Horror and Highschool

Queer View: Robert Rodriguez told us about your history. You do not have a high school experience, because at this age you've been on the set the whole time.

Elijah Wood: Right.

Queer View: So it was the first time for you in a high school?

Elijah Wood: Yes, basically. It was a wonderful experience just as a film, making that movie. It was probably one of the best experiences I've ever had, making that film. I don't think it can be compared with high school. It was similar. When you get six kids together, you get some resemblance of high school. Certain kids will hang out with other kids more, little dramas here and there, but you know, it was really a great experience. It was something like high school. But we had such a wonderful time. And it's cool because we had never been in Austin before. So we all had to rely on each other. For company, like on weekends, we all had to get together and get through it together, because we didn't know our surroundings. It was really great, a lot of us became closer together.

Queer View: How important was this film for your career, compared to, let's say, The Ice Storm?

Elijah Wood: Well, this one is a much more commercial movie than The Ice Storm. So everything which works commercially is helpful in the sense that it get's me out there and gets me more recognition for what I do. Which allows me to get more roles. That process to get me into commercial movies: It's just a tool to get me out there to get more roles, but beside from that, it was very exciting to do that [movie] because of Robert. That's the reason I really wanted to do this film.

Queer View: There were generations of actors on the set of The Ice Storm. You were working with Christina Ricci in your age, and Sigourney Weaver and Kevin Kline in another age level. Are there any differences in acting and working?

Elijah Wood: In the way I am treated by them, or as things go? Not really, no. Everybody has their own technics, everybody has their own approach. I mean, everybody is different. But for the most part we are pretty much the same, we are equal. So everyone was equal on that film. Which was wonderful, because everyone was meters above me. It's amazing to have worked with them as an equal and be regarded as an equal. I am very fortunate to have had that common respect. I worked very hard, and it's nice to have some sort of payoff like that.

Queer View: You don't want to be the nice guy anymore?

Elijah Wood: Well, my character is nice. He is weakly, definitely weakly. Which is good, because I didn't really play anything like him before. I was very excited to mix it up and do something different. I had to play the insecure without the clichees, which all those alltype characters have connected to them. That was the challenge I and everyone else had as well.

Queer View: When did you actually see Invasion of the Body Snatchers and what effect has it had on you?

Elijah Wood: I actually saw Invasion of the Body Snatchers during the making of The Faculty. It had been the first time I had ever seen it. I saw the one with Donald Sutherland [1978], which is great. That was the second one, the remake of the first, a very very good film, very creepy. I saw it after we were in Austin for a couple of weeks.

Queer View: What do you think are the similarities and the dissimilarities between those horror movies in the past and those of today?

Elijah Wood: The Faculty is dealing with high school alienation and the paranoia which arises within that. Invasion of the Body Snatchers is very different. It's dealing with more, at least in that movie it represented a larger scale of the world being taken over by these people, these aliens. It's almost a worldwide paranoia which is representative of the time as well. The first Invasion of the Body Snatchers was done during a time in which America was close to a war, at a time when there had been a lot of fear and paranoia within America. It's a reflection of that, I think. The Faculty deals with just that fear and paranoia within the alienation that kids go through in high school. That has been happening for years and years and years. We just touched upon that and took that real aspect a little bit further and made it into little aliens.

Queer View: Since Scream there is a renaissance of similar horror flics. The business avers that your generation wants to see these films. Tell us about your generation: Do you want to see these movies, and is that the reason why they do so well at the boxoffice?

Elijah Wood: I don't know, but it's interesting. I can't really speak for my generation, I mean, I don't really want see all those movies. Scream was great, and Scream 2 is great, but there have been so many copies of those movies, and so many movies had been influenced by Scream, that haven't been as good, that it's tiring now. The whole genre is tired.

Sure, I think a lot of kids want to see that and it certainly does really well with the boxoffice. It's not something that I am really interested in at all. Once you've seen it, you've seen it a million times. It's a formular, and I think there are a lot of teen movies now. Teens want to see themselves represented on screen. I mean we´ve got a lot of new teen movies coming out that aren't nessessarily horror movies, but just high school movies.

There's probably gonna be a lot those and I think they're gonna end up dieing out. It's a farce now. It will be so tired by the end of the run that I think they will do a few high school movies and get really old. The horror genre for teens is totally over now. Then there will be a few more science fiction teen movies but I am not sure how long that will last. Anything like that will not last very long, because it's drawing upon old ideas and it's rehashing them.

That has been the hard decision doing this film. I didn't really want to be part of that. When I got the script initially I turned it down, as „you know there are so many of these movies now, and I think it's so old, and everyone is doing that, I don't want to do this". Then I heard that Robert was to direct it, which totally turned me around. Because I was a huge fan of his and I knew that his style and his ability will totally change what the film would end up being. I knew that the style of the film would be completely different than the way any other director would have done it. It would stand on his own, and that's why I did the movie.

