It’s that time of year again.

You know the one I’m talking about.

Come on… You know.

Okay, fine, I’ll tell you. This is the time of year when we cart out the big guns and deliver some of our massive in-depth interviews with castmembers from The Lord of the Rings trilogy. We’ve done Andy Serkis, Ian McKellen, and Billy Boyd.

This week it’s Meriadoc himself, Dominic Monaghan. Next week is a surprise.

So until then, I hope you enjoy our interview with Dom. I’m sure Viggo Mortensen won’t.

Dom’s got a few projects to be on the lookout for (including that buddy flick with Billy Boyd), but the next one coming up is an independent film titled Shooting Livien.

IGN FILMFORCE: Am I correct in my understanding that you were actually born in Germany?

DOMINIC MONAGHAN: Yeah…

IGNFF: Were your parents stationed there, or…

MONAGHAN: My parents are kind of like hippies, you know? They enjoy traveling and being in new places and stuff, so they moved to Germany. My dad’s a teacher and my mom’s a nurse. It just worked, luckily enough, and they speak German, so we lived out there. It was good. We moved every three years.

IGNFF: And you spent a fair amount of time in Germany, right?

MONAGHAN: Yeah, 11 years.

IGNFF: Culturally, what was Germany like at that time for a kid your age?

MONAGHAN: I was only a little boy, and I was born there and then left when I was 11, so I really don’t know an awful lot about it… But German food was kind of tasty, and it was a lot hotter than England in the summer and a lot colder than England in the winter, so we had a lot of snow and sledding and snowball fights, and stuff like that.

IGNFF: You also got a very clear sense of seasons…

MONAGHAN: Yeah, which you don’t really get in England as much. I really liked German food. And it’s very clean… It’s a very clean country. They kind of get rid of the waste really well… the garbage. They recycle and are very environmentally aware, which is something I’ve held onto, and keeps me conscious of how much waste I cause in L.A., so I try to recycle and I try to get involved with environmental companies – which I’m sure came from the fact of living in Germany where they’re so proficient at getting rid of their waste and so conscious of the fact that it’s an important thing to do.

IGNFF: Growing up, would you visit England, or was it not until you moved back that you got your first sense of it?

MONAGHAN: No, we came back every year to see my grandparents and my cousins. When my brother and I were young – and we’re still now – we were very close with our cousins on both sides of the family, so every year we would come over and get really excited that we were going to hang out with our cousins for Christmas and New Year, and see our grandparents. So once, maybe twice a year we’d come back to England.

IGNFF: How much of a difference was it going to school in Germany versus going to school in the UK?

MONAGHAN: Not a huge amount of difference. The good thing for me was that I knew when I moved back to England that if I made friends, I was going to be friends with them for a longer amount of time than just three years. I used to get quite upset that I’d make friends with a guy or a girl and then within the space of three years we’d move and go and live somewhere else, and you’d have to say goodbye to that person. So I was really excited about the fact that I could now form some really close friendships and that they’d be my friends for a longer amount of time. In terms of schooling, it’s probably about the same, you know? They’re both on a pretty high quality standard of education, I think.

IGNFF: If I remember correctly, you were a pretty good student, right?

MONAGHAN: Yeah, I was kinda good. I was kinda like… I got good grades… I tended to get A’s and B’s in my grades. I was a straight-A student in Drama and German and Geography, and things like that. And athletics. But I was kind of like the cheeky kid in school. Nothing too malicious… Nothing too nasty… I never really got into too many fights, but I was the practical joker – I’d put drawing pins on teacher’s seats and squirt water pistols at people, and invisible ink…

IGNFF: So you knew where to draw the line so you wouldn’t get in too much trouble…

MONAGHAN: Yeah, because my dad was a teacher – not at that school, but his brother was a teacher at that school, so my uncle worked at the main secondary school that I went to when I got back, so I couldn’t fool around too much. But I would steal sticking-sects from the science lab and put them in girl’s handbags – just kind of foolin’ around… Tomfoolery… I never got into that much trouble. I got sent to the headmaster for a few things, but I think more than anything my teachers kind of knew that I was more mischievous than malicious.

IGNFF: And what were your creative interests at that time?

MONAGHAN: I think when I was younger I was a lot more manic. Now I’ve kind of calmed down a little bit, but as a kid I was always the entertainer at family parties. I’d always be the kid up singing and dancing and telling jokes and fooling around, and high energy. I must have been a nightmare for my parents. Moving back to England, I started doing more plays at school. I played the Artful Dodger in Oliver!, and Bugsy Malone… I played Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol. I started to get bitten by the bug a little more seriously. I was then buying books about acting… I was buying a lot of plays, I was buying a lot of screenplays from movies, and acting them out in my bedroom. Just starting to feel it a little bit more. And in my extra-curricular time, I’d be writing plays, or I’d be thinking ideas, or I’d be fantasizing about if I could play Indiana Jones or I could play Han Solo. I started to get involved with youth theater outside of school. The main thing for me every year was the school play, and I very quickly realized that there was no one else in the whole school that was as enthusiastic about doing plays, or as invested in them, you know? I was good at football – you guys call it soccer… I was good at soccer, but I wasn’t the best. I was good at geography, but I wasn’t the best. With drama, it was just a thing that I knew I could do.

IGNFF: Something you could personalize a bit more?

MONAGHAN: Yeah. I could do it and I wasn’t scared. I think a lot of young kids at school are very conscious of trying to keep credibility in case they kind of stand out in a crowd and get bullied by trying to stay cool and stuff. And my whole thing, all the way through school, was I was just a goof… I didn’t care. I loved making myself look stupid, I loved fooling around, I loved putting on different voices, and acting up. I used to do impressions of all my teachers at school and certain kids in my classes. The thing that I personally thought was being cool was messing around and goofing off. Whereas I think a lot of kids my age try to stay under the radar by just being quiet and being not someone who stood out. But all I ever wanted to do all the way through school was to be an individual and just stand out.

IGNFF: Do you think that team sports or academic pursuits didn’t fuel your need to stand out and develop your personality like acting did?

MONAGHAN: Probably not as much, I don’t think. I mean, I wasn’t a gifted enough sportsman to be able to show people what I could really do, you know? It also just wasn’t something that turned me on as much. I came from a small, kind of close-knit family. I only have one brother, and even though we have a lot of cousins, my immediate family is kind of small. My mom and dad just loved the fact that I fooled around. They just embraced it. They’d always kind of enjoy it, and they liked it when I made them laugh. When we were having dinner or hanging out having a barbecue at the weekend or whatever, they’d like that. I’d be, like, their entertainment. So they completely embraced that side of me, which was really cool, and I think by the time I got to 11 or 12 and I was in school, I just thought, “Well, I’m not scared of fooling around, because I know at home it’s really well-received, so I’m just gonna go for it.” And also a couple of my drama teachers were really cool with me. They kind of supported me when I was younger, and took me aside and one of them in particular said, “Look, I think you can really do something with this acting. You’re really good and you’re focused, and you’re doing a good performance in this play. I think you could really do something with this.” Which was a great motivation, because when I was a kid I thought being an actor was kind of like being an astronaut – it was like a dream. It was like being an archeologist or something – it’s a fantasy kind of job that no one ever does.

IGNFF: At what point did you envision it as an actual career path to pursue? And had you entertained anything else?

MONAGHAN: No, I never entertained anything else, I don’t think, seriously. Probably from the age of like 12, 13, I thought this is what I wanted to do, but I was kind of embarrassed by it. I didn’t know how to approach it. I remember going to the careers advisor when I was like 13, and you have to tell them what you want to do and he gives you advice. I think like 4 or 5 people had gone in before me and said they wanted to be an actor, because by this point me and a few friends were doing a few plays at school and I think they thought it’d be a good job that they wanted to do. And the careers advisor had just said, “Well, you know, I don’t advise that. I don’t think it’s a good idea. Maybe you should do this, or do that.” So I went in, and he said, “What do you want to do?” And I said, “I want to be an actor.” And he said, “Okay, well, if you want to do that, I think you should try and get an agent and try and do more plays, and read about plays and read about actor’s lives.” And I remember thinking at the time, “He’s told everyone else that it’s a bad idea – but he’s told me that it’s a good idea…” and for a job that 97% of most actors are out of work at any given time, he must have thought that it actually wasn’t a bad idea for me. So I think that was another point where I thought, “This could work for me.” But I didn’t know how to go about getting an agent, or how I started to get up on the ladder. I just didn’t know what was required, so I just kept doing plays at school, I kept doing plays outside of school, and writing plays and reading plays, and immersing myself in the industry.

IGNFF: When did the idea of going to college enter the picture? Was it you seeing it as a positive step to gain more training, or was it something you felt you were supposed to do?

MONAGHAN: Yeah, college is kind of… My mom and dad were highly educated people – they’ve both got a couple of degrees, and my brother has a degree. In my family, it’s was not really an option for me to leave school at 16 and try and get a job. I mean, I could have done that, but it’s not what you do. You go to college and you continue getting educated, and then you go to university and you do the same thing – and then maybe come out of the education system when you’re in your mid-20′s. That was the intention. It was a natural sort of process for me. I left school and had applied to college knowing that I wanted to do drama, and then filled up the rest of it with a course in English Literature, and Geography, and then that was it. I was at college, which was kind of weird because by that point, academically, I was starting to not be as motivated as I used to be because I was completely bitten by the bug at this point. So I was getting straight-A’s, top of the class, couldn’t do anything wrong in Drama, and was getting D’s and E’s in Geography and C’s and D’s in English Literature – and my teachers couldn’t work it out, because they were seeing two conflicting grades, and I just had no time for anything else other than acting. I was just hell-bent.

IGNFF: And you were aware at the time that you were letting the academic side slip?

