What exactly does being CarbonNeutral involve? Basically, they look at your life and how you live it and calculate the amount of carbon they estimate, or I suppose 'guesstimate', that you use up in a year. They ask a few questions about how you live your life, what kind of car you drive, where you live, how far you travel, that kind of thing. Then they offset the amount of carbon that you use up by planting trees in certain parts of the world. I'd been to Bangalore in India the year before so I made a request that some be put there, because I'm sure I'll go back. So I had 40 mango trees planted in a forest that Coldplay are involved in.

You're worth 40 mango trees? Yeah, but that means that it's not only releasing all the correct gases into the air, putting a lot of carbon dioxide out and all that sort of thing, but its also producing fruit for the people in Bangalore.

They should name the forest after you. I think it's called the Coldplay forest because they planted 300 or 500 trees. I've only planted 40.

So they outbid you? They sure did, those rock'n'roll bastards. But at some point we're hoping to get some link between The Lord Of The Rings and plant a couple of forests in different parts of the world; one called the Shire and one called Mirkwood, one called Lothl�rien. That would be very cool.

Did the CarbonNeutral people come to you, or you to them? A little bit of both. If you're turned on by that kind of idea, then those people will approach you. While I was finding my feet in LA, I was hanging around with people I'd gotten to know the year before, and at a dinner party I met a group of people from splinter groups of Greenpeace and who working on charities and I was interested in what they were talking about. So I started hanging around with them more and got involved.

Do you catch yourself listening to a CD thinking: 'Oh, that's a couple of leaves I owe'? A little bit. You can't go over the top with it. Once you become CarbonNeutral there are more things you can do. You can recycle, and there are a couple of old trees in danger of being cut down in LA that I'm keen on trying to save.

If you're saving local trees, do you feel quite at home in LA now? I enjoy it. I like the weather and the people. The lifestyle choices that you make don't seem to be questioned too much. You can get up when you want, go out when you want. Clubs and bars open all night - it's very easygoing. I've got the beach here, and I like surfing, so in terms of where I want to be and what I want to do in my free time, LA is a great place to be.

If nature's your thing, you must have really enjoyed filming The Lord Of The Rings? Yeah, that was one of the main things that kept me involved with the environment when I finished filming. You can find yourself on top of a mountain or beside a huge lake and you can feel the power of nature coming up through your body. I've been in places in Ireland and Scotland where you just feel how incredibly special certain parts of the world are.

Are you still in touch with the rest of the Fellowship? Sure. We made a pact and we all got this tattoo, and promised to stay in touch, which we do. I saw Ian McKellen a few weeks ago and Billy Boyd I see all the time. Elijah [Wood] and Viggo [Mortensen] live in LA, Orlando [Bloom] is in and out of LA as well, so we all keep in touch. We see each other at least two or three times a year for work anyway.

Does it feel like it's over, or with all the promotion still going on does it still feel like you're working on The Lord Of The Rings? I don't think it will ever feel like it's finished. It will probably be the film that will define a lot of our careers. But we'll always hang around with each other, and we'll always have fond memories. I don't think any of us particularly want to ever feel like it's ended because it was so much fun.

EXTRA QUESTION: I suppose it's quite nice talking about something other than hobbits for a change? Yeah, sure it is. It's nice to be involved in an industry where you don't always have to talk about the actual job that you do. You can talk about things that you find important. It's a good state.

EXTRA QUESTION: What are you up to at the moment? Just taking a lot of meetings, trying to organise my year. I'm probably going back to LA in May or June. There are a couple of jobs in early summer or early autumn that are probably going to be happening. But in terms of immediate future, I'm just having a lot of meetings and keeping things in order and keeping myself busy working for Future Forests.

EXTRA QUESTION: You mentioned Ireland. Where do you go? My family are from Galway, I've got relatives in Sligo, and obviously somewhere along the line my family are from County Monaghan. I really like Dublin; there are a lot of places that I go in Ireland, but mainly Galway, which I think is beautiful. There's great surf there as well, if a bit chilly.

EXTRA QUESTION: Do you do much surfing in LA? I try. I don't do as much as I'd like to because my main surfing mate, Billy Boyd, who was in The Lord Of The Rings with me, isn't here. He's coming over in about a week and we're going to take a trip up to San Francisco and stop off at a few surf places on the way, because it's always good to go with a mate. I was out a couple of weeks ago, but it can get a bit intimidating out here, and I'm a bit of a longboarder, so I like to take it easy.

EXTRA QUESTION: Did you get into surfing out there? In New Zealand. We turned up and within about two weeks we met a runner on the movie who taught us all how to surf. Very cool.

By Ben Sloan April 4, 2003

�Two Towers� Cast and Crew Speak Out on War and Peace, Good and Evil Cliff Vaughn 12-13-02 Editor�s Note: EthicsDaily.com�s Cliff Vaughn recently attended a press junket for �The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,� which starts Dec. 18. Vaughn and other religion writers (including those from Focus on the Family and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association) screened the film and interviewed cast and crew members. More LOTR stories will appear today and Monday, and the movie review will appear Wednesday.

Stories of actor Viggo Mortensen�s appearance on �The Charlie Rose Show� wafted through the Regency Hotel on Park Avenue in New York City on Dec. 4.

Mortensen had been in town with other cast and crew members of �The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers� for a press junket. The night before, Mortensen, who plays Aragorn, Elijah Wood, who plays Frodo Baggins, and director Peter Jackson and had appeared on Rose�s show.

Mortensen had sported a shirt that read, �No more blood for oil,� and spent several minutes criticizing U.S. foreign policy.

Mortensen had to leave the junket, but those who remained to face a roundtable of religion writers were willing to talk about their own views of war and peace, good and evil.

With those themes resonating throughout the work of J.R.R. Tolkien�Lord of the Rings author and veteran of the Battle of the Somme�everyone had an opinion.

�In a curious way, there is such a resonance between what Tolkien is talking about and where we are today,� said John Rhys-Davies, the 58-year-old Englishman who plays Gimli, the dwarf.

�Tolkien knows that every few hundred years or so there comes a challenge to a generation where you can lose it all�your way of life, your civilization,� he said. �And if you do not have unity, courage and a willingness to sacrifice yourself, you can lose it all.�

�I think all of Tolkien�s themes are important,� said director Peter Jackson, 41, from New Zealand. �I think they�re very timeless. It�s depressing, in reality. It�s depressing that 50 years after he wrote this book�he wrote it during World War II�the world really hasn�t moved on. And I suspect 50 years from now it won�t be much different. It makes them timeless, but it also is all a little bit depressing, really.�

Rhys-Davies talked freely and at length about a potential war with Iraq, which he thought was inevitable.

