’s arguable you can’t get any better than Lee. He not only possessed the acting skill, but read the novels so much that he was dedicated to doing right by Tolkien, and could even recite entire Saruman speeches on the fly without any rehearsal.