MONAGHAN: Yeah, I was, because I was also letting my social life take more control of me. College was a huge time for me to grow and try out new things. I mean, I guess I really started to embrace – by that point– being an individual. You don’t have to wear a school uniform at college. You don’t have to watch what you say – you can pretty much say whatever you want, and you can give your opinions to your lecturers, a little more informed as a young adult as opposed to a teacher-student kind of thing. So I was now starting to spend a lot more time with girls, and create a bigger social group with a bunch of guys, and… you know… just started to question a few things about the educational system, I guess. I started to lose patience with it a little bit, and probably due to my upbringing with authority and being told what to do and stuff, by the time I really started to turn into the person I thought I was going to be, I’d lost patience with people telling me how I was supposed to behave and how I was supposed to act. So yeah, college was… I think I was gonna fail college, pretty much. My teachers were starting to get a little bit worried, and the dean of the college had a few conversations with me about certain aspects of college life that I was not really that interested in.

IGNFF: What were your parents’ thoughts at this time?

MONAGHAN: I’d always probably been a little bit more of a worry to them than my brother. My brother’s kind of a straight-A student, very well-behaved, quiet, well-mannered… Just realizes that when you’re in the education system, you just put your head down and you work, and then later on in life you plateau. I was always a bit more sporadic, firing off wild shots here and there, so I think I was always more of a worry. But then they also knew that I was clever enough and motivated enough to do something. The main points that they got told by my teachers when they would go in for parents consultation meetings was, “Your son’s a clever guy, but he just needs to apply himself and concentrate and make a little bit more effort, and stop putting importance on being a class clown and making people laugh and stuff like that.” But I think, looking back on that now, that was me on stage talking to my peers and trying to gain acceptance, and trying to gauge how my schtick was coming off. Because when I was younger, I was much more… Well, I’m still into making people laugh – more than anything else in my life, my favorite thing is to make my friends laugh – but I then got into acting, which is much more of a serious way of expressing something artistically. But I think as a kid, I probably wanted to be a stand-up comedian or a talk show host, or something like that, so I was just trying it all out.

IGNFF: So you were a man in search of a sounding board…

MONAGHAN: Yeah, I think so. And I was also at a point in my life, probably about the age of 14 or 15, where I just knew that I’d never met anyone who was going to be able to shut me up. I was convinced of that – that there’s no one yet who has been able to shut me up, that I was always able to come back with something, in any kind of environment. If a teacher was kind of stepped up and was trying to embarrass me or was trying to make me look stupid in class, or trying to make an example of me, I just always had something to come back with. You know? It was the same when I started going to pubs. I was never a big guy in pubs. I was never the main kind of aggressor or anything like that, but I found myself in trouble because I always had a mouth that would come back with something, and there was just never anyone who could make me be quiet – because they’d say something and I’d react, and then they’d say something and I’d react, and then they’d say something and I’d react… I think probably through my upbringing with my parents, my mom and dad had pretty much made me believe that I could do and say whatever I want, and that my opinion is valid. And even as a little boy, they still listened to what I had to say and still wanted to know what I thought about things, and I think that just turned me into – certainly when I was a young man – a kind of pretty cocky individual.

IGNFF: Keen to engage in games of verbal one-upsmanship…

MONAGHAN: Yeah… yeah.

IGNFF: Have you met your match yet?

MONAGHAN: No, I still haven’t met my match yet. I’ve got a couple of friends here in L.A. who I hang out with – one guy who’s a singer in a band who’s pretty good – but we’ve had a few nights where I’ve talked about it… because he’s had a few nights where he’s on form and I’ve had nights when I’m on form, but I just said to him, “At any given point, we can do it. We can sit down, have a few beers, and just try it out and see if one person manages to crack and just lose their s***.”

IGNFF: So what is the prize when someone actually bests you?

MONAGHAN: What would it be?

IGNFF: Yeah… What is the prize for the “Dom Challenge”?

MONAGHAN: See, I don’t know. If I was in a bar and I started exchanging wisecracks with someone and they beat me, I guess I’d just really, really respect them and want to hang out with them… Just give them props and hold my hands up and say, “Wow. Okay. Sweet. Here’s someone that I’ve met who’s pretty incredible.” I mean, Billy (Boyd) is one of the few people in my life that – even though I really enjoy comedy and I really enjoy watching funny films and stuff like that, it’s seldom that I’ll really lose my s*** laughing… Really tears coming out my eyes, snot coming out my noise, laughing to the point where you can’t really breathe and stuff. Billy can do that. Billy has a really beautiful silliness to him, you know? That would be my main kind of way of describing the way that Billy’s funny, is that he has a silliness, and a beautiful kind of innocent, silly body language… A fabricated naïve act that isn’t real, because he’s a wise guy and he’s been around for a long time and he knows how the world works – but he puts on this naïve act which is beautiful. He’s definitely one of the funniest guys I’ve ever met in my life, and I think that’s one of the reasons why we spend so much time together, because it’s always entertaining. We just smile – which I think is one of the best gifts that you can give to a friend… If you can make them feel good and make them feel up about things.

IGNFF: When you talk about having issues with authority figures at various points in your life, what does it take for someone to gain your respect?

MONAGHAN: Well, I’ve always had a problem – and I still do have a problem – with the assumption of the kind of stereotypical views of young people. I’ve had a few times of walking into shops where shopkeepers or security guards will follow you around because maybe on this particular day I’m wearing a hooded top, or I’m young and I’m on my own and I’m browsing. I hate people assuming that young people are up to mischief. And if that happens, I always kind of get annoyed with it.

IGNFF: So you dislike people who think in terms of stereotypes…

MONAGHAN: Yeah, stereotypical views of young people as kind of dodgy. I mean, anyone with any kind of un-P.C. opinions really makes me pretty ill. I’m not that keen on listening to any kind of racist or homophobic or sexist kind of jabs. I don’t think they really have any place in our generation. I think my generation of people, hopefully – from the people I’ve met up to now – are quite switched on and quite forward thinking as a generation.

IGNFF: So you just have issues with rigid, inflexible thinking…

MONAGHAN: Yeah. And I have a huge issue with people pushing religious beliefs on to me as well. I guess, to a certain extent, I pretty much know who I am – even though on a daily basis I’m always learning something new – but I kind of know who I am and what I’m into, and what I like about my life and stuff. People pushing their opinions on me in any kind of over-the-top way just makes me feel a little bit ill. But in terms of what it takes for me to respect you, just anyone who’s pushing out good feelings. I think I’ve learned as quickly as possible that if you’re good and you’re doing the right thing and you’re behaving in the correct fashion, then it’s gonna fall on your life – it’s gonna come back to you and people are going to treat you better. And if you’re doing bad things and you’re treating people badly – and maybe no one knows about it but you know that you’ve done something bad – then that’s coming back as well. So I’m just interested in surrounding myself with people who are doing the right thing.

IGNFF: Do you think, to some extent, that that kind of give and take is the same as what you’d have to bring to a performance with other actors?

MONAGHAN: Yeah, I do, although I think some of my favorite actors – like Johnny Depp and Daniel Day-Lewis and Gary Oldman, and Tim Roth – I think they’re very good with character pieces. So you don’t get to know too much about them in particular because all you get to know is the character that they are. You just get to know these people that they play. For me, that would be the purest form of acting and the purest form of actor…

IGNFF: A chameleon?

MONAGHAN: Yeah, a chameleon… Someone who never looks the same twice. Someone who’s constantly stretching their repertoire, and is more of a character than a leading man. I appreciate completely what people like George Clooney and Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise are doing – especially Brad Pitt, who I think is an amazing actor – but the people who made me go weak, the people who made me want to become an actor are the character actors… The Daniel Day-Lewises, the Johnny Depps. I think Marlon Brando, to a huge extent, was a character actor who became a leading man. He was able to blend and change and rework his characteristics and was just embraced by actors as the first guy to ever do it. That’s what turns me on more than anything about the actors I admire.

IGNFF: When you were in college, where did you foresee your career going? Or did you even envision acting as a career while you were in college? Was that something that was a valid goal at the time, or a pie in the sky?

MONAGHAN: I mean, I do think it was a pie in the sky in terms of me becoming an actor, but I was extremely motivated knew at that point that that’s what I wanted to do. From the age of 11 or 12 I wanted to do it, and from the age of 15 or 16 I was gonna do it, you know?

IGNFF: Were you ever disillusioned at any point?

MONAGHAN: You know, I don’t think I was, because it was a very fast track for me. I did plays and I did plays and I did plays, and I read screenplays and wrote plays. I hung out with my drama lecturers at college and bent their ear and asked them advice. I didn’t get despondent because I’d only just begun, and also, at college, my life was kind of busy. Like I said, I started to hang out with a lot of girls and explore that kind of aspect of my life a lot more. I just kind of started going to pubs, and my social life was incredible – so I was busy, and I didn’t have an awful lot of time to get down about it. I was just keeping my head down and trying to stay in a college, because I was loving that time so much… trying not to get thrown out before I got through it. There really wasn’t that much time for me to get despondent. I mean, I got bored a little bit…

IGNFF: Bored by waiting for something to happen?

MONAGHAN: Yeah. And also, when it came around to summertime, we had like six weeks off for summer, lots of my friends were really good sportsmen so they’d go off to football camps or training camps for the summer for the sport they were in. I was kind of at a loose end, but unless I was going to give 100% to something, I just wasn’t going to get involved – and I wasn’t giving 100% to football because my heart was in acting. For a couple of years I really didn’t know what I should do in the summer, and then my dad suggested I should join a youth theater over the summer, called Manchester Youth Theater. Which I did, and I also did the National Youth Theater, which was in London. So that was what I did for the summer. But I got bored very quick as a kid – I think I was kind of high maintenance, and always needed new input. We kept reptiles, we kept snakes and lizards, so my days at the weekend were spent foraging around the garden for food for my snakes and lizards. Which then, subsequently, got me really interested in insects, because I started getting more interested in the food that I was feeding my reptiles, and I started buying books about insects and trying to work out where they lived and trying to go to find them, and all that kind of stuff.

