Elijah Wood Talks Happy Feet, Wilfred, and Horror

Elijah Wood is probably best known for his role as Frodo in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but he’s had an incredibly diverse career.  His roles in films like Avalon, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Ice Storm, The Good Son, the tv series Wilfred and so many others have earned him a reputation as a versatile and accomplished actor.  He stopped by the SiriusXM studios in New York City to talk with Ron Bennington about the release of Happy Feet 2, which opens this week. Excerpts of that interview are reproduced below.

Ron Bennington: Elijah Wood is in with us right now. Now you started as a young person right?

Elijah Wood: I was eight when I started.

Ron Bennington: Now whose idea was this? Is this an idea that an eight year old kid has?

Elijah Wood: Well sort of. I wasn’t a 5, 6 year old, 7 year old kid that was fascinated by acting. But my mom thought it would be fun for me to do commercials and I thought that sounded fun. And I came out to Los Angeles to audition. And I auditioned for commercials and things of that nature. And I auditioned for a Paula Abdul music video, and that was the first job that I ended up getting. And I just loved it. I kind of loved it immediately. I didn’t really think of it as a serious career, I don’t think you can at that age. And then within that first year, I did my first film. The first big role I had in a movie was in a movie called Avalon. It’s one of my favorite Barry Levinson films still. And I just kind of fell in love with it immediately. It didn’t happen in a way in which I had seen a number of films as a child and thought– that’s what I want to do. I sort of fell into it.

Ron Bennington: But was there a certain time when you thought– hey this stuff can be heavy, too…it’s not just fun, it can start to get to you emotionally when you’re into a role?

Elijah Wood: Yea I think I was probably dealing with those kind of roles when I was older– when I was a teenager. Yea that made an impression on me, that I would have to embody characters that were going through darker aspects of the human experience.

Ron Bennington: When I saw Ice Storm– that was such a tense, depressing, perfect view of suburban life. Really cold, and not even easy to watch. I can’t imagine going through that.

Elijah Wood: And I’d say out of all of the films I worked on as a young adult, that one made the most impression on me, because of the subject matter. It was awkward on set too. There’s a scene with me and Christina Ricci where she has the Nixon mask on and we were essentially dry humping in the basement. We were that age, and it was awkward, and it was meant to be awkward. And also to intellectually understand, outside of that, that ultimately what we were depicting was this notion that in the 70s kids were left to their own devices, and in some ways the adults were acting more like children than the kids were.

Ron Bennington: We tend to act like little boys sexuality is okay…but that was the first film where you’re like, hey that kid’s not ready for that. That little girl is pushing him.

Elijah Wood: Totally. Yea that sort of female dominance at a very young age, yea.

Ron Bennington: And now, look what kids go through. Now kids have the whole world open because of computers. There’s nothing…

Elijah Wood: …Too much…

Ron Bennington: And yet there’s no going back. But you’re trying to do something with them with this fun kids movie. Kids can look at penguins, singing. And you’ve got a ton of actors. Do you guys act together when you’re doing this?

Elijah Wood: It’s not always typical with animation. It doesn’t rely on actors having to be in the same room. Actors schedules can be conflicting so they’ll often record people individually. But on this, and on the first Happy Feet, we recorded the majority of the dialog as a group, and would get full casts together. And in this one we actually went to Sydney and recorded the entire thing in Sydney which was great.

Ron Bennington: Why Sydney?

Elijah Wood: The animation team is based in Sydney…the producing team…George Miller who wrote and directed it is also based in Sydney. So it’s just kind of their home base for production.

Ron Bennington: Do they do the animation first? Or do you guys do the voices first?

Elijah Wood: We record the dialog first. They did for us, basically an animatic of the film before we started recording it. The technology has moved forward in such a way that you can actually do a story board that moves– it’s an animated story board. I actually got to watch a version of the film before we started recording, in that format. Which is kind of amazing and very helpful in terms of being able to understand the scope of the film, and how the film is going to play itself out. And then you go into the recording process which takes about a month all-in-all. And then from that, they start the animation process.

