DEADBOLT: There are so many stories about child actors who don’t make it or become casualties of Hollywood, yet you’re still making movies after all these years. Why do think that is?

EW: That’s a difficult question to ask someone who’s still working in the midst of it. You know what I mean? It wasn’t as if in the process of growing up I was made overly aware of the fact that I was making transitions, or that I was trying to make choices so that I avoided those things. I was just simply continuing to work, continuing to grow as an actor and a person. I can certainly offer theories now in retrospect being 24, and I can look back to a certain degree. Largely I have my mother to thank for raising me with a strong sense of self, and to not be defined by the industry or what I do specifically. Also, having a strong family base and a strong separation between what I do and my life outside of that has helped. The other thing is that I was never involved in films early on that were massively successful that would have propelled me as a child into some level of fame. It was always this kind of very gradual growth, which I think also helped. I was never really a part of films that were specifically child oriented, or family oriented either so there was never a way to be pigeonholed as a teen actor, or a child actor. I was growing up in the context of these films, I guess, and that’s just the way I’m looking at it now. Obviously, that wasn’t planned.

DEADBOLT: Do you feel your career is now divided into everything before Lord of the Rings and everything after?

EW: People have referenced that recently too. You know, it certainly is a hell of a landmark. I don’t really look at it that way. That is a marker for more of an adult version of who I am, and everything after that is me becoming more and more of an adult on screen. So, I guess in that sense, yeah. [growing up on screen].

DEADBOLT: You have this very child like demeanor, youthful. Are you consciously going after adult roles?

EW: Absolutely. I’m constantly trying to look for roles that are older and more adult oriented to continue to grow because there is a perception that I’m younger than I am. I’m still trying to get out of that to a certain degree and that’s also why there is a variety of different roles and a variety of different choices that I’ve made. It's why I would do something like Green Street Hooligans, which is exploring darker elements of the human experience.

DEADBOLT: I read that there was a young kid from Iraq on the set of Everything Is Illuminated. Did you meet him?

EW: Yeah, he came in to help on the film. Liev had seen a documentary that MTV did about various youths in Iraq and he was one of them, and he was interviewed for the piece. He was talking about how he wanted to be a filmmaker but there wasn’t much of an outlet for it in Iraq and Liev saw that and thought it would be great if we could get him up to Prague to work on the movie as an intern and learn whatever he could. I believe he’s still in Prague because he only had a visa that lasted for so long and he was ultimately going to go back home, which he was desperate not to do. What he ultimately wanted to do was go to New York. The last I heard, I think he was in London, possibly working on another film so he’s doing really well from what I understand.

DEADBOLT: What would you say to people who are going to look at Everything Is Illuminated and say, "Not another movie about the holocaust?"

EW: I haven’t actually read the plot summary. I’m curious as to what it says because it’s not a holocaust film. I would not describe it as a holocaust film in the slightest form. It’s a movie about self discovery, the discovery of the bond that these three people share that they wouldn’t have necessarily coming from different walks of life, and different cultures. It’s also an incredibly whimsical hilarious story that leads into a very poignant emotional story. I think the way that this movie actually deals with the holocaust is really beautiful. It doesn’t deal with the holocaust on any kind of grand scale, it’s really about this small Schtetel and this one man’s experience in this small town. It’s not a heavy movie by any means. It’s actually a bit mad and hilarious, and ultimately very touching.