IGNFF: When you look at the career path that you had, it’s interesting to compare it to Billy’s career path, which is quite circuitous and had an 8-year divergence into a “proper” career. You got your first professional audition during school, didn’t you?

MONAGHAN: Yeah… Just entering into college, yeah. I’d done Manchester Youth Theater and acquired and agent through that, and then I had an audition – it was only the second audition I’d ever had… I’d had one audition for a TV program in England called Cracker, which I didn’t get – luckily – and then I had an audition for a TV program called Hetty Wainthropp Investigates…

IGNFF: Which was the Patricia Routledge program, right?

MONAGHAN: Yeah. After 6 auditions, I went down to London on my own and met the director and met the writers and all that kind of stuff, and then eventually got the part. It was only the second audition I’d ever had. So that was me starting. When I was told that I’d gotten the part, I went back and spoke to my mom and dad and said, “What do I do?” And we sat down and had dinner, and my mom and dad said, “Look, you can go back to college… You can repeat your year, you can back a year after that… But you can never do this again. You can never get the opportunity to do this again, so why don’t you try this, see how it goes – if it works out, great. If it doesn’t, you can go back to college and not waste any time. And you gain a new experience. You’ve tried it and you’ve come to a decision.” So that was it. I left college for that year and went and did this TV program, and then my career really leapt into gear.

IGNFF: What kind of a learning curve was it to move from stage acting to television acting?

MONAGHAN: Yeah, it was kinda huge. I didn’t know how things worked. I arrived at this hotel in North Manchester and checked in, and thought that I had to pay for my room, and the lady was like, “No no – you don’t have to pay anything. The company that you’re working for pays everything.” And I was like, “Oh, okay.” So then I went upstairs, and I called someone and I said, “What time am I getting picked up in the morning?” And they said, “Oh, we’re gonna send you a call sheet as soon we print them up.” And I had no idea what a call sheet was. When he turned up, he had to explain what the call sheet meant and what time I had to be ready and what I needed to bring. Then we went on set that day – I think I got called in for lunch and then I was working straight up till lunch, so I queued in the lunch queue and I got my lunch and I got my money out, and the guy said, “No no – you don’t have to pay. It’s free.” And I was like, “Oh, okay!” And I just kind of hung out… It was kind of freaky. The producer was on set all day which – looking back – was obviously an intentional thing just to make sure I didn’t freak out too much. But it was all right. I think there’s these huge moments in my life where I’m aware that it could be something truly overwhelming and something that my brain is going to have a hard time processing – so I kind of switch to autopilot, and I just get through it. And I know in that first week or so, I just thought, “This is okay. It’s kind of scary, it’s kind of a big deal, but it’s all right. Just do what you do.” And you know what you’re doin’, so you just have faith in it. I just put my head down, and after the first week it was fine. I came back that weekend – I wasn’t supposed to – but I came back home that weekend to tell my mom and dad and my friends all about this incredible adventure I’d just started. And then it just seemed fine from then. It just seemed like a natural transition into the career that I was hopefully destined to always do.

IGNFF: Knowing that you had a learning curve, how accommodating were the other actors that week – especially Patricia?

MONAGHAN: I think Patricia was really good. We had met in the rehearsal process. She was very sweet, she took me under her wing, and she’d say some very cute things. She was the first person to ever say to me one of the greatest pieces of advice I’ve ever had about acting, which was that I needed to conserve my energy. Because you know, we’d be up at 7 in the morning and we’d be working to 11 at night, and on the drive home I’d be exhausted. I’d be tired, I’d be ratty, and she turned to me one time when we were going back and she said, “Can I give you a piece of advice?” And I said, “Sure.” And she said, “You need to conserve your energy more.” And I said, “How do you mean?” And she said, “Well, if you watch me, I do my work – but then in-between the scenes I’m just reading the newspaper or I’m resting, or just having a cup of tea and taking it easy. But you’re running around and you’re chatting to everyone, and you’re taking pictures, and you’re playing football, and you’re doing this and you’re doing that.” And she said, “That’s why you’re tired, and it’s going to affect your work.” And I said, “Okay. Thanks.” I went upstairs to my room and I thought about it, and I made a decision there and then – which has happened for the rest of my career – of just to be aware of the fact that the main thing that you need to give your energy to when you’re working is your work, and not necessarily to the social aspects of it or the good fun of being on the set. Because that can come after. But when you’re working… I mean, I’m involved in an industry that I truly adore and have to do on a daily basis, so I have to pay the respect that it deserves, which is to give it 100% of my energy when I’m doing it – and then enjoy myself after work.

IGNFF: Was there a point after that first week where you definitely felt you could take yourself off of autopilot and be able to make conscious decisions and enjoy the process?

MONAGHAN: Yeah… I mean, like any first week at school, I think you’re a bit nervous and everything is new, and you’re a bit edgy and you don’t know anybody’s name. I remember that a couple of the cameramen were really, really nice to me. They said, “Do you want to come and have a look at the shot?” And I’d say, “Yeah…” And they’d put someone else in front of the camera that was supposed to be me, and they’d say, “Look through the eyepiece. Here’s the shot. This is how big you are. This is how much of you we see.” And I think, in their own gentle way, they were just saying, “This is how it’s different from a stage.” On a stage, we pretty much get to see the whole entire body. We get to see everything – your whole being. Whereas on camera, certainly for TV, most of the time you get to see from the top of your chest, up. Or the bottom of your neck, up. So it’s just that the camera – the eye – is just a little bit closer on you, so I also started to process that kind of theory. And also, once you move into film, you realize that the camera is coming in even closer, and now it’s focused on your eyes. So it kind of goes from the whole of your body, to your face, to your eyes in film. These little things, I just started to kind f pick up on them, these processes.

IGNFF: How different is your acting style between film and stage? And how long did it take to get into that groove?

MONAGHAN: It was definitely a transition. I’m yearning to go back to the theater at the moment, and I’m having my agent look for a play for me to do in the early part of next year because I miss it so much. I mean, theater acting for me is the true form. It’s the real place where you learn, the place where you practice, the place where you can take risks and try things out, and I think what film acting is is when you’ve perfected what you’re doing and it’s a polished piece of work, then you do it on film. And then not only do you do 5 takes of polished work, but then they pick the one take out of all those polished pieces that they feel is the most polished. Whereas in theater, you have the advantage of – not fool around – but play around with the edges a little bit… Try something new. As an actor, it kind of feels to me, when I’m on stage, that I’m flexing all of my acting muscles – whereas in film, which is probably my favorite medium out of the three because of the effect it has on the audience and things like that, you are under a few more rule factors. The camera could be straight in front of you, there could be lights everywhere, there could be people everywhere… It’s not real. Whereas when you’re on stage, you have the whole stage that you can walk around, you have props that you can pick up, you have people that you interact with for an hour straight. On camera, you may have just come from lunch, and there may be problems with the makeup, or whatever…

IGNFF: Would you say that the emotional investment is greater on the stage?

MONAGHAN: Yeah, I think so. I just think it’s more pure. It feels more real.

IGNFF: Do you think there’s a cultural disconnect between American and British actors when it comes to their thoughts on doing stage work?

MONAGHAN: Well, it’s difficult. I think if an American film actor – who has just come from film and had done nothing else… It’s kind of scary. It’s scary to go from a medium that you know so well and that you’re practiced in and you’ve proved yourself in… to go onstage… Being on stage is, I think, the most intimate out of the 3. I think if I’d done theater for 10 years and then I was offered a film, I’d be terrified. I’d be like, “Holy s***. What do I do now? How is it different?” And I think that’s probably what a few American actors feel, who have just been involved in film for the entire part of their life. The other argument is why would they feel that they need to do theater? If they’ve been a successful film actor, they’ve made a bunch of money, they feel that they’re artistically doing what they want to do and they’re having a great lifestyle – what is going to make them explore a different aspect of acting when they one that they’re doing is working for them? But all the people I know, American or English, that have never done any stagework, I just say, “You have to do it. You have to do it.” Because it’s a beautiful thing. I don’t think you’re any more high then when you’re interacting with an audience on a stage, because it’s an immediate comeback. I mean, if you’re shooting something on film, then you have to wait a year until it comes out, and then you sit there with an audience – and after the film people come up and say it’s great, but when you’re on stage and you’re doing something, you’re actually feeling the reaction immediately from the audience. They’re coming back straightaway with how they feel you’re doing, and you can get high on that.

IGNFF: Do you think there’s a type of actor who’s incapable of doing stagework?

MONAGHAN: No, I don’t think so. I mean, it started on stage, so that’s like the birth of an actor, so I think people are more scared maybe. Maybe a little bit more apprehensive – but if you’re gonna do it, you’re gonna have 6 to 8 weeks of rehearsal time with a theatrical director who’s going to just gently advise that a couple of the nuances that you’ve picked up from working in film don’t necessarily work on stage, and that you’re going to have to project your voice a bit more and you’re going to have to use your body a bit more. I think if you’re an actor, then you can work on stage – but if you’ve never done it before, you’re going to have picked up a few things that you’re going to need to change when you’re working on stage.

IGNFF: What do you think is the harder transition – from film to stage or vice versa?

MONAGHAN: That’s a very good question. I think probably film to stage, because the neutral transition is to go from theater, to television, to film. If you’re going from the body, to the head, to the eyes, it seems to be a kind of natural closing in of the focus. If you imagine a camera looking at you, then it’s just closing focus from your body to your head to your eyes, as you go to film. Whereas the other way around is kind of zooming out, and I think it might feel a little bit weird for a film actor to know that he or she is hitting all their marks when they’re on camera and enjoying what they’re doing on camera, and then reviewing their performance on stage where they are doing the subtleties that you need to do for film acting, but they’re not getting the same reaction. Actors have egos and actors get upset by not being as well received, and they’re also scared and they’re aware that this industry is pretty fleeting. And if they’re doing something that’s right and it’s working, I think a lot of people just think, “Well, I’m not about to change that. But I’m going to go theater-film, theater-film for the rest of my life. That’s what I’m going to do as an actor. When I feel that I need to explore either one of the mediums, then I’ll bag one for a year and then I’ll come out and do the other one. I think they both really help each other. I think being a good theater actor helps you become a better film actor, and I think the same is said about being a good film actor – they just compliment each other really well.

