It's been nearly a year now since the Return of the King junkets, and much has changed for Liv Tyler. She's now no longer just a newlywed, but a mother as well. So, many of the topics discussed in LA last December are old hat...

Nonetheless, the press sessions with Tyler did yield some choice nuggets. First, I was pleasantly surprised that she appeared to have done her homework, and was nicely generous in assuming others had as well. Second, I had to eat some crow for being part of the anti-Arwen feeding frenzy after Fellowship premiered. But you'll see more about that, below.

As usual, the questions in the interview are posed by press from a variety of "religious" publications, and Tyler's responses are given verbatim. Where necessary, extraneous, unintelligible or profane remarks are indicated by bracketed ellipses, so: [...].

The character of Arwen is so strong and supportive. What is it that you drew on when you were playing the character?

The material. The material is so good. The chapter [sic: appendix] in the end of the book, which I think you guys should read, that one little chapter, because it's so—it makes you cry, it's so beautiful, the way they sort of meet. And he thinks he's dreaming because he thinks that she's from the story of Beren and Luthien, and they have this incredible connection but they can't really be together. And then when he dies—you actually see this in the movie—but when he actually dies, she is so heartbroken she goes to lay down and die where they met. It's so romantic and beautiful. And so I would just read that all the time, and kind of dream about it, and that gave me...

How did you become involved in the project? Peter talked a little bit about Elijah and Sean, but he didn't talk about how you were drawn in.

I don't know exactly. I was sent a script, and I read the script, and Peter just called me. I think that's kind of how it happened. I'm not sure.

There's a subtext to the Elrond and Aragorn story that's not really even a part of the novel. I was just wondering if it was ever talked about in discussions—the fact that Elrond's brother Elros chose to be human, like Arwen does.

Right.

Was that ever talked about, that Elrond really has a personal motivation in this whole thing, because of the...

I didn't play Elrond, but I'm sure that was something that they talked about, and he obviously can connect to Aragorn because of that. Also because he chose to be an Elf, as well. Elrond also has the choice. So that's something that I'm sure tears him. And also, he's seen so much. He's seen Aragorn's ancestors not be able to make it, so he's constantly battling with that.

[...]

Did you hear any of the internet conversations in which people said you were almost singlehandedly—that you were the person who was going to ruin Tolkien?

Yeah, well... I felt that, for sure. I'm so happy we didn't use [...] because I would have been responsible for ruining these wonderful movies. But I did hear some of that, and I wish I hadn't because it affected me deeply. It actually made it quite hard for me. The last junket, I think I was quite sensitive, and a little bit emotionally hurt by it.

We didn't get to see you the last junket. I think you were not well that day. You didn't get to meet with us.

Well, I'll apologize, because I was one of those journalists contributing to that.

To what?

The "Oh, my God! What are they doing with Arwen..."

Well, I think was happened, was... The initial thing was like... I remember there being just loads of criticism, with everybody just getting the news of, "Oh, this person is cast as that, and oh, they're doing this and not that." Everybody was just panicking and just grabbing at all these things. And once the movies started to come out, and people were able to see, "Oh, well, they are changing things, but they're not bothering me because the story is so beautiful, and the actors are great in their parts. And they really connected to their characters." And once it happened, that kind of stuff just died down, in a way. I mean, obviously, there had to be changes made.

And it's nice to see it all come together in the third part. It really does all pay off, all the difficult choices.

If there's one thing you could say to the young girls, the young women who are watching this film, and watching you in particular, what would it be?

What do you mean?

What did you learn from the movie? What did your experience making this movie mean to you? Something that touched you.

I've been touched deeply by my friendships. It's been an incredible experience for all of us. I feel really happy to be a part of it. I'm really happy that Peter hired me and believed in me. Because at times I wasn't as excited as I am now. When I sit down and watch the movie now, I'm like, "I can't believe I'm in this movie! I feel so lucky!" There were times when I could not... When I was upset, or when it was hard to get through every day, I couldn't see that. So I've learned quite a bit about patience and trust. I already knew that, in relation to directors. But I've learned that, more than anything, it's really important to trust your director, give over to them, in a way—know that, somehow, hopefully (in this case, [through] Peter), it will all work out okay. All the scenes that aren't great, he's always cut them out. There's one that's not in this movie, and I'm so grateful. I never really liked it. And you know, he really protected us a lot.

Jeffrey Overstreet, at Looking Closer, offers a transcript from another interview with Tyler (and Orlando Bloom), conducted on the same day.