2005 ORC: Kim and Kathy's Report

SamsKimmie and I (Kathy2west) had an awesome time at ORC and wanted to share some of our more memorable moments, some of the comments made by the actors during the Q&A sessions and lastly share some of our better pictures with all of you. 

Our Memorable Moments:

• First day of the convention Kim and I are walking into the main theatre and who do we see????  Two friends from Toronto Canada that we met in line at the LOTR Movie Exhibit in Boston back in October 2004 at Sean Astin's book signing day!!  It's amazing how close you get to someone after standing in line for 5 hours!!  We ended up spending the entire weekend with them...how cool.
• HUGE smiles on each of our faces when leaving the photo op area after our pictures.  (Me with Elijah and Kim with Sean).  I do have to say that each of us was extremely pleased with the experience.  The photo ops were  really the only place you actually had a chance to have a quick near personal exchange with the actors and both of us thought they were sweet, gracious, handsome and extremely photogenic!!!
• Bruce Hopkins was really enjoying his time with us.  He participated in several events on stage and with the fans.  He really added a lot of excitement to our celebration.  The Supporting Actors panel was very entertaining and enjoyable as well and not hard to look at.  They explained how they were first and foremost "fans" who wanted to participate any way they could with the making of the LOTR movies.  And that they were at ORC not only as panelists, but as fans themselves.  They enjoyed the events along with us at the parties and in the crowd during presentations and performances. You'd be standing right next to them while enjoying World Without Sundays or getting fondue.  They shared their amazing experiences on the set with us.  It was really special.  
• When Elijah first appeared at the photo op area from behind a curtained-off area the crowd started screaming.  Elijah's face turned bright red (like his sneakers), he looked down and stopped dead in his tracks.  His body guard then gave him a nudge and they made their way through the crowd.  Elijah smiled and waved.  So shy and SO cute.
• Awaiting the arrival of World Without Sundays most of the crowd was hanging out in the back of the theatre enjoying drinks and desserts.  Suddenly an announcement was made introducing Billy & Dom.  The crowed dashed to the stage and all you could see was the bottom of countless shoes running.  It was really funny.  Billy and Dom quickly introduced the band as there was about to be a riot in Middle Earth.  We were actually hoping for Elijah to show, but he didn't.   
• On the red-eye flight home Kim and I tried to remember all of the Q&A session details and decided to write them down for memory sake.  I found an envelope in my bag and was trying to jot down notes in pink pen, in the dark; the words kept getting smaller and smaller as I ran out of room on the envelope.  Then I had to start drawing arrows to connect who said what.  Every time we thought we were  done one of us would remember something else!  (Kim definitely remembered more.)  A testament to a fantastic weekend!

Q&A Sessions:

Dom's:

• Told how Elijah, Billy and himself asked the helicopter pilots in New Zealand to do banks and loop to loops and how Sean stopped riding with them. 
• Also told a hilarious story of how Sean directed the helicopters to land on one particular day that had bad weather.  I think Elijah, Dom and Billy laughed at length at poor Sean!!  Dom's like "doesn't he know that they have radios in the copters."
• Had a lengthy discussion about being "metrosexual" and explaining how he liked eye liner and nail polish and the crowd, in no uncertain terms, gave solid approval and encouragement!! Go Dom. Be happy!!
• When asked what super power he'd like to have he said "flying."
• When asked what were some of the practical jokes played on each other he gave these examples; dead fish placed on engine of a car and chocolate chips on car seats (quite  messy on the jeans).
• Dom said he would love to do some comedy, although comedy doesn't seem to get the same respect as drama.  He said Billy and himself were still working on a script together for a comedy. 
• Talked about LOST and the evil side of Charlie...we can expect to see more darkness. He also helped the writers with Charlie's dialogue as a bloke from England would not say "dude".  So they gave that to Hurley instead, an American. 
• As Tamara explained, Dom goes commando!!  He jokingly said Billy wears his up to his nipples. 
• Told the story of how Billy and he got the idea for the ROTK Easter Egg with Elijah.  They had a blast taping it and thought it was hilarious when Elijah's publicist tried to end the interview (during the Easter Egg you can see a person in the lower right kind of waving their hand).  Elijah kept going on with the interview and Dom seemed to revel in this  Easter Egg caper!  Dom even let us hear a sample of Hans Jensen's "german" accent - quite funny.
• Favorite scene in ROTK, when "Billy" found him on the battle field (cute that he didn't say Pippin). 
• Joked how during filming Elijah never got hurt, but that he just recently got his first bruise, although he didn't say how?!

Billy's:

• I was a few minutes late for Billy's Q&A because I was trying to catch a picture of Elijah leaving the photo op area.  It was worth it though for two reasons.  First, I got a couple of good photos of Elijah. And second, as Elijah left the area he had to walk behind the seated audience during Billy's session to get to the other side of the theatre and then up the side to get to the back stage area.  He had a body guard with him and got across the back of the crowd almost unseen until Billy announces from the stage, "Here comes Elijah Wood".  Everyone turns their heads to look back and then some  people start getting up and cutting off his path.  Well, apparently Elijah started running to get to behind the stage and left his body guard in the dust.  Billy shouts, "Elijah's small, but he can run really fast"!!!
• A women brought a loaf of garlic bread to the stage to give to Billy and told him not to share it with Dom because he already had one.  Billy went on to explain that he had already eaten some of Dom's bread and that he wouldn't share his! 
• He also took a moment to thank everyone who had given him gifts during the photo ops.  He said he knew that it took time and effort to buy the gifts and that it was nice to know that there are people out there that think of him and the other Hobbits - How sweet is that!!!!!!
• When asked why he doesn't wear a kilt more often, he told a story of how Liv Tyler kept lifting his kilt at the Academy Awards - bad Liv.
• He would love to play Hamlet.
• A young girl invited him to attend her performance in a play and gave the date, time and location.  Billy said he couldn't attend, but invited the whole audience to go instead.  He then said, "you better show up early, it'll probably be a sell out.  Really.  Go. It'll be great!"
• Talked about surfing during the filming of Master and Commander.

