For the latest international news check out

Click on any picture to see a larger version. Move mouse over picture for explanatory text. IMPORTANT NOTICE: All images on this site are Copyright Ian Smith and may not be reproduced or sold on Ebay, or copied outright to other fan sites without my express permission!

DISCLAIMER: This transcript is provided on an "as is" best efforts basis and is based on a MiniDisc recording made where speech was not always legible because of noise in the room and placement of the microphone at the back of a large room. Any errors made in transcribing what was actually said are mine, and not those of the speakers quoted, and may include spelling mistakes, incorrect names and other minor typo's. Readers should also bear in mind that statements read in cold print can often convey a completely different meaning from that intended by the speaker and perceived by the original audience. WARNING: CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE!
Showmasters rep: Just to repeat what we said at last night's panel. Flash photography only during the first five minutes. It's not fair on the guests having flash photography going on through the whole talk. After five minutes I'll let you know. Also no video during the talk. If we do see people video-ing and we do see people continuing to use flash we can take them out. You can't leave while the talk is on. If you do insist on going we can't let you back in. Be warned! Be nice people! We really hope you're having a great time. Collectormania is here for you. We want you to have a good time and we want you to enjoy yourselves. You really don't want to enjoy yourselves listening to me, so we're introducing nicer people. In here we have got Sala Baker, Lawrence Makaore, Brent McIntyre, Andy Serkis and Dominic Monaghan.
Dominic Monaghan: Hello! Andy Serkis: (with Gollum voice) Hello! Dom: How are we? We saw most of you guys earlier on, right? So, we're here to introduce 'The Matrix: Reloaded'.... Sala Baker: Heh Dom, look at that hat, right there! The colourful one. Dom: Oh nice! Very good. Has anyone brought anything to hold up? Not shirts! There's a lot of recognisable faces in here. So there's a group of people that are going to sing a song. Shall we build up to that moment? Andy Serkis: There's two songs here. Dom: OK. there's a group of people that are going to sing a song. These people.... What else do you want me to say? Andy: After three... Dom: Do you want me to say names? Andy: In fact come up to these mics. Dom: Very brave! FX: Girls walk up to mics Audience member:This song is dedicated to (garbled - Sam and Sylvia?) and it's off our debut album and it's called 'Simply Astin'. And it's called 'The Dom Song'. It's for Dom. Three audience members 'sing': His name is Dom Monaghan. He's such a fine and hunky man. He's got (undecipherable), he's got hairy feet. He's the kinda guy you wanna meet. That's why we're here today. There's just one thing we wanna say. We love you, Dom Monaghan. Audience members on stage: We're doing Andy's now. Audience member one: I'm a bit rusty on the Andy one. I only learnt it this morning. Audience member two: This is available from March.
Three audience members 'sing': Andy, Andy, Andy. Andy, dear God above. We wantss it, we wantsss it, we do. A-A-andy, Do the voice! Dom: It's kinda like being around when you first hear The Jackson Five sing, the first Beatles song. Audience member: Are we that bad? Dom: That was great! Lawrence Makaore: Fantabulous!
Dom: OK. What else? Who's got questions? Who wants to know things? Andy: Things we don't know. Question: I (something indecipherable) Lawrence (something else indecipherable) handsome Lawrence: Thank you. You haven't seen the (indecipherable - sour porn fringe??!)
