You never know quite what you’re going to get when Elijah Wood shows up onscreen.
After Peter Jackson’s monumental Lord of the Rings trilogy ended, Wood could have easily spent the rest of his Hollywood career coasting on his star-making performance as Frodo Baggins. Instead, he’s spent the decades since choosing some of the most unusual and left-field roles. He was an introverted weirdo teen boy in Over the Garden Wall. He was a chrome-armored Guy in Spy Kids 3D. He talked to a dude in a mangy dog costume in Wilfred. He was the king of Reddit investigators in Yellowjackets Season 2. But his most out-there performance is almost certainly Kevin, the silent cannibal assassin named Kevin in Sin City. It’s a role Wood got through a serendipitous lunchtime chat with director Robert Rodriguez, with whom he had first worked together on The Faculty (another iconically weird movie featuring the Lord of the Rings star).
Wood had been reading Frank Miller’s graphic novels on his own time, and, “Weirdly, Sin City came up,” he tells Inverse.
Rodriguez told Wood his next project was going to be Sin City, and Wood was baffled.
“I was like, ‘Wait, what? I’ve just read these and was thinking how incredible this would be as an adaptation, but it seems impossible.’”
But it was more than possible. Right then and there, Rodriguez showed him the first scene of the movie featuring Josh Hartnett, which he had already shot as a proof of concept.
“He had it on his computer,” Wood says. “I went out to the parking lot of this restaurant and watched that first scene, and it was a month later, that they started the casting process.”
After an unusual audition — “I just had glasses on and stared at the camera” — Wood landed the part of the mute, bespectacled Kevin, who strikes a chilling figure despite never speaking a word. Part of the joy of watching Wood in this role is the irony of seeing Frodo play such a terrifying villain — and it’s that kind of dichotomy upon which Wood has built his surprising post-Lord of the Rings career.
“I'm intrigued by characters who are slightly left of center and have complexity to them,” Wood says.
Wood’s latest role is as a deadbeat dad and failed magician (or illusionist, as the character calls himself) named Strawn in the adventure comedy Bookworm — in other words, it’s exactly the kind of unusual weirdo the actor has made a meal out of for his whole career. The movie, which sees Strawn embark on an unexpected trek through the New Zealand wilds with his daughter Mildred (Nell Fisher), also reunites its star with director Ant Timpson and screenwriter Toby Harvard, his collaborators on the 2020 horror comedy Come to Daddy.
“It's really enjoyable to collaborate with friends,” Wood says. “It's also me being a fan of individuals’ work and wanting to be a part of what it is that they do.”
Inverse spoke with Wood about how being a fan has led to some of his juiciest roles, why the Over the Garden Wall 10th anniversary stop-motion short made him cry, and what we can expect for Walter and Misty in Yellowjackets Season 3.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
You worked with Ant Timpson and Toby Harvard before on Come to Daddy. How did the pair sell you on Bookworm?
It was an easy sell. We had a great experience on Come to Daddy. We had shared sensibilities in terms of the kinds of films we like and the sort of humor we enjoy. And so the idea of working together with that team again was exciting.
And then this idea was presented: another father story, but this one in the wilds of New Zealand about a father and a daughter reconnecting. That this would be a family film, but infusing some of that same humor.
I read the script and fell in love with it. Strawn Wise was a pretty delicious character, an absurd buffoon holding onto this vulnerability that he ultimately lets go. The idea of getting to play a character like that in the context of a movie like that with that same creative team and to shoot in the wilds of New Zealand, the entire proposal was pretty attractive.
I know Harvard wrote the role of Strawn Wise with you in mind. What about this deadbeat illusionist character makes it an Elijah Wood role?
If you look at Come to Daddy, there is a real similarity. The characters are similar in that they are absurd individuals from a specific world trying to hold on to their identity as defined by the world they come from. There was a sort of unlikability about both characters as well. Thrusting me into these unlikable characters is something Toby and Ant enjoy doing.
Also, when you find a working relationship with individuals where there’s both fun to be had and a shared sensibility, you just want to keep it going. There’s very likely going to be another collaboration. It's really enjoyable to collaborate with friends. It's lovely to work on things with people where you see eye to eye creatively. You just get something out of that process, and this is certainly no exception.
Your career is littered with so many out-there roles and big swings. Why do you find yourself drawn to these kinds of projects?
I am drawn to what feels unique. My taste is varied. I love all kinds of movies and characters. I'm intrigued by genre films. I'm intrigued by characters who are slightly left of center and have complexity to them. But I think that's true of any actor. I think actors are always looking for a character that has complexity, that feels like there's something to work with, that there isn't a single note being played.
