Lord of the Rings fans have been left baffled after discovering the unique way that Sean Bean learnt the lines for one of his character’s most iconic scenes in the film trilogy.
Sean Bean played Boromir in all three Lord of the Rings films and delivered one of the trilogy’s most famous speeches in the first instalment, The Fellowship of the Ring, while speaking to the titular Fellowship.
The speech begins with the line, “One does not simply walk into Mordor.” Since the film’s 2001 release, this line has enjoyed huge success as a meme on the internet, with people now able to quote it even if they’ve never seen the film.
But the speech, delivered around the mid-point of the film when the Fellowship – including the likes of Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) and Legolas (Orlando Bloom) – are deciding what they should do with the all-powerful One Ring, holds an interesting secret.
Fans have just discovered that Bean did not learn his lines for the iconic scene in the same way that most actors would, as he was only given the script on the morning of the shoot.
Instead of memorising the speech he had to give, Bean used a genius method to help him remember what he had to say – he taped the script to his knee so he could glance down at it if he forgot what came next.
Jamie Homs shared the fact in a TikTok video, saying: “Knowing this fact about this now iconic line makes it hilarious to watch. I can’t unsee it now.”
She went on to explain: “When you’re filming a movie, sometimes the script gets rewritten, and sometimes the actors get their lines the day of filming.
“So Sean Bean, king of dying in things, showed up to set for the Council of Elrond scene. They said, ‘We have your speech, we wrote it last night, and we’re filming today’.
“So what does he do, knowing he wouldn’t be able to memorise this in time? He tapes the speech to his knee.
“So every time you see this scene and Boromir gets all serious, hand on his head, eyes down, and you think ‘Wow, what gravitas’, he’s just reading the lines off his knee.
“I mean it’s really well done, he’s amazing, but that tortured look down and that intense delivery, that’s a man trying to find line three while wearing chain mail.”
Director Peter Jackson confirmed Bean’s unique line-learning technique in 2020 when he and several cast members were brought together on a Zoom call by actor Josh Gad for his ‘Reunited Apart’ series on YouTube.
During the call, Gad mentioned the famous Boromir meme, and Bean himself offered a fresh read of the line. Then, Jackson told the story of how Bean decided to learn his lines for that day of filming.
He said: “Can I just say one thing about the scene? That entire speech that Sean had to deliver at the Council of Elrond was written the night before. It’s long, and we gave it to Sean the moment he arrived.
“What Sean did – and I thought it was very clever – is he got a print-out of the speech taped to his knee. It was on his knee.”
However he chose to learn his lines, the scene has become one of the most famous parts of the franchise, so he certainly did a good job!