LOTR Prankster Gets His

Talk about a stretch! Everyone loved Pippin, the brave, innocent hobbit played by Billy Boyd in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. So what did the Scottish actor choose for his next role? A voice-over gig as a sexually confused killer doll in the gory slasher comedy Seed of Chucky. His follow-up to that one is On a Clear Day, a heart-warmer about a couple of guys who try swimming the English Channel (due out next year). Meanwhile, since Return of the King's special extended DVD is out this week, TV Guide Online decided to ring up Boyd back in his hometown of Glasgow and reminisce about those infamous high jinks on the Shire set.

TV Guide Online: The LOTR set sounds a lot like a boys' boarding school, what with all the pranks and horsing around.
Billy Boyd: It was all of that and more — just the most fun place to be. There were stages we went through. We played video games in someone's trailer all the time, then it was all listening to music, then playing board games. Then, there was a time where everyone was asleep all day.

TVGO: Who was the most incorrigible prankster?
Boyd: That would be [Dominic Monaghan]. Dom doesn't seem to get tired, so he just has more time to get into trouble. He gets really annoyed at me because I like to sleep a lot. But one of the best pranks was pulled on us.

TVGO: What was it?
Boyd: It was the scene where we met Treebeard the Ent for the first time. We were told there was a rewrite because they wanted more comedy. I said, "Great." So we received these very official-looking script pages that had me and Dom climbing Treebeard, and he would awake and knock us off. As we fall down, our clothes are caught on the branches, and when we hit the ground, we're actually naked. Then Merry comes to Pippin and says, "Are you cold?" Pippin says yes and we hold each other to keep warm.

TVGO: More of that gay hobbit subtext!
Boyd: (Laughs) Dom and I had to drive five hours to the set that day. The whole time, we were going back and forth from "This could be really good and really funny," to "No, we can't do that! How can we do a naked scene in Lord of the Rings? Can this be real?"

TVGO: Well, sadly, that scene never appeared on screen.
Boyd: It was a joke, all made up. That was the day they got us back!