Oz ComicCon continues! We had the chance to sit down with a couple of very cool people today and have lots of interviews and pictures to share with you. To begin we have one of the biggest stars of the show, and one of the most entertaining interviews I’ve had the privilege to partake in. The fool of a Took himself, Billy Boyd!
Listen or read, good people!
Click to hear Billy Boyd House of Geekery OzComicCon 2015
G-Funk: This is the House of Geekery, and we’re here with Billy Boyd at OzComicCon Perth 2015. How are you Billy?
Billy Boyd: I’m very well, House of ‘Geekery’, thank you for asking.
GF: Was there an inflection on the name there?
BB: On ‘geekery’? There was, because I forgot for a second, so I had to look it up in my brain. Oh, you’ve got a tee shirt with it on…
GF: I do. First thing I wanted to say: you made my wife cry.
BB: Sorry about that.
GF: When Pippin and Merry get separated…
BB: Oh god.
GF: …and you act like you don’t know what’s going on. And every single time it gets to her.
BB: Is that when I’m on the horse?
As Pippin in ‘Lord of the Rings’
GF: Yeah.
BB: You know we shot that twice?
GF: What happened?
BB: We shot it once, and it was like there was an ending to it, like I did understand what was happening. Then Pete (Jackson), a couple weeks later I think, said ‘I want to reshoot that’ because it’s not finished business. Exactly what you got for it. So we did something right.
GF: Nailed it!
BB: NAILED it!
GF: You and Dominic Monaghan, who plays Merry alongside you as Pippin, are connected throughout the entire film. Did you have a good relationship off the set?
BB: Yeah, we had a great relationship. At the end of work we’d play some pool, or grab a pint or go and eat together. We became best friends very, very quickly.
GF: Are you still in touch then?
Monaghan and Boyd BFFs.
BB: Yeah, yeah, still. We’re working on a movie together and I did an episode of his TV show this year.
GF: Is that his nature show?
BB: Yeah, Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan.
GF: And Billy Boyd.
BB: For one episode.
GF: What was the episode? Do you have an animal specialty?
BB: I do! My specialty is pugs. But it’s Wild Things so he didn’t have any need for a pug. A pug is neither venomous or poisonous.
GF: Not yet.
BB: As far as we know. So we went down to New Zealand to look at the animals down there.
GF: What type? Kiwis, Moas…?
BB: We looked at the giant weta, and cave weta, and the tuatara.
GF: Nasty looking things.
BB: Crazy looking things. Then we looked at sheep. And dung beetles! Dung beetles are brilliant!
GF: This is the glamorous life of a movie star.
BB: I got my hands elbow deep…which is hard to with your hands…I got my hands elbow deep in cow poo.
GF: All in the aid of art.
BB: All to tell people about the magnificent and wonderful dung beetle.
GF: I know a story from the production of Lord of the Rings, and maybe you can confirm or disconfirm it.
BB: Right.
GF: I was told that on the set of Bree they put down golf balls to tell all the extras where to stand. Then you and Dominic picked them all up thinking they had been displaced and you were asked not to help out any more. Is there any truth to that?
BB: There’s almost a truth to that.
GF: Ok…
BB: The only bit you got wrong was that it wasn’t me and Dom…it was just Dom. And I said to him “Dom, you can’t pick them up, they’re for something”.
GF: So he’s the trouble maker? He’s the instigator and you’re the voice of reason?
BB: In life I’m the voice of reason.
GF: It’s Merry and Pippin on and off screen, the same dynamic!
BB: It’s the opposite dynamic!
GF: Of course, Pippin’s the fool of a Took.
BB: And he’s more of a Pippin, and I’m just trying to look after him in life.
GF: Isn’t that interesting.
BB: Kinda interesting.
GF: I find it interesting.
BB: Well, it must be interesting.
GF: I know what’s interesting.
Interesting.
BB: I can see that. You’re a tastemaker. That’s what they call you, you know.
GF: A tastemaker?
BB: A tastemaker. I like what you do.
GF: Thanks very much! Now, I always wonder this: you’re Pippin from Lord of the Rings, that’s how you’re promoted and we’ve got all these pictures of you as Pippin here…do you ever feel like you want to get away from that role?
BB: No, not really. It’s good, I think, as an actor you get remembered for anything. If it’s something you’re proud of, and something like, you know, the source material of Lord of the Rings is so amazing and Pete and his team did such an amazing job of the movie…I never get sick of it to be honest.
GF: Is there any other role you’d like people to be more aware off? This is your chance!
BB: I’d like people to watch Space Milkshake.
GF: Space Milkshake?
BB: Yes, that I made with Kristin Kreuk and Amanda Tapping, and Robin Dunne. I think it’s really funny and crank’n. And you’re in the House of Geekdom.
For a moment I thought he was trying to troll me.
GF: ‘Geekery’.
BB: Geek-e-ry. It’s a real geek movie.
GF: I think the sound of it…Space Milkshake it was called?
BB: Watch it tonight! You can download it from spacemilkshake.com.
GF: I will!
BB: For 8 bucks!
GF: 8 bucks?
BB: As far as I know. I think it is that.
GF: I’m at a con, I’ll have no money left.
BB: I’ll buy it for you!
GF: Ok!
BB: I’ll download it for you.
GF: Sure!
BB: I’ll give you the code. Actually I don’t know what the code is. You watch it, I think you’d love it.
GF: I’m getting the signal, thank you very much, Billy!
BB: Thank you for being here!
And if Billy is reading I am dutifully downloading ‘Space Milkshake’ as I type this up. Look: