Hello! I just got back from the I-CON convention where i did, in fact, meet Billy Boyd! Here goes the play by play:

I arrived at around 12:30 & waited around for the Q&A with Billy which started at 1:30pm. I got a seat a few rows back from the front & at precisely 1:30pm, Billy came out -- actually he was brought out by a group of genuine Star Wars storm troopers! LOL. I got a picture of him walking by me (as well as a few other pics of him on the stage answering questions) & as soon as they're developed, I"ll figure out a way to get them scanned & send em along. Okay, now there's no way I'll be able to remember every question, or Billy's exact answers, but i'll do my best.

The first question I remember. A couple of girls had two messages written on shirts from "The King of Gondor" for "Pippin". They had been to Viggo's book signing yesterday & told Viggo they were going to I-CON the next day, so he sent along a couple of messages. They brought the shirts up to Billy & Billy read us the messages. The first one was from the "King of Gondor" & it said something about Pippin being the best honorary steward of Gondor, or something. The second message I remember exactly -- it was from "Viggo" & it said "Billy Boyd is my master", which had Billy cracking up. The second question was from a girl who asked Billy to show us his tattoo. He was very courteous in saying .. NO! LOL. He said he & the other members of the fellowship all agreed to never show them & being that there were so many cameras in the audience, he couldnt' show it. After this question, the order of them gets hazy & I don't remember them all, but here are some of the better ones. Some girl asked Billy if he thought it was creepy the way so many people are obsessed with him & he laughed & said that it was actually very nice & flattering & fun. Someone asked him what his favorite scene to film was & he told us this whole long story (which is hysterical). He said it was the "second breakfast" scene -- not because of the scene exactly, but because of the story behind the scene. He said they were filming & it began snowing -- snowing like he'd never seen it snow before. He held up his hands to show how big the snowflakes were & he held up his hands to show the size of a baseball. He said they were out in the middle of nowhere & that the ONE road leading to where they were was going to be closed down, so they all had to leave. They decided to get the actors out first, so that they could maybe go film something else. The only car there was a van, which didn't have four wheel drive & as they were driving out, the van slid off the road & there they were -- the four hobbits, in full costume, in their hobbit feet, pushing the van back onto the road. During this, the crew drives by in a four wheel truck, pretty much laughing at them. Then they get back to the hotel, but they can't check into their rooms, because they weren't ready yet -- they weren't supposed to be back for awhile & the rooms weren't available at that time. So the hobbits were lead to the laundry room & they all sat on top of washing machines so they could get their feet removed when Viggo shows up with a bottle of Scotch -- he figured they must be cold & this would help warm them up. So there they were, sitting on top of these washing machines, getting pretty much drunk. Pretty funny!

His least favorite scene he said was while they were outside the mines of Moria, waiting for Gandalf to figure out how to get the door opened. He said they were filming in the middle of the night, all night & it was freezing. He said the worst part was that the water would soak into their hobbit feet & then literally freeze. He was so cold & so miserable & it was the only time during the entire shoot that he almost cried. But he didn't want to cry in front of Viggo & Sean B., LOL.

Someone asked him if he had surfed when he was in LA in March & he said he actually went surfing here in NY, at Rockaway Beach a few days ago when we were having our mini heat wave. All throughout the Q&A, btw, he was being asked for hugs & he granted each & every hug (the first person asked if they could have a hug & he said, "Sure!" he hugged them & then said, "The answer to that question is always yes!") & almost everyone who went up to ask a question was giving him gifts. He was asked if he ever got injured while filming & he said he had gotten injured a couple of times, but never while filming. He broke his pinky during a surfing trip & he didn't tell Peter about it. The guys at WETA made an "invisible" splint for him & it didn't heal properly, so now it's got a weird bend to it. One bad injury he told us about was that Sean A. got. When Sam is running into the water after Frodo in the end, Sean stepped on a sharp twig that went right through his hobbit foot & right through his real foot. He had to be helicoptered to a hospital quickly because the twig went in deep.

Let's see. ... what else. Oh, someone commented on if his new "scruffy" look was Dom's influence (he had the a lovely scruffy beard going on) & he told us it was actually for a movie he's doing about a man who's in some space station for a year. He was asked if we would be seeing anything else of his here in the states anytime soon & he mentioned a short film he had done that would come out in the film festivals most likely. And his next film is going to be a Peter Wier project being filmed in Mexico.

When asked what his favorite line from the movie was, he replied that it was "Where are we going?" at the council of Elrond. He says it showed pretty much what Pippin was all about -- that he wanted to be with his friends & be in the thick of things & really had no idea what was going on half the time.

He talked about any time that any of them began to feel worn out, or down due to the grueling schedule, they would all stop & say, "Hang on a minute here, we're doing "The LORD OF THE RINGS" here!" & that would immediately bring them all up. He mentioned that he had read the HObbit when he was younger, but he didnt' pick up LOTR until he got the job. He read for the roles of Merry & Pippin & when he met with Peter Jackson, he was reading for Pippin only. After about 3 readings, he was told that he got the job. He had never met any of the other members of the fellowship prior to filming, although he & Orlando wound up being on the same flight to NZ & got to know each other really well on the flight. Of course, he talked about how close they all got & mentioned that he stayed with Dom when he was in LA a few weeks back. He commented on how he doesn't know if Peter Jackson just intuitively knew that they would all get along so well, or if it was just luck -- in any case, they all really had a wonderful comaraderie.

That's all i can really remember at this point -- it's all a bit of a blur, LOL. Oh, wait! The last question that was asked was where were Billy & Stewart (his webmaster, who was there also) when all the bb.net folks met earlier in the day at the Cyber Cafe & Billy's answer was "We were having second breakfast" !!