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An Interview With Director
Billy Boyd & Dominic Monaghan
 How
was the process of doing your scenes?
Billy: The height
thing. Lots of different ways. Sometimes really simply, like the
scenes on the balcony in Minas Tirith, I was just on my knees.
And you saw Gandalf in the background; they had the really tall
guy called Paul. And he would dress --
Dom: Tall Paul
Billy: Yeah,
tall Paul. He would dress like Gandalf or Aragorn or, they had
costumes for all the characters, including Arwen. Sometimes he’d
be dressed as Arwen, really scary, but slightly arousing.
Dom: Do you remember
his legs? Attack of the fifty foot woman.
He is really tall?
Billy: Yeah,
he's like I don't know, seven foot --
Dom: Seven foot
six.
Billy: So he
would be there, and you wouldn’t see his head, of course.
Dom: He could
punch Shaquille O’Neal right in the face.
What about the other
side? Like with Gimli?
Billy: Well,
he had a double, who doubled for him a lot. Because of the prosthetics,
you could get quite close to his double and you would never know
it wasn’t John. So that blue screen, forced perspective
when you stand closer to the camera, lots of different things.
Different sizes of
structures in the background?
Billy: Exactly,
yeah, yeah…Like you know the scene where I steal the palantier.
Well, I wanted to, I liked the idea of you know, taking something
and putting something else in its place kind of thing, and I said,
what if I took this jug? And Pete said, well, it’s the wrong
scale. Because it’s the scale for, and the prop guy came
in and said, we do have a hobbit scale one. They’d already
made it just on the off chance that some hobbit may touch it.
How great is that?
Billy, when you started
out, did you have any idea that you would be singing in this?
Billy: No, no
idea. That wasn’t in the script.
 So
how did you feel about that?
Billy: Oh, I
loved it. I love to sing, and it’s such a big part of Tolkien’s
books and such a big part of the hobbits. You know, when Merry
and Pippin, whenever they get drunk they always sing a song in
the movies. So it’s such a part of their culture and he
wanted a, a serious song from a hobbit in this great Hall of Men…where
he just wants to go home, you know. So he asked me to write something
and I wrote that melody to one of Tolkien’s poems about
missing your home. And I wanted it to sound old, like it’s
from a different generation, not from Pippin’s generation,
like a song that his grandfather would sing. And then, so we,
I wrote this melody and Pete and Fran and Philippa liked it, and
yeah, it’s in the film.
How did they do the
horse bit?
Billy: Its all
about size with you, isn't it?
Dom: How did
they do the horse thing? Well, that would probably be face replacement.
So they'd have…yeah, I mean, I did some stuff on a huge
horse which is called the Phony Pony, which is an oversized horse
with an oversized Miranda which was Tall Paul, so he was dressed
as Miranda…
Also arousing?
Dom: Very arousing
Billy: I've never
seen him as Miranda. That could have pushed me off the edge, that.
Dom: So he was
right behind me. And then she shot some stuff past her with my
scale double at the time…and then they blended it together.
Can you guys talk
about what your last day of shooting was?
Billy: My very,
very last shot, because my last shot of principal photography
was really dull, blue screen shot, climbing up to like the beacon,
looking around the edge…that's not even in the movie. And
it was like, I remember being quite disappointed that that was
my last shot. But best thing, my last shot was killing the Orc
that's about to kill Gandalf. I thought, that's a great shot to
have shot. So the last shot, that was, kind of looking at my sword
with the blood on it, and I thought that's great.
Did you get all emotional
at the end of that day’s shoot?
Billy: I ran
around and kissed everybody. Remember that? Yeah, I was really
emotional. It kind of hit me quite hard actually because I didn't
think it would.
 You
didn't cry, though?
Billy: No, I
didn't cry. But I was quite sad.
Dom: It’s
very hard to get Billy to cry
What were your presents?
Billy: I got
my sword that I just stabbed the Orc with, my last clapper board,
some feet. That was about it. What did you get me?
Dom: I didn’t
get you anything.
Billy: Yeah,
exactly.
Dom: I gave you
my friendship.
Billy: That's
not enough.
What was your last
scene?
Dom: Mine was
actually quite boring. Um, going through the elephant and slicing
the legs…which is blue screen. There was no one there. Everyone
else was on Stage A and I was on like Stage like D with Miranda.
