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An Uruk-hai's Thoughts on Filming
Joram

I love your site -- I have just finished working ten solid and long weeks on Helms Deep (as a Uruk Hai and a Rohan extra) and have gone back to a career job.

I just wanted to clear up some of the fans worries about orcs. In the footage we just got to see, the ones with plate armour we see are Uruk Hai - not normal Orcs. People with a good knowledge of Middle Earth will know that Uruk Hai do in fact have plate armour - it was forged to their body upon ceation. You can also see the Uruk Hai in the scene just after we see Legolas -- they have just breached the hole in the Deep's wall.

There have been a few things I have noticed which have been incorrect (eg. the "mad uruk hai" who surrounded producers and distributors were at the Helms Deep set not Rivendell -- where there are no Uruk Hai, we charged down the causeway and did the hokey pokey -- not the chicken dance). But overall I am amazed at the quality of information you have managed to get.

I will never forget my time at Helms Deep -- the people I met there were fantastic and the footage I have seen so far is unbelievable. They showed us all the footage we had shot after six weeks. There are some problems with the story -- especially at Helms Deep (an army of elves are there to help in the movie), but it must be remembered that these movies are as much for new fantasy fans as they are for old middle earth fans. As long as the main characters are what they should be I am happy -- and I'm sure you won't be disappointed.