| BOXOFFICE: What's your take on the character of Frodo and his motivations, his loyalties and his conflicts? WOOD: Wow! Well, Frodo, in terms of his decision to take the ring and the journey that he ends up taking -- there's a lot that plays into that. Initially, his reason for taking the ring is because [benevolent wizard] Gandalf has explained to him that the ring that Bilbo had had all these years was actually the Ring of Power, the One Ring, and that it was intrinsically evil, and that [the dark lord] Sauron would be willing it back to him and, if he did end up getting it back, Middle Earth would be doomed. So Frodo takes the ring in an effort to get the ring out of the Shire, so that the Shire is not a pinpoint for any of the minions of Sauron. He then realizes that he's still stuck with the ring once he gets to Rivendell [home of the elf lord Elrond], at which point he doesn't want to have anything to do with it, and he simply wants to go home and live the life that he once lived. But it's during his time in Rivendell that he realizes [he must] take the ring, out of a sort of fate. The humans and the elves are all starting to disagree as to what to do with the ring -- they know it can't be destroyed, and there's a quality in humans that, if one takes the ring, they themselves will be destroyed. Frodo realizes that he's the only one who can do this, and he's meant to do this. BOXOFFICE: And of course he has conflicts as the ring has its sway upon him. WOOD: Yes, certainly. BOXOFFICE: That must have been difficult to portray, because this is a pure spirit, yet he's not totally free from corruption. WOOD: No, absolutely. Though Hobbits can sustain the power of the ring for longer than most species, it does begin to affect them after a certain period of time. Frodo, over the course of the journey, starts out very innocent and unaffected and, throughout the journey, the ring starts to weigh upon his soul. And he becomes a very different person by the end of the story. BOXOFFICE: It's an interesting opportunity for you to be able to execute that arc all at once [as all three films in the trilogy were shot concurrently]. WOOD: Absolutely. That was brilliant. And what was kind of cool about the entire project was actually the fact that we were able to stretch out the filming over 15 months. BOXOFFICE: [Sarcastically/sympathetically:] Oh, yeah, that's cool! WOOD: No, in some ways, I think it is, because we were given a chance to flesh out the story almost in real time. I mean, the journey itself [in the three books] took place over a year, and we had that same amount of time to film the movie and the story. So we had that amount of time to figure our arc out and to actually take our character to different places, as opposed to trying to figure it out in a very short amount of time, which you normally have for a film. So it was a privilege, because we had an extended amount of time to work things out as we went along. BOXOFFICE: But how did you survive? WOOD: [laughs] Um, well, it was a brilliant experience. I mean, yeah, it was 15 months, but the thing is, when I arrived in New Zealand, it immediately felt like home to me, and I was immediately comfortable. And within the first couple of weeks, once I'd met everyone and the Hobbits were all hanging out together and working together, "Lord of the Rings" became my life. And it became everyone's life. The kind of camaraderie that everyone felt together working over that period of time was unlike any I'd ever had before. I mean, it was a family. BOXOFFICE: Did you ever all go into town in your garb and impress the locals? WOOD: We never did. We weren't allowed, because we were afraid people would be taking pictures. We were trying to be as top secret as possible, although things leaked quite often. BOXOFFICE: For certain shots, four-foot stand-ins were used wearing masks of the actors. How surreal was that? WOOD: It was very surreal. I've never worked with a double that was to be smaller than me BOXOFFICE: And wearing a mask of your face! WOOD: That was pretty strange as well. BOXOFFICE: How accurate was it? WOOD: It was pretty accurate! It was kind of ghostly. But it was also quite cool as well, because we all got to stand back and watch people of real Hobbit size walk around and, essentially, they were Hobbits. So, for us, it was kind of a joy to watch them go through our scenes in the wider shots, because they were the real Hobbits and, in some ways, I think we were the scale doubles. BOXOFFICE: But just to see someone looking pretty much like you -- what's in your head? WOOD: There were a lot of strange, new experiences for all of us in this movie, so it was just one of the many after a while. But it was certainly bizarre, especially to have a picture [taken with me and] my smaller self. I remember one day I noticed this kind of bin, and inside the bin -- I opened it up -- there were all of the Hobbit faces. And we took a picture of it, because it was so bizarre! It looked so eerie! Because nothing was filling the faces. They were just these blank expressions. BOXOFFICE: Sounds like one of those snuff films. Hannibal discards or something. Did you keep your skin? WOOD: I didn't, actually. I don't think they had enough for anyone to steal a copy. BOXOFFICE: Did you get to keep any of your wardrobe? WOOD: I haven't as of yet. There are a lot of things I still have my eye on. Although I do have the One Ring. BOXOFFICE: Do you? Where do you keep the One Ring? WOOD: My One Ring is in the office at the moment. BOXOFFICE: That's not very Middle Earthian. WOOD: No, it's not, but I can't wear it, for fear of losing it or someone taking it. The thing is, if I tell everyone I have the One Ring -- which I've already kind of done, foolishly, I think -- then everyone's going to want the One Ring. So it's kept away. BOXOFFICE: You're just in Frodo's position! Instead of Ringwraiths, there are rabid fans. WOOD: Exactly! Exactly. BOXOFFICE: How much of the first film have you seen? WOOD: Early on, we saw edited scenes put together, and that was an hour or so of footage, and then I've seen this last 25-minute cut. |
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