TONIGHT

• Home
• Video
• Podcasts/RSS 
• Local Showtimes
• Past Shows
• Blogs
• About the Show
• Tell Tavis
• Features
• Mobile

RELATED LINKS

• Article on Mr. Wood
• Bobby
• Happy Feet
• Mr. Wood's bio
• Q & A with Mr. Wood

E-mail a friend

Tavis: Actor Elijah Wood is still shy of his 25th birthday, but he's already enjoyed a terrific career in movies including, of course, the blockbuster trilogy, "The Lord of the Rings". All told, those three films have won a remarkable seventeen Academy Awards. His latest project is the new film, "Everything is Illuminated". The movie is open in several cities now with more to come throughout October. Elijah, nice to meet you.

Elijah Wood: Nice to meet you, Tavis. Thank you so much.

Tavis: Glad to have you on the program at the ripe old age of 24 (laughter). Let me just ask this question and get this out of the way. What is the biggest impact that that trilogy has had on your life? I'm sure it's impacted a lot of ways, but what happens when you have a trilogy like that?

Wood: Yeah, I mean, there's a variety of ways. I must say that I think what made the biggest impact on me was just simply the experience. You know, four years of working on those films, sixteen months of which were in New Zealand pretty much steadily. The way that that country informed on me as a human being and those people and the relationships that I made are so unbelievably profound and was such an incredible life experience.

I was eighteen when I traveled to New Zealand, so it was sort of like my university in a way. So when I think about it in terms of how it's affected my life, I tend to think of it in those terms as opposed to how it's affected my career. It certainly opened doors for my career, but for me as a person, I mean, it has certainly changed me and shaped me for sure.

Tavis: When you say going to New Zealand was like your university, it's not just New Zealand that you've been to, this project that we'll talk about here in just a second. You were on location in Prague for this. So at 24, you have been on location in countries around the world. I wonder -- I've always believed that traveling is one of the best ways to educate one's self. I'm sure you agree.

Wood: Absolutely.

Tavis: Tell me what it's meant for you to be able, at this age in your life, to have that kind of world experience, that kind of global perspective?

Wood: It's incredible. You know, I'd say that it's one of the greatest benefits of being an actor, to be able to travel around the world and not simply be there as a tourist, but to live in those places, to really get the true experience of that culture in the place that you're living. You know, I think it's incredibly important for Americans to travel. It's something that seems to be missing slightly, I think.

We tend to live in the American bubble. You know, it's a massive country and we have a massive influence on the rest of the world. I think, for a lot of people, it's difficult to break that barrier and extend to the rest of the world. I do think it's incredibly educational and incredibly important for us as human beings to be able to connect with other cultures and learn from them, you know.

Tavis: You're an actor, so I suspect that a good deal of your time when you're on location is on the set working, so I don't know how much you get a chance to actually get out when you're on location. But I wonder whether or not you've had a chance to get out enough over the years to have some sense, certainly post-9/11, to your point about us living in this American bubble, to get some sense of how the world views us.

Wood: (Laugher) It's interesting.

Tavis: That's a nice for it. Interesting.

Wood: It is interesting. I think it depends on the people. It depends on where you are. You know, there's a relatively negative outlook on America, particularly these days. I think, in certain places, it isn't getting any better. Our policies continue to move in the direction that they've been moving for the last four years, so I think that there is still a relatively negative outlook.

I didn't necessarily experience that and it's not something I've come across because I think ultimately people are people and, when they meet you as a human being, you don't represent your country necessarily. I don't walk around representing the American, you know, way and I don't walk around with the flag. So ultimately, I find that, when you meet people from other cultures, they're not judging you. They may have issues with your politics or the politics of your country, but I find that ultimately it's the connection with people and that will always be what it is.

Tavis: And if your name is Elijah Wood of "The Lord of the Rings", that makes it even easier to connect, I imagine (laughter).

Wood: Which is sort of slightly unfair, to be honest. It's slightly unfair.

Tavis: Don't apologize for it. I ain't mad at you for it. Don't apologize for it (laughter). "Everything is Illuminated", of course, there's a book first. Tell me about the film project.

Wood: Well, the film is adapted by Liev Schreiber from the book. He basically took an excerpt from the book essentially which dealt with these three characters' journey across the Ukraine. It's about a young Jewish-American named Jonathan. He travels to the Ukraine looking for a woman he believes saved his grandfather during the war.

It's essentially -- the first half of the movie is kind of a mad Ukrainian road trip with a grandfather, this guy Alex, and a dog in a very, very tiny car. It's kind of about their relationships and the mixture of cultures. Alex's opinion on American culture, you know, very kind of skewed idea of what Western culture is, and Jonathan not at all representing Western culture, and kind of the clash that happens. Ultimately, it becomes a story about self-discovery through the past. Understanding the past and connecting to the past.

