From The Hill-Man in the Morning on radio station WAAF (97.7/197.3).

Greg Hill: Massive nerd alert on our next guest, Dominic. Dominic you there?

Dominic Monaghan: I am.

Greg: Let me just go over the nerd alert factors here, are you ready?

Dominic: Do it.

Greg: In "Lord of the Rings," Wolverine lost. Actually narrated "Ringers: Lord of the Fans," the documentary about the Lord of the Rings fans. Has a love for insects and reptiles.

Kevin: Love it.

Greg: Hosted a game night for "Lord of the Rings" cast mates.

Kevin: Ew, I tried to get into that, but...

Greg: And has, I believe, a "Lord of the Rings" tattoo.

Dominic: Mm-hmm, this is all true.

Greg: Isn't one of your name's, isn't that from Luke Skywalker.

Dominic: Oh yeah, it's true yeah. I took the name Luke added to it Han but they wouldn't allow the name Han, and then asked for Chewie, and they wouldn't allow Chewie so I rested on Luke at that point.

Greg: Well, Dominic Monaghan is our guest. Kevin is very excited, couldn't be happier. Huge "Lord of the Rings" fan. I follow "FlashForward." Quite religiously. Being on "FlashForward" and we all know you're returning to "Lost," what does it do to your ego to be on two huge shows at the same time?

Dominic: I try as hard as I can to keep that in check. It's important to keep it as real as possible. I'm happy to be working in the state of the world right now with everything kind of being in a down swing. I'm trying to keep it as humble as possible.

Greg: Do you run into some odd "Lord of the Rings" fans?

Dominic: Yeah you run into slightly freaky people who are still living in Middle Earth.

Greg: Between "Lord of the Rings" and "Lost" and "Wolverine," who follows you more paparazzi or nerds?

Dominic: Probably in L.A. depending on where you go the paparazzi can get a little sketchy. I don't tend to frequent the cliche ares of L.A. so I tend to keep myself out of trouble.

Greg: You have like a high profile actress girlfriend, right?

Dominic: Well, that's kind of suspicious rumors.

Greg: Got you, got you, don't want to play on that. So, what's her name?

Kevin: Evangeline Lily from "Lost?"

Greg: So, you're not confirming or denying that is what you're saying?

Dominic: That's correct.

Kevin: What was that?

Greg: That's was the "Lost" answer there.

Kevin: There you go.

Greg: Dominic, what can you tell us first about your character on "FlashForward," how long you're going to be on the series and then I'll follow up with a "Lost" question.

Dominic: I'm a season regular on "FlashForward" but the first time I really show up is tonight. I play a guy called Simon, he's one of the smartest guys in the world. Quantum physicist, graduated university with a degree in Quantum theory when he was 15. He's just incredibly smart and kind of a Type-A character, drives a very, very fast car, likes fast women. Lives the fast life.

Kevin: Are you a good guy or a bad guy on the show?

Dominic: It's really as simple as that, I would say he probably has slightly more bad elements when he's introduced to the show, but you come to work out that his intentions are relatively good.

Greg: Now are you already in the process of filming what you'll be doing for "Lost" or has that not started yet?

Dominic: I've been chatting with people about "Lost" but up until now my focus has been on "FlashForward."

Greg: So, you haven't read anything from the upcoming season.

Dominic: No, I've sat with Damon Lind "Lost" the creator and he's kind of pitched me ideas about season six, but up until now my priority has been to try and get this character underway on "FlashForward."

[Sound effect]

Greg: There you go.

Kevin: How am I supposed to feel when that happens?

Greg: You're supposed to feel intrigued.

Kevin: Is that what it is?

Greg: "FlashForward" is a great show, just the quality of the action and the acting, it's a really good show.

Dominic: Yeah, I think the quality of television has jumped up in the past five or six years I and "FlashForward" is arguably one of the most exciting new shows on television.

Greg: I read about you earlier being a big gamer. What's your favorite game?

Dominic: I think all time game is probably the FIFA games, the soccer games. I like the "Grand Theft Auto" package.

Greg: Oh yeah.

Dominic: I love - there's a great game called "The Mark of Creed" that I really enjoy playing. I'm enjoying "Halo" and stuff like that; your classic game stuff.

Greg: If you had to pick one "GTA," what would you pick? I personally would pick "Vice City."

Dominic: Well, I'm playing "GTA IV" quite a lot right now. But, the one that I really went deep on was "GTA III," the one that broke free of a lot of gaming traditional ideas. I really enjoyed that.

Greg: Do you like the motion control games more than having a hand held thing? I know a lot of people don't like - I think they're great. But, a lot of people don't like the motion controlled things.

