» ARCHIVES Interview With Billy Boyd & Dominic Monaghan     |     00 December 2003 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. [ source: latinoreview ] [ main | media | archives ] CURRENT PROJECTS • I Sell The Dead (2008) Official Site Character: Arthur Blake • X-Men Origins: Wolverine (05/01/2009) Character: Barnell Bohusk/Beak • Pet (2009) Character: Seth GALLERY UPDATES        FEATURED MEDIA  Mad TV  Date: 26 April 2008  Credit: Lisa  Size: 160.0 mb  [ download ] HOT TOPICS Favourite Piece From Dom's Collection? 5 Questions for Dom Dear Dom... TOP AFFILIATES             SUPPORT  Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation  Help support a cause near and dear to Dom's heart. Volunteer, donate or even adopt an orangutan! EMAIL Username :: Password :: [ sign up | password ] SEARCH FOR DOM :: Amazon.com :: AllPosters.com :: eBay.com SITE Since: 14 January 2004 Online: LiveJournal: stardom_lj Part of: Cerebralmunky Hosted by: Fan-Sites.org Designed by: Janine Mischor © starDom 2004-2008