This is it: the Eowyn Challenge. This is an online group of LOTR fans who have hit on a novel way to get fit – by sharing a commitment to walk as far as Rivendell! [More] Anyone can join.
Month: March 2003
Before the Oscars, Sean Astin was interviewed briefly. Here’s a transcript – what a sweet guy! [More] Thanks to Julie for this.
Julie writes: “I too saw Sean’s visit with Joan and Melissa just before the Oscars – I caught it on tape and here’s the conversation:”
Melissa: …star of Lord of the Rings one, Lord of the Rings two, and Lord of the Rings three…it’s getting boring.
Sean: Is it?
Melissa: No, I’m just kidding. But I do want to ask you, nominated for Best Picture, but not for Best Director. How disappointing is that for the cast for Peter?
Sean: Ah, I don’t think any of the cast is focused at this moment on disappointment.
Melissa: Right.
Sean: So, we’re proud of Peter…we’re proud of his work, we continue to honor him and pray that he is able to keep mustering the strength to deliver the third film, and we’re going to be going down to New Zealand to do a little bit more work on it in the coming days.
Melissa: Really.
Sean: Yup.
Melissa: And did you realize when you signed on that this was such a labor-intensive project?
Sean: Yeah, I don’t think we had any illusions/delusions…yeah, we knew what we were getting into. I think…I mean on paper we knew what we were getting into. You never know, until you actually experience something, exactly what it is.
Melissa: Tell me about it.
Joan: Did you enjoy New Zealand?
Sean: New Zealand is one of the most beautiful places on the face of the earth.
Joan: That’s not what I’m asking you.
Sean: Did I enjoy it? Well, I was so fat that it was hard for me to enjoy myself all the time. But I had my wife and my daughter with me, so experiencing New Zealand through their eyes and getting to work with really…yeah, I had a great time.
Melissa: Now, before we let you do what you..the reason why you came up here, and I’ll tell you two things…one is that I want you to show everybody your cuff links.
Sean: My cuff links. [shows them to the camera]
Melissa: Yup, check those out. And tell us the significance.
Sean: Well, my friend Michael Mue [sp?] picked them out for me and they…I think they’re viking ships but I liked that…they made me think of the middle east when he showed them to me and so I thought that they would look good on my arm even though you can’t really see them… [his jacket sleeve comes down over them].
Melissa: Check out…just while we’ve got you here look at Salma Hayek [camera shows her arriving on the red carpet] in black and white this evening, look how beautiful she looks. But more importantly, you came all the way over here from the red carpet to send a message to the troops.
Sean: um…all right…yeah…
Melissa: That’s what they’re telling me.
Sean: I think this is a great opportunity to communicate to the American men and women serving in uniform. Before the conflict started I was praying for peace…
Joan: As we all were…
Sean: …every day on bended knee and now I’m praying for peace and victory… and I wish them all God-speed and a safe journey home…and we’re proud of you, we love you, we’re grateful to you, and you’re in our minds and hearts and spirits every second.
Joan: That’s lovely.
Melissa: That is so nice. A pleasure to see you as always…take care.
Thanks to Julie for typing out this transcript!
Nillithwen and Brandybean send in some more stories of Billy’s appearance at Trent. [More]
A few funny moments that we missed in our earlier reports, evidently: “I had attended the Scottish film festival in Burlington and during the question period I asked a question about the dwarvish moon runes and got a very large reaction from the crowd and from Mr. Boyd himself. Apparently he did not know what moon runes were let alone how to read them. This seemed to be a major source of entertainmentfor Billy and the rest of the crowd.” – Nillithwen
Brandybean writes: “I just thought I’d take the opportunity to add a bit more to the report about the Billy interview at Trent University, since my experience was a little different.
“I had gone to Trent to visit friends for the weekend and upon arrival heard that Billy Boyd was to be speaking there on the Tuesday. Naturally, I made arrangements to miss the two days of class and stayed with my friend until Tuesday night.
“I won’t go into details that were already covered in the previous report. I had gotten there early and snached a good seat in the second row. Billy, looking quite the part of a young, dashing movie star, came in and talked for a while, telling us mostly funny anecdotes. One of these was a story that was partially in the extended DVD: that in the scene where he was throwing stones, he accidentally hit the cameraman in the nose, breaking it. Apparently, the next day, someone on set had heard about Mr. Boyd’s aim (or lack thereof) and went to hide when they began to shoot more of the scene. But there was just no stopping him! One stone richoched off of a wall and hit the guy who was well concealed right in his… area. Billy also talked about comedy… “it’s all about………. timing.” Another moment worth mentioning is that at one point, a girl got up to leave, (presumably to the bathroom), and he stopped in mid-sentence, turned around and started screaming at her to! sit down. “I came all the way from Scotland to talk to you!” he yelled in mock anger.
“We watched three out takes from FOTR, and for some odd reason we were made to watch the entire scene from Moria. I kept hoping they’d cut the scene so we could continue with the interview. I never thought I’d see the day where I wanted to turn off LOTR! We also watched a bit from Sniper, and Billy made some excellent points about the loss of humanity when we create soldiers in armies.
“Anyway the interview progressed and finally it was time for some Q and A. I was the first person picked to ask a question, probably due to my arm’s incredible speed as it shot into the air. I asked him about plot details of this scuba diving movie project, and only got a vague response about how he had been working on it in Mexico with Dom. Oh, and that it was funnier than a penguin playing a banjo… I think I’ve heard THAT before! I had thought I was going to get some good scoop on it and be able to email you lovely staff members of TheOneRing with some really good new details… apparently not. Bother!
“After this, I rushed up to the stage for an autograph/picture but was quickly joined by a horde of fans! I managed to get what I wanted but couldn’t really escape so I was pinned rather helplessly in front of him and could only watch in horror as he signed autographs frantically and tried not to get crushed himself. I felt rather guilty about being a part of that, especially since the poor fellow had a cold, but when I had gone up there I didn’t realize everyone else was planning to as well. I have to hand it to him though, he was cool as a cucumber and sort of seemed to be enjoying the frantic attention.
“Don’t worry, it was a happy ending, and he was extricated just fine from the crowd by his cousin!”
I didn’t even know there WAS a ‘Serkis.com’ Well, there is and it’s good. You can read about the transformation from Smeagol to Gollum, or Serkis to Gollum. There’s a spoiler pic. of Smeagol, to be seen in ROTK. [More] Thanks to Ally for the link.