Nowadays, Elijah Wood is the bearer of not one ring but two: a wedding band on his left hand and a silver signet ring that spells out “dad” on his right.
As Wood’s 6-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter creep toward tweenhood, the Lord of the Rings star and his wife, film producer Mette-Marie Kongsved, are pondering when to share those Oscar-gobbling, Hollywood-reshaping epics with their children. But first, experiencing the J.R.R. Tolkien texts is a must. Will the little ones read the books as a family or wait until they’re old enough to make the journey to Middle-earth on their own? That’s undecided. The same goes for the point at which they can deal with the orcs and trolls and Nazgul of it all.
“Honestly, I feel like my son could handle it now,” Wood says over breakfast at the Venice bakery Gjusta. “Maybe less so my daughter. But she’s a firecracker, so who knows?”
Beyond the Rings films, Wood’s filmography is so eclectic that there’s a movie for every age and occasion. Tykes can relish the dolphin-befriending adventure of “Flipper” or the tap-dancing penguin antics of “Happy Feet.” Looking for something more mature? Sit with the crime drama “Green Street Hooligans” or the head-tripping romance “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” And if you’re in the market for blood and gore and hands-over-your-eyes frights, boy does Wood have you covered. He played a schizophrenic killer in 2012’s “Maniac.” A musician stuck in a noirish nightmare in 2019’s “Come to Daddy.” A hunchbacked ghoul of a man in 2023’s “The Toxic Avenger.” A devilish attorney in “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come,” which hits theaters Friday.
Wood, of course, will forever be tethered to Frodo Baggins, the stout hobbit who anchored three of modern cinema’s most enduring blockbusters. Yet the 45-year-old’s career beyond that defining role remains decidedly undefinable.
“He just listens to his own instincts,” says actress Melanie Lynskey, who worked with Wood on the darkly comic thriller “I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore” and the survivalist series “Yellowjackets.” “He really follows what’s of interest to him, and he makes really bold, interesting, crazy choices.”
Take “Ready or Not 2,” the sequel to 2019’s stealth horror-comedy hit. Having adored the first film, Wood accepted the offer to join that world of socioeconomic satire and absurdist violence. (“Anytime there’s blood cannons,” he says, “it is really awesome.”) Joining the cast as the Lawyer, an arbiter overseeing a sadistic game of hide-and-seek played by the global elite, Wood lends his star power and scene-stealing presence to yet another off-the-rails romp.
“It’s sort of like how [Harry Potter actor] Daniel Radcliffe does that, too,” says “Ready or Not 2” star Samara Weaving. “They’re both these huge blockbuster stars who have played quite wholesome characters — and they’re going: ‘You know what? I’m going to play the biggest freaks you’ve ever seen.’”
Wood may give a lot of thought to what his children are old enough to absorb, but his older brother was, um, more cavalier. Wood figures he was 6 years old when Zack, seven years his senior, first exposed him to splatter flicks — on the condition, naturally, that he not tell their parents. Among his formative favorites: “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors” and the little-seen slasher “Truth or Dare?”
“I was exposed to these films and loved them, and wasn’t traumatized by them,” Wood recalls. “Certainly, as a kid, you’re just attracted to the illicit things you’re not supposed to see. The horror section at the video store is a pretty exciting place to be.”
Source: Drudge Report
