Most people know Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins from Peter Jackson's incredible Lord of the Rings trilogy, but most people don't realize he has been acting since he was just 8 years old and has appeared in over 30 movies. He got his start as "Video Game Boy" in Back to the Future Part II, a gig that blew his mind and changed his life forever:
"I was a huge fan of Back to the Future, as so many people were. So, for me, getting to go on that set was such a head trip [laughs]. Because I was so familiar with that big huge square that you see in the future, but I was familiar with it from the context of it being in the past or the present. Walking onto that set, I knew that world, but I was seeing it in the future. Plus, I was so obsessed with anything futuristic, and I'd never really been on a movie set like that before. So I was totally blown away. I got to meet Michael J. Fox and [Robert] Zemeckis, and all of that just blew my mind. It was like the fantasy coming to life in front of my eyes. It was almost too much to handle. It was pretty awesome."
Though his days in Middle Earth are behind him, Wood is still often questioned about his work on the films and, more recently, about
The Hobbit. When asked who he think should play Bilbo, Wood said:
"That's a tough one. I think Ian Holm really set a high bar for that performance. He really did an extraordinary job, and he really made it his own. There's a lot of quirkiness to that character. It's not the easiest character to play. One couldn't really do it straightforward -- there's some odd quirks to him. So it'll be interesting to see who they get. Nobody really comes to mind. They've mentioned a few people so far. James McAvoy is great. I think he could be interesting.
Of course, one would naturally assume that Wood's favorite role would be portraying the Hobbit that made him a mega-star, but Wood prefers the dark character of Kevin from
Frank Miller's Sin City:
"Well, Sin City was a pretty awesome role to play. Getting a chance to play a character like [Kevin], and also being a fan of the graphic novel, it was a real treat -- not something that comes around often. So that's definitely one of my favorites.
Wood next lends his voice to the title character in
Shane Acker's 9, due out September 9.