And we finished it and then I walked over to Stage A and saw Pete
and Fran and they knew that I'd wrapped. And we waited for Elijah
to get wrapped. Elijah and I, and Andy Serkis all wrapped on the
same day so when we finished we went into a huge stage and they
showed gag reel footage of myself and Elijah and Andy messing
up our lines and then they gave out, I got my sword and my clapper
board and my feet, just like Billy, and they gave you the opportunity
to try an impossible task of summing up four years of your life
in front of all these people.
Did you get emotional
too?
Dom: Yeah, I
did actually. Actually I nearly started crying when I was speaking,
and then we all went out to a bar and got drunk.
 What
did you say?
Dom: I tried
to get across more than anything else that through the experience
that I'd had, that it had changed the way that my life had been
leading on a certain path and moved it on a 90 degree angle to
a different way of thinking about everything in my life and reevaluating
everything that I ever thought and that not only was it hanging
out with Bill and with Elijah, but down to the people behind the
camera and the people that made our swords and the people that
dressed us in the morning, their influence over the past three
years had wanted me to try and change huge facets of my life.
What was the influence you had with the young/old
component going on, and also having really classic British actors
working with you? Was there a good interplay? Was there an exchange
also on craft and getting to know each other that way?
Billy: Yeah,
I mean, I think when actors work together, I don't think, nobody
kind of teaches a younger actor, nobody says, this is the way
you do it. That's not the way, yeah. It would be arrogant. But
you do pick it up, you know, just working with these great actors,
whether they're young or old. I probably learned as much about
film acting from Elijah as I did from Ian Holm kind of thing,
and Ian Holm's one of my great heroes, and Dominic Monaghan of
course, one of the great, great actors.
Dom: A classic
Billy: And old
rounders. So yeah, I think you do pick up stuff. And you watch
somebody do something and you think, that's amazing, you know.
I'm going to do that. And you know, but, and personally there
was a great kind of interaction. We all went out together.
Dom: Yeah, I
mean, you know, Ian Holm was actually shot quite quickly because
bang, because I think he was in and out in like eight weeks or
something like that. But Ian McKellen was with us throughout the
whole journey and was a really kind of father figure in a lot
of aspects but then would come out with us on a Friday night and
stay up 'til four in the morning. And that's impressive. I mean,
when I get to Ian McKellen's age.
Billy: You're
not going to make it.
Dom: I won't.
I would have loved to have partied and had a lot of fun but I'll
be dead by then.
During the length
of the shoot, at least judging from the extended DVD, was working
with the Treebeard animatronic the toughest part of the shoot?
Billy: It was
hell. My arse is still sore. It was the most uncomfortable thing
in the world, wasn’t it?
Dom: It was pretty
dodgy, yeah.
You were in harnesses?
Billy: But the
hands sat like that so you just hung out of it the whole time
and it really crushed your knackers.
 Were
you guys ever worried about being considered like a matched set?
Because your paired up?
Billy: Yeah,
but they did that with Orlando and Liv and stuff.
Dom: You know,
I think we just have the ability to let conversations flow quite
well and pick up where the other one’s left off. I mean,
I was at a DVD award show last night for picking up the Two Towers
best movie award. Someone came over to me with a photo of Billy
and said, can you sign that?
Billy: And we
still get it. A journalist came up to me in a junket this year,
and a, a TV journalist, and said, what was it like working with
Miranda Otto? And I was like, I didn't have any scenes with Miranda…And
I said, I think you think I'm Dom, unbelievable.
Dom: I had someone
come over to me last night again and say, ‘Congratulations
on Master And Commander. I enjoyed it.’ I enjoyed it as
well.
Actually this is a
good point. Obviously you were in Master And Commander and you
will be in separate movies. Is it really important for you guys
as actors not to be paired up in a whole series of movies again?
Billy: Well,
I think it kind of is, but we’re also planning to work together
as well. I love the idea that we have separate careers, but I
love the idea of being able to look back at our careers and within
that also have played great kind of double acts. Not always Merry
and Pippin of course, but we would like to say, ‘Oh, we
were Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.’ I think that would be,
to have your own career but also to kind of occasionally kind
of meet up together and do something else.
Are you thinking about
doing that?
Billy: Yeah,
yeah.
Do you guys have the
tattoos?
Billy: Yeah,
we do
Where are they?
Billy: Mine is
on my ankle.
Dom: Mine is
on my shoulder.
If you have any questions, or
comments, you can write me at jax@latinoreviw.com.
THE LORD OF THE RINGS:
THE RETURN OF THE KING OPENS DEC 17
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