�Tolkien is aware of the presence of evil,� Rhys-Davies said. �And evil is a very unfashionable thing to talk about in our time. It makes everyone squirm.�

Dominic Monaghan, 26, from Manchester, England, plays the hobbit Merry. He told the roundtable that he and other members of the cast had given the issue a lot of thought.

�The term �good versus evil� is a confusing thing for me because I don�t know if the lines can be drawn that easily,� he said. �They�re kind of blurred. I�m sure there are different countries around the world that have considered both Billy and myself�s country evil.�

Monaghan was referring to Billy Boyd, his 34-year-old co-star from Glasgow, Scotland, who plays Merry�s friend and fellow hobbit, Pippin.

�It�s just an upsetting kind of world to live in,� Monaghan said. �I�ve never really experienced this kind of conflict before. I�ve always lived in a peaceful kind of time. It is confusing and it is upsetting. But I don�t really know if the term �good versus evil� is appropriate. It�s just two different cultures clashing together.�

When one reporter asked Rhys-Davies if he believed in God, he said, in his youth, he had doubted the existence of a personal God, but that recent events (like having an accident on a film set in Croatia) had led him to believe that God was trying to get his attention.

However, Rhys-Davies said, �life experience has asserted the existence of a devil. Wherever men get together and lose sight of their humanity, they will create a devil beyond belief.�

Billy Boyd was quiet and pensive as he talked about good and evil, war and peace. �I think war is always awful, and I don�t know what the other options are,� he said. �If you feel as though something awful is happening somewhere, what do you do? Because war always seems to be the wrong thing, but I don�t know what the other thing to do is.�

Rhys-Davies pointed a way forward: �In a way we need the spirituality of the elf. We need the earthy, indestructible quality of the dwarf,� he said. �Above all, we need the great and good, simple heart of the hobbit, and we must aspire to be the king that has yet to come into his place.�

Monaghan, on the other hand, was much more straightforward.

�Trying to get everybody to just calm down would be a great way forward,� he said.

Cliff Vaughn is BCE�s associate director for EthicsDaily.com.

They were the comic relief of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Hobbits Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck and Peregrin "Pippin" Took drew snickers from audiences at the theaters, but the actors who portray them, Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd, have since probably drawn more on press tours and in the DVD extras. As you read, you might hear in your mind's ear Monaghan's deadpan British accent and Boyd's twinkling Scottish lilt. We find them in the land of the Ents, taking tea with Treebeard. Take it away, boys...

Billy Boyd: Treebeard gets incredibly sore for your bum. We were up that tree for about twelve hours a day. The strange thing was, they built this tree. It was 20 feet tall. It made the acting easier because his face was there; it was animatronic. There was an actor there reading the lines. Really beautifully, which helped. And as Treebeard swept us up to look at us, we were actually being lifted 20 feet, so it all felt quite real. But we had to be hooked in for safety reasons. With the hands and the branches, the natural sitting position was forward about 45 degrees, so you're always kind of hanging out of it. It got to the point that it was so difficult to get unhooked and to get down the ladder and then get back up again that we only went down for lunch. So in tea breaks, they would just hand us up a cup of tea and everyone would leave the studio, and it'd just be me, Dom and Treebeard. Sittin' there, havin' a cup of tea.
Dominic Monaghan: A nice bonding experience.

Well, you've been hanging around together for the last three years. What becomes of that sort of relationship?
Dominic Monaghan: Love. Deep-seated love. Though not on a sexual basis. No, yeah, we hang out all the time. We understand each other very well, we know what makes each other tick. And in terms of our career, we'd both like to work together for the rest of our lives. Solely, until the day we die.

It's just that some people really do think you're brothers.
Dominic Monaghan: Well, we are brothers. We're all brothers. Elijah and Sean and Orlando and Viggo and Ian, Billy and myself, we've all gone through this incredible experience. We try as hard as we can to explain to you guys about the time that we've had in New Zealand, but at the end of the day, the only people that really understand what we've been through are the guys in the movie and the crew and the rest of the cast. It's the longest film shoot of all time. You know, you hear actors say how well they've bonded with people over the course of six or nine weeks -- imagine being together for close to two years. It becomes an extension of your family. We're very, very lucky people.

Do you ever get nightmares about the whole Hobbit thing sticking to you?
Billy Boyd: Being typecast? No. It's just up to yourself to make sure that the choices you make will steer clear of that so people'll see you doing other things. This year, I've done a short film as an astronaut and then, in the last film I did with Peter Weir, I play a character probably as far away from Pippin as you could possibly get. A guy who knows where he is in his world and is very happy with that. He's on this ship and he's one of the best sailors and he could do everyone's job. So you know, you just have to make sure yourself that the typecasting thing doesn't happen.

That's the film with Russell Crowe?
Billy Boyd: Yeah.

Which will be called?
Billy Boyd: I'm not sure yet. Either Master and Commander or The Far Side of the World. It's based on Patrick O'Brien's books.

Can I ask why you have 'trees' written on your hand?
Dominic Monaghan: That is a very good question. Billy and I realized that these press tours are kind of a stage for us to talk about whatever issues we think are important. And with this movie, being Merry and Pippin up a tree, and a tree eventually doing his bit to save mankind, we think that it would be a good thing to get into the world's psyche through the media that we need to save the trees. You know, Tolkien was talking about this in the 1940s and it doesn't seem to have been a problem that's been addressed. I've been hanging out with people who work for Greenpeace in Los Angeles. They were telling me that the size of eleven football pitches of rain forest are destroyed every single day. And don't come back. This is something that will eventually end up killing us. And ending the world because the forests are the lungs of the world. They're what help us breathe and we seem hell-bent on this war for oil which, at the end of the day, is a war for money and power. And I think it's ridiculous when the real things that we should be concerning ourselves with are continuing to live on this planet. And it won't happen -- it just simply won't happen if the forests are destroyed. At the moment, there's something going through New Line which -- fingers crossed -- will happen and involve planting trees on every single continent in the world. Through the Lord of the Rings movie. We'd like to get people concerned with preserving their environment. I think it's the most important issue today. Otherwise there won't be a world to save.

