Illuminating Elijah Wood

Elijah Wood is older than he looks and he’s also been in the industry a lot longer than most people think. With over 35 films to his credit, the 24-year-old actor is a seasoned Hollywood veteran. September finds Wood starring in two films, the British, soccer mayhem inspired Green Street Hooligans and the touching, road trip flick Everything Is Illuminated. In Everything is Illuminated, Wood plays Jonathan, a geeky and awkward guy who goes to the Ukraine in search of the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. In a recent sit down with the popular actor, The Deadbolt managed to tap into Wood's talent as an actor, his work on this latest project, his love for music, and life in general.

DEADBOLT: Your role in Everything Is Illuminated is an about face from what you’ve been doing. How do you feel about it?

ELIJAH WOOD: Yeah, it’s an extremely insular awkward, odd neurotic character. I mean, the very nature of the character is what attracted me to want to be a part of the film, it’s very different from anything I’ve played. Also, it gave me the opportunity to play around with comedic elements that I thought were really wonderful. It’s also just a really fantastic script and an interesting story.

DEADBOLT: You wouldn’t expect this kind of film, about the Holocaust, to be funny.

EW: It very much starts off as a road trip movie with two Ukrainians, a Jew and a dog, and then it ends up becoming this very poignant emotional story. But, in some ways you kind of need that initial light hearted, whimsical comedic sensibility to get you to that part of the story. But it does handle those tones very well I think.

DEADBOLT: How did you arrive at the character? In the book, Jonathan is such a blank slate. What informed you about him?

EW: Jonathan has a lot. There’s a lot going on in Jonathan’s mind and there’s a whole wide world going on, and I think he just doesn't fit in the normal world. That just gives you the indication, you know, in terms of actually portraying that. You can assume that he’s not very social, he doesn’t quite understand human interaction very well. It gives me a lot of things to play around with. He’s a bit neurotic, you know. He has weird phobias, all of those things are interesting ideas and concepts to play with. When I met with Liev (Schreiber) initially, one of the influences for him in reference to Jonathan, the character, was Chauncy Gardener’s character in Being There. That was actually a great influence to me as well. That character is relatively similar in that he doesn’t really fit in the world at large and it is quite a quiet performance, but there is still something going on. So it was an influence in an overall sense.

DEADBOLT: Did you and Liev know each other before?

EW: We didn’t. I met him for the film, spent a good two hours with him at a hotel and it was really funny because it was a new process for him to interview actors for a role in his movie. It was new to him and I understood that, so it took any awkward sensibility away from the meeting. We got on so well immediately and it was really that particular meeting, which sold me on wanting to be part of the film because it expanded upon what I already loved about the story and the way that it was written in the script.

DEADBOLT: Can you talk about Eugene Hutz a little bit? You guys have such a great relationship toward the end of the film, such great chemistry. I know he’s a non-actor.

EW: Eugene! He’s in a band called Gogo Bordello. He’s amazing, he’d never worked in a movie before and he's from music. He came to the project actually having taken a meeting in regard to the music for the film. He went into the meeting and they realized that he actually had a lot of the sensibilities that Alex has, and I think he even said something in the meeting to the effect of, "I am that guy." Which is classic Eugene. He did bring a great understanding of what this character was about, and a lot of himself into the role. He never really worked in film before so he brought such a unique energy to the set, and an incredible purity and innocence to the project that was just unbelievable to be around. On a personal level we really bonded on music right away. I mean that’s how we connected as human beings.

DEADBOLT: How important is music in your life? What does it do for you?

EW: It’s so many things. Music, it’s a release. It’s an incredible marker for experience, for memory, you know. They say that music and the sense of smell are the two things that evoke the clearest memories.

DEADBOLT: Do you ever use it when you’re creating a character?

EW: Not really, I never have. Music is with me all the time, though. At the same time, I don’t necessarily use it directly in reference to a performance, but I’m always listening to music on set, in my trailer, and make up at the beginning of the day. It’s been a passion of mine since I can remember. I have a voracious appetite for learning about music. I’m actually in the process of starting a small label. It was just one of those things where I am so passionate about this, and I love it so much, that it would be interesting to actually cultivate bands. Hopefully, that should be set up before the end of the year.

DEADBOLT: It was an interesting idea that you were also retrieving a ring in this film.

EW: It’s so funny because that connection, I did not make. But people have mentioned that there is a ring in the film.

DEADBOLT: The line is something like...

EW: The ring does not exist for you, you exist for the ring. It was a beautiful, beautiful concept.

DEADBOLT: How about the idea of the search in this film? What is he really looking for, and where does he end up?

EW: I think the journey, ultimately, at the beginning of the film is about finding the woman that saved his grandfather during the war mainly because he wants to connect with his roots, his grandfather who he didn’t know. Family is incredibly important to Jonathan and the connection to his family, and how that defines him and his grandfather is that missing link. It was the person that he didn’t know, and he’s got this incredible connection with the rest of his family that he doesn’t with his grandfather. So that is the reason for the journey. But it ultimately becomes about self discovery, who he is and who he is in relation to his family. Ultimately, this is a journey of self discovery for everyone, everyone’s illumination.

Continued