December 16, 2002
Liv for the Moment
The actress talks about her return to the Rings, her
wedding plans and her experience as a big-screen
Jersey girl.
By AMY LONGSDORF
It's been nearly two years since Liv Tyler first
Currently, however, the 25-year-old actress is
Are you handy, do you do any of it yourself?
And how is it progressing?
There's been a lot of progress. The "before" pictures
Is that the major project in your life right now?
It is it really is. The past year and a half I have
Have you taken a break from your acting career?
Yeah, I just hadn't found anything. And I have been
Who do you play in that?
I play a girl named Maya, a Jersey girl, but not the
What was it like on the set of Jersey Girl being
Did you wear jeans a lot in the movie?
I wore jeans in every scene, which is really weird
Did you speak any Elvish in there?
Kevin Smith is obsessed with me speaking Elvish and
What did he want you to say?
Anything. I can't speak Elvish; I would just say my
Didn't you say it on an answering machine, too?
No, that never happened. That story was so bizarre; I
What is the worst part about those robes? Didn't you get hot?
They are hot for sure; there are just a lot of
How did you go to the bathroom?
That is easy because there are no trousers -- Elves
Do you have a Lord of the Rings toy collection?
I have quite a few, yeah but I can't really fit them
Do you have the ears?
The ears are gelatin so you can only use them once.
Is your costar, Viggo Mortensen (who plays Aragorn,
Do you talk to your dad (Aerosmith frontman Steven
Are you married yet?
Not yet.
Are you planning anything?
Yes. It is taking us a really long time. It is hard.
You don't know what dress?
No, that is the easy part. I think I want to get
Do you want to have a big family or a small family?
I am not going to tell you. You are going to have to
Would you ever do a reality series with your dad?
Then I would have to move back in with my dad and
wrapped shooting on The Lord of the Rings trilogy,
and Middle Earth may seem like just a distant memory.
Not so come Dec. 18, when the second installment, The
Two Towers, brings Tyler back to the big screen as
the Elf princess Arwen.
wrapped up in her home life -- complete with a fiance
(Spacehog singer Royston Langdon) and a new home in
Manhattan. "It is this very old house from 1861," she
tells PEOPLE.com. "They had taken all of the detail
out of it and I came along, the historian that I am
and preserved it. We have totally redone the whole
house. It is a lot of work."
Irish boys who do all of the plaster in the moldings
and the walls. They're incredible, and I was mixing
the plaster with them and handing it to the guy. I
was making a little movie for my family because I
went home for Thanksgiving and they really wanted to
see the progress. They have seen it a few times but
not recently.
were the demolition. It was just revolting. It was a
dump, so there is a big difference.
had extensive meetings about it. I have an incredible
architect, which is great. He draws everything -- he
doesn't use computers, so the drawings are beautiful,
and It really helped. I really knew what I wanted and
spent a lot of time making sure that everything felt
right. It has been fun just picking every faucet and
toilet and tub and door and where everything is going
to be.
working on Lord of the Rings a lot -- I mean all of
this year. And I just finished Jersey Girl.
Jersey girl. It was fun. I love Kevin Smith, he is
very funny. It was just a great, different experience
for me from working on Lord of the Rings -- just the
polar opposite, in characters and experience.
called Paulsboro, N.J. ... and we were doing this
scene at a diner. It was like six in the morning and
there were at least 300 people outside of the diner
all waiting for Ben. And then by the middle of the
day there were like 1,000 people in the street. There
were these huge news vans with antennas sticking up
and paparazzi, people handing their crying babies to
him to hold, and I just looked at him and I was like
Benji" -- I call him Benji -- "Benji, I didn't know that you were so famous." It was like he was the
Beatles. People were going nuts, screaming and crying
and so excited.
because I felt kind of naked because I didn't have my
ears and my wig and three layers of velvet gown
around me. I kept saying that to people, and I kept
relaying things like my experiences on Lord of the
Rings for three years, and they just couldn't
understand. They would be like, "Shut up."
he would ask me every day. If he brought someone to
the set that he wanted me to meet, he would make me speak Elvish to them. He loved it.
lines.
read that somewhere. I have never left a message on
anyone's machine in Elvish.
layers. The hardest part about them was the length
and being able to walk so gracefully all of the time.
You're tripping every two seconds.
are naked underneath. I actually used to wear knee
socks pulled up really high and my Converse All-
Stars.
all in my apartment. We live in a really cute
apartment and I got a lot of stuff, like I got all of
the Burger King goblets, because they were great.
They were glass cups and the bottoms light up. But
they are just sitting in storage.
aka Strider), a good kisser?
I actually never felt his lips because his beard was
so coarse and straight. He has all of that manly
Strider stubble so I couldn't get to his lips. So, I
don't know.
Tyler) about your love life, like Arwen does in the
movie?
I don't talk about my love life, I am really happy. I
don't have nearly as many ups and downs and troubles
in my relationship as Arwen does, thank goodness.
married in blah, blah, blah -- and then months go by
and I think I don't want to get married there at all.
wait and see.
that would be really weird, at 25, to have to move
back in with your parents.
