Bits from various articles concerning Liv and Lord Of The Rings Toronto Sun Liv: "Whenever I would speak any of my Elvish lines, the boys would blush, for some reason. I don't really understand why, because I don't think it is that sexy. But a lot of people think it really is"  USA Today, Dec. 2001 Liv Tyler is Arwen, the elf princess who saves Frodo and loves Aragorn. Behind the elf: Tyler, 24, daughter of Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler and rock enthusiast/model Bebe Buell, who has appeared in Stealing Beauty, Armageddon and Dr. T and the Women. How did you get into an elf mind-set ? "My character is about 3,000 years old. And I'm thinking, 'How am I going to play a 3,000-year-old ?' What does that mean ? I realized that what makes the elves so powerful is this inner calm. It's like being the most perfect person you can be, like someone who meditates all the time. A Buddha." What about the Internet gossip about Arwen being transformed into a warrior ? "There's been so much speculation, rumor and aggression towards my character, which has been strange for me to take on. At times it made me so sad, but at other times I chuckled, thinking, 'They have no idea what we are doing.'" Had you read the books ? "I read the books one time straight through and read certain parts millions of times, over and over." How was it speaking Elvish ? "It became easy for me in a good way. The words were just rolling off my tongue. I felt possessed sometimes." You are engaged to a rocker, Royston Langdon of Spacehog. Inevitable ? "I think it was just him. I love what he does. I went on tour for the first time, and it was really fun. Kate Hudson was with her husband (Chris Robinson), since the Black Crowes were on the bill along with Oasis and Spacehog. I just got to let go of my career and home and just travel in a way I didn't get to do as a kid. I got to learn about truck-stop food and some place called White Castle with these baby hamburgers, 25 for $3.50, and they were really good." Favorite Rings character ? "I love the hobbits. If I could be anyone in Middle-earth, I'd be a Hobbit. The weed, the food and the greenery." ... The elves, statuesque beings with silky locks that would make a Breck girl envious, were more difficult. Says Jackson: "We compensated by casting the most perfect human beings in the world, like Liv Tyler and Cate Blanchett." LA Daily News, Dec 2001 ARWEN (Liv Tyler): "She's in love with the mortal man Aragorn, but her father, Elrond, is trying to discourage their romance. Elves, were created by Tolkien to be these angelic spirits, to have the greatest joy and the deepest sorrow. Arwen is willing to sacrifice her immortality to spend a short amount of time with Aragorn, and that's something I really responded to because I think it's a classic beautiful idea that we lack in our world today."  The West Australian The testosterone was partly held in check by the lovely Liv Tyler, who plays elf princess Arwen. "Liv's our girl," said Monaghan. "Every now and then we needed female attention and she's very huggy, kissy. She's gorgeous." Waikato Times, Dec 2001 Brooding Lord Of The Rings hero Viggo Mortensen almost got thrown out of a trendy Wellington bar, jokes were played off-set with duct tape, rotting fish and fake excrement, and Liv Tyler liked to show off her push-up bra. Those were just a few of the antics the young male stars of the movie revealed yesterday. British actor Orlando Bloom, who plays elf warrior Legolas, said he was so awestruck with Tyler's beauty that he was quick to take up her suggestion of sporting a mohawk. "I was having my make-up done when she arrived and my hairline (was) raised to give me an elven featured face. She said, 'Why don't you shave it off at the sides ? You'd really look cute in a mohawk.' I had a mohawk for 18 months." "I saw her boobs once," Dominic Monaghan, who plays hobbit Merry, said. "She had like a push-up bra on, man. I said, 'Liv, your boobs look huge' and she said, 'No baby, it's just a push-up bra' and pulled her top up." Newsday, Feb 2002 Orlando Bloom: "I hung out with Liv Tyler a lot. I didn't kiss her. But I was always lobbying for love scenes between Legolas and Arwen."  