david niven played faramir in the lord of the rings.
who played faramir in the lord of the rings?
david niven
in the "lord of the rings" movie trilogy directed by peter jackson, faramir is played by david wenham. the actor jokes that he got the role because he and sean bean, who played boromir, both had large noses. faramir and his brother's appearances were slightly altered from the book: in the films, they have fair hair and are slightly bearded, whereas in the book they were dark-haired and, following a statement in "unfinished tales", lacked beards.
faramir
the filmmakers' decision to leave shelob for the third film meant that faramir had to become an obstacle for frodo and sam. in the book, faramir (like aragorn) quickly recognises the ring as a danger and a temptation, and does not hesitate long before letting frodo and sam go. in the film, faramir first decides that the ring shall go to gondor and his father denethor, as a way to prove his worth. in the film, faramir takes frodo, sam and the ring to the battle of osgiliath—they do not go there in the book. jackson winks to readers with sam's line, "by all rights we shouldn't even be here, but we are." after seeing how strongly the ring affects frodo during the nazgûl attack, faramir changes his mind and lets them go. these changes reshape the book's contrast between faramir and boromir, who in "the fellowship of the ring" attempted to take the ring for himself. on the other hand, (which can be seen only in the film's extended version), it is actually their father who wants the ring and urges boromir to get it, while faramir only wants to prove himself to his father. boyens contends these plot changes were needed to keep the ring menacing. wenham commented on the dvd documentaries that he had not read the book prior to reading the script, so the film's version of faramir was the faramir he knew. when he later read the book and noticed the major difference, he approached the writers about it, and they explained to him that if he did say "i wouldn't pick that thing up even if it lay by the wayside", it would basically strip the one ring of all corruptive power.
the lord of the rings: the two towers