Viggo thought Lord of the Rings movies were a ‘sloppy mess’

Viggo Mortensen doesn’t think anyone could have predicted what a hit the Lord of the Rings trilogy would be.

The 55-year-old played Aragorn in the hugely successful franchise, directed by Peter Jackson.

Despite its massive popularity, Viggo says things didn’t always look good for the fantasy films.

“Anybody who says they knew it was going to be the success it was, I don’t think it’s really true,” he said. “They didn’t have an inkling until they showed 20 minutes in Cannes, in May of 2001. They were in a lot of trouble, and Peter had spent a lot.”

“Officially, he could say that he was finished in December 2000 – he’d shot all three films in the trilogy – but really the second and third ones were a mess.

“It was very sloppy – it just wasn’t done at all. It needed massive reshoots, which we did, year after year. But he would have never been given the extra money to do those if the first one hadn’t been a huge success. The second and third ones would have been straight to video,” the actor added.

Wow!