Tavis: It is, as you mentioned, a story about this search for this mysterious woman in this photograph who Jonathan believes helped get his family certainly out of this Nazi situation.

Wood: Right.

Tavis: I wonder whether or not, in looking at a project like that, you had occasion to reminisce, to talk about, to your word, to discover anything about your own family lineage.

Wood: Heritage.

Tavis: Yeah, heritage.

Wood: It's something that I've -- it's a journey I've not yet taken, but certainly in reading this script and also in being a part of the film, it's definitely made me ask those questions more and more, to investigate it more. In fact, I do know that I have heritage in eastern Europe, interestingly enough, in Poland and, I think, in Germany. I think it's incredibly important.

That's another thing that Americans don't really do is investigate the past. All of us tend to live in the present and I think, you know, in the Jewish culture, the past is incredibly important to them and they tend to make those journeys quite a lot. I think there's something really important about that in terms of understanding where we came from and maybe understanding who we are more throughout that journey.

Tavis: Is that the most important lesson that you learned about the Jewish culture doing this? And I ask that because we have all seen the movies and read the stories and I got a chance to go to Jerusalem and I've been to the museums and I've done a number of things in my lifetime that have exposed me to the Jewish way of life, the Jewish culture, the Jewish custom, their appreciation for history. What else did you learn, if anything else, about their customs, about their lifestyle, about their appreciations that meant something to you?

Wood: Well, I mean, the Jewish religion has always had an impact on me primarily because of their connection to the past and also their connection to each other through tradition. You know, it's not something that I have experienced in my life. In the Christian religion, our holidays tend to be sort of Hallmark holidays whereas theirs actually have some kind of meaning and they haven't really changed throughout the years.

That's something that's always really impressed me. Just simply, their connection to the past and their understanding of the journey that they have taken over time and how that's got them to where they are and their appreciation for where they are now as a result of what they've had to go through. Not just, you know, in eastern Europe during the war, but before that as well.

Tavis: I've got some sense, I think, now having talked to you for a few minutes here of what drew you to this project. But in the aggregate, on the larger scale, after you come out of a successful trilogy, unprecedented successful trilogy like "The Lord of the Rings", really gets inside your head, I see your hand was to the side over here, how do you navigate your career at this point?

When you come out of something like that, I mean, it is possible with something that big, that that could be the best you ever did. Obviously, you don't want to think that way, but that's pretty good stuff, though. Seventeen academies for that trilogy. How do you navigate your career in a way that is interesting to you, that's provocative, that allows you to choose things that are the same or different? How do you navigate making choices at this point?

Wood: I must say, it's relatively organic. You know, I think coming off of "The Lord of the Rings" and the success of those films and how massive they were, my interest was certainly to be a part of something very small immediately after, to not be a part of anything large --

Tavis: -- the exact opposite.

Wood: Exactly. But then, after that, it's literally based on what I read and what I come across. I mean, it's difficult to find scripts that interest me. It's difficult to find anything that is of quality and certainly difficult to find something that's unique and has a unique vision. So I'm always looking for that and the process is organic in that way, that I read something and it speaks to me on some level and that's what I go for, be it large or small. I'm also interested in continuing to challenge myself as an actor and to be in films that are very different from the last that I worked on and continuing to try new things and have a relatively unique career path.

Tavis: In the 45 seconds I have left here, you also have your music. People don't know you're like a -- you were talking before we came on the air -- you're a big music lover. You got your own label now.

Wood: Yeah. I'm working on it, yeah. It's called Simian Records. Hopefully, it will be all set up by the end of the year. But, yeah, I'm a huge music fan. I've heard you're a massive music fan as well.

Tavis: I love music, right, yeah.

Wood: Yeah, the idea kind of came out of wanting to be a part of it in some way and wanting to contribute. I feel like having a label, finding bands that I believe in and sort of just purely wanting people to hear them is kind of an exciting thing. It's also nice to just simply work on something that's my own, to create something from the ground up as well.

Tavis: Don't you hate guys like this? All the talent, all the opportunity -- anyway, I'm just teasing you (laughter). I'm honored to meet you.

Wood: Tavis, thank you so much.

Tavis: Glad to have you on the program. Elijah Wood, "Everything is Illuminated" in theaters now.

Tavis: That's our show for tonight. You can catch me on the weekends on PRI, Public Radio International. Check your local radio listings. I'll see you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from Los Angeles. Thanks for watching and, as always, keep the faith.