When Peter Jackson was too scared to ask Christopher Lee about World War-II
Over the course of an illustrious career, Christopher Lee has played many memorable roles – ranging from his iconic portrayal of Count Dracula to his involvement in popular film franchises such as James Bond and Star Wars among others. For fans of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Christopher Lee will always be remembered as Saruman.
Lee was fantastic as Saruman, the leader of angelic wizards who was corrupted by the immortal appeal of power. In many ways, J. R. R. Tolkien’s fantasy novel is about the power dynamics at play in the social and political institutions all around us and characters like Saruman played an important role in revealing those truths embedded in the text.
According to some of the interpretations of Tolkien’s opus, Saruman represents the perverse forces of modernity and technology which are eventually defeated by ecocentric beliefs. Although Lee had once harboured fantasies of starring in a Tolkien adaptation as Gandalf, he decided to play Saruman instead because it was less demanding from a physical perspective.
It was also reported that Lee was the only member of the production who had actually met Tolkien in real life. Lee was a huge fan of Tolkien’s work and had an annual tradition of reading the books because he genuinely enjoyed them. The veteran actor reprised the role of Saruman in Jackson’s adaptation of The Hobbit as well and added to the legacy of the franchise.
During one particular scene where Wormtongue stabs Saruman in the back, Jackson actually tried to offer directions about what sort of reaction Saruman should have to the stabbing. Jackson attempted to explain what he wanted out of Lee and tried to imagine the sound that a stab victim would make but Lee disagreed with Jackson’s assessment.
Lee claimed that Jackson did not have any idea about what really happens when an individual is stabbed in the back. He asked the director: “Have you any idea what kind of noise happens when somebody is stabbed in the back? Because I do.” Lee went on to explain that the exaggerated noise that Jackson was looking for never happens because the air is driven out of the body when someone is stabbed in the back.
“He proceeded to sort of talk about some very clandestine part of World War – II,” Jackson recalled while revealing that he was actually scared about asking Lee for details about his terrifying experiences. The director added: “He seemed to have expert knowledge of exactly the sort of noise that they make and so I didn’t push the subject any further.”
During the second World War, Lee actually served in many capacities including as a volunteer for the Finnish Army, a volunteer for the Royal Air Force, an intelligence officer, a prison official, an aircraftsman among other roles. He was also an Special Operations Executive for Tito which definitely indicates that Lee knew what he was talking about.