Can you describe this project a bit?
Dominic Monaghan:Not really, no, because it's not a sure thing yet. It would be a huge tree-planting worldwide. To have forests come about in every continent so that people could visit them. You could go to Lothlorien in New Zealand or visit the Shire in England and it could be sponsored by a film company. That's the basic idea.

Since the first movie, tourism to New Zealand has gone up 20 percent...
Billy Boyd: 20 percent seems right. Someone told us that children reading novels has also gone up 20 percent. Also, Dom is 20 percent more handsome than he was when he started the movie.
Dominic Monaghan: You can see that, right? I think that's very apparent.
Billy Boyd: Yeah. I would say it's more 30, 35 percent.
Dominic Monaghan: No, I think it's great New Zealand can thrive like that. It's a great country to explore. It's got everything. Within the space of a couple of miles, you can go from a mountain to an incredible forest and then drive a little bit more and you're in a desert. You can go to some of the oldest forests in the world and see prehistoric ferns and all that. I don't think I'd have ever gone if I hadn't been involved with Lord of the Rings. I thought it was just like Australia, that kind of desolate landscape. But it's not; the actual flora and fauna are more like England and Europe. It's great. I'm going to buy a house there and end up bringing my kids up there.

Really?
Dominic Monaghan: I don't have kids yet, though.
Billy Boyd: Well, you should do.
Dominic Monaghan: I will do.
Billy Boyd: You're going to have to start working on that.
Dominic Monaghan: I will.
Billy Boyd: Good.

To what degree has playing these parts changed your lives?
Billy Boyd: Not wildly, actually. Life is pretty much same as it ever was. For me, I still live in Scotland, still see the same people, go to the same places. If anything, it means that my work is now seen on a more international stage, which is good. It means that you get the chance to work with people that you've dreamed of working with. So that's lovely.

But I guess you get recognized more often at the supermarket and so on.
Billy Boyd: Yeah, you get that, which is kind of weird. You forget sometimes that people have seen you, especially if you're abroad. I find it quite weird to be recognized, say, in Paris. You're used to it in your hometown or in Britain, even.
Dominic Monaghan: I was out walking last night and some kid, some French kid passed Elijah and me and went, "l'anglais!" And I was kind of, what? And he went up to Elijah and said, "l'anglais!" And Elijah was, Huh? And then he said, "l'anglais!" to me and hit me.
Billy Boyd: Are you serious?
Dominic Monaghan: Yeah.
Billy Boyd: Honestly?
Dominic Monaghan: Yeah.
Billy Boyd: What does "l'anglais" mean?
Dominic Monaghan: English. It's that French-English thing. They hate us.
Billy Boyd: They like the Scots, though.
Dominic Monaghan: Yeah.
Billy Boyd: Battle of the Neville's Cross and all that.
Dominic Monaghan: He would have given you a cuddle.
Billy Boyd: Yeah.

Elijah has the ring kept in a box as a sort of souvenir. Did you keep anything from the shoot?
Dominic Monaghan: I have a few feet. I've got a ring as well. And some ears. A few things, the original script and a few books that have been signed by everyone.
Billy Boyd: I have nothing.

No?
Billy Boyd: No. I'm probably the laziest man in the world. So I wouldn't go around getting everyone's signature for the book. I lost the script. I'm just... I never think ahead with these things, you know? I end up back at home and I think, You know, I did that for a year and a half, what have I got? A tattoo.
Dominic Monaghan: Nothing!
Billy Boyd: A tattoo!
Dominic Monaghan: I signed his ass.

You could get Dom to give you some feet.
Billy Boyd: Yeah.
Dominic Monaghan: No, I'm not giving him anything.
Billy Boyd: Come on.
Dominic Monaghan: No.
Billy Boyd: Come on.
Dominic Monaghan: They wouldn't fit you anyway, they're my feet.
Billy Boyd: Well, steel my feet next time.
Dominic Monaghan: Ok.
Billy Boyd: Thanks.

Do you think that fantasy is replacing science fiction to any degree? We've got another Star Wars and another Star Trek coming up and they don't seem nearly as interesting as this whole fantasy world. Are you guys sci-fi fans anymore? Do you look forward to Star Trek, for example?
Billy Boyd: I do, actually. I love Star Trek.
Dominic Monaghan: Geek.
Billy Boyd: No, I love it.
Dominic Monaghan: There do seem to be little trends that take place in Hollywood. A whole load of war movies will get made about Vietnam or a whole load of, you know, snowboarding movies or surfing movies. It goes through trends. But I don't necessarily see that Lord of the Rings is a fantasy movie. It wasn't written that way. It seems to be a kind of historical movie. The way that Tolkien approached it and the way that Pete seems to approach it is that these are stories that happened before all these guys were around and it's about how our world was formed. So it seems to come more from a historical background than fantasy.

But you do wonder what science fiction could add to a fantasy as rich as this one.
Dominic Monaghan: Well, Soderbergh has just come out with Solaris, which I saw in LA and it's very good. A great, beautiful movie. But I don't know. It's trends. There'll be a backlash against all the fantasy movies at some point and people will ask where all the gritty, fly-on-the-wall, Ken Loach, Mike Leigh movies went. It comes and goes.

In another year, you'll be doing this again with, more or less, the same film. Do you get used to this and to the film or is it still fresh?
Billy Boyd: For me, it's great taking friends to the films. I have some friends who are huge fans of the books. To be in it is great, but then to be able to take your friends and family to the premiere and see them having a good time -- it's a real treat.

By Nina Rehfeld - Greencine.com | December 18th, 2002

*Do you think Merry and Pippin come into their own in this film?
-Billy Boyd: I think this movie for Merry and Pippin is about growing up, maturing kind of coming of age. And starting to understand the size of what's happened. Especially for Pippin, I think, who's quite na�ve to these things. It takes Merry to explain to him that this is going to effect everywhere in Middle Earth. This war is affecting everyone and if you have a chance to do something to change that then you should. Yeah, it's definitely a coming of age for Merry and Pippin.