IGNFF: Do you think one of the key differences is that film is very much about visual intimacy, whereas stage is about emotional intimacy?

MONAGHAN: Yeah, although you could argue that you do get that intimacy in film – that you do feel that emotional kind of thing. Maybe it is a question of intimacy. Maybe it’s just that. Three hundred people packed into a theater to watch you do a one-man show – they’ve all come for you, and you’re 10-15 yards away from the front row, and if you f*** up, it’s just you. And if you do a great performance, it’s just you. It’s an all-over body experience, and each one of those members of the audience has to invest so much in what you’re doing to enjoy the evening. Whereas I think on film, there’s a lot of stuff that is laced on top of your performance to make the film better… You’ve got the music, the effects, the costumes, and other actors working with you. It’s like…

IGNFF: Having a scaffolding around you?

MONAGHAN: Yeah. It’s like more cherries on top of the cake – more icing and more filling. Doing a play, it’s like acting, completely stripped down. All you’re doing is coming to see the actors. But in film, even to the last Nth degree – the popcorn, the Coke – these are all helping your cinematic enjoyment. Whereas I think if you’re going to the theater, you’re just going because you want to be entertained by actors. And that’s probably why it’s so scary.

IGNFF: If you’re comparing film and theater, which aspects do you enjoy the most, and which aspects do you dislike the most?

MONAGHAN: With theater acting, the whole process of investing in something – going through the rehearsal process, the performance, becoming more and more polished, and then the opening night – is a scary process no matter if you’re Laurence Olivier or Joe Schmo. It’s just scary the opening night of a play – the first time you see the audience looking back on you. But you just buzz off that so much and it’s such a great feeling to have that adrenaline running through you before you go on stage. Probably my two favorite things about acting – one of them is more kind of an ego trip, is when you finish a play, you go into the bar and meet your friends, and there are people in there that have seen the play and enjoyed it… You know that the whole theater bar is kind of packed out with people who have just had a really good night watching a play and enjoyed themselves, and you’ve entertained them. That’s kind of a nice feeling. But my favorite thing on stage is that ability to bend a little bit, you know? The night before you may have done something slightly different, and then on this night you just try and change it, and then you’re aware of the fact that it’s working or that the actor that you’re doing it with is reacting differently, and maybe better. I just like the fact that you can play a little bit with the medium and have fun, and constantly on a daily basis keep exploring and keep it refreshing. In the plays that I’ve done, we’ve played games to keep ourselves entertained onstage. You try and drop words in that weren’t necessarily in the play just to try to see how they work, and you change rhythms in sentences – you’d come offstage and you’d write them down, how they worked, or whether it worked, or whether it fell down. That’s the whole great thing about it – that you constantly… It’s like trying to chip away at a sculpture. You just keep going and keep going and try to hone it and make it more of a polished thing. In film, you have, like, 5 takes and you do something, and then you leave it and move on. And it’s gone and you do something else. So that would be my favorite thing about theater acting. My least favorite thing about theater acting? I find myself getting a lot more tired doing theater acting than I do doing film acting, just because you invest a bit more. It swallows your days up and your life up while you’re doing it. You eat, sleep, and drink the lines, and you’re learning the lines. Any time you’d go out, you’ve got the script with you and you’re trying to learn the lines, and you think about this character. And then you’re rehearsing and you’re putting it on. When you’re doing the play, it’s just you sleep all day, you do the play at night, you celebrate, you sleep all day, you do the play at night, you celebrate… It does kind of take control. Every time I did school plays – without exception – on the second-to-last night before we finished, I would be ill. So we’d do, like, three plays, and I’d put so much into it that I’d start getting sick, and then the second-to-last night I would be sick and have a cold, or a sore throat, or I’d feel s***ty. And then the last night I’d kind of cowboy up and feel a bit better. But it just takes a lot out of you.

IGNFF: Do you think doing stage is like, just when you get to the point that you feel comfortable and everything is going right, the production ends?

MONAGHAN: Yeah, probably. Just when you’re starting to get into the swing of things – which is a beautiful thing. I think keeping yourself on the back foot like that is a really great thing. I wouldn’t like to do a play for a really long amount of time where you become so comfortable with it that you sort of forget about it. I always like kind of not quite knowing my lines, and I would purposely convince myself that I’d forgotten most of the second act, just before I walked onstage, so I’m searching for it in my mind…

IGNFF: Tapping on the energy of panic…

MONAGHAN: Yeah! And scaring yourself like that is just a really good thing, because it’s coming from a real place. So instead of you searching for your lines, it’s actually comes from somewhere in your subconscious – you just come out with that line, and it is as if you have just thought of that line and said it… which is when I think you’re really performing on the highest kind of level. It’s either that or, you know what – the opening night is always kind of a little bit scary and a little bit freaky, but the second night is always a killer, I think, because you’ve done the opening night and you’ve got through the opening night… all those butterflies went… and then the second night you’re like, “Okay, now I know what’s going on. Now I know how it feels and how it looks with a real audience.” And then I think you really start getting into the swing of things. So either the closing night or the second night are always my favorite.

IGNFF: Does the closing night have a sort of “damn the torpedoes” energy?

MONAGHAN: Yeah, there is, but it can get a little bit manic. The closing night is always crazy, because you’ve always got people’s families there and people’s friends there, and there’s always going to be a party afterwards, and you sometimes look around and think, “I know that everybody is aware that this is the last time that they’re going to get a chance to do something or try something new,” so it can not always necessarily be the best night in a play’s run. For sentimental purposes, it’s always nice, but in terms of the performance, I think people can be a little bit off in the closing night.

IGNFF: So what are the positives and negatives of film? And I guess you can lump TV into this as well…

MONAGHAN: Right, okay. The positives of film, for me, is just that it’s my favorite medium in acting. It’s just the one that made me want to become an actor, and it touches me the most. I don’t think that it’s the purest form of acting, but I just think that it – whether we like it or not – it has the most effect. More people see films than they go to the theater. More people are obsessed by film actors than they are by theater actors. It just touches the world, you know? So my favorite thing, for me, about film acting is probably that… The fact that it’s one of the biggest artistic mediums in the world, I think – apart from music. I think I’m a little bit more touched by music, emotionally, than acting – but it’s a close second. And then the romance of it… Being a kid, when I was 5 or 6 years old I’d watch reruns of Empire Strikes Back – just put it on, watch the credits roll, rewind it, put it on, watch the credits roll… I’d watch it about 3 or 4 times a day and just obsess about these people. Obsess about Harrison Ford and obsess about Carrie Fisher, and what it would be like to be in that film. I thought Marlon Brando was kind of like not really a guy – he was like a messenger from the highest source… Someone that had come down and was like this magician kind of thing. So being involved in that industry with these people that inspired me and turned me on so much as a kid is the best thing about film. The worst thing about is there’s a lot of waiting around. One of the biggest catchphrases about doing films is “Hurry Up and Wait.” You get called in at 5am and you don’t go on set until after lunch, or you get called in after lunchtime and you don’t wrap until 8, and you’ve not done anything all day. That’s kind of frustrating. But it’s because it’s a high profile business, you know? They’re trying to make money, and sometimes the actors are sacrifices for trying to make money on that day, and trying to shoot out on location that they’re not going to get the day after, and stuff like that. So you kind of lose a little bit of control… You don’t have as much control as you do when you’re on stage. Because once you’re on stage – once the curtain goes up – it’s all you, whereas on a daily basis in film you can do your little bit on camera, but the rest of the day it’s up to the riggers and the gaffers and the lighting people, the cameramen and the director who’s trying to organize the day. And then you come in at the last minute and you do your thing and then you go home. That can kind of be frustrating.

IGNFF: How difficult is it, on a film set, to be able to flick that emotional switch on and off?

MONAGHAN: I find it really easy. People ask me this all the time – “How are you able to cry on screen” and “How can you get to that emotion 5 minutes after you’ve been fooling around with Elijah or playing jokes with Viggo or something” – but it’s just something I could do when I was a kid. I could always flip between emotions and be available to suddenly do something new. I think it’s a part of playing, and you hang onto it when you’re a kid – you can be completely convinced when you’re a little kid that you are in a magic castle trying to save a princess, and you have a sword and a shield and there’s bad guys all around, and you’re the greatest hero of all time. I remember knowing that when I was a kid… Just knowing that if I turned my back, Darth Vader would be behind me and I would have to fight him, and he would tell me that he was my father and I’d be scared and all that kind of stuff. So I think you just hang on to that. I’m not really that scared, as we talked about earlier on, about looking silly or looking stupid, and I think the biggest mistake that you can make as an actor is to go half-hearted. If you’re doing a battle sequence and you’re half involved in it but the rest of you is thinking, “God, this is stupid. All these people around and I’m screaming and I look silly, and I’m getting hit on the head with a sword and it’s all kind of like play” – then they’ll know that. They’ll feel that. All the crew will feel that there’s no investment in it. If you just 100% believe and you do what you’re doing, then they have to respect that. Lots of people think that crying in front of people would embarrass you or something like that, but it’s just an honest outpouring of emotion, you know? So if you’re in the moment doing it, then you’re telling the truth – which is not something to be embarrassed about.

