Billy Boyd Proves He’s More of a Man Than Viggo

He’s wee, but he’s harder than Viggo.

They say the movie business is all glamour, but Billy Boyd knows better. Interviewed for today’s Sunday Herald magazine about his friend Viggo Mortensen, the Scottish actor who plays Pippin in the Lord Of The Rings movies was asked about the rumour that Mortensen had had a tooth knocked out during a fight scene and demanded that he be allowed to glue it back in and carry on filming. People love these stories, sighed Boyd, confirming that it was true. But nobody talks about the day that I got two fillings without any anaesthetic, and the pain was so much that my hobbit feet fell off.

Apparently, Boyd had an emergency appointment with the dentist, but because he had lines to deliver in the afternoon, asked that his mouth not be numbed. So agonising was the drilling and filling, however, that he began to sweat so profusely that the glue holding his prosthetic feet on was washed away and they slipped to the floor.

The irony is that when Boyd returned to the set he had to spend so long in make-up having the appendages reattached that he might as well have been waiting for the anaesthetic to wear off. I thought that was a bigger moment than Viggo getting a tooth knocked out, said Boyd, trying to recover some dignity from the situation. That was a spur of the moment thing. I had to commit to my pain. Which needless to say we share.