*Was it dangerous to film?
-Dominic Monaghan: It was good fun. I think guys in general like the action part of things. We were lucky enough throughout the whole of the filming to have a personal trainer who went to the gym with us. We learnt how to kayak, learnt how to sword fight and a little bit of archery, all that stuff, horse riding and things. That's what us guys tend to really enjoy doing. Nothing too dangerous although there were some broken bones along the way.
-BB: Especially with the horses. When you're doing scenes with horses no matter how well they're trained there's always a chance they'll kick you. Never get kicked by a horse though!
-DM: You got kicked didn't you?
-BB: Yeah, and it was very, very painful. I got kicked in the bum.

*What was it like filming in New Zealand all together. Was it like living in Big Brother? But 50 times worse? (never watched this show, personally)
-DM: We actually watched Big Brother in New Zealand while we were in New Zealand.
-BB: We did! Someone sent it over on tape and we'd never seen anything like it so we sat and watched one episode and 24 hours later we were still watching it!
-DM: We did all live in each other's pockets quite a lot but we had to work quite closely so it was nice to see each other off set. It was interesting that we worked for 12 hours a day, sometimes seven days a week yet we chose to spend our evenings hanging out together, but then we went on holiday together. So we're all just really, really good mates.

*There's a rumour that Orlando Bloom is the most popular sexy lead character. What do you think?
-BB: That's actually untrue. I don't know where you get that. That's a statistic you've made up.

*So you're saying the hobbits are sexier? (Heck yeah!)
-DM: The hobbits are the heart of the movie - they're the emotional core for goodness sake!
-BB: And we're handsome for God's sake. [points to Dominic] Look how pretty this man is!
-DM: I mean Orlando Bloom - what are you talking about? They [the hobbits] are what the audience love, they're what the people really, really hang onto. They're the last character the audience want to die! This Legolas guy - I hope he gets killed by an arrow in the next movie. Vroom... right through this eye!
-BB: It's all make up anyway.
-DM: Yeah you should see him when he's got his wig off. It's disgusting. Big open weeping warts on the top of his head.
-BB: Covered in warts.
-DM: Smells of elderberries.
-BB: Oh, he smells!
-DM: He can't defend himself [laughs] Hi Orly!
-BB: Hi Orlando!
-DM: How you doing mate?

In "The Two Towers," the thrilling follow-up to "Lord of the Rings,", the central characters of the Hobbits seem gayer than ever. The film is powered by not one, but two very feelingly drawn male/male relationships.

There's Frodo and Sam, of course. In "Two Towers," the other more comical couple, Merry and Pippin, come into their own when they are separated from the rest of the Fellowship and have to rely on each other to survive.

One of the few ladies to have more than an eye-blink of screen time is Australian actress Miranda Otto, who plays the new character of Eowyn. "I have to say about the woman thing," Otto told me recently at the Regency Hotel, "it is a terrible thing to admit, but when I started reading the scripts, and I saw the names of the hobbits, I actually thought Merry and Pippin might have been girls."

Queer audiences have responded to the sexually ambiguous duo of Frodo and Sam, seeing in them a deeply devoted, admirable, and even iconic relationship that is, as Elijah Woods (Frodo) admits, "Up for interpretation."

So are the hobbits gay?

"Sure, why not?" quips the hunky hobbit Dominic Monaghan, 26. "We did everything together. We even showered together," indicating his co-hobbit, the impish Scottish comedian Billy Boyd, 34.

"Oh! Why did you have to go and tell them that?" moans Boyd, (Pippin) putting his head in his heads. "We did once, but I like to keep to try to keep it in the back of my mind."

The muscular Monaghan continues, "I think there's a nice kind of loving, close friendship that goes on, a kind of unconditional love between the hobbits. But I think it's their hobbity nature. I think they are all like that. They are very caring and free and open with their emotions. As a sweeping generalization, it is something that you can associate with gay people."

"But I don't think they are gay, " says Boyd, "Not totally gay, because they get married at the end. It's in the appendices of the book, and not the actual stories." Looking right at his friend, Dom, he adds "Tolkien did say Merry was the gayest of all hobbits."

Dom shrugs, "Some people think I'm called Mary."

"But do you have a little lamb?" ribs Billy.

"As to the homosexuality of Frodo and Sam, I think it's important to understand the historical context that these characters are written in," adds Sean Astin, 31 (Sam). "Tolkien based the relationship, to my knowledge, on the batmen in the First World War. Officers, probably a colonel, I would think, would have an attendant assigned to him, an enlisted attendant, and the particular British batmen were characterized by their unusual devotion and loyalty. They would jump on a hand grenade or take care of every small detail and it was a kind of noblesse oblige, a reciprocal sense of responsibility that the officers felt towards the batmen and the batmen felt towards the officers."

When told that Frodo has been embraced by the gay community, Elijah Woods, 21, exclaims, " Have we all? Yay! I think that's up for interpretation. I think the gay community has certainly embraced it as a beautiful, special thing, and I think it CAN be interpreted that way."

He admits the connotation is in Tolkien but not the film. "We saw it as just this incredibly great friendship and people who cared about each other and would do anything for each other," he says. "One would give to the other, when the other couldn't, and vice versa. That's just the beauty of their friendship."

If the audience wants to read that as "gay," that's fine with Woods. "It's good to know that people appreciate the relationship, because it is powerful, and it is integral to both individual journeys," he says. "Frodo wouldn't make it without Sam and Sam wouldn't make it without Frodo. That's really important. You get that in this film, and it becomes even more relevant in the third movie."

By STEPHEN HOLT | December 27th, 2002

Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan are so closed and funny live as their characters in Lord of the Rings, Pippin and Merry. Talking with these two "hobbits", we could realize that the friendship that started in the set of filming, in New Zealand, must last forever. But beyond having a lot of fun, the two actors prove that they can also be serious (once in a while) and can approach subjects such as the deforestation, something that happens every day. Catch your pipe, your grass-of-smokes, relax and enjoy the interview

What's this in your hands? Lembas?
Billy Boyd: Lembas! Hehehe, it's chocolate, from Vienna. We got it from a very nice journalist....what do you have there for us?
Dominic Monaghan (Merry): It's my birthday today [it was actually his birthday!]. Give me one of these CDs!

Do you want then? This one is from Blur, their old records.
BB: Hmmm, I like Blur.

Have you already listened to their latest single, Don't Bomb when you're the bomb?
BB: Not yet. Is it good? I'll see if I can find it.

What kind of music have you been listening to? Only hobbits songs?
BB: Lots of different things. Coldplay, Gomez, Radiohead.
DM: Wu Tan Clan, Sigur R�'s, Public Enemy, Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones, pretty different things.

