Bill & Dom interview from Japan

By Ayako Karino
¡¡Freelance Writer


Question: Being together day and night for the past few years, have you become close friends or do
you actually hate each other ?

Billy Boyd: It's kind of both really.

Dominic Monaghan: We hate how much we like each other. We're good friends you know. It's not too
difficult to be friends with someone when you're having such a great time. There's kind of an
unspoken thing that goes on between us now. We know what we've all been through to get to this point.
It's an incredibly strong link.

Q: Upon receiving the role of the hobbits, did you do anything to create the characters?

Monaghan: I think our innate understanding of hobbits was close to the way we kind of feel in
general life, really. They're quite happy, genuine characters. They try not to hide their emotions too
much and they're very quick to laugh. Same could be said of Billy, Sean, Elijah and myself.

Boyd: Yeah, it would be strange to cast someone who was dark and gloomy as a hobbit, because it
wouldn't be believable.

Monaghan: Yeah, Viggo couldn't do a hobbit (laughing).

Q: What are your feelings toward people looking at you as Pippin or Merry in everyday life and
perhaps your career ?

Boyd: I don't mind because they're such great films and such lovely characters. But I think it's
up to us as actors now, to pick our parts quite carefully so that people will see that we're not
just hobbits. We can play other things. Dom will be very good in say ¡½ a geisha girl.

Monaghan: Well, thank you. It's a script I've been entertaining people with for the past couple of
weeks. You should see me in a kimono. Ohhh!

Boyd: When he's closely shaved and got makeup on ...

Monaghan: I look very, very beautiful.

Boyd: Oh, he's quite enchanting!

Monaghan: Yeah, I wore it once at a fancy dress party. I told Elijah that I was going to turn up
as a red Indian. But when I actually turned up as a geisha girl, he actually tried to kiss me. It's
an ugly part of our relationship !

Q: In The Return of the King, you two play your roles separately. Did you have any envy for the
other's part ?

Boyd: He gets to sit on a horse with Miranda Otto, which must be quite a fun thing !

Q: You also composed and sang that beautiful song in the film. Is music important for you as much
as acting ?

Boyd: I used to play in bands. It's got that sort of feeling we got from this film. We did very
much feel like a team, almost a family. You feel that in a band, too. I'd love to do a bit more of
that.

Q: What do you think is the theme of this film ?

Boyd: So many. I mean this was a man's life's work. I'm sure he put a lot of his kind of morals
and themes into the book. As well as the obvious things of friendship and racial tolerance, he was a
great lover of the environment and nature. I think he hated the way the Industrial Revolution was
tearing down nature to create weapons and machines. If we keep attacking nature, nature will
attack us at some point, which he put in The Two Towers with the ents (the tree shepherds). There's so
much in it, and that's why it's so popular to this day.

Q: Do you have anything to add to that ?

Boyd: Do you? Do you ?

Monaghan: I can't, I can't. I can't do any better than that. How do you improve on perfection?
It's like putting a cherry on top.

Boyd: Well you can tell me the cherry.

Monaghan: Uh, uh (shaking his head).

Q: Billy's like a teacher for you, isn't he ?

Monaghan: Ohh, he's like a wise old master. My samurai mentor.

Boyd: Go and get me some ice cream (laughing). No we teach each other. It's a wonderful
relationship. One day I'm the teacher and the next day he is. One day, I'm the geisha, and then he's the
geisha. One day I'm the frog and he's the prince.

Q: And where do you think your friendship is heading in the future? Dominic, you said you wanted
to see Billy at your wedding ?

Boyd: If he pays for my plane fare.

Monaghan: I'll pay for it.

Boyd: And my hotel?

Monaghan: Well you can sleep on my floor with my new wife.

Boyd: OK. I'll go (laughing).

Monaghan: You know I think Billy and I will know each other for the rest of our lives. We can't go
through an experience, which comes to define huge parts of you, and just let it all go. We've
written this script together and we're going to try and work together. The idea for Billy and I is to
go off and do our own things and come back every five years or so and do a project, whether it be
a play, a film or a television show. Same goes for everyone else. We're constantly dreaming of new
ways of trying to get back together.