There are few things people love more than aLord of the Ringsreunion, andDominic MonaghanandBilly Boyd,who played Merry and Pippin in the original film trilogy, havecreated their own podcastcalledThe Friendship Onion, where they reflect on making theLotRmovies and unveil some entertaining stories from production. It turns out that they’re not done revealing behind-the-scenes trivia, either; during a recent interview withIGN, the two shared some illuminating insights about what could have been if the trilogy’s producers had had their way.
According to the actors, director and co-writerPeter Jacksonwas being pressured to have one of the hobbits killed, despite the fact that they survived in the books. Fortunately, Jackson refused to kill any of the precious hobbitses, but Monaghan had wondered who the unlucky candidate could’ve been.
“It’s a good job that didn’t happen because it would have been me. … It definitely would have. There’s no way they are killing Frodo and Sam, and the only ones that would be left would be Merry and Pippin. They wouldn’t kill Pippin because Pippin has a really strong story with Gandalf. It would have definitely been me. I think Pete quite rightly was like, ‘This is a luminary piece of written work, and we need to stick close to the text.’ So, he stuck by his guns. Yeah, I’m thankful that didn’t happen.”
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The podcast itself is filled with interesting interviews from the trilogy’s cast and crew, as well as stories from behind-the-scenes. One anecdote involves the Grey Havens scene at the end ofThe Return of the King, which Monaghan recalled as being the most difficult scene for him to film: “Well, we had to do it three times! If you were to ask all four of us, ‘Pick a scene you can guarantee you only have to do once and not go back to,’ we probably would have said Grey Havens, just cause we were all there weeping like children. … So, doing it three times, I definitely think that the third version that I did, the one that’s in the film, is probably not quite as hysterical in terms of the state that I’m in as the first one, or possibly even the second one. … It was challenging to do. You don’t often get asked to do that as actors and all four of you are standing there very vulnerable doing it three times. It’s pretty costing.”
The Friendship Onionis available wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, as well as on YouTube.
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