Glasgow's own Hobbit heads home

Published on Wednesday 12 November 2003 00:00

HE HAS explored the farthest reaches of Middle Earth as the Hobbit Pippin the film adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.

But now Billy Boyd is planning to come closer to home for his next acting role.

The Easterhouse-born Boyd has revealed his life-long ambition to play Hamlet on the stage of the Citizens’ Theatre in Glasgow.

And he is already in negotiations to land his dream role.

Boyd, 34, said: "I love Shakespeare. There are so many fantastic plays, but if I have my choice I’d want to play Hamlet. It’s the ultimate acting part.

"I’ve been talking to some people recently about making that dream a reality and things look very promising."

The ongoing talks are not the first time Boyd, who is now one of Scotland’s hottest young stars, has tried to secure a role at the Citizens’.

The actor revealed that he once auditioned for a part in Henry VI Part Two at the Glasgow theatre, but was rejected.

He recalled: "I began to use a chair as a prop, which I hadn’t rehearsed before.

"It was completely the wrong thing to do. I was rubbish.

"I had no idea what I was doing. But I hope I’ve learned a bit in the meantime."

Boyd’s hope to take to the stage in Glasgow shows he has not lost his love of theatre, which kept him in work before he got his big movie screen break with Lord of the Rings.

Growing up in Easterhouse, one of the west of Scotland’s most deprived areas, Boyd dreamt of becoming an actor as a child.

However when he explained his ambition to his school guidance teacher, he was advised not to tell anyone else of that ambition.

After leaving school at 17, he put his hopes of acting on ice while he worked as an apprentice printer and book-binder for six years.

Boyd was planning to take a year out in the United States when he applied for the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama "by accident", only to be accepted.

His theatre credits include Much Ado About Nothing, in which he played Borachio at the Cottier Theatre, Glasgow, with the Original Shakespeare Company, and Lorenzo in The Merchant of Venice, at Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum.

But Boyd’s big break came when he was cast as Pippin, one of Frodo’s loyal Hobbits in Peter Jackson’s big screen adaptation of Lord of the Rings.

He won national fame with the release of Fellowship of the Ring in 2001, and The Two Towers in 2002, the first two parts of Tolkien’s trilogy. All three films of the fantasy trilogy were filmed before the release of the first while on location in New Zealand, and Boyd will be back on the big screen again on 17 December, with the premiere of the final episode, The Return of the King.

His global profile also soared with the Tolkien films, and his boyish looks, coupled with his ingnu charm, mean he is now in demand by film directors around the world.

He has already played alongside Hollywood bad boy, Russell Crowe, in the Far Side of the World. Boyd is the coxswain on the ship on which ship’s surgeon Crowe sails out to explore the world, against the backdrop of the Napoleonic wars.

Closer to home, Boyd was cast as the lead in Sniper 470, the story of a gunner stationed in outer space, whose mission is to shoot down convoys of ships that cross the Trojan Asteroid Belt. The movie premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival last year.

But it is plain that Boyd is anxious not to lose touch with live theatre. Earlier this year he entertained packed houses with the Tron Theatre playing at Edinburgh Lyceum, in David Greig’s San Diego.

But as well as angling for a major Shakespearean role, Boyd is keen to expand his acting repertoire. He said: "Both film and theatre are demanding in their own ways. And I hope I can continue to get parts in films that call for more than people are used to seeing.

"Next year, I’m hoping to do a romantic comedy for example, and that will be fantastic, particularly since the story line looks at love from the man’s point of view.

"And I’d love to do a Coen brothers film, because their characters go to extremes.

"But theatre is always special to me. And to play the lead in Shakespeare, well, that’s really special. Actors who have performed the great Shakespearean roles seem to have a special affinity . I want to be part of all that."