Question: I want to thank you for putting on all the make-up to bring Lurtz alive on screen Lawrence: Yeah it was a 10 hour day putting it on and then four and a half hours to take off, but it was just another day at the office! Thank you anyway. Thank you very much. Andy: There are two very special people here tonight actually, from New Zealand, who worked on the film, behind the scenes. They're in the corridor over there. They're going to run away. But they were our 'on set' PAs and looked after us all the time: Danny Williams and (indecipherable). Dom: Show yourselves. They know incredible secrets about all of us. Andy: They know the intimate details. Dom: Lady over there with her hand like this, yes.... Question: I just want to say everybody on the project is an inspiration and wanted to ask who inspires you? Lawrence: My mum! Andy: The big guy! Dom: Ah, the big guy with the beard? Who's got food all over his face? Andy: Really cheesy feet! Dom: P-P-Pe-Pe-Pete-err-Michael Jackson! Who inspires me? Thom Yorke. You know incredibly artistic people who are continually pushing themselves on an everyday basis trying to do different things and change the medium. You're all thinking about that, aren't you? Question: I've seen the presentation you done for MTV... Andy: I was robbed! Question: .. to see someone as their own straight man, but can you tell us how long it took to do that? Andy: It was actually.. We shot it.. It was like one of Pete's crazy ideas where MTV said 'Look. There's a damned good chance you're going to win this thing' and they said 'OK. We'll put this award package together'. We literally kind of scripted it in about two seconds and then shot the Gollum part - you know, his rant basically - and then a couple of days later I got all dressed up and then shot the Andy Serkis part and then we kind of put them together. And then the animators, the animators who were then going to be coming in to work on 'Return of the King', Pete said 'We'll kind of put them into animation boot camp', and they had to animate that within about two weeks. They did incredibly. Question: Any chance that we can see the unexpurgated version? Andy: Well I don't know how much you've seen. I can't even remember it really. 'Dobby's a fucking fag. Jackson, who the fuck do you think you are? Shame on you! Shame on you!'. Question: I'd just like to say to you (Dom) on the extended DVD you talk about how you got a massive splinter in your foot. How big was it actually, and how much did it actually hurt? Dom: How big was it actually? To the naked eye? Under a microscope it was huge. Many, many pieces! No, it was small but the thing that happened was that you know you put pressure on it. You run. Running on it. That was painful. What happened was I was making quite a big deal out of it because I do like to make a big deal out of things. Billy and Elijah were around when the paramedic came round and opened my fake foot and was trying to get the thing out. I was sweating and nearly passing out. Billy was holding my hand and just, you know, keeping me talking, 'Just keep talking'. And they pulled out this thing that was about the size of a rice krispy if you cut it in about 60 pieces. And I never really lived it down. I'm sure, like I said on the DVD, it was made of titanium, you know some kind of hard metal that sent some sort of poison through my foot, and it was very, very painful.
Brent McIntyre: A morgul splinter! Dom: Shards of Narsil! Question: Ah, let's see (garbled - something about Billy Boyd) Dom: Because he's not here. Do you want me to tell you, like, Billy's most used phrase in life? 'I'm tired!'. 'That's me away off home'. I mean we're best friends you know, but... I mean we are literally best friends... but we are complete opposites. He wakes up at 7.30 in the morning you know, 'Hi. Hellooo. How're you doing?' and goes to bed at like, you know 8.30, 9 o'clock at night. Gets in his pyjama's at 7.30 and gets all toastie. I wake up at midday, in a terrible mood because I've just woken up and start to just wake up about 4 in the morning, something like that. So we never really saw each other when we were working you know. On the weekend I don't wake up. By the time .. he's asleep by the time I'm up and getting ready. That's probably why we like each other so much - we come from different ends of the spectrum. Question: (garbled - something about working with Sean and Elijah again?) I'm curious, just what sort of film would you like to be involved in? Andy: I'd never like to see them again. I've had enough. Five years torture it was. No. I loved working with Elijah and Sean. What film? I'd like to see them crawl around in lycra, while I towered above them, and took all the glory! I can't think what sort of film but I'll work on it. Dom: Thanks. That's really sweet. Question: But I just wondered what you were most proud of?
