Elijah Wood and Sean Astin took to the stage at Los Angeles Comic-Con last weekend to talk about their roles as Frodo and Sam, respectively, in Peter Jackson’s beloved Lord of the Rings trilogy. The two talked about their enduring friendship with the fellowship’s other two hobbits, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan, and the various nerdy ways they keep in touch. One of the funniest moments came when a fan asked the actors for their favorite Lord of the Rings memes.
Wood described the reunion scene at the end of The Return of the King, in which Frodo wakes up in bed and the members of the fellowship come in one by one to greet him. In the meme version, though, each member is labeled “Depression,” “Anxiety,” and other psychological plagues. “It’s hard to describe,” Wood said, “but it just works. I sent it to the hobbit group text.”
Astin seemed to misunderstand what a meme is, but his answer was still great. “Picture Sir Ian McKellan, Shakespearean actor and beloved thespian, telling us to come to the computer because he had something to show us,” Astin said. “It was Frodo and Sam fan fiction of a decidedly … explicit type.” The audience laughed. “We’ve enjoyed any number of questions about the true nature of the relationship between Frodo and Sam, and we tell them it’s exactly what they think it is.”
Astin and Wood also talked about how the four hobbits still stay in touch. “We currently have a hobbit text thread where we share New York Times crossword scores,” Wood said. “Every day we do the Wordle at midnight Eastern Time. The goal is to get everyone to do the mini crossword in under a minute.” Astin admitted that the mini crossword takes him four to eight minutes.
The actors told the audience that the cast members are “linked for life,” regardless of how often they get to see each other. “The four hobbits share a special bond,” Wood said, “but everyone [in the cast] is an extended family.”
(featured image: New Line Cinema)
