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With his delicate features he doesn�t look like a fighter, and that�s exactly the reason for Elijah Wood to play a hooligan. �The question that is stuck in my head is: how will I remain credible when the world is full of Frodos?�
Elijah Wood fights with a passion. The small actor kicks a skinhead in the stomach, after which he knocks down two Millwall supporters. Screaming, he makes his way across a smoky pub, heading in the direction of a new fight in the street.
Elijah Wood (1981) as a hooligan, it�s everything but type-casting. The short actor with the bulging eyes, world famous ever since he played Ringbearer Frodo in The Lord of the Rings, has nothing in common with a bruising fighter at first sight. With his soft face the twenty-three-year-old actor rather resembles a big kid. Moreover, his physionomy can no longer be disconnected from his Hobbit-part: ElijahWood will always remain Frodo � that he has been an actor from age eight and had success before The Lord of the Rings, in The Ice Storm for example, does nothing to change that.
�I experience success as a blessing. But I also have to draw conclusions from it. The Lord of the Rings is so big that it got stuck in everybody�s memory. Adolescents, adults, mass audiences, intellectuals. That makes it hard for me to shed Frodo. Yet it has to be done; nothing is worse than an actor who is constantly performing an old trick. Every script that so much as hints in the direction of Hobbits or fantasy I throw aside immediately.
In The Yank from German-American director Lexi Alexander, Wood is given the chance to overturn his image. In the movie, which is currently being filmed in London, he goes through a big change. Wood arrives in London as an American student. Because of his friendship with a fanatic football supporter he is thrust into the world of football, beer, fights and shorn heads.
�As an American I distantly knew about hooliganism. I had no idea that hooligan-culture actually exists. I thought it was something like the streetgangs in Los Angeles. But it is completely different. These European rioters are ordinary guys. Office boys. Out looking for trouble on Saturdays.�
During a shooting day in West-London, where in an empty shed a fake pub has been rebuild, Wood takes all the time in the world for some reflection on his career. With a clove in his hand he searches for a quiet spot, while delivering teasing punches to the extras there � huge Millwall supporters who, later that day, all want to be photographed with that �fuckin� hobbit�.
�I have never had many problems with the side-effects of fame,� says Wood, who was sent to a meeting of the International Modeling and Talent Association in Los Angeles by his mother when he was six. �It is a reasonably controlable aspect of this work. In any case it is easier to handle than image. Because that question is stuck in my head: how will I remain credible when the world is full of Frodos? Really, I see myself everywhere. On mugs, posters, in books, on the Internet. �Frodo� and �Elijah� lay an incredible claim on Internet search engines.�
The solution he chooses � to play in a fight movie with his dollface � has a forced feel to it, but Wood says that is an �easy� conclusion. �It is about the element of surprise, to strike from the dark. Indeed, I am no tough guy. But that is what I like. It is a misconception to think that every fighting machine looks like an animal. The most innocent people can loose their minds out of dissatisfaction.�
In England, after the premier of The Football Factory, a discussion was held last month, about the relationship between film and hooliganism. The paper The Guardian said productions such as The Football Factory and The Yank are advertisements for �wannabe warriors�. In such productions violence is supposed to be romanticized.
Wood followed this discussion with some surprise. He thinks it is disappointing that �apparently one has to keep silent about this subculture�, whereas �a normal approach can take away taboos�. For him The Yank is not a film about football violence, but about violence in general. �I see those violent explosions around the stadium as a need that most people tuck away deep within themselves. Man is not so civilised by nature. The fighting is a substitute for warfare. Many people like to fight.�
In a fake pub, where he has to film a scene, he quickly goes through a fighting choreography. A female sound technician tells him that outside, in the rain, about fifty girls are waiting, with posters and books ready � that morning a tabloid mentioned Wood is in town (�Frodo seduced by hooliganism�). �I will go see them a little later,� he says smiling. �I know enough actors who�d kill for situations like these.�
Then there is something else he would like to know about. How do Europeans think about the careermove made by the directors Joel and Ethan Coen, who switched to a big moviestudio with their film Ladykillers? A shame, judges Wood, who likes to talk much and expertly about directors and actors. �That is what I mean by making choices. The Coens are not the least of directors. And still they get caught up in Disney�s web.�
He lights another clove (�I have allowed myself to smoke no more than thirty a day�), and says: �Actors and directors are led by artistic motivations. But it is also about milions.It takes a lot of balancing to stay upright. I was very lucky with The Lord of the Rings. Now it is important for me not to succumb to this luck.�
Thankyou so much to Eva-Lisa for sending in and translating this article
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