Ok so I open my Enpire mag and then there it was a whole interview with Elijah and a very hot shot of him, which unfortunetly as I don't have a scanner can't post up here.

Anyways I'd thought I'd share sorry for the bad typing. Words by Chris Hewitt


For a hobbit, Frodo Baggins casts one hell of a long shadow. For it's a fair bet that unless he does something really special in his life- say, cures cancer, ends poverty and gets quicker than a Kwik-fit fitter- then Elijah Wood, the star of the most successful movie franchise of all time, will be forever know as Frodo.

"I can't go anywhere- the Czech Republic included- without people calling me Frodo in the street," laughs the 24 year old Iowan, talking to Empire on the set of Liev Screibler flick everything Illuminated.
"Do I like it? I don't know. It's not exactly something I can like. I don't know how anybody can like that. But I understand where it comes from ."

Understanding is one thing. Forging a fresh carer direction- when his boyish features will always conjure up images of rings, volcanoes, wizards, and monsters and the ethereal sound of busy cash registers- is another entirely. Living up to an ionic role model can often end in disaster. Chase the big parts, and your star could crash and burn. Become a hermit in DTV crap and it's the same story- either way, a ghastly afterlife of convention apperances and dinning out on well-worn anecdotes becones.

Not for Wood, though. For him it's a much more calculated path, taking him far away from the goodhearted, kind gentle Frodo Baggins as is Hobbitly possible. Since LOTR, he's played a mute psyco with footballer wives nails in Sin City, a seedy and sinister perv in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and by the end of the year a young Jewish man searching for the Ukrainian who saved his grandfather life in an adaption of Johnathan Safran Foers's Everything Illuminated.

Next month though, he's on screen as a football hooligan in Green Street. If you hear any sudden noises, it's probably Samwise Gamegee's heart breaking- how could it come to this Mr Frodo?

"Everythings a rebound role after LOTR" explains Wood, "But after being a part of something so massive, on that scale, my interest was to move completly away from anything that big- which wasn't difficult to do, because movies of that scale don't come around often. But I certainly wanted to focus on smaller films and more intimate stories, just things that interest me more and that take less time"

Green street ticks these boxes. Formely, and vastly more appropriately, entiled Hooligans, andbefore that the Yank before some marketing bod thought it would be an idea to come up with a meaningless mish mash of a moniker, the movie see's Wood play Matt, an American journalism student kicked out of Havard. With nowhere to go he comes to London to visit his sister where, via charistmatic and dangerous brother in law pete, he gets sucked into the violent world of football hooligans-in particualr, the westham Green Street elite.

It's a brave move for Wood who at 5'6 is an obvious candidate to play a midget hero, but doesn't obviously cut the thuggy mustard. Take today for example-Wood maybe incharacter for Johanthan for Schreiber, but with his hair sleaked backdyed black hair, dark suit, white shirt and incredibly thick fish-eyed specks, he's hardly imposing. It'd be hard to imagine him immersing himself in the Method, mixing it with gangs and glassing defenceless grannies in the face.

"I didn't do that!" He laughs. " but we went to the West ham versus Millwall game and apparently it did kick of post match. But to go to an actual match between them as a hammers fan and to expirance that whole thing was unbelievable."

Hang on...... Hammers fan? Yes inconruous as it always souns for an American to profess a love for footy, Wood is well and truely hooked by socer ball. Not surprising really- this, the man who formed an unhealthy obsession with the C-word on the LOTR set. He's a true Anglophille it would seem- so falling for the beautiful game is only natural.

Basket ball is fantastic but there is nothing as exciting than going to a football match." he says. "it is essentially the fans, their absolute passion and devotion and rabid, dog like manic energy that makes it waht it really is. It's unlike anything I've every seen" Apart from LOTR fans chasing him down the street

Like Jedi, child stars tend to be groomed from an early age. Wood though got a realtively late start in life, turning to acting when he was 7 after he had been tallent spotted at a modeling school in his home town of Cedar Rapids. " my mum thought it'd be fun for me to do commercials as a hobby, something to do, because I had a lot of energy as a child." He says." We meet this guy who eventually became my manager. He asked me if I wanted to be an actor. I said "yeah, that sounds great" It was childhood innocence. It sounded like something fun to do."

Wood's first movie appearance came in 1989 with a short role in Back to the Future part 2- "you can imagine how excited I was. It was like seeing my own childhood fantasies come to life infront of me. I was doing a scene with Marty Mcfly, it was fucking awesome"- and the rivalry with Mac began the Mac in question here is Macaulay Culkin who in 1990, was top of the world with home alone. Wood didn't have anywhere near the commercial cachet, but the 2 were instantly compared- one blonde one brunette; one precocious, and cheeky, the other self assured and confident etc. Their so called rivalry (Wood had the upper hand in tallent; Culkin the edge in box office) even culminated in a movie together- so-so psyco drama The Good Son.

But then Culkin, like most child stars, went off the rails on the puberty Express. The more centred Wood kept going, racking up big roles in movies like Deep Inpact and The Faculty ( where he met good friends Robert Rodriguez and internet film geek big cheese burger with fries and a large shake Harry Knowles, who famously urged him to test for the role of Frodo,) And kept his feet on the ground even before LOTR came along and the whole world got Wood.

"It's unique. I guess I can't really be compared to anyone else my own age who isn't an actor," he says. " But my childhood seemed normal to me because I was doing something I loved from a very small age. It was something I appreciated. My coming of age came about traveling the world and meeting a lot of different people, which I really appreciate."

All of which has also helped keep his head together post LOTR. Wood is down to earth about his carrer savvy enough to expliot his new found fame to get projects like green streets and everythings illuminated under his belt, but smart enough to know he'll never be a Bruce or a Tom or a Keanu a truely global mega star. " that I don't need," he says "i'm extremely comfortable doing what I do and I'm passionate about it and I love it. Was I bron to do it? I think I was meant to do it. But I think I'm meant to do other things too/"

Indeed he's an avid gamer- he regularly atends E 3, the vast LA based games convention, and was choosen by MTV as their host for the unveiling of the Xbox360- and musician with dreams of his own label, provisionally titled It's not you it's me records. "It's is something I'm working on, " he says " essentially I don't want to focus on a genre, like a hip-hop label or a rock label. I'd like it to echo my own musical taste, which is kinda everything."

Next up is a genuine break at long last, from hobbit, to hooligan to holiday, while he explores those extra curricular activities and a chance to go traveling. Prehaps he'll even find somewhere where Frodo's shadow hasn't yet reached. "I'm sure there are plenty of places, yeah," he laughs. " I doubt anyone knows me in Uganda.." Don't bet on it Elijah

I suggest if you can buy the mag cos it's worth it for the picture of Lij drools :drool:

Really r4eally enjoy it so far.
So glad you are sharing this.
Especially since it is hard to find the magazine Empire.
But I am definitly on the look-out for it!

:love: