To close this out, I want to emphasize just how much stunt performers have enjoyed working with Mortensen and consider him an (insane) equal. As early as 1987, Mortensen did most of his stunts for a film called Prison, and the stunt coordinator gave him an “honorary stuntman’s shirt” when shooting was finished. That stunt coordinator was Kane Hodder, the legendary stuntman who played Jason Vorhees in many of the Friday the 13th movies.

But Mortensen’s relationship with the Lord of the Rings stunt team was INTENSE. While Mortensen could hit harder than he needed, the stuntmen was mostly of Maori descent in New Zealand and loved Mortensen so much that on his final day of filming, they performed a haka (a ceremonial dance) in his honor.

There’s so much other weird s@#t to talk about with Mortensen (like the time he kissed Billy Boyd as a practical joke while filming a wedding scene in Lord of the Rings), but we’d be here all day if we went through every single weird thing about him. I’m just glad someone as weird as he is has found so much success in his (multiple) careers.