Actor goes where wild things are
Dominic Monaghan is right at home with creepy crawlies in new TV series
You’ll never hear Dominic Monaghan complain on set.
After trekking across four continents to see some of the most exotic — and sometimes dangerous — animals on the planet, sometimes giving up the luxuries of electricity, running water and hot food along the way, Monaghan has a new perspective.
“You find yourself not thinking that you’re going to complain about that many things when you have heating and you have good food and you’re not being inundated with mosquitoes,” he said.
The adventures the actor had while travelling the globe are featured on a new show, called Wild Things With Dominic Monaghan, that premieres Monday on OLN.
The show is something different for Monaghan, who is best known for roles in Lost and the Lord of the Rings movies.
After establishing himself playing other characters, he’s taking a shot at playing himself and contributing to a topic he’s passionate about: natural history.
“We’re dealing with a show that deals with things that maybe people are scared of, snakes and spiders and caves and crazy people. I hope that people will tune in and see my enthusiasm and maybe find it infectious,” Monaghan said.
Monaghan has always loved nature and travelling, and has based many of the characters he’s played on animals he’s encountered over the years
“Travelling to different countries where they don’t speak English and they don’t cook the food that we’re used to is challenging. But I think the challenge is ultimately rewarding.”
Monaghan has always loved nature and travelling, and has based many of the characters he’s played on animals he’s encountered over the years, he said.
The 36-year-old actor was born in Germany and lived there until he was 11.
His family would go on vacation to places like Italy, France, Spain and Turkey when he was a kid, and he was always around creatures like snakes and lizards.
His father taught biology and chemistry, and the interest rubbed off on his son.
“I’m constantly curious about how things work and how things are made, and if you’re curious about things and you find yourself interested in the natural world it means you can always be curious, because there’s always lots of new stuff to know.”
From scorpions to spiders, Monaghan found creatures that most would find frightening on his journey, and many of them can really hurt you.
But not all of the creatures he encounters on the show should trigger screaming and running away.
Many have myths and legends attached to them that aren’t true, and Monaghan hopes to show the
* “beauty” and “gentleness of those animals.”
“The show is, I hope, a way of showing people that some of those myths that are attached to those animals don’t make too much sense nowadays,” he said.
“If I can hold the world’s largest spider, which is maybe one of the world’s most dangerous spiders, then hopefully, people will feel a little bit differently about the tiny little spider that lives in their bathroom.”