Sometimes a movie really gets it right with casting, and Peter Jackson's LOTR trilogy boasted a large cast with many leads, many who were very excellently cast if their roles. My Dad, who is a huge Tolkien fan, was not particularly pleased with the choice of Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn - the Danish actor's look just wasn't what he had pictured over the many years or reading and re-reading the epic tale. Peter Jackson originally wanted either Daniel Day Lewis or Russell Crowe for the part. I think Viggo did a great job however (certainly better than Vin Diesel, who auditioned for the role) and as it turns out, the Danish Mortensen has a lot in common with his character - the noble and inspiring leader and warrior who was a constant source of aid and comfort to his companions.
For one, he has great athletic prowess - swordmaster Bob Anderson said that Viggo was the best swordsman he had ever trained, and he carried his sword all the time, even being stopped by police at one point. He insisted on using a heavy steel sword, when all the others were either rubber or aluminum. Mortensen performed all his own stunts as well, and chipped a tooth during a fight scene. He wanted to just superglue it back and finish the scenes, but Jackson made him go to the dentist. He also took up surfing with many other cast members during the long shooting stays in New Zealand, wiping out and badly bruising his face one day. For this reason, he only appears in the Mines of Moria with one side of his face showing. I'm not sure if this one is true, but supposedly the scene where he knocks away a thrown orc dagger with his sword,was not planned. The dagger was mis-thrown and not supposed to be aimed right at him, but Mortensen's reflexes and sword training kicked in.
Mortensen, although having never previously read the books, was like his character in less physical ways as well. Like Aragorn, who ranged all over the lands of Middle Earth, Mortensen has also lived all over the world, and speaks multiple languages. He urged the writers to rewrite a number of scenes so that he could speak the lines in Elvish, as in the books. He was a natural leader for the cast, who soon began to look to him for guidance and advice. He fell in love with and purchased several of the horses he rode in the movies, too. He even bought Arwen's horse after production wrapped, and gave it to Liv Tyler's stunt double, who had formed a very close bond with the animal while filming.
