This Hobbit's Life

Our eyes are on winter's biggest movie, The Lord of the Rings, and especially on our favourite Hobbit, Dominic Monaghan. Here, excerpts from his diary.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, this winter's can't wait movie extravaganza, stars Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Cate Blanchett, Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood and Dominic Monaghan, who kept a set diary during filming in New Zealand. Revelation: being a Hobbit ain't easy.

September 24, 1999, New Zealand
I was picked up at 8.30am to go to the studio. One hour in the gym, and then I went to see our dialect coaches. After lunch I had a costume session, where people were turning up to pass judgement. As usual in those situations, I tried to deflect the tension by dancing and doing monkey impressions.

I thought my trousers and sleeves were too short, but aside form that, I love being the 'snappiest dresser' of the Hobbits.

October 1999
Just had a 'near-life' experience. On a DC-10 we tried to get to Queenstown in a storm. It was all wine and laughter until the plane started to violently jolt up and down. Whole glasses of wine hit the ceiling, and when I turned round to see that the air hostess had passed out, I realised that we were in deep s---.

We landed, had to unload the plane ourselves, then drove to our hotel. I did yoga for an hour just to stop my head from whirring like a food processor.

November 1999
Queenstown's flooded, which means that the river scenes may never be shot. Viggo rang this morning and asked if I wanted to go fishing. I said, "Why don't you just throw your rod out the window?" The water is about three feet high outside the reception area. Drove to Arrowtown with Orlando Bloom and Elijah Wood and played cops and robbers in the forest. Also, Billy Boyd [who plays fellow Hobbit Pippin] and I went round to six vineyards in a day. Not a good idea.

February 19, 2000
Billy and I had a big studio day filming the fireworks scene. We were covered in soot and we hung out with Ian McKellen [who plays Gandalf the wizard], which was great, as he has fascinating stories. The lovely Liv is here now. I am convincing her to go out for a quick bite. I'm sure she can't resist!

May 2000
We tried to get in a helicopter to fly to another set, but it was so windy that the pilot had to meet us at the bottom of the hill. Got back, did block-through for a scene, but the weather closed in and we wrapped for the day.

Went home and tried to make a cake, but the oven broke so I ate raw cake mix, watched TV, felt sick and went to Billy's. Victoria Sullivan from production came round. We drank wine and laughed at my cake-making skills.

September 21 2000
Vanity Fair came out today. Mixed reviews at work. I felt a bit strange that they chose a shot of me for a full page. I didn't want to come across as bragging.

Yesterday Billy and I got picked up at 5 a.m. and were driven to Mount Cook for a scene where we get buried in snow. We rode down the slopes on shovels.

October 4, 2000
Hungover...Very funny: at lunch, we were all wearing black sunglasses! Rang Mum and Liv when I got in. Viggo left a long message on my machine. He leaves these kind of stream-of-consciousness messages on your machine, like "Yeah, this is Viggo, I'm eating chicken, I'm wearing blue trousers, the sun is shining..." I always save the messages.

Went to the beach for the day and wrote as much as I could about this incredible experience and where my life seems to be taking me, etc. I fell asleep, and when I woke up the papers were blowing down the beach and into the water. I sat up and watched until I couldn't see one piece of paper left. I drove home and felt happy.