The behind-the-scenes videos for the Lord of the Rings trilogy are perhaps some of the most well-known behind-the-scenes sequences in film history, both due to the popularity of the franchise as well as how extensive the making-of sequences actually are. The Extended Editions of Lord of the Rings have hours upon hours of this footage, with the cast and crew outlining the experience of filming the trilogy in New Zealand. So many of these stories have become inside jokes within the fandom, and have provided fans with countless "fun facts" they can spout to their less-knowledgable friends during a LOTR rewatch.
One of the stories that was told through this behind-the-scenes footage was of the filming of the Grey Havens scene that appears at the end of TheReturn of the King. In this scene, the Hobbits are all saying goodbye to Frodo, who is accompanying characters like Galadriel and Gandalf across the sea to the Undying Lands. It's a very emotional scene because it's the culmination of their long journey together, and Frodo's closest friends are obviously upset that he's leaving them for good. The scene in the movie is a lovely and bittersweet ending to the story, but the actual filming of the scene itself was quite a difficult task.
Doing scenes that are this emotional can be quite taxing for an actor, especially when it's for an extended period of time. The actors who played the Hobbits revealed that the initial shoot for the scene took a whole day, and so they were essentially in tears and having to maintain this very emotional mindset for an entire shoot day. It would be emotionally exhausting to stay on that level for a whole day, having to shoot the scene over and over from different angles, especially with all of the pauses that come with having to reset the lighting and cameras for every shot on a film set.
Not only that, but the movies were not shot chronologically, so they filmed this scene in the middle of the shoot schedule. It would be much easier to tap into the tone of the scene if the actors had been through the rest of the story and were at the end of their own personal journeys together, but acting doesn't always afford those luxuries. Instead, they had to get into that emotional mindset in the middle of filming and imagine what that might feel like for the characters before they had experienced the hardships those characters would go through. Sean Astin described it as having to be in that place emotionally despite the fact that they "hadn't been to Mordor and back" yet. This might feel fairly elementary to what acting entails, but it's quite impressive to consider for those who aren't part of the profession.
So after a day of constant crying (which can put one in a weird mood and also quite literally cause headaches), the actors went home, grateful that the experience was over. However, when they arrived the next day, they learned that they were going to have to shoot the scene all over again. Why? Well, it was all due to a single continuity error involving a vest.
During the lunch break on the previous day, Sean Astin had removed his waistcoat, and when he went back to set, he forgot to put it back on, and no one else clocked the missing article of clothing until they watched the footage back. Because they couldn't have half of the shots with Samwise in a waistcoat and half without, Peter Jackson and the crew decided a reshoot was necessary. Needless to say, the Hobbits were less than thrilled, and jokingly ribbed Sean Astin about the mistake the whole time.
They shot the whole thing again on the second day, and while the first time around certainly wasn't fun, the second time was even worse because the actors knew how difficult it would be. Nonetheless, they got through it and went home believing that they would never have to think about it again...but of course, things could never be that simple.
Peter Jackson details how he and the crew were watching back the footage from the second day and realized that most of it was out of focus. He now realized that he had to go to the actors and inform them that they would have to film the scene a third time after all of that. When he broke the news, they all thought he was joking, but soon realized that he was quite serious, and the nightmare wasn't yet over.
Finally, after a third full shoot day, they captured the scene with no more hiccups. Dominic Monaghan said in the behind-the-scenes footage that he believed that if someone were to ask the Hobbit actors which day they would want a get-out-of-jail-free card to never have to do again, they would have all said Grey Havens. It's funny to think about how the takes that appear in the final film that are so well done and feel so genuine and sincere were from the third day of attempts, and that all of the Hobbits were basically at the end of their ropes. Perhaps they were able to feed some of that emotion into the scene, because you would never know that they found that whole sequence as torturous as they did.