Elijah Wood Reveals His True Feelings About Always Being Known As Frodo
Elijah Wood lets us know how he feels about being forever associated with Frodo Baggins.
This article is more than 2 years old
It can be hard to believe that Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies were made a full 20 years ago; their legendary practical effect driven imagery, massive scale and sheer ambition at filming the full trilogy in one long, faith-driven production make them seem somehow grander than practically any other film franchise. And as the actor who has perhaps best claim to being the trilogy’s central character, Elijah Wood has had to process the feeling of spending the rest of his career being known as Frodo Baggins first and foremost. And according to Wood: he’s never really had an issue with it.
With the 20 year anniversary of the release of the first film in the series, The Fellowship of the Ring, arriving this year, there’s been a renewed interest in the films and its stars (not to mention Amazon’s upcoming prequel). While Elijah Wood began his career with a small part in a Paula Abdul music video (directed by future Zodiac, Fight Club and Se7en director David Fincher, no less) and racked up an impressive slew of roles (including starring in Rob Reiner’s North, Robert Rodriguez’s The Faculty and Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm before he was 18), his career truly took off with The Lord of the Rings. As he told Esquire in an interview, “It was totally overwhelming…I didn’t know what to feel, to be totally honest with you. I knew I loved it, but I couldn’t process it…And I think that was just the enormity of it all and separating our personal experience from what it is, seeing it for what it is, an amazing experience. I certainly haven’t had that since.”
Elijah Wood’s career has gone in interesting directions ever since, appearing in a supporting role in Michel Gondry’s acclaimed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, as a monochrome, mute cannibal in Sin City and the upcoming reboot of the cult trash classic The Toxic Avenger. Still, he seems fully aware that Frodo Baggins will be the role that forever defines him in the public eye. In recent years, he has been refreshingly candid of his view that The Lord of the Rings movies would be unable to be made in the current film climate, given large studios’ aversion to risky moves like the mammoth 438-day shoot that Peter Jackson required and the omnipresent fear of plot leaks and spoilers.
He also seems unsure of how anniversary celebrations will go for The Lord of the Rings, given Covid-19’s restrictions on travel (particularly to New Zealand, a country known for their highly effective pandemic response). Still, as he told ScreenRant: “I think there will absolutely be a gathering. I know we all want to celebrate together, and I think we want to be able to find a space that works for everybody. There are a lot of people who would love to sit down at a giant table and raise a glass to our experience, collectively, share stories and just hang out.” But given the massive outpouring of fan love for superfan Stephen Colbert’s recent rap tribute to the trilogy on The Late Show, it’s clear no one has forgotten Frodo.
