Elijah Wood on 'Ready or Not 2: Here I Come,' his role in 'The Hunt for Gollum,' playing himself in 'I Love LA,' his Frodo tattoos and more
‘s arrival as the Lawyer, who oversees a blood-soaked game among the world’s most powerful families. Wood sat down at the Rolling Stone Studio, live at SXSW, to discuss the film, his long career, and — in his most detailed comments yet on the subject — his “potential” return as Frodo inprequel.
Wood made it clear that Frodo’s role would be small, reflected on the idea of CGI turning him back into his teenage self, and elaborated on why he wouldn’t want anyone else to play the character as long as he’s alive and able. The Lawyer is only the latest in a long series of the very un-Frodo roles Wood has taken on, from a serial killer in“As an actor, you’re always looking to move on from the last thing you did,” he says. “To continue to explore and find new colors and new creative outputs.”Very much, yeah. I saw it in the cinema, loved it. Was very surprised by it. The tone of it is such a fun balance of a horror film with sort of action elements. It’s very funny as well. It’s also like a real kind of game that you’re engaged in watching. And it feels like a real ride. So I just loved it. I thought Samara Weaving was a total revelation. She’s incredible in the film. So yeah, just a genuine fan of that first film.Did you share the question that a lot of fans of that movie had when they heard there’s a sequel, which is, like, how the hell do you make a sequel to that? I have come to know Matt and Tyler , who made the first film and have made so many incredible films. They sent me the script with an email that set the stage for what the expectation would be and this character of the Lawyer. I was immediately interested, then read the script and was delighted by it. So I didn’t have any sort of skepticism. I was just instantly really excited. There’s a lot of integrity with those dudes. Everything they do, it feels like they do because they really believe in the material. I don’t feel like they would ever make something just to cash in. And clearly it’s been, what, six years or whatever since the first film, so this was never going to be a cash-in sort of thing. The script does the thing you want a sequel to do, which is it deepens the narrative of the first film. It expands upon it so the world becomes much bigger. And then also gives you so much of the enjoyment of the game from the first film in a new context and with new characters. The movie also does something that very few sequels do, which is it starts where the first one ended. Yeah! The opening footage is a blend of the first movie. And there’s a seamless transition on camera where there’s no cuts into new footage, which is so awesome. So it literally starts with footage from the first movie.It’s funny, he knew I was in the film. And I think he even knew what to expect contextually, that I was in the Cafe Eighties, that I was a kid trying to work a video game. So the stage was set, but then the scene played, and I expected him to point at me, and he didn’t. I paused it and I was like, “Did you recognize that dude?” And he’s like, “Oh, yeah, it’s you.” I don’t think he would’ve recognized me. He was just invested in the storytelling.No, I definitely remember it. It’s spotty. I don’t think I remember being directed by Zemeckis. I remember Michael J. Fox, definitely. I remember the town square of Hill Valley and the clock tower and it all being dressed for the future. That was a thrill, because seeing that kind of set design and production design, especially for the future, for a kid of eight years old, was just such a thrill. I remembered the first movie, so I remember being able to look at it and go, “Oh, this is that, but dressed for the future.” I have quite vivid memories, actually, of working on it.'The Lord of the Rings' Cast Honors Bernard Hill: 'We Lost a Member of Our Family'Tom Hardy and Woody Harrelson Clash in New 'Venom: Let There Be Carnage' TrailerYeah, indeed. That was a great movie, by the way. Iconic.Yeah. Matt and Tyler reminded me that David Cronenberg’s character Chester Danforth — by the way, incredible to get a chance to work with David Cronenberg as an actor in this; absolute thrill — he says, “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you,” which is the only nugget of information we get about the Lawyer from the past. And it’s not much to go on beyond, how long could that be? Quite a long time. And he is a relatively young guy, right? So yeah. Is he immortal? This is something that we talked about a lot.] There isn’t a whole lot of prep. The character’s a relatively blank surface in the sense that we don’t know a lot about him. There isn’t a backstory, there isn’t information. So it’s the interpretation of the words and the script and the context, and how he’s meant to be in front of these people. There’s a sense that they all know who he is, have probably all met him many times before, so it’s not a new person. I think just finding a balance of the gravity of what he’s articulating and the fun of it, too. ’Cause it is fun, the game and the rules, and finding a way to make that not feel like just exposition. There’s a lot of you reading the rulebook. It does rely on your charm and ability to make it not dull, because you are basically Basil Exposition. A little bit of that, yeah. But I was really stoked about that opportunity, ’cause I thought it was fun. I liked the challenge of it, and finding ways to see glimpses of his personality and the joy that he’s taking in some of the events that are taking place. So you do get moments where there’s a little glee behind his eyes. ’Cause the same stakes don’t necessarily apply to him that apply to everybody else.It was a bit of a return to a movie with a bunch of effects, which you haven’t done in a while. Effects-wise, there’s a lot of SFX. There’s not a ton of VFX. A ton of practical blood — 325 gallons of blood were used in this film.Not computer-generated blood in the film, no. It’s fantastic. I mean, certainly as a horror fan and as a fan of the first film, that device of these bodies exploding…How did they approach you to play yourself, under your own name, in your supposed house, as a total weirdo?reached out to me. The ask was just, “We would love to have a Zoom with Elijah to pitch this idea.” So going into it, I had no idea what the pitch was, but I really love her work as an actress. She’s so great. And I was thrilled at the idea that she was developing something for television and that she would both be in and provide this platform for other actors. So we had a Zoom and she described the show and then pitched the character, and it sounded really funny, but I was really honest with her. I said, “In the few times people have brought me projects where there’s an opportunity to play myself, I’ve always been against it. It’s always made me really uncomfortable. And it has happened a couple of times. But