Shawn Wright

Veteran stage and TV actor Shawn Wright has done everything from Noel Coward to Mama Mia!, but nothing on his lengthy resume prepared him for walking around on towering stilts as Treebeard, the kindly Ent who encounters Hobbits Merry and Pippin in Fangorn Forest.

As a member of The Lord Of The Rings 55-person ensemble, the Stratford and Shaw Festival regular will also cover a variety of other parts, from Prancing Pony innkeeper Barliman Butterbur to understudying for the role of Gandalf.

Having worked with acclaimed authors Robertson Davies and Timothy Findlay in the past, Wright, 44, recalls their advice about translating famous books into a new medium.

"They said, 'It's not mine any more, it's your interpretation,' " said the St. John, N.B., native. "You can't be reverential to another form. You have to reinvent it."