The Lord of the Rings continues to endure as one of the most beloved franchises in cinematic history. Its lasting success is multi-faceted, but a big part is due to the casting -- nearly every role was perfectly cast, allowing justice to be done for J.R.R. Tolkien's characters as they came to life on the big screen.
The films helped launch the career of actors like Orlando Bloom through playing Legolas, and the stunning motion capture work of Andy Serkis that began with Gollum/Smeagol. At the same time, veteran actors like Cate Blanchett became best remembered by many as her character Lady Galadriel, even when compared to her many sensational performances outside the Lord of the Rings films, including her Oscar-nominated work in Elizabeth and Oscar-winning role in Blue Jasmine.
Their success at bringing Middle-earth to life doesn't mean they've had perfect careers, though. Many of the stars in Lord of the Rings have had at least one role that didn't showcase their best acting. Oftentimes the script is more to blame than the actor, but that doesn't erase their association with a disappointing role or film.
Here are 15 Embarrassing Roles Lord Of The Rings Stars Want You To Forget.
Cate Blanchett: Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
Getting cast as the primary antagonist in an Indiana Jones film must've sounded great on paper, but the film was a bitter disappointment for most, even leading some fans to pretend it never existed in the first place. As the villainous Colonel Irina Spalko, Cate Blanchett does the best she can with the role.
Lackluster writing unfortunately undercut the enthusiasm that Blanchett brought to her performance. Colonel Spalko sadly becomes another stereotypical Russian villain when she could've been so much more given Blanchett's talent.
Nevertheless, Lord of the Rings fans will always remember her as the perfect embodiment of the wise, formidable, but also compassionate Lady Galadriel. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a minor blemish on an otherwise astonishing career.
Orlando Bloom: Elizabethtown
Orlando Bloom made his career by playing action heroes like Legolas in the Lord of the Rings films, and Will Turner in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. This led to significant roles in other blockbuster films like Kingdom of Heaven and Troy. When Bloom stepped outside of his niche, though, he ended up in the romantic tragicomedy Elizabethtown.
Bloom plays Drew Baylor, a man who goes from nearly ending his life, to returning home to deal with the passing of his father, all the while falling in love with Kirsten Dunst's character whose role led to a reviewer coining the "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" trope.
The movie is as messy as it sounds and Bloom's performance suffers due to bland material.
He did an amazing job bringing iconic characters like Legolas and Will Turner to life, but Elizabethtown failed to be a hit like one of Legolas's arrows, nor did it help his career grow outside the action hero role.
Elijah Wood: Flipper
Trading in the Shire for a seaside town on the coast of Florida, Elijah Wood plays young Sandy Ricks. Sandy is bored and unenthused to be spending the summer with his Uncle Porter -- played by Paul Hogan -- until meeting a dolphin named Flipper. Sandy befriends the dolphin and together they navigate the many obstacles thrown their way that summer.
While not among some of the worst movies on this list, Flipper isn't a good film either. It's an overall formulaic, kid-friendly summer film. Wood never seems quite right playing the teenage Sandy, both in the early parts where he's moody and later when he's trying to save his dolphin friend.
Maybe it took Frodo and Middle-earth to help Wood fully realize his core strengths as an actor.
Viggo Mortensen: Boiling Point
Viggo Mortensen perfectly captured all the excitement and epic action surrounding Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The same cannot be said for Mortensen's role in the 1993 movie Boiling Point, or any aspect of the movie for that matter.
Starring Wesley Snipes and Dennis Hopper, in addition to Mortensen, the movie was marketed as an exciting action thriller but failed to deliver on the hype. Mortensen plays ex-con Ronnie, one of the film's antagonists. The movie is more slow-moving than audiences would expect and lacks a smart script.
Mortensen's acting is not at its very best here and the sandy hair aesthetic doesn't help either. His performance and look as Aragorn was a much better fit, bringing many of the best scenes to life in all three Lord of the Rings films.
Liv Tyler: Silent Fall
Liv Tyler played Arwen with a perfect blend of daring, power, and grace. Before ever playing Arwen in the Lord of the Rings films, though, Tyler starred as Sylvie Warden in the 1994 thriller Silent Fall.
Sylvie's parent's lives are ended, and her autistic brother Tim is supposedly the only witness to the crime. A psychiatrist is brought in to help Tim communicate what he witnessed, but Sylvie is very protective of her brother and wary of the psychiatrist. The film is problematic and muddled on many levels.
With Arwen and many other roles, Tyler has proven herself to be a tremendous actor, but Silent Fall doesn't do her talents any justice.
She does the best she can with the role, but it's certainly not one of the highlights in her career.
Sean Bean: The Island
Sean Bean brought wonderful complexity and nuance to his performance as Boromir. He does this with many of his roles, which made his turn as the one-dimensional villainous scientist Dr. Merrick in The Island all the more unsatisfying.
The Island has a promising premise and begins to scratch the surface of some intriguing ethical questions, but instead of becoming a thought-provoking work of science-fiction, the film's potential is consistently undermined by action movie tropes with over the top explosions and car chase scenes. Dr. Merrick seems like he could be so much more, not just another ruthless scientist blinded by greed and ambition, unwilling to see the immoral nature of his work.
Bean is an actor capable of doing more with the role which makes the character's predictable trajectory all the more disappointing.
Mirando Otto: I, Frankenstein
Many think of J.R.R. Tolkien as the father of fantasy fiction and his novels are the embodiment of that wisdom and craft. It must've been an honor for Mirando Otto to play Eowyn in the cinematic adaptations of Tolkien's legendary works.
In contrast, starring in the fantasy adventure film I, Frankenstein is quite the letdown. Otto plays Queen Leonore, the gargoyle queen. I, Frankenstein quickly abandons any promising ties to its source material and hurtles into many of the common tropes in bad fantasy.