IGNFF: When you talk about being in the moment, is there a difference between being self-aware and acting self-aware? Where you can be mentally self-aware of the moment you’re acting, but not have it leak out into the performance where someone can point to it and say, “There’s an artifice to that…”

MONAGHAN: Yeah. I mean, you have to block out things. People say to me, “How come you never look at the camera? How come you’re not distracted by the focus-puller or the lighting guy?” Once the camera rolls, I just don’t see that anymore. See, that’s the weird kind of juxtaposition – you know where the camera is. You know exactly where it is, as an actor, because that is what you’re playing to, so you know at what height it is, at what side it is… But as soon as the cameras roll, then you have to forget that it’s there – otherwise if you’re playing to the camera too much, it will look false. I think that’s one of the things that you gradually learn, is to try and block out everything of the process that is being taken to get you there into that situation. Your job is to now invest in that situation and believe that it’s real, and go for it.

IGNFF: Would you say that there’s a greater camaraderie on a film set as opposed to a theater production, or the other way around?

MONAGHAN: I would say, generally, there’s going to be a greater camaraderie in theater than there is in film but, I mean, I’m also going to be in a bit of a biased position, because I was involved in one of the biggest trilogies of all time, that involved the most camaraderie that I’ve ever experienced on a job, so in general I would say that most actors are going to feel more of a family kind of environment when they do plays and when they’re involved in the theatre, but I can’t get away from the fact that without question the most camaraderie that I’ve ver felt, and the most amount of feeling of family that I’ve felt, has been on Lord of the Rings, because it was so unique. We were all together for over a year-and-a-half, we then spent a couple of months going back in 2001 and the 2002, and then this year we went back… we all hang out together. Billy and I writer together, Elijah and I DJ together, and Viggo and I hang out together all the time. We just went down to see Orlando in Mexico, and we’re on the phone with each other a lot. I’m going to hang out with Billy today, Elijah just left for London – we spoke to him last night while we were watching the Oscar de la Hoya fight. People always say to us, “It must feel weird now that it’s all ending,” but the most positive thing you take away from a job is the friends you’ve made. When you go to university, the friends that you make is what defines the process of going to university, and for us guys it’s never really ended because we see each other on a daily basis and we speak to each other all the time. I probably will never truly feel that it will end because we’re always going to be hanging out.

IGNFF: When Hetty Wainthropp was coming to an end, did you have another job lined up, or was there a period where your future was uncertain?

MONAGHAN: No, in-between doing Hett, I did a couple plays in London and I did a couple of plays in Manchester. But I did the first series of Hetty and then waited six months to get another job, so that first six months was hell, because I didn’t know what it was like to be an out of work actor.

IGNFF: So how do you kill time? Because obviously, one of your strong suits is not to sit idle…

MONAGHAN: I just have to keep myself busy. I was aware of the fact that being an actor is an artistic type of expression, so if you’re not actively expressing yourself – if you’re not acting on a daily basis – then you need to do something else, like write or paint or read…

IGNFF: And what would you do?

MONAGHAN: I do a little bit of all of those things. Then we learnt how to surf in New Zealand, which was really good, because that takes up a lot of your time. I surf as much as possible with my friend Billy, and go to gym a lot, and do yoga, and go out to dinner. I’m involved with the film industry, so I tend to see pretty much every new release that comes out, because I love the industry so much. You just keep busy, and try to get involved with a lot of different projects. We all took a lot of photos – we all had like 3 or 4 different cameras each, and video cameras… Constantly painting. Viggo and I are getting together to collaborate on something next week. So we’re always just involved in something artistically, and if you’re doing that then you tend not to bottle up that kind of frustrated feeling that you can get from where you don’t feel like you’re letting that out of your system.

IGNFF: Is there any one thing that approaches the same level of love that you have for acting?

MONAGHAN: Artistically, I think either photography or painting, maybe. It’s a really beautiful way to express yourself, and I get a real kick out of it. I get high on it like I do acting. I love doing it. If I’m in the house and I’m feelin’ s*** and I’m having a bad day or not in a good mood, if I go and paint for a half-hour, it works. It makes me feel better.

IGNFF: Do you think it’s because, much like theater acting, the results are instantaneous?

MONAGHAN: Yeah. And it’s also just an expression. It’s you getting out those emotions. It’s weird to look at the work that you do, and certain colors that you used during different times in your life. I find that you paint a lot darker when you’re in a bad mood. I just think that it’s your subconscious trying to express itself, which is also part of acting as well.

IGNFF: You know, I’m trying not to go down well-worn paths…

MONAGHAN: (laughing) That’s cool, man… You want to ask me about the feet?

IGNFF: Se, I’m not going to ask you about that! I didn’t ask Billy about it, and I didn’t ask Sean about it…

MONAGHAN: I love it! Do you want to know what it’s like to work with Peter Jackson?

IGNFF: (laughing) I don’t know… We could edit this…

MONAGHAN: It’s fun, man. I think, probably in the last 4 or 5 years, the main questions that we get asked – it’s hilarious… it’s kind of like an in-joke with all the Hobbits… “What’s it like to wear the feet?” “What’s it like to work with Peter Jackson?” “How is Liv Tyler?” “How did they make you so small?” It’s just fun. Now, we just joke around. I mean, if we’re in bars and stuff and someone comes over and is like, “How did they make you guys so small?” We all just say, “Oh, we took pills. We took pills for, like, a year before we got the job., and we shrunk down.” And people are like, “Come on!” And we’re like, “No, man, we took these pills that come from a tree in New Zealand, that just shrinks you, and it was perfect to scale.” Some people are kind of like, “F*** you, guys!” and other people are kind of like, “Oh my god… That’s amazing…” You just gotta have fun with it.

IGNFF: Science is wonderful…

MONAGHAN: Yeah…

IGNFF: See, what you need to do is just all of these answers printed up on a business card so that when they walk up to you, you just hand them the card and they can walk away with all their questions answered.

MONAGHAN: (laughing) I like it! I like it!

IGNFF: “Pete was great. Liv was great. The feet were a pain.” All on a business card, just hand them right out…

MONAGHAN: With a stamp of your autograph… “There you go!” We were coming out of this hotel in New York when the premier tour was one, and you could see people outside of the hotel waiting for us to sign autographs and things, so I went over and I signed a few photographs. This guy said, “Could you sign your name ‘Dominic’?” And I said, “Well, I tend to sign my name ‘Dom’ most of the time, because most people call me Dom and that’s kind of what I like to be seen as.” And he was like, “I know, but could you just sign it ‘Dominic’?” And I was like, “Well… no. I’m going to sign it ‘Dom’ and thanks.” I then moved on to another guy, and the same guy approached Billy and said, “Can I have your autograph?” and Billy signed a couple of autographs, and the guy said to Billy, “Umm, could you sign it a little bit neater? I cant’s really read your writing.” And I was like, “Whoooaaaah. You guys are…” It’s cool, man. The journeys that you go on and the people that you meet are just so much fun…

IGNFF: They’ve just got to make sure that it scans nicely for eBay…

MONAGHAN: Yeah, there you go. Supposedly they’re using this blue sharpie, and with a blue sharpie you can fade out the chemicals from the blue sharpie and then transfer them on to a separate photo – for each photo that you take, you can actually get two autographed pictures.

IGNFF: I know a lot of people now won’t give autographs unless they’re personalized…

MONAGHAN: Yeah… yeah… I’m down with that.

IGNFF: What do you think about that phenomena? You can do a search with your name on eBay, and a thousand items will come up – everything from an autograph to the sheets you slept on in New Zealand…

MONAGHAN: Ach, geez… they’re probably in a terrible state.

IGNFF: And somebody just listed Billy on eBay last week… I think he’s up to $20…

MONAGHAN: I don’t really see those guys that often, but when I do see them when I’m out, I’ll sign a couple just ’cause it’s cool, but I won’t go crazy. I went to his party last week, and I signed, like, 5 for one guy and 5 for another guy, and then came out of the party and he was there again, and I signed 3 more and then 3 again. And then I was waiting for my car and he came over again, and I was like, “No, dude, I just signed, like, 8. I’m gonna be like s*** in a field if I keep signing autographs. You’re name’s like mud.” But I’ll always say, “Who’s it to?” And if they say, “Oh, you can just sign it,” then I start giving them a look. “How much are you gonna get on eBay for this one? Do you give two for the price of one?” and stuff. And he’s like, “No dude, it’s for my cousin… I just don’t remember his name…” And I’m like, “Yeah.” But it’s okay. It’s no big deal. I know other actors who have been around for a lot longer than me kind of have a problem with it, but I don’t mind. If they’re outside the hotel, then I wait till the last day, and then I’ll sign as many people as I can, and then I’m done.

IGNFF: So, in order to avoid the frequently asked questions about Lord of the Rings – what questions haven’t you been asked?

MONAGHAN: What questions haven’t I been asked… That’s such a great journalist question, huh, because I’m now doing your job for you…

IGNFF: I’m a sly one… See, and that way it’s not being repetitive…

MONAGHAN: What question have I not been asked…

IGNFF: Is there anything that you haven’t been asked…

MONAGHAN: There’s a few things, like why has it escaped the media’s attention that Viggo Mortensen is the devil. That’s never really been approached…

IGNFF: Okay, so he’s the sly one…

MONAGHAN: He IS a sly one! Have you interviewed him?

IGNFF: He is the “one you can’t get near.”

MONAGHAN: Right, well, Viggo is a true individual.

IGNFF: The devil’s got a hell of a publicist…

MONAGHAN: Yeah, he sure does. For the past two years, Viggo and I have been involved in trying to sabotage each other in the media by giving each other s***. For the second DVD of The Two Towers, the extended cut, there’s a documentary of the actors just giving each other hassles, and there’s HUGE stuff going on with Viggo and me, where we’re just making up rumors about each other, and makin’ out that things happened that actually didn’t happen. I’m hell-bent on this idea of trying to convince the media that Viggo is either a woman in a man’s body or the devil, or that he does terrible things to baby animals, and stuff like that.