What about those hobbits songs, how it was to sing them?
DM: It was so much fun! We did it in the end of the night, after we finished eating. In the morning we knew everything by heart. At night, after eating and drinking, we couldn't remember anything! But it was pretty funny.

Could you sing a bit now?
Both: Noooooooo....
DM: We only sing if we are paid for that. (laughs)

What are these rings you guys are wearing?
BB: One is a celtic ring that I got from my sister and the other one is a ring from New Zealand, called Tree Ring. It mixes silver, skin of a tree and wood; you put all these in a mould than you melt all together. The final result is like this, non uniform. It doesn’t look like a pretty thing, and that's why is nice.
DM: This one was given to me by an ex-girlfriend, who unfortunately isn't among us anymore [starts a fake crying and puts his head on Billy's shoulder]. This other one was given to me by my favorite uncle, this one is from New Zealand and this one I bought when I got my first job as an actor [Billy starts clapping]. This one has to do with the movie. It has my character's name on the internal part and LOTR outside.

And what's this on your hand? Isn't the famous tattoo, is it?
DM: No. It's just written 'trees', because we like trees. Before we've started this promotional tour, we were talking that we could use this to try to talk about some other things, like the environment, for instance. Tropical forests areas of the size of 11 football fields are destroyed around the world every single day, searching for oil or some other kind of richness, without thinking about the extinction of plants and animals. Tolkien had already alerted us to these lost in the 40's and until today nothing was made to save the trees of our planet.

Had you read LOTR before starting to shoot the movie?
DM: Yes, I believe most people in England read Tolkien in their teens. I've read when I was 15 years old. And I've also known the story of 'The Hobbit' because my father was a big fan and we had a tape with the story of Bilbo that we've listened in the car when I was 5 or 6 years old. It's part of the British culture, isn’t it?
BB: Yep. I'd never read it until I was called to this project.

What are you doing to avoid being linked to this project only, like Mark Hamill and Star Wars.
BB: I believe it's a question of being careful with your choices. In the next years we have to try not to make many fantasy movies, that wouldn't add much to our careers. For example, I've just filmed Master & Commander with Russell Crowe and my role is very different from Pippin. He's a sailor in the 19th century who knows exactly what he's doing. When I've read the script I've realized it was the right thing to do after Pippin.

And were you offered other roles in fantasy movies?
BB: Yes. Anytime an elf or a goblin appears they think: "Ah! Send this to those guys that made LOTR". And we say: "you can take it back".
DM: You have to be realistic about that. We hardly will make another project as big as this one.

Have you managed to get a lot of money?
DM: No if you think in terms of how much we worked. It was a year and a half with excessive hours of shooting! But I believe that no one there worked for money. Even people that could have asked very high salaries agreed in something smaller just for the fact that they would be joining this project.

How is it to go to a toy store and see the action figures of your characters with your faces?
BB: I don't think they look a lot with us. I look them and I see another person there. It isn't as strange as it seems.

Which characters would you choose to play if you could change?
DM: I'd like to be Gollum. I like the way he is; important to the story, is always close to the Ring and has a lot of conflicts, which, for an actor, is a great challenge. Andy Serkis played the role wonderfully well.
BB: Besides Pippin, I'd like to play Sam. He's a wonderful character.

Have you shot that scene where Aragorn, Legolas, Gandalf and Gimli arrive in Isengard and find you completely full of eating, drink and smoke?
DM: Oh yes!! It turns out so funny!! I had to make a face of someone who had drunk and was stunned after smoking for 3 hours in a row [Dominic makes a drunken face]. There were food everywhere, bread, meat, fruit. This is a paradise for a hobbit.

When you were shooting, were you aware of what was happening in the story?
BB: Because we were familiarized with the book, we knew sort of where we were in the story. For example, when we were with Treebeard, we knew that that was going to be used in the second movie. But we faced it as one single movie.

How was it to act with an ent?
BB: The best thing they've built was Treebeard. It was a 6-meter tree that could move its arms, legs, head, etc. The scene where it takes us and put us in its shoulders, it actually happened! We weren’t in those sets with a blue screen pretending how our reaction was going to be. And that made pretty easy for us. It wasn’t a comfortable place, but we spent so many time there that we got used to.
DM: It was up there that our screenplay started.

About what is this screenplay? Do you intend to direct as well?
DM: No, we won't direct. This movie is just a way for us to act. The story is about two guys from the United Kingdom who open a scuba diving school in Miami and got themselves in a lot of trouble. This all started because we had to stay up there for 11 hours a day without anything to do! And we've learned to dive there in New Zealand and we had some ridiculous experiences because we couldn’t communicate down the water. Once we were training in a pool and I was doing the basic signals like "Ok?" (thumb up), "do you wanna go up?" (pointing the thumb up), etc. And Billy made me this gesture (joining the 2 index fingers). I thought he wanted me to sit on his finger!!! (laughs)
BB: I only wanted him to lean his finger on mine, to show him how the sense of depth is different under the water!!
DM: And I told him "Noooooooooo!!!!" and we started laughing and we had to got up. Then we realized that there are a lot of situations that you have to talk but it's impossible and you have to manage in some other way. The script is pretty funny.
BB: Is f***** great!! Dom likes to say that is funnier than a penguin playing banjo!

The British film industry isn't in its best days. The FilmFour has closed and there aren't big projects like this one being shot there. Do you think of moving to LA? Which are your plans?
DM: I've been living there for a year. I think that the British film industry never had a good moment. There isn't money there. Where there is, it comes from the USA. But this is because there isn't a city that lives from movies, like LA. London is a very rich city in terms of theaters. People from all over the world go there pursuing a career in the British stage.

Would you like to try something in the West End?
DM: We were invited to do a play in England next summer. But we ended up finding that one of the projects that we were interested is already being made. But the most important thing is that we want to continue working together. We were trying to convince Elijah last night to try something in the theater. If only he found something really worth it, Billy and I could give him the support he needs and have fun at the same time.

Usually, when artists stay together a lot of time, often are quarrels and discussions. Why it worked so well in LOTR?
BB: We got lucky, because in the moment we've met we got well and became friends. Stay with the rest of the cast was always pretty easy. It was hard when we had to split and each one went shooting in a different place. Even more weird was when Dom and I had to split, in the third movie.
DM: That can influence on your acting. Especially when you're making a scene where you have to show how much you miss someone. There's a scene in ROTK where I'm talking to Aragorn about Pippin and where he had gone. And Aragorn says "He's going to do what has to be done, just like you have to do your work." And during the whole scene I was thinking that he was in the South. But we kept calling each other the whole time.

