Rings Star Liv Missed Home
Staff Reporter

Hollywood star Liv Tyler felt more homesick during her stay in Wellington while making The Lord Of The Rings than other big name actors, she has told an American magazine.

Tyler, Elf princess Arwen in Peter Jackson's $650 million film trilogy, lived in the Capital for several months last year.

"I think I felt more homesick than anybody else, just by nature of how my character is," she said in an interview with Flaunt Magazine.

"The rest of the actors are all kind of together on this journey and my character is not."

Tyler, 23, was referring to the special fellowship formed in the first film, which features the Hobbit Frodo, played by Elijah Wood, Gandalf the wizard (Sir Ian McKellen) and Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen).

"I had no idea what I was taking on. I thought, 'Oh I can handle it, it's only a year out of my life.' Then again, the thought of being employed for a year was really nice," Tyler said.

Arwen doesn't have a large part in J R R Tolkien's work, but Tyler confirmed her role was slightly expanded, based on the fantasy trilogy's first appendix which details her romance with Aragorn.

Tyler said she had to learn Elvish to speak it in the films. "It's an amazing thing, really. It's a legitimate language.

"There are only a certain amount of people in the world who can speak it, like Oxford (University) professors and what not. It's such a beautiful language too, it's really brilliant," she said.

Tyler was asked in the interview to speak a few lines in Elvish. It's described as sounding "like a gentler version of French done with a crisp New Zealand accent".

Tyler was interviewed only twice while in Wellington, but couldn't be photographed or discuss details about The Lord Of The Rings. She was spotted several times in restaurants and was reportedly turned away from Motel bar, off Courtenay Pl, but invited back at a later date.