Peter Jackson revealed that Sean Bean's iconic Boromir/Mordor meme from Lord of the Rings was an accidental consequence of a delayed script. The trilogy is remembered for many moments, but perhaps the most iconic internet meme to come from The Lord of the Rings is the one featuring Bean.
The original footage sees Bean looking down at his lap and saying, "One does not simply walk into Mordor," before glancing up and forming a ring with his hand. That moment was then co-opted and turned into a meme. The meme was particularly popular in the late 2000s and early 2010s, turning up on an almost daily basis online.
On the latest episode of Josh Gad's YouTube series, Reunited Apart, the Lord of the Rings cast held a virtual reunion via Zoom. During the hour-long episode, the cast discussed a number of moments from the trilogy. At one point, Gad mentioned the iconic meme to Bean and asked him to say the dialogue. This caused laughter from the whole cast, before director Peter Jackson chimed in and explained how it came to be. He said that Bean's dialogue was only written the night before and given to the actor on the morning of shooting. As a result, Bean had the speech taped to his leg, which caused him to look down at it to see his lines.
That resulted in the now iconic moment where Bean looks at his lap, and the speech taped to his knee, before looking up again. Jackson's revelation caused more laughter from the reunited cast, and he encouraged everyone to watch the scene again and take note of every time Bean has to check his script.
The news doesn't change the power of the moment, or the humor of the meme, but it does shed light on a piece of cinema that has experienced a life far beyond the confines of its original context. It's a funny anecdote that proves often the best pieces of cinema aren't those that are planned months in advance, but can sometimes be the spontaneous choices made as a result of circumstance.
Bean's portrayal of Boromir wasn't notable just for that moment of course. His death is also an iconic part of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and led many fans to notice that he seems to have been killed on-screen in a number of memorable ways in past roles. So much so, in fact, that Bean now refuses to take roles where his character dies.
Source: Reunited Apart/YouTube