This link between you started on the set?
BB: Yes. We truly became good friends. All that was said in the press about our friendship wasn't just publicity. We used to go out all the time to surf and other things.

Besides scuba diving, what else you did there?
DM: Surf, snowboard, bungee-jump, rafting, we watched a lot of movies, played videogames, listened to a lot of music, went to concerts, used to hang out in the pool.
BB: We had a lot of fun!!

By Marcelo Forlani | December 25th, 2002

NEW YORK -- It all started with those little folk the Hobbits, or specifically The Hobbit, a children's fantasy adventure novel published by J.R.R. Tolkien in 1937. Thus the tale began. The success of that book had his publishers clamouring for more and they inspired the South African-born, English professor and author to focus his energies, root around in his earlier fantasy manuscripts and bring a lifetime of writing and research together in a magnificent work of fantasy literature, The Lord Of The Rings. On Wednesday, after a six-year odyssey, the first live action movie based on Tolkien's 1954-55 novel debuts worldwide. The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring is the first instalment in what will be, like the book, a trilogy. Of course, Hobbits are in on the action. In Tolkien's world, the furry-footed Hobbits are also known as little folk and little people. They stand three-foot-six to four-foot-two, are modest, provincial and of the earth in Middle-earth. Humility reigns. Yet they are capable of the most extraordinary acts of courage. In Peter Jackson's movie, the key Hobbits are played by American Elijah Wood, starring as the unlikely hero Frodo Baggins, and Englishman Ian Holm, as his 111-year-old uncle Bilbo Baggins. There are also three other crucial Hobbit characters who join Frodo on the quest that is at the core of the saga: Berlin-born British actor Dominic Monaghan, 25, plays impish Meriadoc (Merry) Brandybuck; Scottish actor Billy Boyd, 33, plays Peregrin (Pippin) Took; and American Sean Astin, 30, plays Sam Gamgee. For both Monaghan and Boyd, getting cast as Hobbits was a career breakout, says Astin, a veteran actor and son of John Astin and Patty Duke. "They won the lottery, basically." Monaghan found himself absorbed into Hobbit life on set. "It's something that infects your life and you can't not be washed up by the whole excitement. And we are now experts in the book and we love what Pete did with the movie. It's something that we are just so positive about and so keen for the rest of the world to feel as much (as we do)." Both Monaghan and Boyd knew Tolkien's work as youths -- Monaghan grew up in a household brimming with Middle-earth artifacts, including a statue of heroic Gandalf -- and both were eager to be part of Tolkien's world. But not Astin. "I had never even heard of The Lord Of The Rings," Astin admits. "It was just a huge gap in my learning. I guess the word 'Hobbit' (was familiar) but it was a new discovery for me." Now Astin, who put on 30 pounds to play the pudgy Sam, is as hooked on Tolkien as his fellows, in large part because of the universal themes in the story. "I like that he talks about the importance of the stewardship of the environment," says Astin of Tolkien's writings. "The dark forces in Middle-earth just pillage the natural resources. The ideal, utopic race is these little meek Hobbits, people-like creatures who like nothing more than tilling the earth and eating good and enjoying the fellowship of their friends and family. There is a real note of warning, a cautionary thing, and Peter really responded to that." For Boyd, the Rings trilogy is an emotional journey and he responds to what he calls: "Very strong feeling in the depth of the story. One of the main themes of it, I think, is friendship." Friends of different races, and sizes, must band together in the Fellowship to battle evil, so The Lord Of The Rings can be seen in terms of racial tolerance, says Boyd. Audiences are not obliged to look at Tolkien and, now, the film trilogy as socio-political commentary, however. At least not according to Monaghan. "It's complete escapism," he says, "and it's something that (audiences) have never seen before and it doesn't necessarily have anything relevant in terms of nowadays. It's a mythical fantastical tale with monsters and goblins. Hopefully, people will love it and it will make people happy."

By BRUCE KIRKLAND - Toronto Sun | Friday, December 14, 2001

From now until the opening of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, CHUD will feature interviews with the actors and creators of what may be the best film of the year. This is the ninth part. Read the Phillipa Boyens interview here, the Brad Dourif/ Bernard Hill interview here, the Andy Serkis interview here, the Barrie Osborne/Richard Taylor interview here, the Sean Astin interview here, the John Rhys-Davies interview here, the Howard Shore interview here, and the Miranda Otto/Karl Urban interview here. Comic relief is always a difficult thing in a movie like Fellowship of the Ring, but Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd) were the warm center of the questing group of companions. Their journey is much darker in The Two Towers. After being captured by Uruk-Hai in the last film, they find themselves being taken to the traitorous wizard Saruman, where they will surely be killed. On the behind the scenes footage from the Fellowship DVD, Boyd and Monaghan were irrepressible. At the junket they were exhausted after a week of non-stop interviews. While their humor did shine through often, they also showed a more serious side.

Monaghan: So did you see the movie? Did you like it? Q: Yes, very much. Have you seen it? Monaghan: Yeah, about a month ago.

Q: Peter said he was still working on it three weeks ago. Monaghan: He's a liar. Boyd: I saw it in March.

Q: You've probably seen Return of the King. Boyd: Exactly! Because I'm the best.

Q: Everyone I've talked to today has mentioned what they thought of Gollum. What was your impression? Boyd: I thought it was amazing. The kind of split personality scene was probably my favorite scene in the movie. I thought it was incredible. It should be the first CG to get an Oscar. Monaghan: The shit that Andy had to go through. Being on his own all the time, having to be on set for Sean and Elijah's performance, giving a performance as Gollum and then having to go on a blue screen set and having to give a separate performance. His physicality and Andy's face is IN Gollum. It's just incredible. It's great for Billy and I because we hadn't seen it. Things that are involved with the Fellowship I think we got an inkling of what it was all about. But we only saw brief snippets of Gollum before he was brought up onscreen for the entire movie. We were blown away by it.

