LOTR: Why The Grey Havens Scene Was So Tough To Film

gamerant.com:

The behind-the-scenes videos for the Lord of the Rings trilogy are perhaps some of the most well-known behind-the-scenes sequences in film history, both due to the popularity of the franchise as well as how extensive the making-of sequences actually are. The Extended Editions of Lord of the Rings have hours upon hours of this footage, with the cast and crew outlining the experience of filming the trilogy in New Zealand. So many of these stories have become inside jokes within the fandom, and have provided fans with countless «fun facts» they can spout to their less-knowledgable friends during a LOTR rewatch.

One of the stories that was told through this behind-the-scenes footage was of the filming of the Grey Havens scene that appears at the end of The Return of the King. In this scene, the Hobbits are all saying goodbye to Frodo, who is accompanying characters like Galadriel and Gandalf across the sea to the Undying Lands. It's a very emotional scene because it's the culmination of their long journey together, and Frodo's closest friends are obviously upset that he's leaving them for good. The scene in the movie is a lovely and bittersweet ending to the story, but the actual filming of the scene itself was quite a difficult task.

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Doing scenes that are this emotional can be quite taxing for an actor, especially when it's for an extended period of time. The actors who played the Hobbits revealed that the initial shoot for the scene took a whole day, and so they were essentially in tears and having to maintain this very emotional mindset for an entire shoot day. It would be emotionally exhausting to stay on that level for a whole day, having to shoot the scene