[Translated from the original Dutch; therefore, all of Dom's comments have been translated twice. The original text is unavailable.]

Character; (Merry)

Actor; Dominic Monaghan

Date of birth; December 8th 1976 (born in Berlin)

Other roles; Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (TV) and several theater productions

For the young British actor Dominic Monaghan The Lord of the Rings was his first big movie and this was also the one that made him world famous. By playing the charactar of hobbit Merry he stole the hearts of many fans and opened the road to Hollywood. A road that he doesn’t want to take yet because he also likes to do smaller (theater) productions.

What is your favorite scene from the movies?

My favorite scene is in the Return of the King so I’m not allowed to mention that yet, but from the first two movies I was very proud of the scene where Merry gets dragged away from Boromir by the Uruk-hai. That was a very difficult scene to shoot because they had to place my head on the body from Kiran Shah (My stunt double and ‘small version’ from the hobbits). So I had to adjust the movements from my head to the way he had moved his body, very complicated.

Which other character would you have liked to play?

I think Gollum is a very interesting character, because of his schizophrenia. That really speaks to me in a character. I would have also liked to play the character of Boromir (Sean Bean) at the moment that we’re shooting his death scene, fighting with a sword and being active, while us hobbits could only throw little rocks. I’m happy that I had a lot of action in the third movie, Horseback riding and I get to stab certain characters with my sword...

Did you take something with you from the set?

Yes, when I was leaving Peter Jackson gave me some hobbit feet and I got to choose one of the swords I use in the movies, I picked the sword from Rohan, that you’ll see a lot in the third movie. But the best gift are the memories. When I see the movies now, I usually remember exactly remember what happened that day, if my parents were on the set, or that Billy (Boyd, the scottish actor that played Pippin) was cranky because I had thrown a pancake in his face. That actually happened by the way!

In what kind of movie would you like to play someday?

Comedy, definitely! Billy and I are working on a script for our own comedy at the moment, and it will be very good! New Line will, when it’s finished, look at it and also Dreamworks is interested so hopefully the movie will be made somewhere in 2004.