'...in a working-class society you couldn't say you wanted to be an actor'

Billy Boyd is lounging on a massive couch in Glasgow’s One Devonshire Gardens that looks as though it could swallow him whole.

But Boyd is more than a one-trick pony. He recently made an appearance in the smash hit movie Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, a seafaring epic set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic wars. Starring Russell Crowe and directed by Peter Weir - director of such film as Gallipoli (1981), Dead Poets Society (1989) and The Truman Show (1998) - it’s an impressive film but given that Boyd is hardly in it, it’s unlikely to satisfy those hardcore Pippin fans who reportedly flocked from the far sides of the world to see him perform on stage at the Edinburgh Festival this summer. "It’s a Russell Crowe film, you know?" he says frankly. "I knew that going into it. But it’s a Peter Weir film as well and I’m a film fan so there was no way I was going to say no to a Peter Weir film."

Boyd plays Barret Bondain, coxswain to Crowe’s hard-as-nails Captain Jack Aubrey. He steers the film’s massive man-of-war frigate, speaks with a Cockney accent, has a nasty scar under his right eye and gets to do a spot of sword fighting. Making the film was, he says, like a "boys own adventure". He learned basic seamanship in a special two-week boot camp and shooting in Baja, Mexico, he was able to indulge his passion for surfing, using it as an excuse to get out of Crowe’s weekly cast-and-crew rugby game.

But while his role in Master and Commander was a small one, his part in the final instalment of the Rings trilogy sees his character, Pippin, gain true depth. Though he started off as comic relief in the first film, The Return of the King sees his part expand as he is mistaken for the ring bearer. "The third film, like the third book, is the best for Pippin," says Boyd. "In the third one things happen that are absolutely huge and he becomes an accidental hero. And you also get to explore his character with Gandalf a bit more, which is great. I think it’s a lovely relationship: the youngest membership of the Fellowship and the oldest."

Boyd spent a month in New Zealand this summer doing re-shoots. He says it was a very different process from the original - and now infamous - shoot, which lasted almost two years and led to some intensely strong friendships between many of the principal characters in the film, including Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom and Boyd.

"It was a bit different this time. It was like doing principal photography. I was going in at five in the morning and finishing at eight at night, but I was working on good, meaty stuff, a lot of stuff with Ian [McKellen]. It just felt good, but weird on the last day because it did actually feel like the last day. Somebody said to me, "That’s the last time you put on a pair of Hobbit feet." And it’s true. Unless I wear them round the house, which I might."

He hasn’t quite got to that stage yet though. "I’ve got a couple of pairs but I’m saving them for my retirement," he says.

Retirement, however, seems to be the last thing on Boyd’s mind at the moment. Having wrapped the bulk of work on the Lord of the Rings nearly three years ago, his choices since then suggest he’s more interested in creative satisfaction than the megabucks lure of Hollywood studios. His first post-Rings film was a Scottish-produced sci-fi short called Sniper 470, and he’s also made the move into theatre, taking the lead in David Greig’s play San Diego at this year’s Edinburgh Festival.

It’s an admirable set of projects. Boyd admits that thanks to the massive critical and commercial success of The Fellowship of the Ring, he’s been in a comfort zone for the last two years, with guaranteed blockbusters set for release each December.

"It actually feels kind of nice," he says. "I hate routine in my life and maybe this was becoming a bit ‘I know what I’m doing every Christmas’, so it kind of frees me up. I’m sure a couple of years of not having a big movie coming out will soon teach me that, actually, the routine was better."

He denies the blockbuster has set him up financially. He still has to work and he still has to audition "for some things". He has LA representation now, but he’s been careful, choosing people who understand that he’s not interested in simply churning out movies to make lots of money. "I don’t have a five-year plan or anything," he says. "There are a couple of things I’m excited about but I tend to take one job at a time, and if it feels right I’ll do it." Seemingly against type, his next role will be the lead in a romantic comedy. "It wasn’t something I chased. It was a script that came in and I loved it. That’s what gets me going rather than ‘this is a big part’ or ‘it’s a $100 million movie’".

It’s a far cry from the 1990s, when Boyd seemed to be a permanent fixture at Edinburgh’s Traverse and Lyceum theatres. He remembers those days fondly. "I actually moved over to Edinburgh for a year-and-a-half because at some points I was doing two plays at the same time, you know, rehearsing one, doing the other. I was having a great time. It was like an apprenticeship."

Boyd’s upbringing is usually used to explain why he’s remained so grounded. Born in Glasgow and growing up on council estates in Easterhouse then Cranhill, he caught the acting bug early but kept his ambitions quiet, partly because his school guidance teacher told him to, and partly because he was scared of what his mates would think. "That was the only hard thing about growing up in a working-class society. You couldn’t just say you want to do something like be an actor."

His parents were supportive though, taking him to drama classes at the local arts centre. His father worked for Tennents brewery, but once spent a year in America trying to launch a career as a singer. "His two sisters were emigrating to the States so he went with them to help them move over to Detroit and he just started singing in clubs," says Boyd. "He got a management deal and I think he made a demo record, but I’ve never found a copy of it. I’ve got photos of him. He was great, a real crooner. But he came back to Scotland and gave it all up."

Boyd’s parents died within a year of each other when he was in his early teens, leaving him and his sister in the care of their grandmother. "You can take anything and ask what would your life be like if that didn’t happen," he says. "I think growing up with a working-class background and wanting to be in the arts - I don’t know if it’s the same now - but the idea was to get a trade so you’d have something to go back to.

"If anything, maybe my parents passing away made me think more that way. Because I didn’t have them supporting me saying ‘be an actor, do what you want’ I had more of a feeling that I should make some money and get ‘ma house sorted’ and all that sort of stuff. That’s when I went and served my time as a bookbinder." Boyd spent nearly seven years at this and didn’t act again until he quit work to go to drama school. "It was a real culture shock, but in a good way," he says of his stint at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. "It just gave me that knowledge. And now I love it, it’s such a big part of my life."

He has ambitions to play Hamlet and rumours abound that he may take on the role at Glasgow’s Citizen’s theatre next year. In the meantime, however, he’s happy spending a bit more time at home in Scotland, where, he says, he never has enough time just to hang out, see friends, and go surfing on the country’s East Coast, a pursuit surely only for the mad or the extremely dedicated at this time of year. "Once you get over the cold," he protests, "it’s great."