I really wanna read it, ’cause this sounds great.” Then she sent me the pages and they were just undeniably funny and so alternate-reality-me that it felt like it wasn’t me.Exactly. And I loved that. And the scenes are hilarious. It was also just really fun to get to work with her and play in something that is so absurd and so funny. I really love comedy. So all of it was just a real gift to be asked.I don’t remember now what they were. But it was like, it adhered too close. Or it was like a whole film where I’m playing myself.Yeah. But there’s only certain people I think that can really do that, like Nic Cage in the film where he plays himself. That’s so perfect. You know what I mean? Nic can do that in such a beautiful way, but I’m not — it makes me way too uncomfortable. You’ve done a lot in the past 25 years or so. A lot of times you’ve leaned into finding some creepy side of yourself, some kind of darkness. It seems so contrary to your actual personality, but it is something you’re very good at. Where do you think that comes from?Certainly a weirdo, and it started to skew dark at the end of the first season and a little bit in the second. There’s something untrustworthy about Walter. Perhaps. But the opportunity there was like, come play this weirdo that’s a counterpart to Misty. And the chance to work with Christina was such an incredible ask, and on that show with such an extraordinary cast that I love as a fan. Getting a chance to come and play a weirdo is really fun.Yeah. I like characters that are very different from myself. I think most actors would say the same. It’s joyful to put yourself into a character that is unique and different and has elements that are not like yourself that you can explore. Those tend to be the more interesting, fun opportunities. But that can be many colors. It doesn’t have to be dark, specifically. Someone asked you if all this has been like trying to get away from Frodo, and you said absolutely not., I remember feeling that I just wanted to work on something really small. I had been in New Zealand for the better part of 16 months working on one thing that was three films, that was exhausting and a lot and incredible. But I really wanted to pare it all down to its simplest form. And then, certainly playing Kevin in, I recognized that was a subversive move. Despite the fact that that wasn’t the intent, but I could recognize culturally that was a subversive idea. But not a whole lot of effort was necessarily put towards distancing myself. If anything, as an actor, you’re always looking to move on from the last thing you did. To continue to explore and find new colors and new creative outputs. That is inherently part of the endeavor. Someone on Reddit had a theory about why you don’t age, and the theory was you kept the ring. But the thing is you did keep the ring.I don’t know if one can partially let a cat out of the bag, but it’s like you peeked the cat’s head out of the bag…It’s funny, there’s more nuance, I think, to that answer or to that quote. ’Cause that quote really did the rounds. Obviously, we’re all getting older, right? And there’s a point in time in which just won’t make sense anymore.Totally. Again, I think insofar as that makes sense for the actors who created these characters to continue to play them, that would be amazing. Like I said, if I’m alive and able and it contextually makes sense — again, all aging aside or including the notion of aging — then absolutely. But I also know that these are beloved characters that probably will be explored past our time, and they should be.They will. And that’s being employed a lot these days., which was 10 years later. And there was probably some softening that was happening there. I’d lost all of my teenage baby fat. So I’ve experienced a little bit of it already. Now, we’re in a new paradigm where that kind of technology is being used in really interesting ways to establish the ability to go back and revisit characters that we’ve not seen for a very long time, which is interesting. Do you have big emotions about potentially returning to this character? Harrison Ford put on the Han outfit again and stood in the Millennium Falcon. That had to have been — we’re talking about one of the most iconic characters in cinema. That’s a different thing. Putting on the fedora and grabbing the whip — like, Jesus, that had to feel crazy. It felt crazy for us watching it. For him, he said, “Eh, it’s another day.” But for you, how much emotion is gonna be there, especially getting back with Ian and all that?I think people should probably know that.But yeah, Andy coming on as director is perfect. He’s such a great guy. He’s one of the greatest. It’s beautiful that he gets to direct that film. He really is the architect of that character in so many ways. And a pioneer in regard to motion capture or performance capture. For him to be at the helm of that story is just such a lovely thing. It’s a real getting-the-band-back-together, creatively. So many of the creative team ofs are involved in the making of this film. From the production design to makeup to physical effects. Obviously all of the Weta effects will be handling that as well. So it’ll be amazing to return to Wellington and all these folks coming back together again. It’s beautiful.You have an Elvish tattoo on your pelvic bone, and Ian said that he held your hand while you got it.That’s a real sign of how you can never really escape this. Every day it’s there. Take a shower, you got Elvish there. Absolutely. And wouldn’t want to. I think we all knew when we got that tattoo that this was signifying a really incredible moment in our lives, this adventure that we’d all just been on. And this is before the movies came out. We got that tattoo right before the end of principal photography. So really, that for us was about marking the experience. And then the movies came out and became what they became. But that tattoo is about our experience as a fellowship of people working together and the friendships that we forged. So incredibly special to us, that time. And then the way that connected with people and continue to connect with people is really lovely.I did not. Definitely thought about it, though. The stab from the Morgul blade, which never technically heals — it’s with Frodo for the rest of his life. So I thought that would be an amazing thing.Jack Black to Host 'SNL' With Musical Guest Jack WhiteYeah. Warner Bros. pressed the record. They did promo copies of the record. So I have one where the sleeve is white and the record is peach. And it’s really awesome. And I’m a huge fan of Prince, but that record is a favorite of mine.Oscars In Memoriam Excludes James Van Der Beek, Eric Dane, Brigitte Bardot, Malcolm-Jamal Warner and More‘Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ Pauses Season 5 Filming Due to Domestic Violence Investigation Into Taylor Frankie Paul and Dakota Mortensen
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