During interviews with Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd in LA last December, the erstwhile Hobbits waxed wistful about their work on The Lord of the Rings. Since wrapping The Return of the King, both had gone on to other projects (such as Master and Commander for Boyd) and had found the experience wanting. The problem? Both simply didn't find work as much fun without the other one around.

Boyd and Monaghan are a hoot to interview together. Their personalities are not unlike those of Merry and Pippin, and they seem to genuinely enjoy each other's company as much as Tolkien's (and Jackson's) Hobbits do. And when it came to talking about wrapping their Rings pickups, the two grew nostalgic. The scene back at the Green Dragon in the closing moments of The Return of the King, Monaghan said, was the last one shot with him, Boyd, Elijah Wood and Sean Astin. "They had us all come in, and Pete was really keen to get a shot with us guys, so they did a shot of the four Hobbits and Pete. And then they brought the whole crew in and they had the shot of us guys together." He turned to Boyd to complete the thought. "It was kind of sad that day, wasn't it?" Boyd nodded. "Yeah," he said. "It was a good day."

Boyd and Monaghan confessed that in the future, they intended to work together, or work not at all. This was a surprising statement, given how rare indeed they were then likely to find work. But it was admirable, nonetheless, as was much of what Boyd and Monaghan said last December.

So I get kind of sad these days when I turn on Lost and see Monaghan wandering around looking lost indeed, bereft of not only his friend, Boyd, but his best intentions and his innocence as well. If you follow the link in the article below, you'll see that even the best intentions of the Boyds and Mortensens go awry. Monaghan must certainly be disillusioned.

Below is an excerpt of our interview with Monaghan (DM), with a couple remarks from the more tight-lipped Boyd (BB) thrown in. As usual, the questions in the interview are posed by press from a variety of "religious" publications, and the actors' responses are given verbatim. Where necessary, extraneous, unintelligible or profane remarks are indicated by bracketed ellipses, so: [...].

Elijah said ya'll were thinking about buying a little cabin...

BB: Yeah.

DM: Yeah, Billy and I and Elijah were in New Zealand recently to kind of have a look around at some houses, and true to form it dissipated and we didn't follow through. But at some point I'm going to live there. And when I do, it will be nice to do something with—

The three of you are buds?

DM: Oh, yeah, we're huge— I mean, we're all friends.

BB: It's a weird thing. Everyone's like, finds it a mystery that we've found friends—

DM: I mean, we've worked here for four years.

And you've all got tattoos. Is that a secret?

Both: No.

Where are they?

BB: Mine's on my ankle.

DM: And mine's on my shoulder.

All of you have them on different spots.

Both: Yeah.

Can we see them?

Both: No.

There's a youth hostel in Scotland called Rivendell. Have you ever been there?

BB: No.

I haven't been there either, but I was close. It's up by Red Point.

BB: No, no.

It's on a foot path. The only way you can get to it is by a trail. It's apparently been there since the early seventies some time.

BB: I did go on a tour with a play, actually after we made Lord of the Rings. And there's an artist's commune—I can't remember what it's called, but it's a very cool place—and they have a Hobbit House there. And it's been there since the sixties. And these guys are great. Every house is [...], and they do things like—Their, um, the sewage? They use the sewage as fuel.

What?

BB: Yeah, it's an amazing place.

You two could be brothers.

DM: We are brothers.

You're in sync.

Your T-shirt may be answering my question, but you say that the environmental question is so prominent for you, and destroying the forest and industrialization. What things today are you personally trying to do about all that?

DM: I try to compete with President Bush, who's recently come out saying that he's intending on burning more trees and cutting down more forests and raping the world of all it's—

Are you trying to make it [sound] stupid?

DM: I'm just trying to wake up people to the fact that we just keep taking and taking and taking. We are responsible, as the highest common denominator, to try and turn the world around. I mean, what are we doing with our lives? And if, at some point in fifty or sixty years time, there won't be any world left for our kids and our grandchildren... I know that different generations always talk about this, and it seems to not take place—but with the technology that we've had, and the way that people have projected, they say there's going to be some incredible social problems due to the fact that all our natural reserves have disappeared. And the answers are out there. There are alternative sources of fuel and energy. You know, being on top of a tree with Billy for a couple of months in New Zealand, and being in a country that embraces the environment so well, we all just woke up to the fact that we are responsible, and we should take a stand. So because of that, both Billy and myself, and Orlando and Elijah and Viggo have got in touch with a company called Carbon Neutral and Future Forests, who work out how much carbon you use on a yearly basis to run your car and the heat that you use. And we're going to try to plant a million trees in a forest in Tibet and a forest in New Zealand. And by the new year, you'll be able to walk into any [...] store and buy a scroll for ten dollars that will guarantee that a tree will be planted in the Fellowship Forest that you contribute to. So...

What's it called again?

DM: The Fellowship Forest.

FutureForests.com?

DM: FutureForests.com.

It's an admirable thing to see your efforts channeled into things outside yourselves. What does a person do when they recognize the competing attention that there is for that kind of resource, for the AIDS crisis, or the kid down the street who doesn't have anything to eat? What kind of advice do you have for people who evaluate the different priorities and what to invest themselves in?

DM: Just being conscious of the fact that the majority of people seem to think that it's not their problem, or "What can they do?" Most of the people I talk to about issues in the world, the last thing that they say is, "But what can I do? I'm only one person." The big thing that I try to impress on people is, "Yes, you can do something." You can walk into the [...] store, and you can buy a tree. It will be planted. And you will have made a contribution. It's just little things. I think just waking up and understanding that— Everyone can go through their lives, and you can live a happy life, and you can not really give anything back, and maybe it won't reflect back on you. But if it doesn't reflect on you, it will reflect on the generations under you. And I think we are responsible.

People will listen to you guys, because you are heroes to the world in some ways, because they think of you as your characters—that some people think that you are, and if you say do this, they're believing Pippin and Merry.

DM: There are. There are some websites on the internet that have set up tree funds because of Billy and myself talking about this issue. So to have done that alone is a service...