Peter (cont.): [The Uruk-hai] This scene with the Uruks was shot in a very remote part of the South Island, and this canyon is a canyon that we actually replicated in the parking lot of our studio about two years later, because the dialogue scenes that are coming up in here between Merry and Pippin are some shots that we did during the post production of the film, because we felt that –. At that point in time, we felt we wanted to really establish Merry and Pippin with a dialogue scene and have them talking to each other and have that be their first scene in the film; and so we shot the dialogue and then we felt eventually that we didn’t actually need that and we just, sort of, had the original run in. But this stuff here is now shot in a polystyrene replica of the canyon in the Wellington studio!

Philippa: It was also similar to the rope scene, being able to get in that great beat in the book where they do shove the Orc-medicine down Merry’s throat, which a lot of people, for some strange reason, remember.

Peter: Yeah.

Fran: What was it?

Peter: I… I…

Philippa: Yeah, what is that stuff?

Peter: I don’t know. It looks like Coca Cola.

Philippa: I think it was peach tea and…

Peter: Oh, that’s what it was! Peach tea – no, you’re right. [Philippa: Yeah.] It was cold tea with, probably, something added to thicken it up a bit.

Philippa: Yeah. And Coca Cola… I think it –. I know! It was Coke syrup. It was concentrated – you know when you make your own soda?

Peter: Oh…

Philippa: It’s Cola.

Fran: Mmm.

Peter: Oh, it’s…

Fran: Nasty!

Philippa: [laughing] Nasty!

Peter: It’s…

Philippa: Poor darling Dom! [Philippa and Peter laugh]

Peter: But it’s a nice intimate moment: I do like the fact that these two Hobbits are… you know, they’re being brave in the midst of this terrifying ordeal, and we sort of see their spirit, and we see a little bit of their humour and camaraderie; and that’s the reason why we shot it. It’s the reason why we felt we wanted that to be the first time that we see them in this particular movie.

Philippa: [screen cap] Who’s that Orc? Who’s the one who says, “Manflesh”? Because that’s Nat Lees, isn’t it?

Peter: On the left? Yeah. And the other one was Sala.

Philippa: Oh, okay.

Peter: Sala Baker, who – people may know – plays Sauron under the armour of Sauron in the prologue of the first film; that was Sala as an Uruk-hai.

Philippa: Hmm, cool.

Peter: The elven brooch is another little plot thing that is only introduced in the ‘Fellowship’ extended cut, but obviously people have seen them wearing these elven brooches after Lothlórien, and so I guess people realised that they picked them up along the way. (beat)