Queer View: How could you watch the movies of Robert Rodriguez, because as far as I know they are rated R?

Elijah Wood: Yeah, well, I watch a lot of rated R movies. I've seen so many movies... (laughs) There are no restrictions, there are restrictions as far as going into theatres...

Queer View: Was it strange or a little bit frightening to watch yourself on screen becoming an alien in The Faculty?

Queer View: It was just cool. All the special effects in the movie were very fun to watch. I hadn't seen any of it till I actually saw the film. I didn't know what to expect, but it was very, very cool. It's fun to be a part of a movie like that.

Queer View: So you had a lot of fun on the set, working with the creepy?

Elijah Wood: Oh, it's very, very cool. It's make-believe indeed, you have your own little world.

Queer View: Young people of your age think growing up as a young film star is about traveling and money and all things like that. With you it had to do with loss and with work.

Elijah Wood: Definitely, it's all about the work for me. I just love what I do and I love acting. It's so great to bring those fictional characters to life. It's really a wonderful job, it's a lot of fun, it's very challenging. I love to travel, the money is in the side, the money is security. I don't look at the money as being some sort of extravagance because I am not interested in extravagant things. I love the money simply for the fact that it's security, that I don't have to worry. It gives me the freedom to continue to do what I do.

Queer View: How did you get started?

Elijah Wood: I was living in Iowa where I was born. I was about six years old, when my mother was watching a tv commercial one day, and it popped into her head that I´d love to do this. "He loves life, he's got a ton of energy, it's a great channel for energy."

It wasn't anything that I had really considered before. Being seven years old, everything sounds wonderful, specially the prospect of moving to Los Angeles and being an actor sounds great. So we basically agreed, and I moved out to Los Angeles a week later with the family. Within six weeks of auditioning I got my first job. It was a Paula Abdul music video, Forever Your Girl. From there it just snowballed, picked up speed, and I started to work on film, which my mom didn't expect me to do. Here I am, it's really wonderful. Because I realized that I would last for years, I realized how difficult it is for actors my age and younger to get into that business and to stay in this business. I've done it with that ease, it happened very quickly and very easily, and I am so happy and so proud to be where I am and to be in the position that I am.

Queer View: Was it always good to be a star at such a young age, did you never missed a part of your childhood?

Elijah Wood: There was a time when I missed friends, because I wasn't going to a normal school. As I grew up I made friends and that [issue] didn't become such a problem. I think I gained more than I lost. I got to travel around the world and do what I love to do and meet people and learn. It has really been wonderful. I can't think about anything that I've lost, that it still feels like it's a loss to me. I definitely gained more.

Queer View: Do you feel more pressure than older actors?

Elijah Wood: What pressure?

Queer View: To be successful, to be professional in all these things, because you are a long time in this business now.

Elijah Wood: Right. I don't really feel pressure to be professional, because it's just an accepted way to be. It's just how things work as far as you know what is expected of you. I've done it so long, it's just sort of second nature. And I don't really feel pressure to be successful. I want to be successful, I definitely have goals, and I think I put that pressure on myself. But I don't think there is a general pressure to be at a certain level or remain at a certain level.

Queer View: A lot of child actors do feel the pressure about their future career, that they will be out of work as soon as they are no children anymore.

Elijah Wood: I think, where the most of the pressure lies, is within. If there is any pressure then it's mostly in that transition from being a child actor to an adult actor. Wether they gonna make it or not. It's happening really well right now. So I am not too worried. That's where the most pressure comes from. Most actors don't make it from being young actors to being adult ones, the transition is the most difficult thing. Obviously, if I weren't to make that, I wouldn't be an actor at all anymore.

Queer View: You've turned 18 now. Do you feel like a teen or some kind of a child actor with a lof of experience?

Elijah Wood: I am a teen actor, am I not? I am no longer a child actor. I don't know, it's interesting.

Queer View: It's a typecasting question.

Elijah Wood: Yes, because you've been easily branded as a teen idol, I certainly don't want to be that. I guess anything can happen as far as that goes. I have to choose more roles more wisely. I think I've done The Faculty, and I won't make a teen movie ever again like this, I think that's it. Not to say that this hadn't been good and won't be good for me. I just think one is enough. Because if I do another I could be expected that I could do another and another and I just don't want to jump into a genre that I can't get out of. I am out now, and all the things I want to do are completely far away from that.

Queer View: What scripts do you tell your agent to send you? Just to pick the scripts with certain directors attached?

Elijah Wood: We are kind of on the same level. I and my agent work very well. I want what she wants, and she wants what I want. I definitely don't want to do any teen movies, and she doesn't want me to either, because it would be a poor decision. Even if the movie was good, because it would say something about my choices, and it would put me into that teen light and I want to get away from that as far as possible.

Queer View: Had there been any roles you had been eager to get and didn't get?

Elijah Wood: Oh yes, there are always roles, definitely.

