10 Lord Of The Rings Extras Who Got Themselves Noticed

With a movie franchise as grand in scope as Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings, authenticity was a requisite to sell the world. From the hairs on the prosthetic hobbit feet, to the furnace-forged steel swords, no expense was spared.

The main cast took months to prepare; they underwent horse riding lessons, combat training and boating exercises - and even the extras were required to dig deep to sell their performances. Thousands were used across the three movies; most you wouldn't think to look twice at as the attention given to their costumes allowed them to blend perfectly into the world being depicted.

But it was also necessary to have a number of standout cameo characters to help immerse you in the world of Middle Earth. Some were merely given the odd throw away line and others had no lines at all, but many stood out for their particularly eye-catching performances. In fact, no doubt the camera ended up lingering on these characters that little bit longer due to their captivating onscreen presence.

When you have characters as heroic as Aragorn and Théoden, you need villains equally as menacing. But, when your main antagonist is a flaming eyeball, you need individuals on the ground to carry the sense of menace.

Extensive design and prosthetic work was done by Weta Workshop to create the most fear-inspiring background orcs. Most of these did little more than run around, burning rick cot and tree, or served as sword fodder for our heroes. But every now and then it was important to give these characters a little more meat to chew on.

After the capture of Merry and Pippin, we saw several interactions with the hobbits and their captors. Rather than just showing them as a snarling bunch of bad guys, the screenwriters helped sell their menacing presence with a few choice lines of dialogue. Among characters like Grishnákh - the poor fellow who tried to kidnap the hobbits, only to be crushed by Treebeard - we also got treated to Mauhúr.

He was a character referenced only briefly in the book but Peter Jackson fleshed him out, giving him the iconic "man flesh" line. Later he's also heard complaining about "maggoty bread". Interestingly enough the orc who delivers the "man flesh" changes depending on the extended or theatrical cut of the Two Towers.