Dominic Monaghan, who played “Merry Brandybuck” in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, has shaved his hairy feet. Now he’s a one-hit-wonder musician turned drug addict — “Charlie” — in “Lost.

Monaghan admits he’s struggled since the Tolkien trilogy hit the big screen with people internationally associating him with “a very cute, adorable, sweet-hearted, nonthreatening kind of boy.” Then “Lost” came along and Monaghan jumped at the chance to show he had way more in him than that. He doesn’t mind that audiences loved his Hobbit character — he just knows he has to move on to a very different personality, or he’ll end up being typecast.

Seeing “Lost” as a new break in television and hearing that the show was a bit of a risk, Monaghan saw it as a calculated risk well worth the taking and isn’t surprized at its popularity. However, fame doesn’t come naturally to some of the cast, who, being their first job, are quite nervous about their own new popularity. With feelings ranging from fear to excitement, Monaghan reveals that the 14-member cast are becoming very close and supportive, giving each other advice and keeping everyone’s feet on the ground.

Monaghan grew up in Manchester, England, where he felt the draw to acting early when he saw Star Wars, specifically idolizing the character “Hans Solo”. As a child, he has also been the proud owner of snakes, lizards, bugs and beetles, and currently has a black widow spider. As an environmentalist, he’s hoping to use his fame to promote those causes.

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No more Mr. Nice Hobbit.

Dominic Monaghan, the beloved Merry Brandybuck in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, stars as Charlie, a one-hit-wonder musician turned drug addict, in “Lost” (tonight at 8 on WCVB, Ch. 5). What the Frodo is going on here?

“I struggled for the past three or four years or so with most of the people internationally knowing me as a very cute, adorable, sweet-hearted, nonthreatening kind of boy,” Monaghan said in a recent telephone interview.
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All the world knows Dominic Monaghan as Merry Brandybuck, one of those brave li’l hobbits from the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. Now he has another major hit on his hands with ABC’s Lost , the suspense drama about plane-crash survivors stranded on a desert isle where something even scarier than Jerri Manthey is roaming the forest. The 28-year-old Brit plays Charlie, the junkie rock star, whose tragic backstory is revealed tonight at 8 pm/ET. Yes, Charlie finally gets his very own flashback episode! Just before jetting off to Lost ‘s Hawaiian set, Monaghan sat down with TV Guide Online in Hollywood, where he lives during his downtime, to give us a juicy preview.

LOTR took you three years in New Zealand. Now you’re sequestered in Hawaii for Lost . When do you see your family? Or are ya on the run, like Kate? Dominic Monaghan: Yeah, kind of! But my parents are pretty much like me. They move around quite a lot. Right now, they’re living in Madrid. They’re not gypsies, but they’re traveling folk who like to move about. As kids, we moved every few years to different places in Europe. I think that’s what’s made me the type of guy who enjoys picking up his life and moving somewhere else. It’s no hardship for me living in new countries and getting used to different cultures. It keeps me alive and happy.
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LORD OF THE RINGS star DOMINIC MONAGHAN owes VIGGO MORTENSEN a huge debt of gratitude after the movie hunk saved him from a hefty fine and a reprimand on the set of the epic trilogy after he took him surfing.

The stars of the films were strictly forbidden from surfing in New Zealand, where they shot the films, because active sports injuries were not covered by insurers.

But Monaghan, a proficient surfer, couldn’t resist taking pals Mortensen and BILLY BOYD out for a session – and almost paid dearly for his dangerous hobby.

He says, “We were filming THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, and, if you notice, you can only see Viggo from the side profile for a few sequences because we went surfing.

“He fell off his board, his board went up in the air… and smacked him right in the eye.

“As he surfed over to Billy and I to say, ‘How do I look?’ we saw his eye just close.

“Viggo, being the cool guy that he is, said that he fell down the stairs or trod on a frog or something like that and we got away with it.”

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LORD OF THE RINGS star DOMINIC MONAGHAN was a teenage entrepreneur in his native Manchester, England, when he realised he could sell sweets and comics for a huge profit.

The actor admits he was a wheeler-dealer back in school – and made a small fortune doing it.

He recalls, “I didn’t get a lot of pocket money when I was a kid so I struck upon the idea of selling the candy that I brought to school for 100 per cent profit and then buying more and then coming back the next day with more.

“I made some cash and I had to write the orders on my hands because then it became like comic books, certain items of clothing. It became more of a big deal.”

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Dominic Monaghan conquered the big-screen in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy and is now grabbing the brass ring on the small screen with ABC’s new drama, “Lost.”

Monaghan plays Charlie, the one-hit rocker on the show about a group of airline crash survivors stranded on an island – which has become one of the few breakout hits of the season. He says he’s enjoying the challenge of playing a character coping with withdrawal from a heroin addiction, but is more intrigued by Charlie’s struggle with issues of faith.

“I was brought up in England in a relatively Roman Catholic faith,” says the 28-year-old Monaghan, who was born in Berlin and later moved to Manchester with his father, a teacher, his mother, a nurse, and his older brother.
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LORD OF THE RINGS star DOMINIC MONAGHAN’s new TV success in America is causing him much heartache – because he’s missing his creepy pets.

The British actor is filming hit drama LOST on Hawaii, in which he plays a heroin addict, which meant leaving his pets, cockroaches, a black widow spider and a snake behind.

He explains, “I had to leave them with my friend and the cockroaches unfortunately died.

“You can’t bring snakes into Hawaii – nothing without feet in Hawaii… There’s no snakes.”

But Monaghan has found new pets on the island: “In Hawaii, I have chameleons.

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Dominic Monaghan is calling from paradise. Currently residing on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, The Lord of the Rings star is shopping for a birthday present for his mother. An avid surfer, he is enjoying his time on the tropical isle, but this is hardly a vacation. Instead he is starring as Charlie, a washed-up musician who survives a plane crash and must start a new life on a deserted island on ABC’s Lost, one of the fall’s most anticipated television shows. The brainchild of Alias creator J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof (formerly a writer/producer on Crossing Jordan ), Lost features a large ensemble cast and some ongoing mysteries that are sure to keep viewers guessing. Little is initially revealed about Charlie–the bass player in a one-hit-wonder band whose members, he insists, are still together and due for a comeback–and early hints indicate he’s hiding a pretty big secret.

Occasionally during our interview he stops to chat with a passerby who recognizes him from his role as the mischievous Hobbit, Meriadoc “Merry” Brandybuck, from the Rings trilogy, and the actor is always gracious and friendly. He relished his time on the epic and remains close with his co-stars; three of the four hobbits will be reuniting in Hawaii for New Year’s Eve. But he is clearly excited about his new project. Monaghan won the role of Charlie, even though the role was originally conceived for an older actor. “He was supposed to be a has-been rocker whose band had fallen off the map, like, 15 years earlier, but Dominic is 25 years old,” Lindelof told Back Stage West . “So, he came in and read and just brought this great sense of humor to everything, [so] that we just rethought the character and said, ‘Well, what if he wasn’t an ex-rocker, but he was a one-hit wonder, and he just didn’t realize it yet.’”
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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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