SMTV presenters: C :: Cat, D :: Dane, L :: Louise

C: Lord Of The Rings is out on December 19th, and we have some of the cast here this morning! Dominic, Billy, Sean and Elijah!
Elijah: Hello!
C: Now everybody at home hasn't seen it, I went to see it on Thursday...
Elijah: Yesss!!
C: ...And I really enjoyed it.
Billy: Great.
C: So can you tell everybody who you are and what your characters are about? Cos obviously the guys at home don't really know.
Elijah: I'm Elijah, I play Frodo Baggins, of the Shire.
C: And you're the hero aren't you?
Elijah: I'm the ringbearer. The anti-hero.
Billy: I'm the hero!
Sean: Billy was the hero.
C: You're the hero?
Billy: Yeah, come on!
D: It's all kicking off on the show today isn't it!
[laughter]
C: And Sean...
Sean: I'm... confused. No, I'm Sam Gamgee. I'm Sean Astin...
C: And you're quite simple but cute, and a real mate...
Sean: [smiling] Thank you!
C: See I've done my homework!
Sean: [pointing to Elijah] I'm his gardener.
Elijah: He is as well!
Sean: I fix food for him...
C: Pool cleaner.
[laughter]
C: Billy.
Billy: Yep, I'm Billy Boyd, and I play Pippin.
C: Pippin... kind of a comedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern character [Thank you to Alesia for the reference! ;-)]
Billy: Yeah... [looking at Dom] we normally get things wrong...
Dom: I'm Dom Monaghan, I play Billy's best mate, Merry, who's a kind of sharp hobbit...
D: Mary?
Dom: Merry, not Mary... be very careful!
[laughter]
Dom: Merry, yeah, just a kind of sharp, crazy, funny hobbit...
C: OK well lets take a little look at a clip.
Plays LOTR clip - Frodo and Gandalf finding the writing on the ring
[Applause]
C: [to Elijah] I'm loving the kind of David Hasslehof hair!
Elijah: Aww thank you.
C: It's very good, you pull it off very well.
Elijah: It's a wig!
C: Nice work... Listen, that was a very crucial moment on the film...
Elijah: It is.
C: ...Can you tell us a little bit about what's happening here, and what the general story is.
Elijah: Right, well thats basically [when] we discover that that is the ring of power, that it's Sauron, the dark lord's ring, and that it must be destroyed or all of Middle Earth is basically gonna perish. So we, and a fellowship of nine, basically go on a journey to destroy the ring, and Frodo decides that it is his fate to take it.
D: So Sean, Middle Earth, that you mentioned, that's the world that you live in, right. Is there any reason why you went to New Zealand to create it?
Sean: Well sure, Peter Jackson, the film maker, is a New Zealander, and the countryside is pretty well suited for its green trees and tall mountains, it looks like what Tolkien was writing about.
D: And there was 350 sets, is that right?
Sean: Ah well I lost count after 349, so...
[laughter]
Sean: There were a lot of sets, and pretty cool sets too, at the top of mountains that only had access by helicopter, and they'd fly the sets in and build them up there. It was a pretty amazing expirience.
C: It's very dream-like...
L: Now you were all thrown into a situation, you know, how did you all get on over the long period of time?
Dom: Terrible...
Elijah: We hate each other...
Dom: Awful...
Elijah: It's actually really painful right now.
[laughter]
Billy: We're really lucky... We arrived in New Zealand quite a while before we started filming, so we had a long time to get to know each other, we became really good friends, and we're been on holiday since then...
C: Where did you go?
Billy: We went to Thailand, Australia...
Dom: Sidney, Thailand, Lanzarotti, Florida...
C: And they say you work hard!
Elijah: We all took up surfing as well.
C: Who's the best?
Billy: Me!!
Dom: Billy.
Elijah: Yeah I'd say Billy's the best.
Dom: He's the bravest.
Billy: [pointing to Dom] I paid him to say that.
[laughter]
C: OK lets take another little look at a clip, I think we have another one...
Elijah: Oh excellent!
Plays LOTR clip - chase to Bucklebury ferry clip
[Applause]
C: I didn't like those horses! I was saying to you I don't like them... [Does Ringwraith impression]
Elijah: No now you're doing a parrot.
Dom: No you have to breathe in...[They all start doing screechy Ringwraith impressions]
C: You're all hobbits aren't you, so tell me a bit about them cos I noticed you've all got these great big hairy feet...
Billy: Thank you!
C: ...and are they your own!
Dom: They're the reason why I scored, man [on earlier football game]. They were prostetic feet, so they're slightly bigger than you normal feet, and we had to go through the rig moral of having them put on every day, which all in all, with make up, took about 3 hours, and you had glue, and you had to stand up, and you weren't allowed to sit down, and even the people that were putting it on for us got tired fo doing it. But it kinda makes you feel like a hobbit, it gives you a kind of bounce to your step...
C: Did you trip on them though?
Dom: Yeah and your toes would fly off...
Sean: [Pointing to Dom] He'd play football at lunch and mess them up.
Dom: Yeah I used to get into trouble...
C: You need to behave! Listen, can I ask you one more question? I read in the brief that you've all had tattoos done now?
All: Yeah.
D: You haven't got 'Mary' on you bum have you?
[Laughter]
Dom: Well it's a kind of secret thing, but I think maybe I'll show mine...
Billy: No!
Sean: You shouldn't...
Dom: No I'll show it!
Billy: We've all got the same tattoo...
Dom: Yeah, we've all got the same, and I'll show mine...
Dom stands up
Dom: Extreme close up, here we go...
Lifts up shirt, 'Cat' is written on his very sexy stomach (see it here)
[Laughter]
Dom: That was all of us...
C: There'll be more chat from them later, the cast of Lord Of The Ring, aren't they great!

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