13 Movies Saved By Ridiculously Last Minute Changes
8. Viggo Mortensen Replaces Stuart Townsend During Production - The Lord Of The Rings
Production on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy began in late 1999, when actor Stuart Townsend was just 26 years of age.
Townsend was cast to play hero steely hero Aragorn, but after spending two months training for the role and getting through just a few days of shooting, Jackson realised the actor was too young to play the 87-year-old King.
After rushing to find a replacement, including offering the role to Daniel Day-Lewis for a second time, Viggo Mortensen took the part at the behest of his son, but had virtually no time to prepare.
Hilariously, he read the source material during his flight over to New Zealand and received a crash course in fencing upon arriving, before diving straight into shooting.
Looking at the end product, though, Mortensen gives one of the series' most entertaining performances, and his being more than a decade older than Townsend undeniably made him a better fit for the part.
Who's to say how these films would've turned out without Mortensen's involvement?