Dominic Monaghan - Merry
Los Angeles, USA, July 2003
What are your memories of
first getting the role of Merry ?
I was in France, making a TV programme and having a French summer, having a nice
little actor-ly life. I'd been for an audition for Lord Of The Rings about five
months before and then thought nothing of it. And I was on my way back from work
in a van with nine other actors. And my agent called up and said, "Hey,
they've offered you the part," and I got off the phone and was grinning
from ear to ear. I was like, "I've just been offered a part in Lord Of The
Rings," and the whole van just went completely silent. So I got back that
night and went out and got fucking arseholed.
What is your character's
defining moment ?
This is going to be the ultimate spoiler, but Merry does something in the third
movie where he essentially saves the life of a very important character by
wounding another very important character. But more than anything, Merry's
greatest achievement is getting through it. You've got Frodo and sam having this
terrible journey through Mordor, and Pippin's with Gandalf, but Merry's on his
own. He's on his own and he's on the frontline. In the Battle Of The Pelennor
Fields, Merry's in there, on a horse, riding into battle.
What is your fondest memory
of New Zealand ?
Learning to surf. I'll take it with me for the rest of my life. We were actually
banned from doing it. Viggo got stabbed in the eye with the surfboard during the
Mines Of Moria shoot. There's actually a couple of scenes where you only see
Viggo from the side because he's got a crazy shiner. We were shitting ourselves
! But by that point, I think we'd done enough work so we couldn't get fired.
Describe Peter Jackson in
three words.
Awww... Visionary. Has that been used yet ? Intense. Father.
What would you say to the
six people who didn't enjoy the trilogy ?
I would relish someone coming up to me and saying, "I didn't like that
film." It does feel like the whole of theworld likes The Lord Of The Rings,
but there must be people who don't - 'cause otherwise we'd be a world that would
all drink Coca-Cola and eat pepperoni pizza. And that'd be pretty boring, yeah ?
What's your favourite piece
of Lord Of The Rings memorabilia ?
When we went to get our tattoos done, I brought my diary and I gave everyone a
page to write anything they wanted. So I've got Billy and Viggo and Elijah and
Ian, and basically everyone in the Fellowship writing about what had just
happened.
Which of the other parts
would you like to have played ?
I like Aragorn and Gollum. They're really interesting characters and the
journeys that they make are great.
How does it feel to say
goodbye ?
It'll be sad in a lot of ways. We said to Pete that he has to bring us all
together every year to reminisce and party.