I've also been fortunate enough in my life and career to have met some really wonderful filmmakers and creators over the past number of years that I've gotten to work with. It's also a shared mutual love of certain kinds of cinema. Well, it's also me being a fan of individuals’ work and wanting to be a part of what it is that they do. Oftentimes, that has almost more to do with it than anything.
I think about something like I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore — that really came about partially because I'm a huge fan of Macon Blair. I loved his work with Jeremy Saulnier. He sent me that script. The character was really fun, but I was also just thrilled to work with him on something because I'm a big fan.
It's a combination of elements, but a lot of it I think is reflective of my taste.
Speaking of past roles, I was revisiting Frank Miller's Sin City recently and was struck by your chilling turn in that movie. Do you have any significant memories on set of playing this very creepy serial killer character, Kevin?
Yeah, I mean, it's amazing. We shot all of Kevin’s scenes in two days, which was by virtue of the fact that 80 to 90% of the movie was shot on green screen. There were a couple of sets, but almost entirely the movie was green screen, so it afforded us the ability to shoot quickly.
I was so stoked to be a part of that. I had read the graphic novels and was a fan of Frank Miller. To get to play in that universe with Frank Miller on set, literally using the graphic novel as a storyboard was just so fun and thrilling. For Frank to be there, come up with new shot ideas by literally making a new drawing, and saying, “Why don't we shoot this,” was incredible.
And then to play this character that is a psychopath and a cold-blooded killer was really fun. I was in a harness, I was doing wire work with high kicks. It was just a blast. I haven't seen that movie in years, but man, what he and they achieved in terms of bringing those panels to life is just amazing.
My audition was hilarious. I literally went to a hotel where Robert was holding auditions and I sat and stared at a camera while he read the graphic novel. I just had glasses on and stared at the camera. That was my audition.
It’s funny to me that 20 years after playing a cannibal in Sin City, you get on the cannibal show, Yellowjackets. Any chance you can tell us about what is up with Walter and Misty in Season 3? Do they get back to being a dynamic duo?
There's a little bit of that, but not a whole lot I can tell you. We’re almost finished. I'm actually in Vancouver now. I've got one more day on the show, and then the show wraps next week. That'll be the wrap of Season 3.
It's an incredible show. It's such a unique structure with revealing what happened in the past to inform upon the trauma of the present and seeding that out in such a unique way where you can constantly surprise your audience by revealing more and more about what happened in the past, of which there is certainly more of that in this season.
I watched the first season as a fan. I will see anything that Melanie [Lynskey]'s in. It's really fun for me to come onto something with pre-interest and a connection to these characters already. And so I get to both play a character that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the past, in a direct way.
I get the best of both worlds. I get to play this fun, bizarre, unique character, while also getting to be a part of these scripts as someone who watches the show.
Back to Bookworm, this movie is inspired by the mythical Canterbury Panther. Do you have a weird cryptid that you believe in?
I believe in the possibility of most things existing. Certainly, the possibility of Bigfoot feels very real to me. Far be it from me to say, “That's not possible.” I look at everything with a pretty eyes-wide-open desire to believe.
Bigfoot, ghosts, all of the weird happenings at Skinwalker Ranch. I'm a believer in all of those things being real.
Speaking of cryptids, one of my favorite fall-time rituals in the past couple of years is popping on Over the Garden Wall, the cryptid fable. I don't know if you know anything about the stop-motion animated short that Patrick McHale is working on —
I'm not at liberty to say.
OK. Well, you know of it. Are you excited about it?
I share the enthusiasm that the fans have for the series. I love it so much. I'm so grateful to have been a part of it. I can't believe it's been 10 years, and I love that it has become a tradition for people to watch every autumn to start the season. To be a part of something that special is just a total gift.
This piece that's coming up is just a really lovely, beautiful tribute for the 10th anniversary. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate it. I'm a big fan of Aardman going back to Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run and Shaun the Sheep, everything they do is extraordinary. For them to play within the sandbox of the Unknown is pretty special.
I have to say, what I have seen of it made me emotional.
It feels like a perfect fit, Aardman and Over the Garden Wall.
Totally. The cool thing, though, also in celebration of the 10th anniversary, a few things are happening. There are a couple of shows in Los Angeles that are going to happen this month with The Blasting Company who provided all the songs. They're amazing. There's going to be a live Over the Garden Wall show along with an art show that Patrick's going to be at.
And then a company that I'm a part owner of called Mutant is re-releasing a couple of things that haven't been out in the world in a while, including the “For Sara” mixtape that was made with Patrick and Blasting Company and myself — so like a clarinet song, bad poetry of Wirt recording these things for Sara, [these are being re-released] as an actual thing.
