When Will Be Again Show for Elijah Wood
Elijah Wood on 'The Lord of the Rings' at 20 and Being Frodo to Fans Forever
"I'll never be upset at being associated with those films or for them being the largest in people'southward memories of who I am," the histrion says.
For more than two decades, the actor Elijah Forest has kept a pair of hairy hobbit feet in the aforementioned box they were given to him in.
That was but later on main photography on Peter Jackson'south "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy wrapped in New Zealand, and he can't call back whether the feet are a fresh gear up or what he wore onscreen equally Frodo, the valiant hero of brusk stature entrusted with destroying a malevolent gold band.
"I'grand sure over time they volition degrade, because I don't call up latex lasts forever," Wood said by phone from Los Angeles. "Merely they were in practiced shape the last time I looked at them."
The odd emblem remains a tangible reminder of the unusual product in which the three fantasy epics, adapted from the J.R.R. Tolkien novels, were shot back to back for 16 months, followed by three years of occasional pickup shots and fall publicity tours.
A semblance of finality only came in 2004, when the tertiary installment, "The Return of the King," swept at the Academy Awards, winning 11 trophies, including all-time picture.
It wasn't the trilogy's beginning castor with Oscar. The offset chapter, "The Fellowship of the Ring," which was recently added to the Library of Congress's National Movie Registry, won four statuettes later its release on Dec. 19, 2001. Twenty years on, Woods, at present 40, reminisced about the monumental filmmaking adventure. Beneath are edited excerpts from the chat.
When you think about the "Lord of the Rings" films and how they redefined your career, what are the memories that remain most vivid for you?
Often what I think about is the in-betwixt moments, not but the incredible prepare pieces with hundreds of extras in orc outfits, which is certainly an extraordinary matter, but the seemingly mundane moments, like getting our hobbit feet taken off because we had to vacate set equally information technology started to snow. We're sitting at the hotel on top of a washer and dryer, getting our anxiety taken off with a drinking glass of whiskey. Or taking surf trips on weekends with the other hobbits and Orlando [Bloom, who played the elf Legolas] and the camaraderie and the daily life that we had. Nosotros all left the multifariousness of places that we came from and made our lives in New Zealand with each other. Xx years on we are still connected in that way, even if nosotros haven't seen each other in a long time.
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At what point did you feel that this episode in your life had concluded? How difficult was it to leave behind such a transformative feat?
The about profound moment of feeling like I was stepping away from it and questioning what I was going to practice adjacent came after principal photography. That was when all of us were at our most wearied. We had been intensely invested in the world of the movie we were making, and so suddenly we weren't, which is oftentimes the case when yous make a film: You're in that microcosm, and and so you're thrust at the other finish of it. And then you're back in your reality. It was that feel multiplied by a nifty caste. My experience of living was so divers by being in New Zealand with this group of people that the sudden shift of being home once again felt very abrupt. I just wanted to keep to work on things that were really modest and very different from "The Lord of the Rings." I felt quite sad to meet it all come up to an end, but also gear up to motion on with my life and take new experiences.
Shut congenial relationships between men like the i Frodo and Sam have in the trilogy are more than common at present in media. What were your thoughts about this friendship between these two characters dorsum and then?
My read on it was merely almost an incredible companionship. Whilst my character of Frodo is seen as this hero, there's fifty-fifty more than true heroism in Sam [the hobbit played by Sean Astin] and the way he picks up the pieces of where Frodo can't go on whatever further. Those two need each other, and certainly Frodo needs Sam. There was a true agreement of that. When I met Sean for the first time, we were both scheduled to get our wig fitted at a hotel in L.A. I immediately gave him a hug and I simply said, "Hey!" because I knew who he was. We hugged each other considering nosotros knew that we were about to become on this incredible journey together, both as actors with other actors, simply also there was that intuition of, "You and I are going to have this journey together as well." That was extremely true. So much of what we see in the film, both in our relationship and others, is reflective of the reality of what we were experiencing. The power of storytelling is in our own relatability to what is beingness expressed. I've heard many different takes on Sam and Frodo from the L.G.B.T.Q. community, but also people who've had struggles with habit connecting with Gollum.
Frodo is a rather vulnerable fauna with an unimaginable burden on his shoulders. What did you larn from embodying him for so long?
One of the great messages of the books as it pertains to Frodo and the hobbits in full general is a sense that fifty-fifty the smallest person, non just in stature merely in terms of what one feels they're capable of doing, is capable of greatness, of affecting real change, of having real impact. What Frodo was up against seemed insurmountable, and still he was able to reach it largely because of goodness, kindness, a purity of center and perhaps innocence. Those are the things that hobbits embody, and inherently why they're able to withstand the corruption of the Ring for longer than humans. But what makes Frodo unique is a way of seeing the world without whatever kind of cynicism. There'due south also courage, maybe even a blind courage, of not necessarily knowing what'due south ahead and therefore not allowing himself to be afraid. If I'grand to learn ane thing from all of that, information technology'due south that at that place's fortitude in his outlook that makes information technology all possible.
Do you think these movies could exist made today the way they were back then?
There was a great sense of a lack of oversight. Peter and the larger team were allowed to make the movies the way that they wanted to make them without much outside perspective. That doesn't hateful the studio wasn't agape or invested. They knew the risk of making these films back to back. I don't know if he would be able to make them in the same way now. Look, the internet's different too. In that location was less scrutiny on the films. There was less known about them. Nosotros were able to make the movies in a bubble. We had quaint problems, like at that place would be some photographers upwardly on a colina, but it was pretty small. [Laughs.] I don't know if that would be possible now. Now the world is online and at that place's a great bargain of access afforded to pretty much anybody most anything.
Has perpetually being associated with "The Lord of the Rings" ever been overwhelming?
I accepted a long fourth dimension ago that I would forever be linked to Frodo, and so information technology doesn't carp me. Honestly, it would be such a sad burden if information technology did. [Laughs.] I'm then used to people on the street calling me Frodo and not calling me by my proper noun. It's representative of ane of the greatest experiences of my life, movies that I adore and memories that I'll cherish forever. At the end of my days, that is what I will be linked to probably more than anything else. I can just equate it to similar scenarios like Mark Hamill or Harrison Ford. They are associated with their classic ["Star Wars"] characters more than others. Now that we're continuing on the precipice of 20 years, which is so difficult to comprehend, my reflection is one of such gratitude and such love that I'll never be upset at being associated with those films or for them being the largest in people'southward memories of who I am.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/17/movies/elijah-wood-lord-of-the-rings.html
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