IGNFF: It was my understanding that he’s entirely CG…

MONAGHAN: Well, yeah! This is also not come out that much, either, that the majority – I would say probably 95% of the work that you see as Viggo onscreen is completely computer generated, because he has a wooden leg and he can’t run. So they had to do all that CG. And also he can’t act. There’s all this stuff going on about how good he was in that film, but they had to morph a lot of the face movements from Billy and myself, because we were able to reach those levels of acting that Viggo just couldn’t reach. I mean, he can barely talk English, you know? He’s pretty dumb…

IGNFF: So who dubbed his voice?

MONAGHAN: I think Andy Serkis did a bit of work, and also Elijah. It’s like a combination of the two of those guys.

IGNFF: I mean, he’s an amazing creation…

MONAGHAN: He is an incredible creation, and you’ve got to give credit to Viggo, because it is mainly his torso and his chest that you are seeing, and he does look good in leather – but every time he opens his mouth, it’s Andy Serkis, and every time his mouth moves it’s done by Billy and I. And also, a lot of the main fighting that went on – that was me and Billy as well, because Viggo is quite weak. He’s quite feminine. He could never lift the sword over his head, because he didn’t have the muscle capacity.

IGNFF: Yeah, I mean, it’s so obvious that the guy who was in A Perfect Murder is not the same guy that’s in Lord of the Rings…

MONAGHAN: He’s lost it. I mean, I personally feel that he peaked in GI Jane. I thought he was incredible, and when I met him I was quite overwrought – but within the first 10-15 minutes, I lost all that respect, because he smells pretty weird as well. He lives in a barn, and he just smells of… Well, it’s kind of like horse piss and clothes that he’s not changed, basically.

IGNFF: It’s unfortunate that all that work went into him, and because of his ego, WETA will never be recognized for it…

MONAGHAN: No. Never. Poor Richard Taylor, I feel for him. And the sad thing with Viggo is he has a son. He has a young child, Henry – who’s 15 now – who’s now having to see and be influenced by his father. And we’re all trying to protect Henry from basically being brought up by Frankenstein’s monster.

IGNFF: That’s almost a case to make him a ward of the state…

MONAGHAN: Seriously, we’ve already offered to look after Henry. Elijah and I said that we’d adopt him, and I think we’re in the process of trying to make that happen, because it’s hell seeing this young man be around this freak of nature, pretty much, you know?

IGNFF: I think the case is open and shut…

MONAGHAN: Yeah, I mean, why not? I’m going to make up a few pins for when we do this premiere tour… It’ll be stuff like “Imprison Viggo,” “Keep away from Viggo – He Bites.”…

IGNFF: “Free Henry”…

MONAGHAN: Things like that. Because he shouldn’t be allowed out in public unless he’s in some sort of straitjacket. He also has a filthy, filthy potty mouth.

IGNFF: I also heard that he hit that transvestite with his wooden leg…

MONAGHAN: I mean, I’m kind of done with it. I don’t have that much time for him anymore.

IGNFF: But he’s the type that would probably stalk you…

MONAGHAN: You think? I mean, he’s very physically strong…

IGNFF: But you would probably hear the wooden leg…

MONAGHAN: Oh Jesus Christ… Can you imagine that? Star hit with Viggo’s wooden leg – that’ll be the headline in the Enquirer when this comes out.

IGNFF: Besides all these revelations about Viggo, is there anything else that hasn’t been asked of you or documented in some way?

MONAGHAN: I mean, there’s obviously a few stories that kind of slipped under the radar…

IGNFF: Where are the home movies? Billy talked about all these home movies you guys did that he feels should be released…

MONAGHAN: Oh yeah, there’s a bunch. Orlando’s probably got 4 or 5 videocassettes, Billy’s probably got about the same, I’ve probably got about 3 or 4, and also in the reshoots that we went to I’ve probably got about 7 or 8. Elijah had a video camera over there, Sean Astin… All in all, there’s probably about 20 or 30 private tapes from us guys. But what will probably happen with that, because we have such a good relationship with Pete, is that at some point in the future – probably 10, 15 years or whatever – we’ll probably all sit down and watch some old footage and Pete will say, “Ohhh, can I have that and can I use that?” And then they’ll bring out a Commemorative 25 Years Anniversary Collector’s Edition of Lord of the Rings that will have those guys, those little cherubs, running around in Wellington having fun.

IGNFF: Or you could just set up a 1-900 number and do Hobbits Gone Wild…

MONAGHAN: (laughing) Yeah!

IGNFF: I know Billy mentioned the possibility of putting together a compilation DVD and selling that…

MONAGHAN: Yes. I think that will happen. Back to your original question, I think that there’s probably a lot of stories that are just going to fall under the radar. They’re not going to get told because every day was a different story on that job, so you can’t document every single day. But I think a lot of the main things have come out – a lot of the big stories. But it was a year-and-a-half over there, straight, so it was a pretty unique experience. And it was such a big learning curve. We all learned to surf, we went snowboarding, and kayaking, and learned how to use swords, and bow and arrows, and all that kind of stuff. It was a real boy’s kind of adventure and there was a lot going on. No big fights, though, interestingly enough. You would have thought in a group of 10 guys that there would be a big fight – that we would be in a pub and someone would throw a punch…

IGNFF: Or a wooden leg…

MONAGHAN: Yeah. Stick a wooden leg on the back of someone’s neck, but it just never happened. It never came to fisticuffs… Which is nice, because it would be an interesting scrap…

IGNFF: Which is amazing considering not just the duration of the shoot, but the stress as well…

MONAGHAN: Yeah. But if it did come to fisticuffs, I’d just like to say now that Viggo would lose. He’d get beaten up by Elijah.

IGNFF: But that’s just because of Viggo’s dodgy arm, right?

MONAGHAN: Yeah… and his female gait.

IGNFF: Wasn’t his arm injured in a painting accident?

MONAGHAN: I think yeah… A violent painting accident with the color red, I think.

IGNFF: Just too violent a brush stroke…

MONAGHAN: Yeah… Or I think maybe the color just shocked him. He was so amazed that he could get such a red that I think it attacked him – or he attacked it – and he came off the worse.

IGNFF: Just stricken…

MONAGHAN: Yeah…

IGNFF: So how difficult was it for you all to prop Elijah up as an actor?

MONAGHAN: Oh yeah… that was an uphill struggle. He’s an interesting guy, man. He’d been acting for a lot longer than any of us guys. He’s been acting since the age of 8 or 9, or something like that, and by the time we got to New Zealand he was 18 – so he’d been acting for 10 years. He’s pretty polished and he’s pretty good, and also the responsibility of playing Frodo must have been pretty huge for him, but he never really expressed too much about feeling the pressure. He just was enjoying himself so much. I think he was having the time of his life, Elijah, because he’d worked on jobs for 6 or 8 weeks at a time and made friends with people, but then they’d left, and now he had the opportunity to hang out with a group of guys and girls for over a year-and-a-half, and he just truly embraced that.

IGNFF: And Elijah’s never done any theater work, right?

MONAGHAN: No, he never had…

IGNFF: So he’d never had that sort of camaraderie before…

MONAGHAN: Yeah… And subsequently, Billy and I have said, “Look, we’ll do a play with you. Me and Billy will look for a play, and we’ll find one, and we’ll get a really good theater in New York or London, and the three of us will do a really great play together.” And he’s slow to come around to that fact – he’s into it. It’s scary, but we said, “Well, it’s a lot less scary if you do it with us guys.”

IGNFF: If you want to make it really easy for him, the three of you could do Waiting for Godot…

MONAGHAN: Exactly. We’ll do it at some point. The three of us will work together on stage at some point and it will be a really good play.

IGNFF: According to Sean, Elijah was a bit of a musical terrorist…

MONAGHAN: Yeah, he is a little bit. We connected really well on that, because we DJ’d in a few bars in Wellington when we were there. We have the same kind of eclectic kind of taste.

IGNFF: So you helped him keep up his vigil so Sean couldn’t play his Patsy Cline?

MONAGHAN: No, no no… There was not one day on set where Sean was allowed to get near the music player, because Billy Joel does not wake me up in the morning. Nor does Kenny G. I like to put those guys in the trash.

IGNFF: But there is a place for easy listening in the world…

MONAGHAN: Yeah, I mean, I’m all for Sean late at night, getting in a bubbly bath with some red wine and sticking on some Kenny G and just really chilling out – but when I come in in the morning to work, and it’s 5 in the morning and I haven’t had breakfast yet, I need to hear some hard core either rock and roll or hip hop, because it’s the only thing that really wakes me up. So Elijah and I would constantly be trading different CDs – “Oh, you gotta hear this!” “Oh, you gotta hear this!” “I just got this! And his off the internet!” “A friend sent me this!” or “I bought this!”. Billy as well, to a lesser extent, like Elijah and I were crazy into that. And then realized that we enjoyed playing music for each other, and then thought, “Why don’t we play our music for other people?” So we started DJ’ing in bars, and that went down really well, and we kept doing it whenever we had free time in Wellington.

IGNFF: So what would the ultimate mix CD of those times be?

MONAGHAN: In terms of albums that kind of defined our times in New Zealand, I know that the Doves album, The Man Who Told Everything, was huge. And Coldplay, Parachute. The first Coldplay was massive. And there’s a Badly Drawn Boy album called The Hour of Bewilderbeest. There was a load, but I think if you were to ask Elijah or Billy, two main albums would be that Doves album and Parachute, that were just anthems for the whole year.

IGNFF: Now if I were to ask Sean what music annoyed him the most…

MONAGHAN: What tunes would annoy him the most?

IGNFF: At what point would he try to block you all out?

