Stuart Townsend and the Role of Aragorn: A Great Plus for the Actor Who Failed to Score a Winner in The Lord of the Rings
Stuart Townsend and his eventual demise in Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy remains a regretful case of someone so close to being successful in his field but for some reasons beyond his reach. That someone was, however, cast as ‘Aragorn’, viz. Townsend, only to be sacked minutes before the filming began allowing Mortensen to play the famous character.
How Did Things Go Awry For Stuart Townsend?
At 26 years of age, an actor looks rather capable of playing Aragorn, and Townsend was a trained actor who was to play the role of a learned adult ruler. However, it was during the pre production stages that Peter Jackson and his people started changing their mind. Townsend got the sack during the first round of shooting after two months of rehearsal and training.
Stuart recalls the time he was still in training and had high hopes of debuting in the movie, in a 2005 interview with an American publication: Entertainment Weekly:
“It was about two weeks but I made an effort to finally read one story when the directors of other films stated, ‘The filmmakers were as mistaken about Stuart as he was otherwise and it was our fault,’ which was lovely because, in any case, I was quite badly thrown out. I was working my butt off is a huge understatement.”
What was worse for Townsend was he wasn’t in a position to fulfill his contract because the studio argued that he hadn’t been employed for a considerable time.
Rifkin recalls being said that they would never sell to a person like him, and as such was unable to make any offers due to their tight investment rules.
It was Rifkin’s former partner from Costa Rica who provided a helping hand and introduced him to Jaume. After their first meeting Jaume and Rifkin became friends: ‘We hit it off from the very beginning. I was a huge fan of Van Wilders and Jaume was a big shot at Universal’.
In the meantime Rifkin’s management secured a deal with Tanzi who was willing to continue working with them despite the obstacles. ‘I was looking for a project gun for hire and BMW offered me one. Once I signed a contract, it felt as though I had committed a brazen act of treason.’ With almost no relations or pressure from the media, the development of a new project could begin. People in the film industry are terrified of breaking traditions, particularly when Cuban-American relations seem to be improving and it is turning into a ‘political minefield.’
What Could Have Been
Not only did the character of Aragorn’s role make a mark in the life of mortensen, but it also complimented the tone of Jackson’s trilogy in a particular way. Although Townsend’s youthful energy could have added an entirely different aspect to the character, it was rather Mortensen’s older and mature traits that were instrumental in forming the Aragorn the viewers fell in love with.
For Townsend, that remains an experience and a lesson on how fickle could be the ‘luck’ in Hollywood and the obvious fact that no all suits are for the same person.