Arena Homme Plus, May 2001 I ran into Liv Tyler when she'd just got back from filming out there. It must have been a totally relaxed shoot because she was so honest and open, it was as if she'd forgotten what a journalist does ... Orlando Bloom: "Liv's completely adorable. She was one of the few women on set, so everyone was telling her, 'You're not the only woman on set, but you're our princess.'" E! Online, Dec 2001 Liv Tyler (Arwen): "They glued the Elf ears on, but they never got all the glue off. So, we would be picking glue out of our ears constantly. I went home to New York, and a week later, I still had all this sticky stuff. I was at a party, picking my ears and going, 'Ooh, sorry.'" LOTR Fan Club Official Movie Magazine, Arpil/May 2002 Next up was a pair that could be called the odd couple: Liv Tyler and Orlando Bloom. They strolled into our suite like a homecoming couple, but it was more like the prom queen arriving with a skateboarder. Tyler, wearing a soft white turtleneck sweater with her hair pulled up, sat next to Bloom, who was decked out in a grey sweater and baggy pants and sported rockabilly black spiked hair and sideburns. The two fed off each other's questions, but Bloom was obviously deferring to the princess in the room. They talked about being Elves. "It was about getting that movement and that grace," Bloom said. "The elves are this invincible, angelic, first-born and first race placed on Earth by the gods. They have this kind of grace and ease; they are immortal and ageless, and [are] very focused beings. That was what I tried to portray and do justice to. I had to study and train really well to do the job to the best of my abilities. Archer is [Legolas'] signature. When you read the books, what sticks out in your mind about Legolas is his bowmanship. "It was a challenge for us," Tyler said. "One of the things that Peter said to me when he first called me was that I was the person in his mind to play the part, but it would be hard for me to completely understand because they were still developing Arwen. She wasn't in the book very much. Knowing that, I had to kind of wing it, and go down there and explore a lot of these options," Tyler said. "That was difficult. The thing that did draw me to it the most was this love story. When I read about it in the appendix [to the book] for the first time, I burst into tears. The movie doesn't go as far as this, but when Aragorn does finally die, [Arwen goes] to where they met, and she lies down to die too because she's heartbroken. That's very romantic, and I really responded to that in a way that you would respond to Romeo and Juliet. That's a classical love story, and something [the world lacks a lot] today."  Various quotes Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn): "She's very relaxed and surprisingly mature. She was so convincing, I honestly began imagining she really was an elf princess. As an actor, you learn to make the best of where you're living and who you are with at the time. People like Liv were so warm and welcoming to me, it made the work a pleasure" Orlando Bloom (Legolas): "Liv Tyler, who plays Elrond's daughter, Arwen Undómiel, became a very close friend of mine, but I was quite indimidated by her at first. Before filming had started, I was sitting in the hair and makeup trailer having my hairline raised for the wig. As it was being shaved back, Liv came and sat next to me for her wig fitting. We had met only once, the night before, and I was obviously a bit in awe of her. I turned and asked her what she thought of my new hairline. She replied that it was 'kinda cute', but suggested that I would look better with the sides totally shaved off. Obviously I was going to do anything Liv Tyler told me to do and, before I knew it, I had a Mohawk!" Peter Jackson: "Arwen represents a very important value of Tolkien's world, which is love, and immortality versus death, and she really has that incredible decision to have to make, as to whether she should give up her immortality for the love of a mortal man, and these are very powerful story elements - and so I think that there certainly aren't very many female characters, but I think that the ones that are in the movies certainly are very vivid and the actors that are playing these roles are doing wonderful work" Liv: "At the end of the third book, there’s an appendix called Aragorn and Arwen, and that’s what the whole thing is based on. So although you only see Arwen a couple of times in the book, at the end of the third volume, Tolkien summarizes and tells the whole story of these people. So that was all Tolkien. It wasn’t made up in any way; it all came from that." John Rhys-Davies (Gimli): "Liv Tyler is just so great in her role!" Bob Anderson (Swords coach) on Liv: "... best fight I've ever seen a girl do!"  |