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A ROUNDTABLE INTERVIEW WITH THE CAST AND CREW OF THE LORD OF THE
RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING
On Wednesday, Dec. 5th, Jeffrey Overstreet
joined several other privileged film critics, including Steven D.
Greydanus (Decent Films), Andrew Coffin (World), Steve Beard
(Thunderstruck), Jeremy Landes (Christian Spotlight), and Michael Elliott
(Movie Parables) to talk with members of the
cast and crew for the year's most ambitious, exhausting, and gloriously
realized film. Over the course of this week, Looking Closer will be
adding excerpts of those interviews here. Keep checking back!
Elijah Wood -
Frodo
WARNING:
THE FOLLOWING INTERVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. DO NOT READ IT IF YOU WANT TO
GUARD YOUR IGNORANCE ABOUT PLOT POINTS IN THE FILM.
Jeffrey:
Do the movies look different to you three years later? Are you seeing
things in them you didn’t see early on?
Wood:
It doesn’t feel like there is that much distance between working on the
movies and the movies coming out, because every year we’ve gone back to
do pickups. Every year that we come and talk about these films and every
year that we see these movies it feels pretty recent in our history. I
think if I were to go back now and watch Fellowship and watch
Two Towers, I think I might have a slightly different review on them
and see them from a slightly more open perspective, but I think pretty
objective about them anyway just because there is so much of these films
that a) we don’t know what it’s finally going to look like when we see
it, and b) certainly for films 2 and 3, the stories are so separated
that there’s a good two-thirds of each film that I had no concept of
what was happening to the other characters because I was so focused on
my own journeys. For the first time I saw Two Towers and the
first time I saw Return of the King it was sort of like watching
a movie that you weren’t a part of because there is so much new coming
at you.
Jeffrey:
You spent so much time in Tolkien’s world and seeing through his eyes,
has his view of the world, his views on spirituality, his views on right
and wrong influenced your own thinking? Do you find his view of the
world appealing or
discomforting?
Wood:
I certainly agree with him. I think in playing a hobbit, I was at the
very center of his ideology, his perspective of what was good and what
was wrong with the world. He wrote hobbits and certainly the Shire as
all that is good and pure in the world. I sort of agree with his
perspective on the fact that there all these wonderfully good and pure
things that are being threatened by Mordor which is in my estimation the
modern world threatening all that is good and pure.
Those themes that are very important in the story to Tolkien became very
important to me. I think I agreed with them before, but especially after
working in New Zealand. I think those things resonated even clearer.
Working in a country that is so lightly populated and is so pure in
terms of its ecosystem and its nature. There are bits of New
Zealand where there are no people at
all, and it is just sheep and landscape. I think we all learned—if we
hadn’t already—I think we all had a relatively good perspective of the
earth and the fact that it’s being threatened. But after living in New
Zealand and working in New Zealand I think we all have a better
perspective of the state of the world and that it needs to be saved and
preserved.
Steven D. Greydanus:
You play a hero in this film who sacrifices all that he has in him but
ultimately fails. He succumbs to the addiction of the Ring. And he is
saved from the fate of Gollum and Isildur by chance or fate or
providence or whatever you want to call it…
Wood:
It’s mercy. It’s in the book: It’s Frodo’s mercy for Gollum that
destroys the ring. Had Frodo killed Gollum, he would have possibly
gotten to Mount Doom and he would have kept the ring for himself and the
world would have been doomed. [It was because] he saw a kinship in
Gollum and had an understanding and an empathy with Gollum that Gollum
stayed alive and ultimately impeded upon Frodo’s own destruction, which
destroys the ring.
SDG:
There is also the theme running all the way to the first film where
Gandalf says to Frodo, “There is another will at work… in the finding of
the Ring, that it came to your uncle that you were meant to have it …
and that is an encouraging thought.” Given the way that the ring was
represented almost as an addiction, and that is certainly how Andy
Serkis played him… as an addict… I wonder if you have any thoughts about
the Ring as a metaphor for addiction, particularly in regards to the
common idea among addicts of a need to acknowledge a higher power to
overcome the addiction. Is faith in a higher power necessary for
overcoming addiction?