MONAGHAN: We bag on Sean quite a lot, because he’d come in in the morning and he wouldn’t like our music, so he’d kind of be in a bit of a sulk, and we’d go on set and just give him a lot of hassle. He very easily fell into the role of big brother to me and Elijah and Billy, even though Billy is five years older. He was just the kind of big brother. He’s married and he has a kid and he has a different agenda, but we’re all very close. But we could very easily piss him off by playing the Wu-Tang Clan at 5 past 5 in the morning, right down the back of his throat while he’s trying to eat breakfast in the morning.

IGNFF: And how often would Ian be banging on the wall?

MONAGHAN: Like at least once a week, Ian would come in and say, “Do you mind turning that down darlings?” And we’d turn it down a little bit… and then we’d very slowly edge it up. He originally was in our trailer, but then got himself a separate room because the music was so loud. He’d come in and say, “Not everyone wants to hear that music.” And we’d say, “Well, everyone in here wants to hear that music, Ian.” Apart from Sean. So… sorry.

IGNFF: I guess they didn’t care enough about Sean to give him another room…

MONAGHAN: Yeah. I mean, we compromised. We weren’t playing the most hard core, crazy music in the morning all the time… We’d do a little compromise.

IGNFF: But not enough to put on the Billy Joel or the Kenny G…

MONAGHAN: No. We never once put on one of Sean’s songs. I mean, you’d have to ask Sean about that, but I don’t think we ever allowed him to play his music. Elijah and I took him out a few times to buy him music, and we allowed him to play that.

IGNFF: That wasn’t very democratic…

MONAGHAN: No, I know. But he needed a little push in the right direction.

IGNFF: And you’re completely finished with the films now, right?

MONAGHAN: Yeah.

IGNFF: If there was one experience that sums up the nearly, what, four-year process, what would it be? Something that encapsulates the entire experience for you…

MONAGHAN: It’s kind of rough, but one of the biggest things that springs to mind is learning to surf is pretty symbolic, because surfing is all about getting your head into a different space and learning quite a difficult sport that is all about you. It’s not about anyone else. It’s not a team sport. It’s something that only you can do. But also the community that you get involved with when you’re surfing – me, Elijah, Billy, and Orlando… and Sean… all learned at the same time. Just being in the water together – you have some truly amazing times of the sun going down in Wellington and the sky going like a bright red, and you’re in the water with Elijah and Orlando and Billy, and you look around and you think, “Wow, this is what we’re doing. We’re on the other side of the world and we’re surfing and hanging out with our best friends.” I think that is a big symbolic feeling of what we all went through. Just that feeling of togetherness. And then bringing something out of that was the ability to surf, which we continue to do. We went down to see Orlando in Mexico last week and spent a whole week with him, and whenever we’re together it’s like the Fellowship has kind of re-formed, you know? So much of it is through surfing. And to be competent enough to do it – it’s a pretty difficult sport. But me and Orlando and Billy are now at the stage where we’re able to catch most waves and ride, and have pretty long rides. It’s a lifetime of work, and surfing, and learning how to do it, but it’s just a great thing that we’ve all done because it brings together so easily. We call each other up and say, “Hey! You wan to go here and take a couple of boards and go surfing?” It kind of symbolizes that feeling of togetherness in Fellowship, you know?

IGNFF: Speaking of the water and my incredibly awkward and indelicate segueways, where exactly does the film that you and Billy wrote stand right now?

MONAGHAN: It’s probably on like the 5th or 6th draft. What we’re doing at the moment is we’re separating it into three pieces, and we’re giving one person 2/3 and the other person 1/3 for a month, and then we swap every month. So at the moment I’ve got 2/3 and Billy’s got 1/3, and then we’ll sway and he’ll have 2/3 and I’ll have 1/3.

IGNFF: The last I heard, he was carrying you on the project, and having to watch you like a hawk to make sure you worked on a drive down to Mexico…

MONAGHAN: It’s interesting that he calls himself the main collaborator when he’s the guy that I’m having to force into trying to do something. Billy’s always saying to me, “Ach, I can’t do it. It’s too much work!”

IGNFF: See, Billy told me he had to force you to work on that drive down to Mexico…

MONAGHAN: Oh really… It’s interesting that he said that, because it was my voice recorder and it was my suggestion to take that drive back. It’s weird how things get lost in translation, but the important thing is that we’re still working on it and it’s looking good. We have a pretty good working relationship, because all we do is just say things that makes us laugh, and then we try to put them in the script somewhere. So it’s fun. It’ll probably be at least another 6 months until we start shopping it around and showing people. We’ve got someone else, hopefully, that’s going to come in and do a little doctor on it, and kind of change the structure a little bit, and then we’ll start shopping it around. But we’ve got interest from a few different people. Definitely Mark Ordesky at New Line is pretty interested in seeing it, and someone from Dreamworks is whispering that they want to see it as well – so we’ll get it to a point where we’re proud of it and then we’ll start shopping it about.

IGNFF: Is it something that you would consider making independently?

MONAGHAN: It’s a vehicle for Billy and I to work together, so whatever that takes. Hopefully we can do something with a studio and get a nice budget, but if we do it with a studio we’re going to want as much artistic control as possible. We’re gonna want to know the director well enough to know that he’s not going to change the writing too much…

IGNFF: That’s why you get Sean to direct it…

MONAGHAN: Yeah… I mean, that could work. Sure! He could be like a ghost director…

IGNFF: But it would say “Billy and Dom”…

MONAGHAN: Yeah. I mean, there’s going to be some cameos in there. There’s a cameo for Elijah, there’s a part for Viggo, Orlando’s in there… so we’ll bring back all our friends and try to get them involved.

IGNFF: Are you going to have the budget to do the CG on Viggo?

MONAGHAN: I don’t know… What I’m suggesting is to just make him a pirate and shoot his wooden leg. And then we could say it was Viggo… But if you shoot his face, you’re going to come into problems.

IGNFF: You could always make a puppet double…

MONAGHAN: We could make a puppet. Yeah, that’s a good point.

IGNFF: Get one of those ex-Henson guys to whip something up…

MONAGHAN: Yeah! They must owe us a few favors. Although maybe someone from WETA could draw up some sort of Viggo double. Or we could bring in Sean Bean… he looks kind of like Viggo, and he’s much better.

IGNFF: That could fool the audience…

MONAGHAN: Yeah. Sure.

IGNFF: Add a couple of quick cutaways so people get a hint of Viggo…

MONAGHAN: Right… You’d just see a flash of beard and some long hair, and they’d think, “Oh, that’s Viggo.”

IGNFF: I think audiences would buy it.

MONAGHAN: Yeah, I think so.

IGNFF: If they could buy that you two directed it, they’ll buy anything…

MONAGHAN: (laughing) God, they will.

IGNFF: Has the plot altered significantly, or is it still basically the one everyone’s heard?

MONAGHAN: It’s pretty much the story of two young men who get the opportunity of running a scuba diving school in Miami, Florida. That’s pretty much the story. It’s the ramifications of what happens with that, with these two guys who really don’t know what they’re doing, going over to America for the first time, trying to run a scuba diving school when they can’t actually scuba dive. It’s like a farce/drama/comedy…

IGNFF: I can just imagine the liability insurance…

MONAGHAN: Yeah, that’d be good. There’s a great scene with a shark which we’re trying to work out how to do.

IGNFF: So would you attempt to film on location?

MONAGHAN: Yeah, we’d definitely be hanging out in Miami for awhile, which is no bad thing. We spent some time surfing in Miami a few years ago and really enjoyed it, so we’d like to go back there.

IGNFF: What you need to do is just contact MTV and have them give you one of their old beach houses, and that could be your production office/studio…

MONAGHAN: Oh, we could definitely do that. Yeah.

IGNFF: So your best case scenario is what, shooting within a year?

MONAGHAN: We’re gonna try and get it done next year, if we can. Comedy is one of my favorite genres in film, so I want to do it right. I don’t want to do a half-baked comedy. If we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it so we can potentially set up a franchise of films after that. So the first one has to be good. We’re going to wait until we think it’s perfect, and then we’ll do it.

IGNFF: Have you entertained any other ideas besides that one?

MONAGHAN: Yeah, there’s been a few scripts blowing around that were like two-handers for people that people said, “Do you want to do this? Do you want to do that?” But nothing as good as I think the idea that Billy and I have.

IGNFF: What other projects do you have in the pipeline?

MONAGHAN: I just finished up two in England this year – one called Purifiers, which is basically this kind of remake of the film The Warriors. It’s kind of like an English version of The Warriors…

IGNFF: Is there a bottle scene?

MONAGHAN: No. It’s based on gangs on an inner-city kind of environment, but that’s pretty much where it starts and finishes in terms of a comparison with The Warriors.

IGNFF: And what is your role?

MONAGHAN: I play one of the main guys on the gang, the Purifiers. It’s the story of 7 martial arts gangs getting together to try and run crime in one city, and the Purifiers are the only gang that say that they don’t want to get involved – so then the other gangs join together as a group and come after us to try and kill us.

IGNFF: See, it doesn’t pay to be an individual…

MONAGHAN: No… see, it doesn’t. I play the main guy’s best mate, who is torn between wanting to join with the other gangs, and also being aware that he is on the Purifier’s side. So it’s a good part, because he’s a little bit of everything. He’s a little bit of a good guy and he’s a little bit of a bad guy. And then I did a film called Spiv, which is like a London heist drama gone wrong. I play a long-haired, greasy, bearded stoner who just walks around all day with a splif in his mouth.

IGNFF: So you played Viggo…

MONAGHAN: I did play Viggo! Yeah! Just talkin’ absolute gobbledygook, which I based entirely on Viggo.

IGNFF: It’s good to know that he’s a creative touchstone for you again and again…

MONAGHAN: He is, man. He’s a big influence in my life. If I ever want to play kind of idiots or degenerates, I just think of Viggo. He’s a huge inspiration.