Q: You guys spend a lot of time acting with a CGI character, Treebeard. What was that like for you? Monaghan: Well, he wasn't entirely a CGI character. They built an 18 foot Treebeard that we would climb to the top of and sit on his shoulders. His eyes would blink and narrow and he had a lot of character in his mouth. He could pick us up with his hands. His hands could clench, he could hold us in the sky. He would walk. So all the stuff you see on his shoulders, we're not sat on a table or a bench, we're sat on what you see. There were a few things that would get you down, with the constraints of being strapped down and not being able to move too much. The background was entirely green screen or blue screen, but as an actor you're expected to extend your imagination.

Q: Did the crew ever screw with you and leave you hanging in the tree? Boyd: Well, yeah, but we kind of asked for it. It was such a pain getting down, getting unhooked and then climbing back up again, it ended up that when there was a tea break we just said, "Get us a cuppa tea up here." And everybody would leave the studio and it would be just me and Dom and Treebeard.

Q: What does Treebeard represent? The forces of nature, obviously. Boyd: Definitely that. I think that the point that Tolkien was trying to get across was that we can't just go around burning and destroying trees without destroying nature. I see him as a kind of Tom Bombadil character as well. The oldest creature on Earth, he's seen it all happen. It's not such a big thing. He's seen evil. He was there before Sauron was there. "I've seen it all, it's not a big deal." And he's got these two hobbits saying that their friends are going to be killed, of course it's a big deal. So I think he's that character.

Q: In Return of the King you're out of the woods and back on the hunt? Monaghan: Yeah, in three Merry and Pippin become more dispersed. Merry goes off and heads into battle on a horse, with a sword, and becomes a warrior hobbit. He loses sight of Pippin, which is really sad if you think about some of the strong alliances in the trilogy. You've got Frodo and Sam and after that, Merry and Pippin, because hobbits feel such deep emotions for their kind. They are best friends. Legolas and Gimli become best friends through the trilogy, but these two are like brothers. For them to be apart they really lose their strength. That's one of the big things in the third movie.

Q: There are some scenes featuring Merry and Pippin in The Two Towers that did not make it to the final cut. Tell us about some of the things that will pop up in the Extended Edition. Boyd: There's the Ent Draught. I don't know if you've read the book, but Ent Draught is something that the Ents drink and it keeps them healthy. Merry and Pippin take it and it makes them grow. It's really a lovely scene actually. Well written.

Q: It's a temporary effect? Boyd: Nope. When they get back to the Shire Merry and Pippin are the tallest hobbits ever. Pete wanted that, but I can see that the story was getting very dark at that time and I don't know if that was the reason. Also, the film was running at four hours.

Q: So are you taller at the end of Return of the King? Do they explain that? Monaghan: If it's not referenced in the second movie it probably won't be referenced in the third movie. But in the books as soon as they drink the Ent Draught they become a few inches taller.

Q: Right, but under the circumstances you guys must have shot that, so it seems weird if it just shows up in three. Monaghan: It's not a huge thing. Boyd: We are not with anything you would see the scale with.

Q: For me one of the only sequences that didn't work so well was the special effects in the Treebeard scene. From a distance it looked great, but in close up it seemed like an obvious green screen effect. Monaghan: That's interesting. We were talking about CG the other night and I was saying that CG for me, even though it's fantastic, and I think Gollum is a fantastic CG character, there are still elements that I can tell to me are CG. There's a fluid kind of look to it. A liquid kind of look. The only way I can describe it is that it looks like it's been dipped in water. There's this kind of sheen to it. Which means that at some point CG will catch up and look like we look. Which means that at some point the films that kind of had initial CG will date. But I guess that is just cinema, and new technology. The way Pete's been working with CG, bringing it forward, the future that he has managed to find in CG, is amazing. But I think all CG will date until we get to a point where you will not be able to tell what is CG and what isn't.

Q: It's the same thing with Yoda in the new Star Wars movies. Monaghan: It's awful. Just awful. Why didn't they use the puppet? They had the puppet of Jabba the Hutt and then they used this new strange looking Jabba. It just makes no sense at all. Sorry George.

Q: Now that you're not getting any roles in any Lucas films, what kind of projects are you looking at now? Monaghan: Hopefully stuff that isn't hobbity. The main stuff that I've been offered has been fantasy, pixie, goblin kind of parts. I just want to play a horrible guy. A serial killer, or a psycho. I'm intrigued in work that I'll never be pigeonholed. In acting if you can be stretched and challenged and do something that you find difficult you'll keep growing. After playing Merry, which there were difficult things about him, I would like to play someone different, a nasty and evil character. Someone a bit more hard hitting. I've been reading scripts all year and I haven't seen anything that has shouted out for me to do it. I'm in a position where I'm financially secure enough to wait, and I realize that the next couple of choices I make are going to inform on how I will be taken as an actor. I just have to wait. Boyd: Yeah, I've been looking. I just finished, three weeks ago, working on Peter Weir's movie, Far Side of the World, down in Mexico. It's what Dom was talking about. It happened that I was offered this part, which was completely different than Pippin, and it felt like it was going to be a really exciting thing, which it was. I play this sailor. The helmsman of the ship in the Napoleonic War. I was down in Mexico five or six months doing it. Peter Weir was incredible. Russell Crowe is in it.

Q: It's part of the myth of the films at this point that you guys all bonded on the set. Eighteen months together, you became the Fellowship, the tattoos, the whole thing. Is that going to make it difficult on other projects, that you were on the perfect set, now you're on something not quite as tight? Monaghan: [to Boyd] What's the difference between Mexico and New Zealand? Boyd: You speak Spanish. But you know, it's a year and a half, it just gives you that time. It's kind of different, but every job always is.

Q: Current events seem to have really caught up to this movie. Do you think was by accident, or did Peter tweak the material? Boyd: I think it was by accident. Like the books, I think the reason it rings true is that you take any time in history when there is a war about to start it'll ring true. The big point is that people don't seem to learn through history. Lessons are never learned. That's what Treebeard is saying. It's all a cycle and evil will come back again. Human society always seems to be on the lip of war.

Q: You've been doing a week of interviews for this movie. What are people NOT asking you that you want to talk about? Monaghan: How can you be such a great actor? I don't understand it. Boyd: [to Monaghan] Is your talent CG?

