Dominic Monaghan, an actor best known as one of the guardians of the ring in the Oscar-winning “Lord of the Rings” movies, is on the phone from Hawaii, where he’s just embarked on another jewelry quest, this time searching for earrings to send his mother for her birthday. There doesn’t have to be anything mystical about the earrings, but they can’t be too dangly. Along the way, there are certainly myriad obstacles. Over the course of a 25-minute interview, Monaghan is stopped repeatedly for autographs and pictures. He’s also accosted by one person who knows the unassuming thespian looks familiar, but can’t identify him. Monaghan cops to being an actor, but notes only that he’s filming “Lost” on the island for ABC.

A minute later, the same person returns, more confident.

“Were you in that hobbit thing?” “Yeah, that’s right, I was one of the hobbits,” Monaghan says, only slightly drawn out. “I was at the shop across the street looking for earrings for my mum, but do you know any other craft-y shops?”
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When Dominic Monaghan came zooming back from Middle Earth, he hit with a resounding thud.

“My first year in Los Angeles was pretty hellish,” says the British actor who played Merry in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. “I came over here after the high point of ‘Lord of the Rings,’ and I saw all my friends jumping around to jobs, and I had nothing.”

He’s found work now. The 28-year-old is co-starring in the ABC Wednesday night series “Lost,” the latest action ride from J.J. Abrams (“Alias”).

The expansive cast also includes Matthew Fox (“Party of Five”) and Ian Somerhalder (“Rules of Attraction”).
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It’s one thing to try to get into character as a produce-swiping Hobbit, quite another to cop the stance of a guy who once sang, “You’re a slave to the money, then you die.”

But so it is that Dominic Monaghan, his image set indelibly in the minds of this generation’s “Lord of the Rings” fans as the diminutive but gallant Meriadoc Brandybuck, gets on with the rest of his acting life, playing a fading rock star stranded on a deserted tropical island on ABC’s “Lost.”

Monaghan’s character, Charlie, is one of 48 survivors of a horrific airplane crash. The rest of the ensemble cast includes Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Ian Somerhalder, Jorge Garcia, Maggie Grace, Malcolm David Kelley, Naveen Andrews, Harold Perrineau, Josh Holloway, Terry O’Quinn, Daniel Dae Kim and Yunjim Kim.
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Just as viewers will be learning new facets of these characters on a weekly basis, so the actors themselves are not being made privy to any advance revelations unless their characters already would know about them within the context of the story. And the cast also has been instructed not to let any of their co-stars know of personal secrets their character is keeping under wraps.

Thus Monaghan, for example, knew Charlie’s secret from square one, although his castmates did not — and while viewers are let in on the secret early on as well, its nature is such that the young actor admits he has no idea whether Charlie ultimately will turn out to be a good guy or a bad guy.

“Charlie has been in a couple of places in his life that have sent him over the edge, whether because people have badly mistreated him or perhaps his family hasn’t given him the respect or support he really needed,” Monaghan reveals cautiously.

“I’ve always enjoyed playing people who appear to be one thing but are actually something else. The Charlie that he puts out there and shows the other characters isn’t really the Charlie that he is comfortable with. He is still playing to [the others] as an audience. As an actor, I have to play him right now in a way that I hope will keep the options open for him to go in any direction we need to take.

“That means I can’t hit any clear ‘good guy’ beats or ‘bad guy’ beats, because soon Charlie is going to need to confide in someone to help him through the bad times and if he makes the wrong choice, that person could use his secret against him, so Charlie is actually a little more cynical and suspicious than he might want to be ordinarily.”

Zap2it

Dominic Monaghan thinks it’s a natural move — follow the biggest film trilogy with one of the biggest television shows of the season.

“You’re never going to have a more successful trilogy in your repertoire,” he says of “The Lord of the Rings” films, “and that’s fine with me. I’m all about the work. I don’t need to have box office gold every single time. I just want to work on material I like.”

Enter: “Lost,” a new television drama from J.J. Abrams, the man behind “Alias.” In the new series, which finds a plane load of disparate types struggling to survive on an island, Monaghan plays a rock musician with a nasty drug habit. He’s forced to face his demons and determine out how he and the others can get back home safely.
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As a hobbit, Dominic Monaghan’s drug of choice was pipeweed, a gentle, mellowing substance that encourages the blowing of smoke rings and the singing of song.

As a tormented rock star, his drug of choice is heroin, which makes you want to suck powder up your nose.

Brutal place, the real world. Real as in the world of television drama, which has crashed-landed Monaghan onto a forgotten island to fight for survival against the elements and a mysterious jungle menace — hopefully for several seasons.
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Shooting ABC’s new J.J. Abrams series “Lost” in Hawaii affords actor Dominic Monaghan a chance to do some of his favorite hobbies.

Surfing is one, says the German-born actor best known for his role as hobbit Meriadoc “Merry” Brandybuck in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. “We didn’t get an awful lot of time off, but when we did, we were in the water in Waikiki, which is busy.”

Also, he got a black widow spider. “Which I think is illegal,” he says. “I’m a fan of bugs. I’m a fan of wild animals in general and had snakes and lizards when I was a kid and would go out and catch insects and bugs and become more interested in the insects and bugs. I do sound like a geek, don’t I?”
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