As the trainer of a record-breaking cyclist in May 4's The Flying Scotsman, Scottish actor Billy Boyd (right), 38, is far removed from sporting furry feet and pointy ears for his flighty hobbit Pippin in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. But even four years later, one scene in the final film, The Return of the King, is particularly close to his heart. ''It wasn't in the original script,'' reports Boyd of Pippin and Gandalf's (Ian McKellen) talk about death, a scene added after director Peter Jackson and partner Fran Walsh lost a close friend. ''We only got the page a couple days before filming, but it makes acting so easy if you get writing of that quality and an actor of that caliber. [Ian and I]knew each other so well by that time that it came quite naturally, and in a couple of takes it was done.''


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