Overall, Billy was a delight on stage.  And who can forget his beautiful accent.

John Rhys-Davies':

• I do believe that we will see JRD squashed by King Kong.
• There will most likely be an Indiana Jones IV.
• Talked about working with Spielberg, Lucas and Jackson.  All his comments were flattering, but PJ got the best!
• Told how he was very concerned and worried about playing Treebeard's voice and then he gave us a sample of how he came up with his voice...pretty neat.  A member of the audience said he should be the voice of Smaug in "The Hobbit" - very good idea. 
• JRD had a wonderful way  with all the kids that asked him questions.  One little boy asked him what his favorite scene was in ROTK and JRD said when the wargs fall on him (which just happened to be the same scene the little boy liked, what a diplomat.)
• Another little girl asked about the relationship between elves and dwarves.  After some banter, JRD said that he would have Orlando call her in 10 years (when she's 19) and the girl couldn't speak and her eyes were like saucers.  The crowd loved it and snapped pictures of her with her mouth hanging open.  Very funny.
• Kim and I agree with Tamara that JRD was probably the best session.  He has a stage presence that the other guys (though we love them all) just don't have quite yet.

Elijah and Sean's:

• Big hug between them, said they hadn't seen each other in a while.
• Elijah complimented Sean on his "look" with the hat and glasses.  Sean joked that he really needed the glasses now.
• They  both looked at the crowd of 90% women and laughed.  They said that one of their first meetings with Newline was to discuss how to get women to the go see the movie!!  Then they joked that women liked it because of the hotties, Viggo and Orlando!!  [We beg to differ, Hobbits rule!!!]
• Elijah told Sean that he read "the book" (Sean's book, There and Back Again, an Actor's Tale).  Later Sean asked him if he "really read it?"  Elijah replied "oh yeah".
• A little ballroom dancing never hurts.  Sean had worked on a ballroom dancing movie and gave Elijah a quick lesson.  Movie to premiere at Sundance. 
• They also had a little debate whether they should sit or walk around the stage.  Sean wanted to sit (and promptly sat on a nearby stool).  Elijah said "he felt guilty sitting because Billy walked around during his session".   
• Sean asked the crowd if they knew about the Easter Egg on ROTK and everyone did and he seemed a little  surprised and uttered "Damn internet".
• Elijah demonstrated the crowds knowledge by asking a couple of questions; "What was Sean recently filming in New Zealand?"  "Hercules" the crowd shouted and 'how old will I be on my next birthday?" "24".  Everyone then proceeded to sing Happy Birthday to Elijah (very fun), then we sang Happy Birthday to some attendees in the crowd (not so fun).
• During Dom's session he told us to say the words "x", "door" and "triangle" to Elijah and watch his reaction.  When it happened Elijah just got a huge grin and proceeded to explain that the words all related to a recent vacation they took in Hawaii.  "X" related to Nintendo X-Box (which I'm sure they played a ton of), "door" was to close the door - something about bugs and the screen door not being right and "triangle" related to some friend named Nigel who wanted to climb on the roof, but they didn't want him to.
• One question they answered was "how did you  influence each other?"  Sean said that he wanted to be in LOTR because of Elijah.  He had always been impressed with his work as a young actor. 
• Another question was "when you have to do a serious scene how do you deal with multiple takes?"  Elijah said that once he gets into the moment, he doesn't let himself leave it until they've got it.  Sean said he tries not to think about how he does it, because when you're too aware of it, it wrecks the moment. 
• A little boy asked Elijah, "what was your most embarrassing moment?"  Elijah then went into graphic details about when he was in the hospital last summer for a burst appendix.  The story included the fact that he had to pass gas or "poop" before he could leave the hospital, a cute nurse, a suppository and the comment "I'm too honest for my own good."  Enough said. 
• Sean challenged the audience to give to the Red Cross, a booth was in the vendor area, and he started it with $100.
• Sean also said that Peter Jackson had a Hobbit hole on his property now.  Elijah said he was sad because he hadn't been invited over yet.
• As the session was wrapping up, Elijah said he felt bad they didn't answer more questions.  There was still a long line at the microphones.  When they announced the session was over a little girl, maybe 3 or 4 years old burst into tears not far from the stage.  Elijah said "we can't have a crying child" and promptly went over to the side of the stage holding out his arms.  The little girl went to him and hugged him back so fast and tight...it was wonderful. The crowd of course loved it and snapped up a ton of pictures.  I'm sure that little girl's Mom won't forget that hug for a very long time.  And God Bless Elijah...what a class act.

That's most of it!!!  So much fun, we wish you all could have come along.  We hope you like the pictures...

Kathy2West and SamsKimmie