Billy Boyd's Q&A was lots of fun. He was escorted in by a squad of storm troopers, to much delight. Looking delightfully scruffy (he is growing a beard for his next role), Billy was dressed in dark jeans and a black open-necked shirt with sleeves rolled up above his elbows. He was absolutely charming, although a lot of the younger fangirls took advantage of that fact by insisting on giving him gifts and/or asking for hugs during the panel, thus seriously cutting into the Q&A time. Unfortunately, the con didn't cut off that behavior until the panel was nearly over, so Billy's percentage of hugs to questions was weighted fairly heavily in favor of hugs. I didn't take any notes because I was photographing pretty extensively, but I tried to audiotape--if any of that turns out, I will transcribe. Some of what I *do* remember is a question about injuries--while he was not injured on the set, he *did* break his little finger surfing. The WETA workshop guys put on an invisible splint for him, but he couldn't swordfight correctly with it on so he had to go without, and his finger is crooked because of that. The other story I remember the most was about the Ents--it was such a struggle to hoist Billy and Dom up, wire them in, etc., for their scenes with Treebeard, that more often it was easier for them to just remain in place and have tea handed up to them. Billy said that, quite often, everyone else would wander off for their tea, leaving Billy and Dom up in the tree--which after a while, they would start to talk to.

Stories I remembered later: when asked if he wanted to do more Shakespeare, Billy said that he likes Shakespeare and mentioned a certain company, somthing like the Original Shakespeare Company(?), that did Shakespeare like it was done at the time--the actors only get their own sides and cues, and do not know what the other actors do or say (no rehearsal either). He said it was great fun--I imagine it must be exhilarating when it works.

I don't remember the actual question about the different ways to interpret the story, but I remember Billy saying that at first, it struck him that the movie was about Sam: his loyalty to his friend, etc. Then he decided it was about Aragorn, the man who was born to be king but must find his own way to it. But mostly, he said, he thought it was about Pip.

Asked about his tartan, Billy said his family was part of the Clan Stuart, making his tartan the Royal Stuart.

More stories if/when I can transcribe the tape. As I type this, I am sitting in a long line waiting for Billy Boyd's autograph session, which promises to be pandemonium. I'm hoping the con staff makes an attempt to limit the time per person (since I'm sure Billy won't), because the line is pretty huge.

Update: despite appearances, I did manage to get to up to Billy in the autograph session. I had the photo of Pippin laying on the pillow in Lothlorien and I asked him if it was a still photo only or if there had been a scene that was deleted. He said that it was a scene, and between us, it would be included in the DVD. Yahoo!

That is the autograph session in a nutshell (well, that and me taking a million more photos). Then we all ran immediately over to the Javits auditorium for the "Inside the Actors Studio" panel. So, another one where I will have to hope to transcribe the tape--the part you absolutely have to hear is Billy's answer to his favorite sound, which was some loan moans a la Meg Ryan. Needless to say, the audience fell about in hysterics. On the subject of injuries, Billy alluded again to the fact that he wasn't injured, but also told the story of Viggo breaking the tooth and insisting on getting it superglued so he could finish--because he was Viggo. He then told the story of Dom getting his foot run through when Sean Bean tried to put his sword in his scabbard and missed. The final line of that story was: and Dom, being Dom, took three weeks off. Other answers I remember: the other character he would like to have played - Aragorn, and words of actor wisdom imparted to him - If you don't have to move, don't.