Next up was a pair that could be called the odd couple: Liv Tyler and Orlando Bloom. They strolled into our suite like a homecoming couple, but it was more like the prom queen arriving with a skateboarder. Tyler, wearing a soft white turtleneck sweater with her hair pulled up, sat next to Bloom, who was decked out in a gray sweater and baggy pants and sported rockabilly black spiked hair and sideburns. The two fed off each other's questions, but Bloom was obviously deferring to the princess in the room. They talked about being Elves.

"It was about getting that movement and that grace," Bloom said. "The elves are this invincible, angelic, first-born and first race placed on Earth by the gods. They have this kind of grace and ease; they are immortal and ageless, and [are] very focused beings. That was what I tried to portray and do justice to. I had to study and train really well to do the job to the best of my abilities. Archer is [Legolas'] signature. When you read the books, what sticks out in your mind about Legolas is his bowmanship.

"It was a challenge for us," Tyler said. "One of the things that Peter said to me when he first called me was that I was the person in his mind to play the part, but it would be hard for me to completely understand because they were still developing Arwen. She wasn't in the book very much.

"Knowing that, I had to kind of wing it, and go down there and explore a lot of these options," Tyler said. "That was difficult. The thing that did draw me to it the most was this love story. When I read about it in the appendix [to the book] for the first time, I burst into tears. The movie doesn't go as far as this, but when Aragorn does finally die, [Arwen goes] to where they met, and she lies down to die too because she's heartbroken. That's very romantic, and I really responded to that in a way that you would respond to Romeo and Juliet. That's a classical love story, and something [the world lacks a lot] today."

The two Elves also said that Jackson had some key bits of direction for them.

"The piece of direction that Peter gave to me which sticks out," Bloom said, "was: 'You're an assassin. Just remember you're an assassin who can just take somebody out without even thinking about it. [Legolas] is immortal and ageless, he doesn't fear death. He just takes care of business when he needs to.' That was Pete's direction, and it just clicked me into that intensity."

"One of the things we spoke of was that there is a look and light in [Arwen's] eyes," Tyler said. "That there's a depth, because she's an Elf. She has the knowledge and the power of someone who is 3,000 years old, and the determination of what she believes in. She's going against everything, and she means it. She's not messing around."