Billy Boyd Answers 'Lord Of The Rings' Questions

We all know that the cast became good friends during the filming of LOTR, but what was your first impression of your cast-mates?

When we arrived in New Zealand, people were arriving over the course of a month before filming started. Myself and Orlando Bloom were a couple of the first people to arrive and when anyone else arrived, there was a big meal to welcome them to New Zealand.

I don't know whether it was a piece of genius on Peter Jackson's behalf or whether it was a piece of luck that everyone got on so well. And it was like that for the whole year and a half.

Do you think that the third and final film, The Return of the King, will sweep up the most awards in next year's ceremonies?

Oh God, I've absolutely no idea how these award things work. I do think that if Peter Jackson doesn't get an Oscar for best director at some point during these three movies - and obviously we're going into the last chance at that - it is a travesty.

It really is a cruel joke if people don't recognise the feat that he's done. But that's the only one that I'm really bothered about - and I don't think Pete's the kind of guy who would worry too much about it either. But I do think that people should recognise what he did in these movies.

If Peter Jackson had the inclination to film The Hobbit, do you think the LOTR cast could play the roles?

They probably couldn't because there's not many characters from The Lord of the Rings in The Hobbit. There's only Bilbo, but he's only a very young man, and I'm sure Ian [McKellen] would do Gandalf. I couldn't see anyone else playing Gandalf now. But the other characters don't appear.