Wood:
Whoah! That was well done, by the way! I’m very proud of myself for
being able to hold that all in!
I
certainly give credence to that in life. I’m not sure it pertains to
Frodo’s particular journey. The way that Frodo gets through is
ultimately in his will and his courage and his own inner strength and
belief that gets him through. It’s also Sam as well, belief in Sam, his
love of Sam. It’s the love in his heart and the good in his heart that
holds the evil at bay for as long as it does. I don’t think there is
anything else that he looks to to free him of this addiction.
Jeremy Landes:
What about calling on the name of Elbereth?
Wood:
Well, yeah… calling on the light of Earendil. But I don’t know that there
is any higher power that he believes in to help him get through. I think
it really is about, if anything, Sam.
Press:
Frodo is unable to go back to the Shire. But Sam carried [the ring] for
a while and he was able to go back and live his life…
Wood:
Sam did for a brief moment carry the Ring, but he didn’t carry
the Ring. It is that experience of having been burdened by that evil for
that period of time that has permanently etched away at Frodo’s soul.
That is something that he can never get back. There is something
sacrificed in the destruction of that ring, a piece of Frodo. It is
almost like a loss of innocence. He’s gone back home war-torn, like
someone who has seen the atrocities of war and then come home and their
home doesn’t look the same to them anymore and they can’t find the same
pleasures that they used to because they’ve experienced something so
horrid. Although Sam was there with Frodo and certainly experienced his
fair share of the atrocities of the journey, he doesn’t know that,
what that Ring did to Frodo. He never experienced the true weight and
the profundity of that.
Press:
I noticed the marks on your neck as you got closer to Mount Doom, almost
like a stigmata…
Wood:
It’s because the Ring gets heavier, and keeps getting heavier and starts
to tear at Frodo’s neck. With Sam being able to go home at the end, he
never lost a bit of his soul. He never lost what makes him Sam. He never
lost his purity. Frodo did.
Jeremy Landes:
Do you have a “Sam” in your life that helps keep you centered and
accepts you unconditionally.
Wood:
I’ve got a few people in my life that keep me centered. All of my
friends … and my family. In a lot of ways, Sean is Sam to me. We may not
see each other every day and I may live in a different state now. But
there is a real truth to the relationship that we had in comparison to
Frodo and Sam. Not as intense as that, but we became brothers. We love
each other very much despite differences.
Jeffrey:
What about role models? You have a lot of acting ahead of you, we hope.
You’ll be recognized as Frodo everywhere you go, I’m sure. Is there any
actor who has gone before and been through similar levels and success
and familiarity who you would like to follow their career arc for
yourself?
Wood:
I really admire Johnny Depp’s career. It’s never been about celebrity or
fame. He’s definitely had a certain amount of fame, but he does what he
wants to do, and he tends to only work on projects that he’s really
passionate about, which has always been my philosophy. He’s done that
really well. It doesn’t matter how big or small the project is. It’s
always just about the role and the quality of the project. He leads a
very good example in Hollywood today for the right way to go about one’s
career. There are a few actors that I think embody the same [thing],
that never really let me down … I think they always choose things that
they really believe in and only do it for the work and have their
private lives. He’s also brilliantly mixed his own life privately with
the work that he does. You never really see stories about him, these
days anyway. You don’t see him in the public eye too often. He works
very hard at keeping his private life separate. I think he’s a good
inspiration.
I’m
also really inspired by Viggo, in terms of personally someone I know,
his work ethic. On the set, he was a constant inspiration to all of us.
The man gave 110 percent every single day. He’s also such a giving
individual and a kind-hearted man, and a brilliantly talented actor,
painter, photographer…
Steve Beard:
At the end of the filming process, did you feel in leaving New Zealand––
Wood:
Did I feel like I was leaving for the Gray Havens?
