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The new animated feature, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, provides an opportunity for Australian actress Miranda Otto to reprise her role from two decades ago. I recently had a chance to speak to Miranda about the project…
Matt: It’s been over two decades since the Lord of the Rings movies. Do you still have strong memories of working with Peter Jackson and making those movies?
Miranda: Absolutely. Really strong memories. When we went back to record this in Wellington, it really was like going back to Middle Earth. Many of the same people were still working at Park Road Studios and there I was with Philippa. It was very much a return home.
Matt: Philippa Boyens is back as one of the writers of The War of the Rohirrim. Was she involved in bringing you back for this particular project?
Miranda: She was a writer on Lord of the Rings but she’s more producing on this one. We had done a lot of work together on Éowyn’s character back when we shot The Lord of the Rings. It was lovely to have her and Kenji in the room.
Matt: Do you ever rewatch the movies? Are you one of those people who likes to look back at their old work?
Miranda: I don’t look back. I really should watch the movies again and at the same time, I try to “leave something” once I’ve finished a project and done everything I can on it. I tend to put it aside. That’s the case with everything.
Matt: I’m not sure I’ve ever interviewed someone about their role as a narrator before so I’d love to zero in on that. How did you get approached about being involved with The War of the Rohirrim?
Miranda: Philippa got in touch with me. The reasoning was that there’s such a strong affiliation between Héra’s character and Éowyn’s character. They sit in the same universe and have Rohan heritage. I can see why they asked me to do it. It just felt like a great fit.
Matt: So what’s your approach as a narrator? Do you have a script you read precisely from? Are there a lot of takes? Can you ad-lib at all?
Miranda: In the beginning, I did a recording when I was living in Los Angeles in a little studio there. I’d recently had COVID and so my voice was super croaky. I thought they’d be impressed by my croaky voice by they weren’t (laughs), and they said they wanted the true Éowyn voice.
That time around, there wasn’t a lot to go on. There was a script but visually, I only had some rough sketches. I was recording with no idea what anyone else was going to do. When I came back to Wellington this year to record, I got to see most of the film put together and most of the animation work done. I could hear the music and the actor’s voices. There was so much more to work with.
It was interesting being the narration as well as a character because it informed it in a different way.
Matt: While you are an unseen narrator, you are still a character that you played 20+ years ago. Was it easy to tap back into that voice and persona? Did you have to change it in any way?
Miranda: Once I got back to Wellington, it was easy to tap back in. I worked with Roisin Carty again who did a lot of the original dialect work with us. When I had all those touchstones again, it was easy to get back into it.
Matt: Perhaps what struck me most about the film was the beautiful anime-style animation. What were your reactions seeing the film for the first time?
Miranda: The same as you – it was absolutely gorgeous. It was a bizarre feeling though as there was so much that was familiar. I realized they were reflecting things that were in frames from the earlier movies. I’d look at something and go – “oh wow, that’s the stables were I stood with Viggo.” Remembering the places and being in them, it was a weird feeling because I’m looking at an illustration.
Matt: What’s Kenji like to work with? I admit to not knowing a lot about him as a director.
Miranda: He was really lovely. It was so nice to be in the room with him and hear what he had to say. He’s very clear and exact about what he wants.