The three-time Academy Award winner Daniel-Day Lewis had once denied playing the role in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings because he found it infinitely demoralizing. Talking about this back in 2009, Lewis revealed why he did not want to be a part of this 6-billion-dollar franchise.
Daniel-Day Lewis Rejected the role of Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings
Daniel-Day Lewis is one of the most acclaimed actors in the industry and is well known for his method acting. From Gangs of New York to Lincoln, Lewis always adopted method acting to give the best performance. Despite of this Lewis rejected to play the role of Aragorn in Lord of The Rings time and again.
According to sources, Daniel-Day Lewis was Peter Jackson’s first choice for the role of Aragorn for his Lord of the Rings trilogy. Despite being offered the role time and again Lewis denied it as he did not want to commit to a project which does not provide him with proper information as to what will be happening.
Talking about this in a 2009 interview, Daniel-Day Lewis stated that the role that was offered to him did not give him much information on what he was being involved in and he found this infinitely demoralizing.
“I wouldn’t really want to be involved in making films I wouldn’t want to go and see … When I’m working on something I’m intrigued by, I’m never bored. I’m incapable of being bored. And if I found myself working on a film and during the course of that work I was bored, because I didn’t know what the hell I was involved in, I would find that infinitely demoralizing and it might well make me decide to pack my bags.”
Not only this Daniel-Day Lewis also found the lengthy commitment to filming three movies very daunting considering his style of acting.
Other Actors Who Almost Played Aragorn
After the rejection from Daniel-Day Lewis, the filmmaker, Peter Jackson approached a lot of other actors for the role of Aragorn before giving it to Viggo Mortensen.
Among the many actors, the very first choice of Warner Bros was Russell Crowe. As per the reports Crowe was offered $100 million to play the role. However, Jackson never really wanted Crowe to play the role and he radiated the same feeling to Crowe during their conversation. Taking into consideration the fact that he was not wanted Russell Crowe refused to play the role.
The next actor that was approached was Nicolas Cage who denied that role as his situation did not allow him to stay away from home for a long time. After Nicolas Cage, the Irish actor and Queen of the Damned star Stuart Townsend was approached for the role. Although unlike others Townsend signed the papers but later was fired stating that he breached the contract due to not having worked long enough.
However, the role was finally given to Viggo Mortensen who was able to capture the look of an experienced and battle-hardened adventurer who was loved by all.
Source: Mental Floss
Frequently asked questions
Why did Daniel Day-Lewis turn down Aragorn?
He said in a 2009 interview that taking on a project without knowing what he was involved in would leave him bored, which he called infinitely demoralizing and reason enough to walk away.
Was he Peter Jackson’s first pick?
Day-Lewis was Jackson’s preferred choice for Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings and was approached more than once, but he declined each time.
Who ended up playing Aragorn?
After Day-Lewis passed, Jackson looked at several other actors before casting Viggo Mortensen in the role for the trilogy.