Steve Beard:
Yes! Was there any kind of a similarity?
Andrew Coffin:
And can I add to that … what will you take with you [now that the
project is over]?
Wood:
We’ve wrapped like five or six times! [laughs]
But
I’ll speak of two of them because two of them are very significant.
The
first time we finished the films [laughs again], we wrapped up principal
photography. At that point we did not know that we would be coming back
for pick-up shots. As far as we knew, the films were over. I don’t know
that when I left I felt like Frodo felt because I think Frodo felt… shed
of all that burden and he is at peace. And to me, there was a real sense
of mixed emotions. I was leaving my family and people I’d become really
close to, and a country that I loved, and a way of life that I’d gotten
so used to. And I didn’t know what my life meant anymore at home, in my
own daily life. So it was difficult. Great in that I could finally get
home and relax and feel that peace, but that peace didn’t come without
its consequence.
Then
we wrapped again on the pick-ups of the third film, which is another
significant thing for us because it was literally the last time we were
in New Zealand for filming ever. That was really hard. In some ways that
was more emotional because we’d already gone through the difficulty of
wrapping the first time and then we got lulled into this sense of
security that we’d have to come back every year. And that was great! We
got so used to saying, “See you next year!”
And
then suddenly, we were on the brink of the end, and I didn’t know what
to do. I got there and it was this reunion and it felt like I never left
and suddenly I saw actors leaving. Each actor was given their own
farewell. I would go to each of them. I would watch them and all of them
would cry and the whole crew would be present. And I thought, ‘I don’t
want this to happen to me. I don’t want to have to go through this. I
don’t want to go through the process of having to say goodbye to
everyone in this way. As beautiful as it is, it breaks my heart and I
don’t know if I’m ready for it.’ It came time to do it and I had to make
a speech in front of the crew and I couldn’t articulate what I wanted to
say, I was so overwhelmed with emotion. Leaving that was very emotional
and very sad and moreover difficult to comprehend, as much as it was
sinking in, I couldn’t get my head around it. And now we’re at the
brink of the end again as we say goodbye to these movies in terms of
their release.
Throughout all of these years and various ends and saying goodbye that
we’ve done, the thing that rings true, and now I’ll come around to
your question, brilliantly! [laughter all around] is that the thing
to take with us at the end of all this is the friendships made. It is
the thing that will endure for years and years when these movies are in
the film history books. The Fellowship will carry on. There’s something
really hopeful and beautiful about that. We can certainly rely on that.
It is the thing that I personally am most proud [of] and feel most
blessed to be able to take away from the last four years—that sense of
family and closeness with the actors and the crew. I’ve never felt
anything like that.
Andrew Coffin:
Did that have to do with the intensity of the process or from the story
itself?
Wood:
Both, in a way! The story called us to have these relationships for the
characters, but the two months we had before the filming really secured
the friendships, and then the process of making these movies… we were
there for sixteen months, and spent all of our time together, and
consequently all of our free time as well.
Press:
The majority of this group would call this the greatest trilogy ever
made. Do you have any sense of “How will I surpass this?”
Wood:
I don’t really want to surpass it. It was its own experience. I would
hate to surpass it, to try to do something better than that. I think
that means I wouldn’t have appreciated it enough. It will endure in my
mind and my heart for the rest of my life.
Jeremy Landes:
What were you thinking about with that last smile?
Wood:
You know what they cut out though? It’s not there… [he then grins and
gives us all two thumbs’ up.] They cut out the thumbs!
[This gets laughter for a long time.]
[getting serious] That smile had to encompass a lot.
It’s essentially supposed to be peace. Frodo finally has [found]
the Frodo we remember from the Shire, shed of that loss of innocence
that he had. The innocence has returned. It’s
all of those things. That’s all I was thinking of, trying to be as pure
and peaceful as possible.
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