November 16, 2001
By SERENA KAPPES
Elijah Wood has been in movies for most of his life. But as he teeters on the verge of super-stardom with his upcoming role as Frodo Baggins, the hobbit central to the much-anticipated Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the first in the $270 million trilogy based on the beloved J.R.R. Tolkien books, he seems as good-natured and unaffected as ever. Wood, 20, still lives with his mother, Debbie (also his former manager), and 18-year-old sister, Hannah. His father, Warren, separated from Elijah's mother in 1996. Brother Zachariah, 26, is a video game producer.
The in-demand young actor has appeared in films such as 1992's Radio Flyer, 1994's North and 1997's acclaimed The Ice Storm. Costars have included Sigourney Weaver, Mel Gibson, Robert Duvall and Salma Hayek.
But even with his impressive credentials, the young actor remains soft-spoken and polite. Talking with PEOPLE.com on the phone from his home in Santa Monica, Calif., Wood, who has been acting since he was 8, discusses his love of music, the difficulties in finding dates, and what it's like to be an action figure.
Q: Was making The Lord of the Rings a growing-up experience for you?
A: The experience really came at a perfect time in my life. I was 18 when I left for New Zealand (where the movie was filmed) and it was really the first time for that length of time that I'd been away from home living on my own. It was kind of accepting my adulthood in the most extreme way that I've ever had to face it before. That was wonderful. I basically propelled myself into a completely different world, made some of the best friends of my life and essentially gained another home in New Zealand. It was incredible. After a period of time, because of the time difference between home and New Zealand and because I was working constantly, I rarely called home. And it wasn't because I didn't miss my family. It was just kind of circumstantial -- and even when I did have time, I didn't really think about it because I was so involved in my life there.
Q: How are you and Frodo, your character, alike?
A: I think in some ways Frodo's quite similar to me. Hobbits in general have a real love for life and a passion for friendship and food and drink, the simple pleasures of life. Those things I totally relate to. And Frodo's got a sort of quietness about him. In some ways he's kind of internal in the sense that he thinks quite a lot and, unlike other hobbits, he's really kind of curious about the outside world and about adventures and travel and other peoples and places. I could relate to that as well. It's interesting, after you're a character for that length of time, the character bleeds into you and you bleed into the character and it's difficult to tell really how that occurs and what part of you the character contains and so on and so forth.
Q: A lot of child stars have a tough time making the transition to being an adult actor, but you never seemed to fall into that trap. What was different about you or the path you chose?
A: I always chose things that were just interesting and kind of challenged me as an actor. Those are always the things that interest me anyway. And I think that the one difference is that I was never really a part of any genre pictures and certainly not any genres that pertained to children specifically or teenagers. I kind of always found myself in more adult-oriented films.
Q: Except for The Faculty. . .
A: And Flipper. There were a few exceptions. But for the most part they were kind of adult-oriented. I'm so grateful for not having been a part of anything that was immediately really famous. I'm really fortunate to have had a sort of gradual rise. It's allowed me to maintain a position as opposed to kind of going all over the place, which I'm really happy about.
Q: Do you attribute that to your parents' instincts?
A: Oh, definitely. I would attribute that to my mother and my agent at the time as well, absolutely.
Q: Do you think of yourself as having wisdom beyond your years?
A: I always felt older. And I think that's just because I started at such a young age and I grew up and worked amongst adults from like 8 years old. And just also the guidance of my mother and how I was raised within the industry -- I kind of kept away from a lot of the sort of bull---- of the industry. I think that also allowed me to grow more mature faster. I've always felt like I relate to adults more than I do people my own age. I think that's becoming different now as I'm getting into my 20s -- my mind is kind of catching up with the reality of my years. I think that I'm starting to relate to people my own age now.
Q: You're still at that cusp age -- you're barely out of your teens but you're becoming an adult.
A: It's weird in terms of getting the roles that I want, actually, because I think I'm still perceived as quite young and I don't exactly look old enough. I kind of look younger than I am. That's kind of difficult. The roles that I want tend to be for people in their 20s and at this point, I'm not necessarily -- to some people -- believable playing those roles. Hopefully that will change -- maybe I'll have a big growth spurt (laughs).
Q: You've always seemed to stay out of the public eye, out of the Hollywood party and premieres scene.
A: Yeah, in some ways it's been unconscious, but it's conscious at the same time. It's not my thing -- I don't really dig going to premieres that aren't something that I'm involved with. I find that quite silly. Things that I do in my free time, I go to movies a lot and I'm a huge music fan so I go to see as many bands as I can see, which is great. I've seen a lot recently, which has been fantastic!
Q: You're a private person, but being an actor, attention is obviously paid to things like whom you're dating.
A: Yeah, yeah. I find that the media attention on people's relationships is kind of annoying and disgusting. I don't want that to be a focus. I'm single at the moment, which is difficult 'cause I sort of enjoy the companionship of a lovely female. It's also difficult because the life that I lead due to what I do makes it difficult as well because there aren't many outlets to meet people, and the traveling and sort of not being home all the time, it makes it kind of hard.
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Q: Is it scary having the pressure of being in one of the most anticipated movies of the year?
A: It's weird. I don't really feel the pressure -- I'm really excited about it. I don't know what it's going to be like until it's released. I can feel that the anticipation is building quite rapidly. For me, I share in that excitement because I can't wait to see it either, and I hope it does really well. So I can kind of take myself out of it and appreciate it on that level as well. I keep it all at sort of arm's length for the most part. It's just sort of how I deal with it. People kind of reference the posters and being on the side of a building for the Gap ad that I did or whatever, like, "Isn't that crazy?" And I'm like, "Ah, well, you know…"
Q: How is it having an action figure in your likeness?
A: It's actually really great. I was very scrutinizing. I had to make sure that it was absolutely perfect, and the feet were way too hairy. It looked like I had a rug on my feet (laughs). I wanted it to be as accurate as possible. I've been a fan of action figures for quite some time. I'm really into that kind of thing, so to have my own is really fun, it's really cool. It's kind of like a geek's dream come true (laughs).
Q: Do you consider yourself a geek?
A: (laughs) Oh, to a certain degree, yeah.
Q: What makes you a geek?
A: I'm a fan of films and a fan of music.
Q: You got your start in a Paula Abdul video, "Forever Your Girl," right?
A: Yeah!
Q: If you could be in somebody's video now, whose would you want it to be?
A: Ooooh, that's a great question! Maybe a Beastie Boys video, because they do fun videos. Anything directed by Spike Jonze is a cool thing. I would love to work with him. I think he's brilliant.
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Q: If you could plan your career, where would you like to see it go? After The Lord of the Rings, things are going to change a lot.
A: I hope so. I just want more freedom to kind of pick and choose my roles.
Q: Are you interested in writing or directing?
A: I am, I am. I haven't had a lot of time in recent days to think about it but it's something that I've wanted to do for a while. I'd also love to start my own production company and try and get things made that might not have been made. I don't know if I'm always going to want to act. There's so many aspects of films that I'm passionate about and I would love to be involved with those as well, be it directing or writing or producing. I've met a lot of people that are really good friends of mine now that have offered their assistance in helping me get that kind of thing started, so I'm really lucky to have people around me that want to help me out, which is cool.