IGNFF: It’s good to have a reference point like that…

MONAGHAN: It is. It is. It’s either Viggo, or I go to the zoo and look at chimpanzees for half an hour or so. If I can actually have someone who responds in a human way, then Viggo’s perfect for that. I can actually ask him questions. But I usually only get one-word answers because he tends to mumble quite a lot.

IGNFF: But the monkeys tend to throw less crap…

MONAGHAN: Yeah, that’s true.

IGNFF: See, now I’m gonna be in deep s***. Oy.

MONAGHAN: Yeah.

IGNFF: Back on track, both of those projects are in post-production, right?

MONAGHAN: Yeah.

IGNFF: Do you have anything else in the pipeline?

MONAGHAN: I kind of took time off after that. I did two films this year, came back after that, hung out in LA for like 2 weeks, and then I went to New Zealand for a month, reshot that, and the I went to Greece for a week – where I did ADR for Lord of the Rings – went to Mexico with Billy to go see Orlando, and then I got back last week. So I pretty much have been moving about and not been able to work after those past two films – but also not really wanting to, because I’m a little bit picky and always trying to wait to do something that I really want to do as opposed to working for work’s sake.

IGNFF: I’m assuming that Lord of the Rings has given you the financial flexibility to be picky…

MONAGHAN: Yeah, to a certain extent. I think a lot of people are under the misconception that we’re all multi-billionaires. We made all that money and we’re all okay, and in terms of most normal human beings we’re doing fine, but most people on the street think I’m f***in’ P. Diddy or someone.

IGNFF: But when money gets tight, you just head out on the convention circuit…

MONAGHAN: Exactly! I could do a convention. But you don’t want to do too many a year. I try and do maybe one a year and say hello to people. I don’t want to kind of whore myself out in that respect, because it’s not part of the acting process that I got involved in the business for.

IGNFF: You don’t want to get to the point of having your custom card table…

MONAGHAN: Umm-mmm, I hear ya. Like the guy who played Darth Vader or the guy who played Boba Fett. It’s nice to meet the people on a yearly basis, but that’s all.

IGNFF: I’m surprised you haven’t convinced Billy to move out to LA yet, What prompted your move?

MONAGHAN: It was just a natural transition. Like we said earlier on in the conversation, I moved about so much when I was a kid – I moved about every 3 years – and after I got back to Manchester after a year-and-a-half in New Zealand, I thought, “You know, I know Manchester and I know London, and I could move to London but it pisses me off – because it’s full of Londoners – so maybe I’ll just move to America. I know Elijah over there”… I unfortunately knew Viggo over here… I knew a bunch of people, so I just thought, “Well, I’ll come out and see what I think of America, and I really enjoyed it. It’s a really cool place. There’s some very nice people out here and the lifestyle’s great, the weather’s great. Today I’m spending the majority of the day with Billy at the pool talking through a few ideas and businessy things that we have to get up to next week… But it’s better than being in England and sitting in some s***ty pub with it pissin’ down rain. Now we’re just going to be lying by a pool and hanging out…

IGNFF: Frankly, I can’t see the difference…

MONAGHAN: (laughing)

IGNFF: England’s all about character, right? It’s a character-building environment…

MONAGHAN: Yeah, England is the place where the history comes from…

IGNFF: Very Dickensian…

MONAGHAN: Yeah. I mean, I love the country – it’s a brilliant country and it really is a huge part of who I am as a person – but I live in the world. I don’t live in England. I want to live in loads of different countries and see loads of different things, and just try and see a new thing every day. I got bitten by that bug as a kid I think, by my mom and dad. They showed me things growing up that most normal kids didn’t get the opportunity to do, and that’s what I want to continue doing. You’re always so happy when you’re traveling – you can’t not be happy when you’re traveling.

IGNFF: But how does that conflict with your previously stated desire for stability?

MONAGHAN: Well, I think at some point I’ll settle down. I mean, I’m still only 26. I want to have babies at some point. I love babies and always have…

IGNFF: You’ll have Henry soon…

MONAGHAN: Exactly! Exactly. That’s something to keep me grounded. But I think when I have babies and I meet the right person, I’ll probably move out of LA and maybe move to New Zealand or to somewhere in Europe and have kids and take it easy.

IGNFF: Start listening to Kenny G and Billy Joel…

MONAGHAN: Yeah… yeah, man… and apologize to Sean Astin a lot for the way I treated him. But at this point in my life, I am pretty sporadic and I am moving around quite a lot, and it does suit my headspace and I don’t really like that much pressure or responsibility. I just like to enjoy myself and do it while I can, and at some point I’ll take it easy… But I might as well get my living done while I’m young, huh?

IGNFF: I’m all for that…

MONAGHAN: You know it!

IGNFF: I’m not doing that, but I’m all for that…

MONAGHAN: You appreciate it…

IGNFF: I support the concept and when other people execute it… God, now I feel bad. I’m going to cry all day now. I thank you for that.

MONAGHAN: No problem.

IGNFF: Probably quite similar to the crying jag I had after my conversation with Billy…

MONAGHAN: Oh yeah. He can make any guy cry.

IGNFF: Well, I pretty much put him to sleep…

MONAGHAN: You did?

IGNFF: His big thing was that he was going to take a nap after our interview…

MONAGHAN: Well let me tell you, he takes a nap pretty much 24/7, that guy. If he’s in a static position, he’s asleep.

IGNFF: You need to get a production together where he can basically be asleep for the entire thing…

MONAGHAN: Yeah… I’m thinking about doing a production of Rip Van Winkle and just allow him to go, and I’ll just film him on a daily basis…

IGNFF: But it’s the lost years, so it’s Rip while he’s sleeping, and everything happens around him…

MONAGHAN: Yeah! It’s so weird. We’re such good mates, but there’s HUGE fundamental differences in me and Billy. I mean, Billy tends to wake up at 8:30– 9:00 most mornings. He’s bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, really beautiful in the morning. He’s really high functioning, he’s on the phone, he’s talking to people, he’s really clear. And then by about 8:00– 9:00 at night, he starts to fade away, he wants to go to bed and take it easy and sleep. I don’t even start to function properly until about midday, and then I really start to come into my own about 7:00-8:00 at night. And then I’m firing on all cylinders at about midnight-1:00 in the morning, then I stay awake until like 4:00 in the morning, and then wake up the next day at 11:00 or 12:00. So if we were ever living together, we would probably never, ever see each other because he’d be asleep when I was awake and I’d be asleep when he was awake.

IGNFF: It’s like you’re running marathon, and you pass the baton to each other…

MONAGHAN: Yeah. Exactly. We’re the original Odd Couple.

IGNFF: So when you’re doing the film, you can actually work 24 hours a day…

MONAGHAN: Yeah… Yeah! “You do the day shoots and I’ll do the night shoots, and we’ll just pick up the check at the end of the week.”

IGNFF: It works out perfectly…

MONAGHAN: Perfect! Symbiosis, my friend.

IGNFF: You’ve talked about wanting to back and do theater within the next year…

MONAGHAN: Yeah…

IGNFF: Is there anything else that’s really pressing on you? I’m assuming that you have no desire to return to television…

MONAGHAN: Not at the moment, I don’t think.

IGNFF: Although you and Billy in a sitcom could work…

MONAGHAN: That could work, sure…

IGNFF: With Elijah as the wacky neighbor and Viggo as the befuddled boss…

MONAGHAN: Yeah… yeah…That would definitely work. In the early part of next year, I’m trying to get involved with a couple of nature programs. When I was growing up, they were probably my favorite type of television. I really enjoy those type of things, so I’m trying to get involved with a couple of companies in England to go and study whales in Tahiti or there’s a place called the Tongas, which is a frozen forest in the arctic where you can go watch bears and gray whales, so I’d want to go and do that.

IGNFF: Based on your past, I’d think you’d want to spearhead something on insects…

MONAGHAN: Yeah, I mean, that would be my ultimate thing. I’m going to try and got to Madagascar at some point next year, because it has the most amount of wild chameleons in the world, and also the most amount of lemurs, which are the rarest primate. With the most amount of chameleons in the world, you’re going to get a huge amount of different insects, which is kinda fun. I’m going to go there with a skeleton crew and just make like a little documentary and try and get that sold to somewhere in England. With a kind of environmental message running through it, hopefully. So they’re kind of my main interests. And still just doing the thing that I do on a daily basis – still writing and still painting. And whether I do something with that at some point, I don’t know. I’m just trying to build up a catalogue of work that’s good enough, and then I’ll shop it about to see if anything comes of that.

IGNFF: And what’s the project that you’re doing with Viggo next week?

MONAGHAN: We got approached by a company to have a forest in New Zealand – me and Billy and Orlando and Viggo an Elijah – to all have a forest that we can go to and people can buy trees for. And they want us to design the poster for the forest, that will show people what it’s all about, so I think Viggo and I are going to get together and make something that will become the poster for advertising what it’s all about.

IGNFF: So you ever see yourself behind the camera doing anything besides writing?

MONAGHAN: Maybe. Not yet. I think acting is the biggest thing that turns me on about the whole process at the moment. But I don’t know. Sure, I could do it… I think you have to keep gaining your strength in acting. Probably the best directors out there are the ones that understand acting process the best, so I think you just need to get as much experience under your belt… More than anything in the next 5 or 6 years, I just want to work. I just want to play different characters and different people, some people don’t necessarily know what I’m going to do next, because I’m never playing the same part twice. They’re the actors that I admire that I want to try and emulate. So just working, and I guess there’ll be an element of trying to move away from that Hobbity kind of stereotype of being bright-eyed and bushy-tailed an innocent looking and sweet, and smiley. I have to, at some point, try and show an audience that I can do something a little bit different from that. I’m just really enjoying my life and trying to document it as best I can with photographs and with diary entries and with film, because I realize that at some point in the future I’m going to be sitting down and talking with my kids and my grandchildren about what an amazing time I had when I was a young guy, and be able to show them stuff and get them involved on a personal kind of level. So it’s merely enjoying myself at the moment.

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