Ron Bennington: But is it all about timing when you’re in there? Are you watching the characters?

Elijah Wood: Not at all. The script takes on a life of its own. Especially being able to record in a big group with Hank Azaria there, and Robin Williams there, who are incredible improv comedians and actors. We would start with a scene as written and then Robin would add things and the scene would go in different directions.  And it became an entirely different artistic, creative process. And then from that, they have the very difficult job of editing. Cause there’s so many takes…George would get 80 takes on some things.

Ron Bennington: And Williams is doing everything differently, I’m sure, right?

Elijah Wood: Often times, yea.

Ron Bennington: But when you’re with Hank Azaria and Robin Williams and they start improving, suddenly you’re playing basketball with the Lakers. Those guys come from a whole different background.

Elijah Wood: Completely. It’s extraordinary to watch and to listen to. Every day was entertaining to say the least. It was incredible. For the scenes I had with them it was just everything I could do sometimes just to stay afloat. Luckily I didn’t have to sort of try and improv as well as they did, I could just simply react, and say a couple of lines that would fit in nicely with what they were doing. Because the level of where their brains go, is just extraordinary.

Ron Bennington: How are you doing with the FX show [Wilfred]?

Elijah Wood: I love it. We got picked up for second season. We start shooting some time in March. It was a blast to make. I was just excited to work on something that was so strange and not easily definable. So funny but, dark and cerebral. I’m really proud of where the show went, and I’m excited to see where we go next season.

Ron Bennington: For a person of your background, if it was years ago, they would have said don’t do tv or voice over work. But all of that has changed in the last 15 years. And now you’ve got that little block with Louie, its like this strange place.

Elijah Wood: We’re like the undefinable club, those two shows. We’re so lucky to be paired with Louie because I think his show is genius. He’s doing things with television that technically you’re not supposed to do. There’s really no format to his show– it’s like a collection of short films, and he has total creative autonomy which is unheard of. He gets no budget essentially but in return for that, he gets total creative autonomy. He writes them, directs them, edits them and just sends them in as a finished project. So, he doesn’t have to turn in scripts to FX, there’s no notes. It’s incredible.

Ron Bennington: It almost is like independent film on television.

Elijah Wood: TV has just opened up now. So many networks, because of the success of things like HBO, now Showtime, AMC, as cable networks. I think STARZ has their own original programming now. There’s too many shows! (Laughs)

Ron Bennington: What’s weird is that you’re seeing channels like FX taking real chances…

Elijah Wood: …oh like American Horror Stories..brilliant.

Ron Bennington: …but then you turn on the networks and they are going in the opposite direction, with reality programming, there’s a lot of singing, and I just wonder if people are going to be there for them.

Elijah Wood: It’s a weird thing too because networks also spend a lot of money every year on pilots that don’t go anywhere.  It’s like throwing something against the wall to see if it sticks and God knows how expensive some of these pilots are. They air, but then they’re cancelled– that blows my mind! What a waste. Ultimately I understand that they’re trying to find the next thing that people are going to be in to.

Ron Bennington: What’s next for you after Happy Feet?

Elijah Wood: We go into another season of Wilfred next year. And I’m about to start working on a remake of– do you remember the movie Maniac? It’s a 1980’s Horror Film. Alex Aja who is a French horror film producer and director is producing a remake of that. And I normally don’t love remakes, I kind of don’t believe in them. But they’ve taken a very different tone with this. The whole movie is actually going to be shot in POV from the killer’s perspective. And you’ll only ever see the killer in reflection shots. Which creatively, I’m just really fascinated by.

Ron Bennington: Has anyone ever done that before? Not for an entire film.

Elijah Wood: There’s an old film called Peeping Tom, where the protagonist is a murderer, and some of his shots are POV but an entire film, I don’t think so. Not in horror at least.

Ron Bennington: Well thanks so much for stopping by.

Elijah Wood: Yea, it’s been fun.

Ron Bennington: Happy Feet 2 is out this weekend, great for the whole family.

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You can hear the interview in its entirety on SiriusXM satellite radio.  Don’t have satellite yet?  Get a free trial subscription here.