Sean Bean plays the human Boromir in the movies of Lord of the Rings. During filming, he struggled with a fear that is not immediately associated with discussions about Middle-earth.
Sean Bean is a meme in his own right as an actor. He is known for often playing characters who meet their demise during the course of the story. Even in Lord of the Rings, his character Boromir is doomed to this fate. He didn’t get very old after all.
However, the human shows that he is a brave warrior, albeit not without his flaws. After all, he falls under the influence of the ring and even tries to take it from Frodo. You can find out how Boromir ranks among the nine companions on MeinMMO.
Sean Bean himself was not particularly noted for his bravery during the filming. On the contrary: as soon as scenes were to be filmed at great heights, the actor’s knees began to tremble.
Helicopter in Middle-earth?
What was Sean Bean afraid of? The actor suffers from acrophobia. During the filming of Lord of the Rings, there were numerous filming locations situated on different mountains in New Zealand.
Typically, the cast and crew were flown by helicopters to remote locations. After experiencing this once, however, Sean Bean refused to do so again. His fear of heights was simply too great.
What was the alternative? Of course, director Peter Jackson could not do without Boromir. So Sean Bean decided to hike to the filming location on foot. While everyone else arrived comfortably by helicopter, the actor trudged off in full costume early in the morning to arrive on time.
In the making-of on YouTube, Sean Bean recalls how the rest of the team could observe him from the helicopter:
They always saw me from the helicopter, and I was sweating by the end. It was a real adventure getting over that mountain to the set, but I preferred it that way.
Peter Jackson even compares the sight of the climbing Sean Bean to a “human fly on a wall.” It must have looked quite amusing to see the actor struggling up the mountain.
You could also argue in favor of Sean Bean that he simply took his role seriously and wanted to forego modern frills like helicopters. Or have you ever seen one in Middle-earth? Aside from high mountains, Tolkien’s world is filled with dark creatures: The 10 most dangerous creatures from Lord of the Rings in the power ranking