Question: My question is to Andy and Dom really. Of all the work you've done, other than Lord of the Rings, what are you most proud of? I've seen Monsignor Renard and I can honestly say that is just fantastic. I put my hand on my heart and say I'm completely obsessed with it. Dom: I thought Monsignor Renard was great, especially the scene where I get killed at the end - the execution. My mum especially liked that. I play that to her on her birthday. But probably my favourite work up to now... I did a play in London that I don't think any of you guys saw. It was a long time before Lord of the Rings, called The Resurrectionists, where I played a skinhead thug that accidentally.. He accidentally digs up the grave of a friend of his who's died and steals his dead dog that's inside the grave. His mum comes round and he ends up setting fire to the dog and then eating the dog to hide it from the mum. It was just a crazy, manic play and it was the reason I got the part in Lord of the Rings because the UK casting directors, who are called The Hubbards, who are really cool casting directors, came to see the play twice. They came one night, and then three days after they came again to tell me about auditions for Lord of the Rings, and were kind of impressed by the work that was going on. They said 'We're going to put you in to play a hobbit and kind of push you for it'. So I would say that that was a great thing for me because it kind of springboarded me onto Lord of the Rings and was also something that I really loved. And shame on you all for not seeing it! Andy: Funnily enough, there's a bit of a dog connection. I did a play called 'Hush'. The character I was playing was this kind of schizophrenic homeless youth who basically had a dog and he killed his dog and decided to become his dog. He broke into this very rich person's house and decided to hold them all hostage. Basicly the play's about their kind of reaction to this homeless youth who thinks he's a dog in their house. I was stark bollock naked for about two and a half hours, so I don't know how I got passed as Gollum really. I was pretty proud of that. That was a good piece of work and it was a really enjoyable production.
Question: (garbled, seemingly a question about playing another part in the movie) Lawrence: Who's other character in the movie you mean? Well, I'd like to play a part that doesn't die. Being killed! Yeah, anyone who doesn't die. Boromir's out! Sala: I'd like to be Orlando! I mean Legolas, I'm sorry. Andy: I'd like to have been Liv, in the scene where she stops the errr... Lawrence: .. where she's kissing Viggo? Dom: I kind of like Andy's part. I think Gollum's really great because it's one character with two seperate personalities. And Bilbo I think. Ian Holm's in it you know in fragments but the stuff that he does is so powerful because he's such a great actor. I think Bilbo's a really
charming, great hobbit. He's like the benchmark of what a hobbit's supposed to be, you know. I thought he was just incredible so... Brent: Yeah, I wanted to be Neo! Question: I've heard that Sean Bean gave you an unforgettable scar in Moria. What happened? Dom: Yeah. You know the scene where The Fellowship are trying to get to the Bridge of Khazaddum and they.. Suddenly arrows come down and you see Merry and Pippin kind of look down at their feet and then Boromir kind of holds his shield out and stuff like that. In the original scene which was then kind of cut down Boromir has a sword and he puts his sword away and then takes his shield out. So we're stood next to him. So Sean Bean went to put his sword away and thought that he put into the kind of sheath and didn't .. just dropped it three foot onto my feet. It was a hero sword, which are really heavy and it just cut my foot open. I've still got the scar, which is great because scars are kind of cool you know. And I can always give shit to Sean Bean about it! And it's the reason why I put a half-rotten salmon in the boot of his car! Payback! Question: Dom, I was just wondering if you could do your impression of BK Dom: OK. I actually called... We were supposed to meet Viggo one night, Billy and I, and he didn't show up and I left early and I called Billy that night, as Viggo pretending to say who I was on his answering machine. It was kinda like (FX: does very good Viggo impression:) 'Hi Billy, It's Viggo. I err I was out shooting wild boar and I caught one and killed it and I stuffed it and I cooked it with some fish and I drew it!'. I'm just going to turn into the impressionist from the movie now, whenever I'm here. There's so many girls in here tonight, man. It's like 97% girls. I'm looking for a guy to ask a question.... Off you go, man. Question: This question is for Andy. I heard about your play but I unfortunately couldn't see it, but .... Andy: Well you're not too late. It's still on for another week. If anyone's interested. 'Double Bass'. Finishes this Saturday. Question: Yeah, but I have to fly back to the States though! Andy: Oh! Well fuck off then! FX: applause and laughter On to page 2 of transcript
Don't forget you can check out reports of lots of other Lord of the Rings -themed events in the Web Logs section

Email: ian@iansmith.co.uk