King of the rings

Liv Taylor, Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen and Andy Serkis reflect on the ring cycle and the effect on their careers. Steve Pratt reports.

LIV Tyler has plenty of reasons to be happy. Not only does she appear in the last of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, but has a new husband, Leeds-born musician Royston Langdon. "It's been an incredible year for me," says the 26-year-old actress, who plays immortal elf Arwen in the Tolkien tale. "I married a wonderful man who's just so nice and supportive. We moved to New York and we've adopted a King Charles puppy, who's so cute I'm crazy about him."

She married Langdon, lead singer with Spacehog, at a private ceremony in the Caribbean in March. While her own marital status is simple enough, her family background is more complicated. Her mother Bebe Buell raised her to believe she was the daughter of rocker Todd Rundgren. At ten, young Liv discovered Aerosmith frontman Steve Tyler was her real father.

"I always felt loved by my parents and was grateful to have all these incredible people and creative energy around me, but I also longed for some kind of normality in my life," he says.

"I was so aware of the mistakes my parents made. My dream as a little girl was to have a family, children, animals and someone in my life who was my friend and my partner. Now that I finally got married and we have our house, everything that I ever wanted is in place."

Spending more than a year in New Zealand making The Lord Of The Rings was tough as it took her away from home and family. She admits to feeling quite homesick being so far away. She also had to deal with early flak from critics who didn't think she was the right choice for Arwen. "It was hard at times," she admits.

"But I feel really good about how it all turned out. I had a great time working with everyone on the film. It was never easy, but it was worth it and now that the films are completed I just feel really happy to have been part of them."

The films have given her career a boost. She knows how hard Hollywood can be, especially after being told more than once in her career that she should lose weight.

"A very famous editor once told me that if I could stay skinny I'd be bigger than Gwyneth Paltrow. I was like, 'I don't want to be Gwyneth Paltrow, I want to be me'.

"I don't have a weight problem, and I never have. Just because I don't starve myself and I'm not a size four doesn't mean that I have a weight problem."

A curvaceous 5ft 10ins, she has little time for actresses who transform themselves into the current Tinseltown ideal. "These women don't realise that they lose their appeal. A lot of people are afraid to be themselves, maybe because they lack confidence."

Although her career is on the up, she likes nothing better than being at home with her new husband. "One of my greatest pleasures is sitting around the house and watching him compose at the piano or just experiment at the keyboard. I love seeing that creative process," she says.

FOR American actor Elijah Wood going to New Zealand to film The Lord Of The Rings trilogy was almost as great an adventure as that undertaken his Hobbit character Frodo Baggins. When he landed there for the first time in 1999 it was only the second time the former child actor had been away from Los Angeles.

"There was this sense that I'm not familiar with any of these people. I'm in a foreign land, and I'm by myself," he recalls. "Yet I was quickly made to feel comfortable."

In a way, his own experiences have been similar to what his character goes through, he adds. "Going on this journey with a fellowship of people and returning having grown and changed. Being so immersed in my life in New Zealand and Middle Earth I didn't know what my own life meant any more, which is kind of similar to what Frodo goes through.

"What's so great about these films is they're an adventure epic but they also affect people on a very profound level, there's lots of parallels and interpretations. It makes you very proud to stand behind it."

Now Wood is preparing to bid farewell to Frodo and the gang as the third part of the trilogy opens around the world next week. The 22-year-old feels sad that it has finally finished.

"Every journey comes to an end, but at least there's a nice sense of accomplishment to be able to look at the entirety of the trilogy now. I think it's going to take some time to sink in although we still have got way to go in terms of promotion of the film. All this will resonate at its greatest this time next year when we don't have any of this any more."

Since completing the trilogy, Wood has made Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, with Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. Although his young face will let him play younger than his years, he hopes his future will hold "roles that are older".

He was mobbed by crowds of Hobbit fans while in New Zealand for the premiere of the concluding part. He's also had his first brush with media intrusion when he was recently linked to German actress Franka Potente. "That's ex-girlfriend" history, he says, although he has a ring she gave him.

* The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King (12A) opens on Wednesday.

Published: 11/12/2003