At one point, the film was not only supposed to set up a sequel, but also a crossover with the Underworld franchise. Dismal critical reception seems to have put the nail in the coffin of both pursuits. As Eowyn and Queen Leonore, Otto has experienced both the highest of the high and the lowest of the low in the fantasy genre.
John Rhys-Davies: In The Name Of The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
Like Mirando Otto, John Rhys-Davies has also experienced some of the best and the worst the fantasy genre has to offer. Rhys-Davies is well-known for playing the dwarf Gimli, and is actually much taller than he appears in the films.
He's fortunately less-known as the supporting character of In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, inspired by the Dungeon Siege video game series.
Rhys-Davies plays the King's Magus/sorcerer Merik and acts as an ally to Jason Statham's protagonist.
The movie currently holds a 4% "Rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, is considered one of the worst video games movies ever made, and scored five Razzie nominations to boot. No matter what Rhys-Davies brought to the role, it was never going to be enough to save this movie.
Karl Urban: Walking With Dinosaurs
Karl Urban is not best known to all as Eomer, but he did well in the role and contributed nicely to The Two Towers and Return of the King.
Urban's most embarrassing role came in Walking With Dinosaurs, sharing the name of the BBC's 1999 documentary miniseries, but is totally different in approach. The film features Urban playing a paleontologist that also seems to be trying really hard to be a cool uncle, while taking his teenage niece and nephew on a fossil hunt.
He struggles to get his nephew interested in dinosaurs, and it takes a talking bird and the bird's tale of talking dinosaurs to change that. Urban's performance, and even his presence, feels out of place and almost like he momentarily strolled into the wrong story.
Andy Serkis: Blessed
Andy Serkis is truly the master of motion capture work. It all began with Gollum/Smeagol, but has continued with the likes of King Kong, Caesar the ape, and Supreme Leader Snoke. Serkis tends to be just as brilliant in his live-action roles, most recently as the villainous arms dealer Ulysses Klaue in Black Panther. Like most actors, Serkis has been in at least one movie that wasn't a good fit.
He played Father Carlo in Blessed, a 2004 British-Romanian horror film that is essentially a cheap knockoff of Rosemary's Baby.
It's almost as if Serkis realizes how bad the movie is and consciously decided to never become too convincing in the role as the priest trying to stop the protagonist's satanic babies from being born.
Sean Astin: And They're Off
Sean Astin has always excelled at playing endearing characters, and Samwise Gamgee was no exception successfully bringing a lot of heart and soul into all three Lord of the Rings films. However, the mockumentary And They're Off is one time where the approach didn't work.
Astin's character is a failed horse trainer and the movie is supposed to document his clumsy efforts to get back into the winner's circle. Even while poking fun at itself, the film manages to be more awkward and slow-moving than hilarious.
Mockumentaries tend to be hit or miss and this one is unfortunately a miss. This is one time that even the endearing nature of Astin's acting couldn't save the day, though given his likability audiences wish it could.
Dominic Monaghan: Purifiers
Dominic Monaghan made a lot of fans for himself as Merry in Lord of the Rings and as Charlie in the television series Lost, but even the most die-hard fans of Monaghan have a difficult time getting through Purifiers.
The movie takes place in a futuristic Scotland ruled by various gangs made up of martial artists. A crime kingpin named Moses tries to get all the gangs under his control. Monaghan's character belongs to the Purifiers and they refuse the offer from Moses, which makes them the target of all their rivals.
It's no better than it sounds, and even the scenes of martial artists fighting each other end up being a disappointment.
Casting Monaghan almost seems like a ploy to lure in unsuspecting Lord of the Rings and Lost fans.
Billy Boyd: Pimp
Billy Boyd's Pippin certainly made some mistakes in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but the hobbit's mistakes in the Mines of Moria are nothing compared to Boyd's decision to act in a 2010 movie called Pimp.
Through hidden documentary cameras, the movie follows a week in the life of a Soho pimp. Of course, matters spin completely out of control during this week and the cameras are there to document it all. Critics panned it for numerous reasons, many of which include the film's reliance on sadism and failing to provide any kind of meaningful insight into the industry.
It is crass for the sake of being crass and has little else to offer. Pimp currently holds a 0% "Rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Brad Dourif: Critters 4
Brad Dourif succeeded at creeping out everyone as Grima Wormtongue, henchman of Saruman. He delivered on the impressive kind of creepy there, but about a decade earlier, he dabbled in the bad kind of creepy. Dourif played the quirky engineer Al Bert in Critters 4 -- the fourth and final installment of the Critters film series. This time, the carnivorous alien monsters attack and dispatch humans on a space station in the year 2045.
It's a far cry from the conniving Wormtongue who essentially controlled Rohan at one point in The Two Towers. Fortunately, Dourif also has a number of quality horror films under his belt as well and his role as Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, all of which will hopefully forever eclipse Critters 4.
John Noble: The Last Airbender
Despite being a secondary character, John Noble made a lasting impression on fans everywhere with his brilliant performance as Denethor. Noble already had an extensive career before playing Denethor and continues to play a variety of fascinating roles.
While his face makes no appearance, arguably the low point of his impressive career was voicing the Dragon Spirit in the intensely disliked live-action adaptation of The Last Airbender. Noble's voice performance is fine, and not one of the numerous aspects of the movie that continues to frustrate or even anger many fans.
It's a shame for such a talented actor to be associated with one of the most maligned films to date. On the upside, since his face doesn't appear in the movie, many fans likely won't even know he was in it.
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What other embarrassing roles from Lord of the Rings stars did we miss? Let us know in the comments!