[Water Lily]

Интервью, на которое давала ссылочку Lembas чуть выше. Оно стоит того, чтобы процитировать его целиком.

PLAYING FOR A LIVING
By STEVE TILLEY -- Edmonton Sun
When asked to cite the films that inspired them to devote their lives to the stage or screen, a lot of actors will rattle off a list of Shakespearean dramas, timeless Oscar-winners or the work of tortured European auteurs.

And you know they're probably pulling your leg with everything they've got.

Not so with Billy Boyd. The affable and unpretentious Scottish thespian, who's become an international star as the Hobbit Pippin Took in The Lord of the Rings films, says it was Star Wars and Back to the Future that sent him down the path of playing make-believe for a living.

"Growing up, I just wanted to travel through time or be a Jedi," Boyd said on the phone from Los Angeles, where he's recording audio commentary for the upcoming DVD release of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

"That's why I wanted to be an actor! I didn't want to explore anything or make anyone look inside themselves. I just wanted to have a hoverboard."

Fake furry feet and a curly wig might not be quite as cool as a lightsaber or a time-travelling DeLorean, but Boyd - who will be in town next week for the 17th-annual Edmonton International Film Festival - is doing pretty darn well for himself nonetheless.

A busy theatre actor who has worked on some of Scotland's most prestigious stages, Boyd is coming to the Edmonton film fest, which begins tonight, to promote 8 Scottish Shorts, an octet of his homeland's film offerings. He stars in Sniper 470, a critically acclaimed 25-minute science-fiction film about a lone starship gunner who guards the frontiers of colonized space against invaders, coping with isolation, boredom and the knowledge he could be killed at any moment. 8 Scottish Shorts screens March 15 at the Garneau Theatre.

Not surprisingly, though, it's Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy that has irreversibly altered not only Boyd's life, but the lives of some of the films' fans.

"I can't believe the kind of passion people have for these movies, and the books beforehand," he said. "And it seems a real genuine thing. It's great to hear that people are so moved by it that it changes something in their life."

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, the final movie in the trilogy, opens in theatres this December. It will mark the end of an odyssey for Boyd and the other cast and crew, who spent more than 15 months in New Zealand shooting the three films back to back.

"I definitely know it will be strange. When I left New Zealand after filming for that year and a half, that was a really weird sort of closing of a chapter. And I think when Return of the King comes out, that will be another one."

Boyd will have his fellow Hobbits to help weather the emotional storm, though. Despite a forced proximity with each other for 14-hour days over a year and a half, Boyd and co-stars Elijah Wood (Frodo Baggins), Sean Astin (Sam Gamgee) and Dominic Monaghan (Merry Brandybuck) have formed an unbreakable bond of friendship that has endured long since the cameras stopped rolling.

They learned to surf together during downtime in New Zealand, went out pubbing and playing pool during their free nights and often flit around the world to accompany one another on holidays and special occasions.

"I don't know how it happened or why it happened, but it just worked out absolutely perfectly," Boyd said. "In fact Dom's on his way over here right now, and we're going to go surfing. Which I won't be doing in Canada, I'm sure."

While Boyd was on set in Mexico shooting the upcoming Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World with director Peter Weir and star Russell Crowe, Wood and Monaghan were practically living at Boyd's beachhouse.

"Elijah and Dom were down every second weekend," he said. "They'd come and pick me up after work at 8 or 9 at night, and they'd been surfing all day and hanging out and eating tacos. That's great, innit?"

Crowe had a surfboard on set too, and while they never got around to hanging 10 together, it wasn't for lack of other fun things to do. "He likes all that stuff, and he organized rugby games every weekend, and we played some music together and stuff," said Boyd, an accomplished musician. "We had a little trailer at the studio that had some drums and stuff in it. It was fun."

With both The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers being nominated for the best-picture Oscar, it's a near certainty that The Return of the King will be as well, along with Jackson as best director. While most Oscar insiders don't expect The Two Towers to pick up the best-picture statuette at the Academy Awards ceremony in a couple of weeks, Boyd said it would be criminal if Jackson and The Return of the King aren't honoured next year as a representative of the trilogy as a whole.

"I just hope they don't miss Pete," he said. "I think it really would be a travesty if he's not seen as an incredible director. And I think The Return of the King is probably the best screenplay I've ever read. It's incredible. It's so emotional."

While not the last scene of the film, the very last scene Boyd shot with director Jackson had Pippin in the city of Minas Tirith with the mad ruler Denethor (John Noble). It was a fitting way to end his journey, both on the film and as the once-carefree Pippin, now a knight of Gondor.

"Pippin really starts to realize where he is, and that he can actually do something with his two hands to actually change things," Boyd said.

Boyd can't reveal what he figures will be the most eye-popping and memorable scenes in the new movie - despite repeated cajoling to do exactly that - but he will say that Pippin's experiences will tug at the heartstrings.

"If you've read the book, you know that Merry and Pippin split up," he said. "And I think after what people have seen in the first two movies, and see how close Merry and Pippin are, there's some lovely stuff when you see them split up.

"To see two of the greatest friends losing each other, the actual anchor they have to reality just goes, and they're basically left with nothing."

Geez, even just hearing about it is enough to break a guy's heart!

"Me too," Boyd said. "Luckily, Merry's on his way round for breakfast right now, so it must come out all right."


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