Queer View: What do you think about working on stage?

Elijah Wood: I haven't done much of it. I was six or five when I last did stage work. Apparently, it's great training, and good experience. I am not ready to do that now, and I am much more passionate about movies than I am about stage work.

Queer View: In Deep Impact you have to marry very young. Is this something that is very far away from you?

Elijah Wood: Marriage is way far away from me. Oh yes, oh God yes, almost definitely.

Queer View: Just because Macaulay Culkin is married now...

Elijah Wood: Yes, he got married with 17. Marriage is so far off, I gotta have a lot of life to live, I've gotta have a lot of things to do. Marriage is something I want to do when I am in my 30ies.

Queer View: What is next?

Elijah Wood: I did this movie called Black and White, with Robert Downey Jr., Jared Leto and Brooke Shields. It's a huge cast. It's a James Toback film, who did Two Girls and a Guy. It's a completely improvised movie, about the blurred line between the black and white cultures. It's gonna be very interesting, it's gonna be very controversial.

I don't know how it's gonna be, I have no clue. It's weird in the sense that we didn't had a scripted dialogue. It's very hard to tell, I don't even remember what I came up with. So I am very curious. I think it's opening up at the Cannes film festival, that's what I hear. That would be a cool experience.

Queer View: How much of improvisation do you want for yourself as an actor?

Elijah Wood: I am not very experienced in improvisation. That's mainly why I took this role in Black and White, because I had never really done it before and I wanted to challenge myself. Do something that I had never done and learn a little bit. I think since it was my first time, I didn't succeed in doing what I really would have liked to do. Going back I would do things a little differently.

I am curious to see how it turned out. I am really glad that I did it, to learn and to do something new and different. It's totally improvised, all we had was a summary on what we had to do from „a" to „b". You have to do this, just to accomplish this in a scene, to accomplish this in any which way, and you can say whatever you want and it's stand and walk where ever you want. You've got this complete freedom which is really kind of scary at the same time. The freedom is lovely but what do you do with that freedom and where do you go with that? Since I am so used to structure, it's weird to completely leave it.

I remember the first day I was so painfully nervous. I was sitting there during rehearsal - we actually rehearsed a scene, one with no dialogue - we were making things up, and I thought "Oh, I don't think I can do this". We were going back to the trailer, freaked out and finally got back to the set. Things then went so well, everything kind of flowed. Well, we will see.

Queer View: You said you watched a lot of R rated movies. Do you like science fiction and horror movies?

Elijah Wood: Oh yes, I like most genres, most films, all sorts of films.

Queer View: What kind of film really made an effect on you, being also in the business?

Elijah Wood: Anything that sort of evokes emotion, a lot of independent movies really have a lot to say, more than I think studio pictures do these days. Then again art films can be just as pretentious as regular studio picutres, so, I don't know...

Queer View: Are there any plans in the future besides being an actor?

Elijah Wood: I would love to direct. Working with Robert was very inspirational. Because he is so hands on. He was operating the camera a lot of the time, and he edited the film. So we had actually snippets of the film ready during the making of the film. He would show scenes that were to be cut together, he cut together previews of the movie throughout the film. He kept us excited about what we were doing. Just to see that he hasn't lost that sort of efficient filmmaking sensibility, that he got from El mariachi, which he made for like 7,000 dollars. That sensibilty is still there, he still gets three different shots within one shot. It's amazing to see him work. He really inspired me to want to pick up a camera and go out and do something myself and see what I come up with

Queer View: You can do it with a videocamera.

Elijah Wood: You can, digital video cameras have broadcast qualities, but you can shoot a bunch of different things and cut it all together on your home computer, and it will look great.

Queer View: What kind of stuff attracts you to direct?

Elijah Wood: I haven't gotten that far yet. I want to write some things for myself as an experiment. I don't want to limit myself in saying that I want to do a particular type of thing. I am open to everything, I am just interested in that whole process of filmmaking. Lighting, the visuals really amaze me, and to plan the visuals with something profound.

Queer View: Would it be more the directing of actors or the concept of the cinematographer?

Elijah Wood: Cinematography is really fascinationg to me. I am very passionate about acting. It would be some sort of blend for me, because I am interested in both very much.

Queer View: Do you take photographs?

Elijah Wood: I do, yes.

Queer View: On the set as well?

Elijah Wood: I just started to do that, yes. I am getting really into photography. I think as I establish that part of myself I would be able to throw it all in some precious something.

Queer View: What's your rapport with the cinematographer on a set, how close do you feel to the operator on a set?

Elijah Wood: Usually very close. Most of the cinematographers that I work with I am very close with, and I usually pay attention to what he does, and how he sets up shots, and how he works. I have always been interested in that. For the last ten years I have been going to film school. All along, I am absorbing, picking it all up. I can't wait till I can throw it all into my own other knowledge that I have and do something of my own.