Dominic: Like the Wii and stuff like that?

Greg: Yeah.

Dominic: Yeah. It's all right. I enjoy some Wii stuff, some sports stuff on the Wii like the Olympics and stuff like that. I was over Elijah Wood's house over the weekend playing "Beatles Rock Band" which is really, really fun.

Greg: Now, Kevin's really losing his mind.

Kevin: ...to Kevin again!

Dominic: It was actually me, Elijah and Billy all playing the Beatles.

Kevin: Harlequin, Mary-doc, and Froto the three of you in the same house. I cannot stand it.

Greg: Thank God a bomb didn't go off. It would've been a nerd disaster. When you mentioned soccer, are you a Manchester United fan?

Dominic: I am, yeah. I'm from Manchester. So, I'm one of the actual authentic fans. But, my dad's a Manchester City fan. So, I don't know how I ended up being a Manchester United fan. But, it just worked out that way.

Greg: Well, our Patriots just played at Wembley.

Dominic: Oh, that's cool.

Greg: Yeah. I was told that the fans, the British fans, were viscous when people would stand up, like if you want to go get a beer or go to the bathroom, they get all angry and violent with you over there. They don't like you getting up during a game. Is that accurate?

Dominic: We're the birthplace of hooliganism. So, we like to turn up at a stadium and then start arguments and fights with people. It's just part of what it means to go to sporting events.

Greg: OK. So, your first episode of "FlashForward" is tonight at 8:00 on ABC.

Dominic: I think so, yeah.

Greg: And you'll be there for the whole run of the series?

Dominic: Yeah.

Greg: Great. And then, do you know if you're going to be in more than one episode of "Lost?"

Dominic: No. I don't know a huge amount about "Lost." Like I said, "FlashForward" is my priority. So, if I get a phone call, we'll talk about it. But, at this point, I'm just concentrating on what's in front of me.

Greg: Awesome. How did you end up in Kimball's I'm F-ing Matt Damon thing?

Dominic: He and I our friends and that Ben Afleck thing was - he dialed up a lot of favors from friends and I think a couple of days before, he emailed me and said, "are you free on this day?" And I said, "yeah." And he said, "well, come out to the studio we're doing this retort to the Matt Damon thing." And I showed up and it was a lot of fun.

Greg: Oh, cool. All right. May I take a call from a fan?

Dominic: Yeah.

Greg: This is Jamie, I believe. Jamie, you're on Dominic Monaghan.

Jamie: Hi Greg. Hi Dominic.

Dominic: Hi, how are you?

Jamie: I wanted to ask about a movie you did recently that I saw called "I Saw The Dead," which I absolutely loved. I was just wondering, what was it like to work with Angus Scrimm and Ron Perlman?

Dominic: Yeah. The reason why I signed up to that film "I Saw The Dead" was because of the opportunity to work with Ron Perlman. I thought that he was just a cool actor and a great person to work with.

It was a small independent film made out of New York which was really fun to do. Now, it has a little life of its own and Angus Scrimm, obviously being a classic horror actor now of the modern age, that was a fun person to work with as well.

Greg: We actually had a few emails from listeners mentioning that they liked that movie in the past couple of days since we said you were going to be on, "I Saw The Dead."

Kevin: Are you going to see the Michael Jackson film?

Dominic: I think I probably will, yeah. I hope that it breaks through. I hope it's not just made by the Michael Jackson PLCL. I hope it breaks through into who the guy was and what he was all about, and not just a glorified pop video.

Kevin: I think it's the latter. My concern is that it's probably the latter.

Dominic: Yeah. I'm sure that's probably right.

Greg: I don't know. Who knows. Dominic, great to have you on the show. Quite frankly, you've made Kevin's month, really.

Kevin: Yes.

Greg: All right, Dominic. Thank you.

Kevin: Oh, one other thing I wanted to ask you about. Do you own a rain forest or something? What did I read about you?

Dominic: I own a mango tree plantation in India.

Kevin: Really?

Dominic: Yeah.

Kevin: How did that happen?

Dominic: I got the opportunity to buy a forest and I thought that's kind of cool. So, I went ahead and did that.

Greg: You know you've made it when you can buy a forest.

Kevin: How did the "Lord of The Rings" treat you? What do you pay for something like that?

Dominic: I think it was - it wasn't crazy. It was a few hundred thousand dollars, I think.

Kevin: So, how's the mango industry treating you? Does it make a good cake?

Dominic: It's good. I don't get any free mangos. So, I have to make a phone call.

Kevin: All right, Dominic. Thank you.

Dominic: Thanks.

Greg: See you, kid.