How “high” were the hobbits? Peter Jackson and ‘Lord of the Rings’ Actors Reveal the Truth

From Franca Quarneti to El Planteo

The Lord of the Rings saga has the undisputed love of stoners across the country. This is due to the comic references to marijuana in this spectacular work, among many other reasons. And although Tolkien didn’t delve into that concept, the creator of the film series, Peter Jackson, took the liberty of doing so

Many comment on the accusation made by Saruman to Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring when he tells him that “his love of hobbit grass has clouded his judgement”.

However, this is not the only reference to the plant in the films.

For example, a deleted scene from the movie The Return of the King shows Merry and Pippin (the giggling hobbits and fan favorites) finding a hidden storage room in Isengard, Saruman’s lair. There the hungry hobbits will find coveted food as well as two barrels of grass.

“That can’t be!” says Fröhlich.

“Yes it is!” replies Pippin, visibly excited after sniffing the dry leaves. “It’s the best pipeweed in South Quarter!”

This hilarious scene can be seen in the long version of the film and also here:



Hobbits and Marijuana: Round II

Later in the same film, in the scene where Merry and Pippin meet their mate in the Fellowship of the Ring, they are seen smoking, laughing dreamily and eating on a rock.

However, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan, the actors who play these characters, took many shots, some of which show them much stoner than what ultimately came out on film.

According to a video uploaded to Twitter by Mundo Tolkien, in the film’s additional materials you can see Boyd (Pippin), Monaghan (Merry) and Peter Jackson himself explaining that the actors have assumed a different state in each take. They appear “slightly stoned” in some shots and “very stoned” in others, while in other shots they appear “slightly high” and “very high”.

Check out her hilarious take on some hobbits who smoked a lot of marijuana.

“It was a funny scene, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan gave us a lot of variations on how stoned the characters were and there were some really funny ones where they looked like they were incredibly high. And although more conservative shots were eventually used, some very funny shots were included, the director explained in the Return of the King Extra Materials.