Set 183 years before the events chronicled in the original trilogy of films, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim tells the fate of the House of Helm Hammerhand, the legendary King of Rohan. A sudden attack by Wulf, a clever and ruthless Dunlending lord seeking vengeance for the death of his father, forces Helm and his people to make a daring last stand in the ancient stronghold of the Hornburg—a mighty fortress that will later come to be known as Helm’s Deep. Finding herself in an increasingly desperate situation, Héra, the daughter of Helm, must summon the will to lead the resistance against a deadly enemy intent on their total destruction.
Leading up to the theatrical release of The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim on December 12, Nick L’Barrow spoke with The Lord of the Rings‘ star, Miranda Otto, about reprising her role of Eowyn 20 years after the original trilogy, and her memories of filming the iconic “I am no man” scene.
Nick: Miranda, it’s such a pleasure to meet you! How are you today?
Miranda Otto: Hi, Nick! I’m very good, thank you.
Nick: I’m so excited to chat with you today, not just because I love The Lord of the Rings, but last year, Talk to Me was my favourite movie of the year! And the scene where you are, for lack of a better word, interrogating the kids about whether or not they’re throwing a party is such a great scene! Plus, I’ve got a version of the embalmed hand…
Miranda Otto: [laughs] That’s great! You’ve got the hand! Thank you so much for saying that.
Nick: However, I’m also a huge The Lord of the Rings fan, so it’s exciting to see you returning to the franchise. And I’m curious to know what the process was like in finding the nuances and dialect of Eowyn’s voice again after 20 years since last playing her.
Miranda Otto: Yeah, it did take some work, actually, to refine the voice. I mean, I was contacted at the end of 2021 by Phillipa Boyens, who was one of the writers on Lord of the Rings and is producing this. And she wrote to me and asked would I be interested in revisiting Eowyn as a narrator in the anime film, The War of the Rohirrim.
I thought it would be great, and what a nice way to come back as the character, you know, so much time later. Then we actually did the recording in 2022 originally, but my voice was super croaky because I’d just had COVID, and I sounded really raspy and husky. And I thought they might think that was really cool! I sounded different and more mature. And they were like, ‘No!’ [laughs] ‘We really want you to sound like you did 20 years ago!’
So, it took a bit of work actually. We came back in May this year, and we were in Wellington and got to record in Park Road Studios, where we’d done so much of the recording for Lord of the Rings. It was great to do it again, but it was really a process, sort of, coming back to it.
Nick: How much of your time working in the theatre, somewhere were voice work, annunciation, and projection is so important, help you prepare to narrate an animated film?
Miranda Otto: I guess having trained in theatre, having that knowledge is helpful. But I would say I’m more used to the fact of how much work I’ve done in sound studios and stuff over the ears, when I first started doing ADR on movies, the additional dialogue recording.
I used to be intimated by that process. I would think, ‘It was so good on the day! Why do we have to do it again?’ But over the years, I’ve found that I really like the intimacy of the studio and use it as a place where I could actually find things that we couldn’t find on the day or manage to add things. I love working in the studio. I love how much it carries on the voice. Like, so much emotion is carried by the voice as opposed to the physicality. It’s quite an emotional process.
Nick: The voice work in this, and the original trilogy, is so iconic. And one of the most iconic pieces of voice work is Cate Blanchett’s opening narration for the prologue of The Fellowship of the Ring. Her work really sets an amazing tone for the entire trilogy. I’m curious to know if you ever thought about any similarities to the fact that your narration in this would also set the tone for the film, just as iconically as Cate’s narration did?
Miranda Otto: I… wow… no! I didn’t think about that! Oh my gosh. I really was just very much thinking about being Eowyn again. We left Middle Earth all those years ago, and then we were never able to come back. So, it was like this extraordinary opportunity to revisit that really wonderful time in my life. But I didn’t think about it as the mantle of the narrator!
I also thought it was really nice that you could take a character from those original films to tell the story. I thought that worked really well, and I liked that it gave us that link between this new film, and the trilogy.
Nick: Speaking about revisiting Eowyn, I’d love to ask about what I think is one of the most iconic moments in the series, and that is the ‘I am no man’ scene. I’m sure you’ve been asked about it many times, but I’m curious to know what your memories are of that scene 20 years later. And, with so many new generations of fans experiencing that scene for the first time during the last two decades, do people still approach you with how that scene has impacted them?
Miranda Otto: I remember Hugo Weaving saying to me really early on, ‘You’ve got the best line in the movie!’ And I said, ‘Wow. No pressure!’. I always knew it was an important scene, and I was excited to play it. When we shot it, it was gruelling. It was brutal because Pete [Jackson] likes to do a lot of takes, which is great, but I remember being black and blue after doing two days of that fight sequence again and again and again. I have really strong memories of that, and everything that went down to get to that place.
But I always felt that it was incredibly important. It is something that, you know, when people always come up to me about the films, it is very much about that scene. Particularly, women come up and just feel so empowered by that, and inspired.
Nick: It’s an incredible scene, and you are incredible in it! That’s my time unfortunately Miranda, but I did just want to thank you for being such an integral part of the reason I love movies. The Lord of the Rings was so formative for my love of film, and I’ve had the chance to chat with Viggo recently, as well as David Wenham in the last few years, and I always want to make sure you know how much I love you guys and love the movies you make. So, thank you, and I appreciate you taking the time to chat today. I hope we get to do it again soon!
Miranda Otto: Oh, thank you, Nick! Thank you so much. This was a lovely chat. I’ve loved speaking with you.
Thank you so much to Miranda for her time, and to Warner Bros. Pictures for organising the interview. The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is in Australian cinemas December 12.