Q: Maybe you guys should interview each other! Monaghan: We've done that a few times. I think something that people have asked about but is something that Billy and I are keen about talking about - that's very ungood English. Boyd: Three abouts! Monaghan: Talking about is this environmental issue that is brought up in The Two Towers. Treebeard, the person we hang around with, actively helps the humans in their plight. I was speaking to someone I had been hanging about with in LA, who works for Greenpeace, told me that an area the size of 11 soccer pitches of rainforest are destroyed every day. And they don't come back. Tolkien wrote about this in the 1940s. This is a ticking clock. Think about the whole Mother Nature aspect - the forests are the lungs of the world. Regardless of whether we go to war or not in the search of oil and all that crap, if we don't address what's happening with the world's forests there won't be a world to come back to. It's crazy that what's happening with all the huge governments in the world is that they aren't interested because it isn't about money. If we don't do something we're all going to die anyway because there won't be any air to breathe. We hope that gets picked up by the world's media and we can get behind a big tree planting program or something to bring to the young people the fact that the forests are disappearing. Some of the most amazing flora and fauna that will never come back, that could cure some diseases. It's depressing.

Q: What do you feel like your responsibility is as actors and celebrities? Boyd: I don't think we have a responsibility except as individuals. We don't have any more responsibility than anyone else. But as someone like John Lennon said, well I'm going to get in the paper anyway, I might as well talk about something. So I suppose we have the chance - if you want to write about it if we talk about it - but I think that's the thing, if we're going to take up media space, might as well talk about something that's worthwhile.

Q: And if you don't have more responsibility than anyone else you could add that everyone has some responsibility. Boyd: Exactly. We're all in this together. And if anything in the Two Towers Merry and Pippin realize that they can do something. Monaghan: Small individuals can do something. As Billy said, we can talk about it but it's up to you to print it and it's up to people to do something about it. There's a thing that goes on that as actors we're very lucky people, we get to travel the world and do things that we enjoy. To go along with that we should address some of these issues. After hanging out with these people in LA and talking about the environment and nature, which is something that I've always been turned on to anyway, would just like to get behind some planting of trees.

Q: Is there something you are particularly interested in right now? Monaghan: I don't know if we can talk about it but there's a company called Future Forests that are keen to try to get companies behind this carbon neutral project, which a few bands - the new Coldplay album, the new Atomic Kitten album, the new U2 album I think - are going carbon neutral. Which means they find out how much carbon they burned making the album and they plant trees to offset that. I would like that to come to the film industry. Because you would then have forests in the world that were sponsored by different film companies that you could go to. You could walk around Mirkwood, you could walk around the Shire, and it would represent what we have done during this period.

By Devin Faraci - Chud.com (Cinematic Happenings Under Development) | December 17th, 2002

LORD of the Rings hobbits Frodo, Pippin, and Merry escaped Middle Earth to spend New Year in the Cumbrian countryside, the News & Star can reveal. Hollywood superstars Elijah Wood, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan swapped the film shoot for a traditional pheasant shoot, before retreating to a farmhouse to see in the New Year. The News & Star found the hobbits and their Hollywood entourage on a country estate at Edenhall, in the Eden Valley near Penrith. Elijah, who stars as Frodo in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, said: "It's unbelievable here, absolutely beautiful. It's so good to get away for a couple of days." Asked how the rolling Cumbrian hills compared to the mountains of Middle Earth, the fictional setting for the Lord of the Rings, Elijah laughed and replied: "It's very similar actually, we all feel very at home here. I think of the land of Rohan when I look around." Billy, who plays Pippin, said: "It's like we're back in the Shire - Tolkien would have been proud!" American Elijah, 21, explained that after the December release of the second part of the film trilogy, The Two Towers, the three off-screen friends wanted to escape the glare of the public and rest for a few days. He said: "The public eye is the last place we wanted to be over New Year, so it's great to be here and away from everything. We're just having a few quick days away." Billy, a native of Glasgow who was voted Scotland's most eligible man in 2002, proudly displayed a brace of pheasants he had shot on New Year's Eve. He said: "Not bad for a beginner - I got three in a row today." Dominic, who is originally from Manchester, said that they hoped to hunt until dusk, and then enjoy "a few quiet drinks" to bring in the New Year. Elijah said they were going to leave on New Year's Day and hoped to move on to Scotland. He added: "It's going to be a very hobbity New Year." The visit to Cumbria comes just weeks after the release of The Two Towers, the spectacular second instalment of the film adaptation of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. An estimated 25,000 people have been to see the movie in Carlisle since it opened on December 18, and almost 5,000 people went to see the blockbuster at the Plaza cinema Workington in its first five days.

By The News and Star | January 2nd, 2003

Article in magazine. This is where the interviewer and the interviewee pretend they are going on a date and the interviewee says what they would do.. :)

So, how did we meet?
I was in a park playing football and i sat down for a breather. you walked past and i thought you looked foxy so we started chatting about footbal.

Do you take my number?
no. i give you mine because then its up to you to call. i like women to have the power.

Do you ask me out when i call?
yup. we're going to make a day of it- i take you to a dollar shop in LA and give you 10 dollars. you have to buy 10 things that are really fun. then we go to the park and hang out with bubbl;e machines, crayons and paints, and play like kids all morning.

what am i wearing?
i like a kind of smart skater look-so hopefully that.

what do we do next?
we go for sushi and have a chat. i want to know about your family, your job, what inspires you. everything. then we go bowling.

er, ok-why?
because its fun! you get to wear sexy shoes and you'll get to see my freestyle bowling technique, which involves throwing the ball into the next door bowling lane!

how will i know you like me?
if i'm chatty and happy and touchy-feely then i like you. if i've nipped down lane three while you're on lane five and nicked off then i don't!

what next?
i take you home and show you all the stuff i'm into-music, movies, photography, art, books and my trainer collection. then i cook you up some noodles to line your stomach, and we hit the town.

where are you taking me?
we catch a movie first-maybe eminem's 8 mile- then i take you to the mumba club, which is where i go in LA to get messy. they play old school @#%$ anf hip-hop.

are we going to dance?
if i've had a lot to drink i'll moonwalk for you.

what next?
we call it a night and i escort you home. when we get to your door we have a couple of smoochy kisses on the mouth,with maybe a little tongue. but only enough to keep us wanting more. there's no need to porno snog on the first date.

so you're not coming in?
no. i think the most exciting part of a relationship is the beginning-the first kiss, the first staying over, the first late night call. all that wanting it and not getting it is great. but i will take your number and call you tomorrow to say thanks. and i'll call when i say i will-i don't believe in playing games if you really like someone.

good on yoou, fella!
phew, i feel like we've really been on a date! i might have to have a little nap to calm myself down!