Lord of the Rings’ uncredited Gimli double did the work, and has the tattoo to prove it

Peter Jackson and the creative team behind the Lord of the Rings trilogy assembled a Fellowship on screen and on set. The experience of nearly two years of filming was so deeply felt by the ensemble that, after completing filming, the actors of the Fellowship got matching tattoos to cement the bonds they’d forged together in New Zealand. Only one member of the core cast doesn’t bear the elvish “nine” on their person: John Rhys-Davies.

Since bringing Gimli the dwarf to life, Rhys-Davies has joked that he doesn’t have the tattoo because “whenever there’s anything dangerous or that involves blood, I sent my stunt double to do it.” But the true story is much more complicated and impressive. Another actor spent a great deal of time playing Gimli alongside the other actors of the Fellowship, albeit without much credit. Stunt double and size double Brett Beattie has never spoken to the media about his time playing Gimli in the Lord of the Rings films until now, but in his own humble way, he’s ready to share the full extent of how much he put into the role, recall some old battle wounds, and reveal why he was chosen to become a member of the tattoo fellowship.

Beattie was about as green as they come when he stepped into the blockbuster world of Middle-earth. Although he had done “a wee bit” of high school drama while growing up in Canterbury, on New Zealand’s South Island, he had no serious acting experience to speak of. What he did have going for him, however, was a black belt in martial arts, plenty of horse-riding experience, and a height of 4-foot-10 — helpful for a movie where many main characters are dwarves or hobbits.

“I’m a country boy. I come from a rural environment,” Beattie tells Polygon. “From having no experience. I couldn’t have gotten kicked more in the deep end, let’s put it that way.”

Initially, Beattie was hired to do horse stunts. (“I did that for two weeks and out of everything I’ve done, my god, that was dangerous.”) However, casting soon picked him up because he was an able scale double and could stand in for Rhys-Davies — who, despite playing a dwarf, was the tallest member of the main cast at 6-foot-1. But once it became clear that the facial prosthetics needed to bring Gimli to life triggered a nasty allergy in Rhys-Davies’ skin, Beattie became the go-to Gimli.

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